Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Following part 1 of last week, I continue with the autobiographical strip of Santiago Cohen as he tells the story of his arrival in America. It’s an epic work of art.

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- At a recent event, I was sitting with a couple of other artists and we bagan talking about Santiago Cohen. Here’s one of the greats on the New York scene, and it seems as though he went from super success to silence. We all were hoping something would happen, if only so that we could see more art.

When I returned from my short vacation, I was surprised to find an email from Santiago. He offered to send me part of a piece he was working on to get my thoughts. It’s an illustrated biographical notebook. And, as expected it’s stunning. I received the first couple hundred pages, and I asked Santiago if I could post it. He said yes, so here we go.

It’s appropriate that this piece should start today, Columbus Day. It’ll continue for a while. I’ll break it into parts, all about 40 pages, where it seems unobtrusive. This is “Art” with a capital “A” in the making, from Santiago. It’d make an incredible film.

Let us know what you think.

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More next Monday.

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Ferdinand Hovarth was a versatile artist whose work was an inspiration for many Disney artists. He was a mainstay at the Disney studio from 1934-37. He was one of those artists brought in from Europe to draw inspirational art for the other designers and animators. Gustaf Tenggren and Albert Hurter also fell into this category. All three contributed mightily to the product the studio produced – particularly Snow White and Pinocchio. I can only think of Joe Grant as being the modern equivalent, for a short period.

This is the final installment of a catalogue published by Graphis Gallery and put together by Bruce Hamilton. The opening material explains itself.

The following booklet was
Bill Peckmann sent me scans of these pages, and I thank him for keeping Hovarth alive.

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- I had intended to give a rest to Mary Blair‘s incredible work after having posted so many recent pieces by her. However, I just bought a copy of her first children’s book, after separating from the Disney studio.

I Can Fly is extraordinary. After getting a copy in my hands, I realized I had to share it – even though it’s out there in numerous ways. So that’s what today’s post is about. This is Mary Blair’s book, I Can Fly. Words are by Ruth Kraus.

(Click any image to enlarge.)

The inner covers.

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The title page.

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All of these are double page spreads.

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Note that this is identical to the inner covers (above)
with the addition of the child and puppy overlay.

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The back cover

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- Here, from Walt Disney Comics, April 1945 edition is a wacky story mixing the Seven Dwarfs with Dumbo to fight the Wicked Prince.
I couldn’t help but post it. These comic books often seem to mix up the characters from different films to create unbelievable stories.

This comic comes from Bill Peckmann‘s enormous collection, and I thank him for sharing, yet again.

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- Recently, Tissa David gave me a bunch of posters that she’d stored for many years. I’ll post them all, but it takes forever to scan them and reconstruct them in photoshop. So they’ll probably come one at a time.

Here’s one Grim Natwick gave her. She was the 3rd that Grim signed it to.

(Click the image to enlarge it.)

- Heidi and I just came back from a short trip (4 days) to Martha’s Vineyard, where the weather was wonderful, the crowds were not bad – though they started to move in by Thursday for the weekend – the food was very good, and the escape from the world of animation was pleasant. The only film playing on the island that we hadn’t seen was The Switch, the Jennifer Aniston movie. We passed on it. Neither The Town (Ben Affleck) nor The American (George Clooney) were worth revisiting. So we didn’t even get to see a movie, never mind an animated movie.

I’ve come back to not much to report. Just as we were leaving, I learned that Bill Littlejohn had passed away. This brought me down a bit during the trip. I’d like to post a scene or two that he animated for the Hubleys. That might be the best homage I could offer for him. Look to Wednesday for the first of that.

It was exciting to receive a note from Jim Korkis telling me about his new book, The Vault of Walt. I had planned to write a bit about it, but nothing I could say could match Mark Mayerson‘s excellent column about it. I urge you to go read it. Then go to the Wade Sampson columns at the Mouse Planet. Read Wade Sampson’s Last Column.

Finally, buy the book. Anything Jim Korkis writes is a necessary addition to any animation library. When I’ve read it, I’ll write a review, but you already know that I’ll love it.

- Postcards . . . we’ve got postcards. Not trying to step on Ken Brown‘s toes, but Bill Peckmann sent me a few picture postcards that pull us back to another time and place. Here’s a sampling of those images. Interesting illustration.

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- Last week I posted the first of the displays from this beautiful book, He Drew As He Pleased. This, of course, is the work of Albert Hurter who was a key designer for the Disney studio during the mid thirties, particularly in the making of Snow White.

Interesting that this film showed up with commercials on ABC Family Channel last Saturday evening. It was a happenstance that got me to watch the film again, and then I watched it uncut and uninterrupted the next day in my studio.

For all the shaking lines and animation problems the earliest feature had, it’s still a gorgeous testament to brilliant animation. There are no cliches floating in the eyes of the characters. No hard edges right out of Cartoon Network or CalArts. It has its cliches of the period – which existed in live action as well – but the acting is brilliant, particularly in the dwarfs. I was also very impressed, this time, with the old hag. The witch is overplayed by Norm Ferguson, yet it’s done with imagination and resourcefulness. She comes right out of an opera – or do I mean a melodrama – and she’s loveable in her grotesque way.

The film has an innocence we’ll never see again, and it’s too bad.
Hurter had his part in that innocence, and the drawings are a fine display of all that’s good in the film.

Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for scanning his copy of the book for me to post. This is the first time I get to see the entire thing.

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“Optics . . .”

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“. . . And More Optics.”

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“Preliminary Sketch of Snow White.”

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“The Prince.”

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“The Witch . . . Hansel and Gretel.”

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“A Page of Devils.”

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“And Some Demons in the Making.”

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“Tyll the Jester and . . . ”

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“And Other Clowns . . . ”

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“Toby Tortoise Wins the Race.”

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“Captain Noah.”

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“And Other Passengers.”

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some of the illustrations from a eautiful books sent me by Bill Peckmann. Gustaf Tenggren’s Story Book is a big book with lots of chapters that take short pieces from some of the world’s most famous stories. Robin Hood, Heidi, Gulliver’s Travels and many others are all represented. Of course, to me the illustrations are everything.

Animation students don’t need to know who Gustaf Tenggren is. He was a Swiss illustrator brought into Snow White and Pinocchio by Walt Disney. He went on to create the Poky Little Puppy and many of the most famous Little Golden Books.

Here, then, are some more of these illustrations from The Gustaf Tenggren Storybook.

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- Cartoonist, Eric Gurney, was a story man for the Disney studio for many years. He left in 1948 to move on to freelancing and made a success for himself. Bill Peckmann sent me the following article from Cartoonist Profiles written for the 1992 issue #95.

(Of course you’ll have to enlarge images to read the article.)

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Bill also sent me some images from this book by Gurney released in 1968 about birds.