Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Bill Peckmann has plugged me into some artwork and illustration by the very talented artist, Keith Ward. I’ve already featured a number of his pieces on several different posts. Last week, I featured a sampler of his illustration work. Here, I’d like to continue that.

Today we feature three separate books by Mr. Ward. These were sent to me by Bill, and from here on, I’ll let Bill do the tellng:

It’s with many thanks again to collector/fan Denis Wheary, that we are able to sample more of illustrator Keith Ward’s early children’s book art. This time around we get to see how Mr.Ward handled ‘black and white’ and three color illustration back then.

Because of his very beautiful color art for books and magazines (his covers for ‘Child Life’ magazine are outstanding!) in the 1930′s, these first excerpts might not even look like the hand of KW. They are taken from a non fiction, ‘National Geographic’ type book titled ‘Termite City’, published in 1937. The ‘serious’ subject matter drawings are very successfully designed and executed in scratchboard.

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Ah, finally a humorous subject matter and
Keith Ward does what he does best!

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Side note: After seeing the previous drawing, I thought of
Chris Van Allsburg’s beautifully rendered 1988 book,
‘Two Bad Ants’. Was there any inspiration there from
‘Termite City’, hmmm?

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Here are a few pages from Keith Ward’s ‘Ray Racoon to the Rescue’,
all black and white art and published in 1938.

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Front cover.
Published in 1943, here are some pages from KW’s three color book
and they show how to handle a ‘gimmick’ die-cut problem very successfully.
The last few pages of tiger art are beautiful.

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Here is the end cover with an end note.

Thanks to Denis, I’ve become reacquainted with a book,
which it turns out, might be my first remembered book from childhood.
It was the ‘glow in the dark eyes’ that hooked me then, but now I’m
very grateful to rectify that by being able to understand the terrific art.

– I’ve long been a fan of old sheet music and have a tiny collection of songs from animated pictures.

This is a song by Oliver Wallace in the Donald Duck cartoon, Der Fuerher’s Face. The sheet music is a bit rare in that it has the original title of the Donald film, Donald Duck In Nutzi Land.

They soon changed the title on the sheet music, especially after the music became a #1 hit in a version by Spike Jones & His City Slickers.

You can see the film on the Walt Disney Treasure DVD – On The Front Lines: Disney Goes To War.

The film deservedly won the Oscar for Best Short Subject in 1942. Its opposition were all propaganda war films.
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- Here’s part of the back page, for those who want to see the Disney logo for sheet music back then.
Sheet music in the 30s, 40s and 50s was Big Business. There were no DVDs,videos or LP records. No walkman, I Tunes or cel phones. Selling sheet music for all those kids learning to play an instrument was the natural tie-in to the film, and gave the Nation another inroad to marketing the film.

If the audience hummed the song, more tickets could be sold to the film.

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The graphics for the music to Song of The South wasn’t quite as dynamic as the one on the cover of Der Fuehrer’s Face.

This cover tries to capture the lyrical, romantic feel of the film. Here surrounding the live-action plantation, with all the different song titles available from the film in the sky, is a border consisting of the animated characters from the film. The colors are limited to the green-etched homestead and the brown-linear characters.

The back cover of the sheet music contains a shot of the live-action characters, James Baskett, Bobby Driscoll, and Luana Patten. All are colored in the same brown ink as the cover’s line art.

That year “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah“, also from this film, won the Oscar, while the film’s music, itself, was nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.

This film made quite an impression on me when I was a kid. And this song was one of the two I played over and over from the record. I also loved “Laughing Place”.

It’s something of a shame that the film has been kept out of circulation in the US. I can’t imagine that the film affected me as a child in any negative way. Uncle Remus was clearly the hero of the film and the only truly positive adult character in the film.

The last time I saw the film projected was back in the 70′s when Disney set themselves up at Lincoln Center to show a complete retrospective of ALL their films. At the library auditorium behind Lincoln Center there were a number of seminars in which Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Ken Andersen and Woolie Reitherman talked about their work.

I remember Frank Thomas talking about this feature, saying that Disney only did the best for the film hiring the greatest cinematographer, Gregg Toland, to shoot it. He’d shot everything from Citizen Kane to The Grapes of Wrath. (Both are unbelievably stunning works of cinematographic art.) What Thomas didn’t say, or didn’t realize, however, was that this was Toland’s first COLOR feature. And it showed. Garish, cartoon colors flooded the screen, with actors wearing much too much makeup. A big step for Toland but not the best photography.

Still, I remember those colors vividly, and I would love to see it again – on screen. A dvd would probably do.

– I have a non-Disney cover. It’s the sheet music for the 2nd feature film from the Fleischer’s, Mr. Bug Goes To Town.

This was a feature that really got me going when I was young. I think it was the first original story done in animation; not an adapted fairy tale or novel. The story still works for me, though it comes off as a bit episodic. (Actually, I think most animated features are too episodic.) They’ve created a complete world for these insects, and it works.

Technically the film is a bit limited. The opening title shot is a stunning shot panning down the Empire State Building and across NYC ending on the vacant lot where the bugs live. The animation is adequate for the period; it has a charm that I find delightful and sometimes exciting. The voices are good, and the music is excellent.

This was the hit song, written by the brilliant Hoagy Carmichael (who wrote Stardust, Heart and Soul, and Skylark) and the just-as-brilliant Frank Loesser (who wrote Guys and Dolls, Hans Christian Andersen, and How To Succeed In Business). The score for the film was co-written by Leigh Harline (who scored Pinocchio, a lot of Disney shorts, and The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, among others).

As we can see, most sheet music was printed with one or two colors) red for Der Fuehrer’s Face, brown & green for Song of the South) as opposed to full color. However, this Fleischer song has a full color cover (although they use one color on the rear cover). It shows that Paramount felt they had a hit song here, and they did have a modest hit. Glenn Miller’s recording of it didn’t hurt.

The rear cover is little more than an ad for other Paramount songs. However, in among the group is Gulliver’s Travels. I’m posting just this small section of the back cover, printed in blue.

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Keith Ward is an illustrator whose work was highly admired by Rowland B. Wilson who introduced it to Bill Peckmann. Bill introduced it to me, and I’m posting this sampler here. We’d originally posted xerox copies of some of these, but the following material comes directly from the printed page. Here’s Bill to take over the post:

Here’s a treat for all fans of illustrator Keith Ward. It’s with of the kind generosity of knowledgeable collector Denis Wheary that we can scan some of the pages of Ward’s children’s books that were done during the period of 1930 to 1952.

Born in 1906, Keith Ward is one of the stellar illustrators of the 20th century. A true renaissance man, he touched all the bases of art, whether fine or commercial. In the field of illustration, he deftly rounded the bags with his book, editorial magazine and advertising art. His 1945 book illustrations were said to be the inspirations of a Disney feature. (More of that in the second post.) Borden’s “Elsie the Cow” was Keith’s unsigned classic for us kids growing up in the ’40′s and ’50′s.

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The following pages of “Jolly Animals” is from 1930,
done when Ward was only 24 years old, amazing!
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Even KW’s inside end covers of “Jolly Animals” are worth studying!

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“Muggins Mouse” from 1932. We posted this book already, but
those were color photo copies and harsh Xerox copies of the B&W pages.
So here are a few cherry picked B & W pages to show
what the softness of the original book looked like.

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“Muggins Mouse” inside end cover.

Here are two pocket sized hardcover books also from 1932.
Here are a few beautiful chapter headings and pages from these two tiny marvels.

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- Back in 2006, I posted a couple of pages of this book and, having found the film now on line, I thought it time for a new look at this Paul Grimault classic from 1942.

– In 1942 Paul Grimault released an animated film entitled Les Passagers De “La Grande Ourse.” The film had actually been completed in 1939 and titled The Passengers of the Great Bear, but because of the outbreak of WWII the film suffered setbacks and was released in 1942 with the new title.

Several years ago, John Canemaker gave me a gem of an attractive little book that was illustrated with images from the film. Grimault was the father of French animation, and I’d always assumed that this film was a feature. In fact, it was a nine minute short, but it was important historically because it was the first big French animated production trying to out-Disney Disney.

The story is very unlike American films. There’s a fanciful sense of imagination that is true of many French cartoons. In summation the story is:

A little boy and his dog sneak into a shipyard and are grabbed by a crane which places them on a ship in dock, loading. This ship, “The Grand Ourse,” is an oddity in that it is fitted like a zeppelin with balloons to lift it into the air.

Boy and dog arrive in their compartment, accidentally, as the vessel starts to take-off into the sky. Adventures ensue with the boy and dog confronted by a restive eagle and a deaf and dumb robot

Here are some of the pages of the book:

A carbon copy of the credits for the film was enclosed within the book when I received it.

It was copied onto one of those pieces of paper that could only be European, sort of a tissue that seemed delicate.

That’s attached to the left.

This past week I found a nice copy of the film posted on YouTube. You can watch it.below, and see how it compares to the published book.

- Last week we saw the first half of Wallace Tripp‘s book, Sir Toby Jingle’s Beastly Journey. Today we conclude our post of the book. Wallace Tripp is certainly an influence on many animator’s work. His fluid drawings look like animation work. Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for scanning the book and sending these pages on to us.

Here, then, is part 2:

Front Cover

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Back Cover

- After posting Wallace Tripp‘s book, Granfa Grigg Had A Pig, it became obvious to me that we had to post more. Bill Peckmann sent this first half of the book, Sir Toby Jingle’s Beastly Journey. It was illustrated AND written by Tripp and is a delight. The drawings are beautiful, and the book has a great flow. I hope you enjoy it.

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to be concluded next week.

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Indiegogo POE

- And now a word from our sponsor. I’d be remiss if I allowed a post to pass without the mention of our fundraising campaign for POE. That is, of course, the feature we are promoting, the feature we are trying to finance and hope to raise enough money to get a trailer completed. To that end, we’ve established a spot on Indiegogo a week ago where we are aiming for the highest. Please visit the site, tell your friends to tell their friends, and perhaps we’ll reach our goal. Many thanks, regardless, for your wonderful support.

- Bill Peckmann sent the following drawings, and I’ll leave them to him to explain them:

In the 1980′s, studio gags were a great way to chase away the daily dose of blues from working on a few of the more tedious TV spots that we did. Nobody had a better time of this, than assistant animator Mike Baez and myself at KCMP Studios. Not quite sure why I saved mine but I did and here they are. The gags of course have a “you had to be there” or an “in” feeling to them, so I’ll drop in a few captions to help.

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“The magic of animation even works when you’re shticking around.”

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“Congratulations on a commercial well done!”

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“Mike Baez was always one of the best… ”

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” …and the fastest… ”

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” …and went through 2 boxes of Blackwings in a day!”

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“Adv. clients always loved to add feature film effects to their commercials.”

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“M&M’s with one of their first shots at shading.”

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“Doing accurate cast shadows always meant twice the amount of work!”

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“Always there to help out in a pinch… ”

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” …and then some.”

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“What was a studio if it didn’t have a cookie jar on the receptionist’s desk.”

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“Or a candy jar on the front desk.”

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“Eating, one of any studios beloved pastime, especially the
annual Christmas party at our favorite Mexican restaurant.”

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“Who didn’t look forward to the client dropping off their
food product when we were working on their commercial.”

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“Those clients dropped off a lot of product, and when they did… ”

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” …we definitely had to look into a diet plan!”

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“Lunch hour reading.”

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“20 years before ‘Cars’”

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“Reflections.”

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“Those halcyon years at K.C.M.P. Studios, you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”

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“All work and no play . . . ”

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“The day after watching your favorite TV series.”

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“With apologies to Arnold S. and Danny D . .”

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“Dreams of a back up, second career.”

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“To the one and only Mike Baez who made working fun!”

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Indiegogo

LAYOUT FROM SC. B45
Drawing by Tissa David

And now the promotion. The POE Project is up and running at INDIEGOGO, where there is a new page seeking contributions (however small) in support of a feature animated film I’m seeking to produce. The film has seen preproduction grow and the film start to blossom under the many thumbs of those who’ve worked on it. The script, the preparatory drawings, the storyboards and animatics (video story reels) and the great early voice over recordings all show us how promising a film this will be. We’re seeking some money to finalize a couple of minutes of the film to show investors what we’d like to see with the finished film.

Please visit our Indiegogo site.

- Last week, we offered some pages from the scrapbook of Rowland B. Wilson. This was graciously loaned to the Splog by Suzanne Wilson, and we have a treat this week. A second installment. these pages were a source of inspiration for Rowland, and the clippings, for us, are also a remarkable view of the animation and illustration product of the time.

Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for initiating this and to Suzanne for sending it.

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- Wallace Tripp has to have been the source of inspiration for many an animator in the last fifty years. His artwork is so rich and round, his characters so full of life, and his watercoloring so masterful. No one can tell me that Ken Anderson‘s style, from “Robin Hood” on, didn’t emanate from Tripp’s illustrations. I know back in the seventies, many in animation talked about him and bought his books. Those calanders were everywhere.

Bill Peckmann reminded me of this by sending me the following illustrations. Here’s Bill:

Two difficult tasks. Task number one, of all of Wally Tripp’s exceptionally wonderful books, pick your favorite one, and then task number two, pick your favorite pages. Hopefully these pages from Wally’s Granfa’ Grig Had a Pig will fill the bill on both counts for your readers new and old to Mr. Tripp’s mastery of pen and paint brush.

(Sorry to leave out the real blockbuster pages of the book, the double page spreads, unfortunately my puny scanner will not do these pages justice.)

Book cover

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And here’s a page of one of popular the calendars that came out annually.

- Last week I posted some pen and ink illlustrations of Don Quixote by Jack Davis. These are not part of the book he has on the market, The Misadventures of Don Quixote. Some of them are brilliant, particularly those that feature Quixote and Sancho Panza. However, other characters sometimes look like TV Guide illustrations of other 70s celebrities. (#15 for exmple) All of these, of course, come from Bill Peckmann, who was kind enough to send them.

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