Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Lee Lorenz, of course, is a brilliant cartoonist. However, we don’t often see examples of his great children’s books. Bill Peckmann sent me the following scans. He wrote:

We know good fortune is smiling down upon us when a great, noted gag cartoonist/artist gets the gig of illustrating a children’s book. So it was in 1980 when Prentice-Hall published Lee Lorenz‘s book, Scornful Simkin. It’s an illustrated retelling of Chaucer’s The Reeve’s Tale. That story is about Scornful Simkin, the terrible tempered miller who after grinding other people’s grain would always keep a little for himself.

The art in the book has the same feel and flair as storyboards from the Golden Age of Disney.

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Like good wine, these pages only get better with age!

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Standing O’ for Mr. Lorenz, classic Disney meets classic Masterpiece Theater!

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Back dust-jacket cover.

Hoppity comes back to town and gets maried, or in this case, at least, it’s Fritz Baumgarten. He’s a brilliant illustrator that Bill Peckmann introduced me to. He’s done a series of books in German, and Bill knows how much of a sucker I am for this ma’s illustration work. The book Bill sent me, here, is Das Hochzeitsfest im Wiesengrund or as we say in English, The Wedding in the Meadowland. I hope you enjoy it.

Book cover

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Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for sharing this excellent book.

The Republican and Democratic conventions have me worked up into a political frenzy. Given the patriotic fervor running through my blood, these days, it’s appropriate to post this Alex Toth sampler. There’s nothing more American than good cowboy stories, and Bill Peckmann has sent me just that. Over to Bill:

Alex Toth spent a large portion of his life in Hollywood and not only did he live there, he breathed it! Alex loved movies and like any good film director he was able to do comic book genre stories with the same great flair that a John Ford would bring to his different films.

Here are three ‘Western’ stories by Alex with each one going down somewhat of a different ‘Trail’.
The first one, ‘Anachronism’, was published in DC’s ‘Weird Western Tales’, # 14, Nov. 1972.

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Alex laid out this story horizontally, which makes for
some beautifully composed pages and panels, like a
well done Sunday funnies page of years ago. The readers
would have had to read the book sideways, I wonder how
Alex got away with that with the editors/publishers.

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I’ll separate the stories again with some of Alex’s ‘Doodles’.

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The story that follows is:
‘The Wings Of Jealous Gods’ from DC’s ‘Adventure Comics’, # 425, Jan. 1973.

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Here are more of the doodles Alex Toth did, these in pen.

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Here is the third Toth Western tale. It was a small booklet done for the Ralston-Purina Cereal Company in 1982.
It’s a story starring movie cowboy Tom Mix. (It must have taken Alex back to his childhood days of Saturday afternoon movie house matinees.)
There was hope of doing more, but as far as I know, this was the only one produced.

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And, finally . . . A couple of more doodles.

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- Going through a stack of boxes searching for genuine animation, one tends to find a number of gems that represent animation past but don’t nicely link to other pieces. The end result is that you hold a lot of odds and ends in your hands and you seek a way to post them. That’s certainly the case with Vinnie Cafarelli’s collected works.

I’ve located a lot of pieces that interest me, but I don’t necessarily know where they come from or why they were saved. So today I’m posting a number of these bits of art.

Here we have Layouts, cel setups, photos, models and more than a small share of invitations and Christ cards. Here they are:

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A Christmas Card from the NY-UPA Studio.
Many of the employees signed it.

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A guide to many of the names
of those who signed the card.
(Click to enlarge)

I had a scanning problem on the upper
right and will try to correct that.

An invitation to a Christmas party at the Maysles Bros
studio. Certainly only for a member of the elite.

A Christmas Card from Fred Mogubgub.

A Christmas Card from the Goulding-Elliott-Graham Prods.
Ray Goulding and Bob Elliott, together with Ed Graham formed
this studio to do Piels commercials. (Bob Goulding & Ray Elliott were the
voices and held onto ownership of the characters. work dried up soon
since one commercial product & client couldn’t maintain the studio.)

A finished setup from a Yellow Pages commercial.
This was done at Gifford Productions.

Pablo Ferro during UPA days.

Vince Cafarelli (far left) while in the military at
Fort Benning, Ala. made extra money as a
bartender. These are the days just prior to his
workng at UPA.

A small racy sketch among the art.
We’re not sure who drew it but guess
it might be Vince Cafarelli’s work.

All that remains of a pitch for an antacid spot.
Obviously drawings 1 & 2 are missing, but
these two were interesting enough for me to post.

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A storyboard (3 pages) for a cigarette company
(Sportsman Cigarettes?). Obviously a sample board.
Is it a live action spot? Probably for Gifford Studio
which also did live action spots.

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- Bill Peckmann introduced me to a fabulous German illustrator, Fritz Baumgarten, who’d created many beautiful children’s books. These books feel as though they come from an earlier generation, yet Baumgarten died in 1966. In a sense they are from an earlier generation, but they feel more like the 30s and 40s – Snow White. I think of the world of Albert Hurter.

I’d like to post this one, written by Liselotte Burger von Dessart. Zwitschi.

cover

(Click any image to enlarge.)

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Many thanks to Bill Peckmann.

-If you’re a brilliant designer, you get there by doing the work that’s necessary. If you’re as great as Rowland B.Wilson was, you take the opportunity of a fine commercial spot, and you research it, plan it, and sketch it out. That’s just what Rowland did with this spot for Phil Kimmelman and Ass. back in the 70s. Vote toothpaste had a gem featuring “Plotzen” and “Coombs”. They just look like Sherlock and Watson.

Thanks to Suzanne Wilson, here’s the prep work Rowland did for this commercial. Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for getting it to the Splog and for additional artwork.

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model sheet

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The characters turn 180º in this animation model.
This was animated by Jack Schnerk and cleaned up by Bill Peckmann.

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B&W BG Layout for the color image to follow.

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B&W Bg Layout for the following image.

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Finally, here are some rough sequential drawings that Rowland did
for a sequence where the villain transforms via Vote toothpaste.
The object in his mouth is a toothbrush with toothpaste on it.

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The Vote spot starts at 0:37 on this Jack Schnerk sample reel.

Tissa David, of course, is still very much on my mind.
I’ll write more about her on Saturday. With new photos and artwork.

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- Bill Peckman graced me with scans of a book by Shane Glines, Alex Chun and Armando Mendez. The artist, Russell Patterson has a lot of style and natural sense of composition in creating some great illustrations. He immediately pulls you to the center of his thought, then you quickly spin toward the gag. He knows in his soul how to present his information – quickly and effortlessly.

Here are selections from this book, for your appreciation and enjoyment. Many thanks to Bill Peckmann.

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Here’s a wonderful tribute to Russell Patterson, written by Milton Caniff.

Russell Patterson

. . . and here’s the bios of the three who put the book together:

- This week marks the opening of the large show of art and films of the twin brothers, Stephen and Timothy Quay, at the Museum of Modern Art.

Part of the show is the display of the glass and reflective casings they’ve constructed called Dormitorium.

This was previously displayed in New York at the Parson’s School of Design in 2009, and it was well covered on this blog. Here.

This part of the show is still exciting and interesting. Magnifying and distorted glasses reveal portholes within boxes wherein struggling puppets exist within very tactile worlds. Harsh strokes of bark mix with feathers, muslin and strong textile designs. I’m not sure if anything is being stated within these boxes except a display of the world of isolation and dissonance Kafka has already introduced to us. However, it’s certainly hypnotic peering through these cracked glasses at the prepared tableau.

The displayed art fills the vestibule leading to the Titus 1 theater on the lowest level of the museum. It might take a good half hour to properly view all of these constructions. Yet, one is always in awe of the detailed work that has gone into construction of the enclosed world and the many hours of intense labor it took to produce. Patterns and studied period costumes meticulously constructed; props of foliage and raw wood blend with iron and other mixed metals. Then, light calligraphic type blends softly with all these course grains. There’s a lot to absorb in the tiny claustrophobic boxes. This world relates well with the similar animated stop-motion films of the brothers.

The principal part of the show sits upstairs on the second floor just around the corner from the main cafe. Small rooms have walls covered with delicate photographs, etchings, and drawings. Puppets encased in glass enclosures sit within these walls of flat art. It’s assembled chronologically, and at the very beginning we see separate pieces of art signed by the two brothers. Two landscapes, one by Stephen, one by Tim – both 8 years old. This is the only piece of art not attributed to the Quay Brothers – the pair of them. Very delicate drawings with the signature of both brothers. There are no exceptions within this show other than those two tiny landscape paintings. One easily understands the dual signature on films or even etchings where different responsibilities can be joined. This is difficult to understand two names attributed to an extremely delicate and detailed pencil drawing. However, this is the universe they’ve established, and it’s an original distinction. It fits into the world of the Quays, where everything feels man-made, done at the turn of the Century (19th to 20th Century). It’s a world wrought by the Industrial Revolution, an art that has nothing to do with digital anything. You can feel the hands that have molded these artworks.

There are many rooms wherein films, the principal part of their art, play out on warm gray walls. A few black folding chairs sit in front of these screens in the tight spaces. Visitors can sit and watch for a minute or for the entire film. I stopped for all of the films but sat through only one, Igor, a film about Igor Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau and Vladimir Mayakovsky. This was the first of the animated biographies they did for Channel 4 out of their own studio in London, Atelier Koninck. It works through Constructivist art to move the three through Paris and their art world. The studio was founded in conjunction with Keith Griffiths, another student they met at the Royal College of Art who became a lifelong partner in producing their works of art.

The first film that the brothers made that grabbed my attention played at the 1980 Ottawa Animation Festival. Nocturna Artificialia confused half the audience of cartoon lovers and excited the other half. Art was alive at that Festival and it felt a small disappointment that the brothers (very new to the animation world – in fact, no one had heard of them back then) had not come to the Festival with their film. This is a case, though, where the film certainly did all the talking that it had to. Tale of Tales deservedly won the Grand award that year, but the Quay brothers were well introduced to American animators.

Street of Crocodiles

It was only a few short years later, 1986, that the film, Street of Crocodiles, would make its debut and make the brothers famous. This still remains one of their best known films, although the music video for Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer would be their best known work.

The MoMA exhibit continues through to the end of its space, packed to overflowing. Many works stand out from the rest though they all display a singular vision – that of the Quay Brothers.

I attended a Q&A with the brothers Quay led by Ron Magliozzi who organized the show as the Associate Curator of the Dept. of Film. At first, there was a brief conversation with the four, including Peter Reed, the Senior Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairsfor MoMA. This was eventually opened to the audience, which meant some not very interesting questions were asked. I’d recorded it with the idea of transcribing the session for this blog, but the questions were so mundane that the brothers were almost astonished, and I dismissed the notion of transcribing as pointless. One person asked if they’d had nightmares as children to be able to create such dreamworlds. The answer was no, they didn’t dream and the art is not a dream world. Another questioner asked if they felt they’d had a nutritional shortage as children which might have created such ideas as adults. Tim immediately answered, “Yes,” to that, and Stephen quickly responded, “Too much white bread and peanut butter.”

I went to the Press Preview in the morning to be able to view the show at length. The only two I saw there that I knew were Candy Kugel (of Buzzco) and Richard O’Connor (of Ace and Son.) I came back in the evening for the official opening party. Drinks and hors d’ oeuvres with a moderately crowded audience that covered the first floor of the museum and swelled out to the MoMA sculpture garden. It was a warm and humid evening, so it was nice outside, but air conditioned inside. Groups traveled upstairs and down to see the art, but to drink, eat and socialize many just stayed on the main floor. I met up with plenty of people I knew including Emily Hubley, John Canemaker, Candy Kugel, Jeremiah Dickey, Josh Siegel (of MoMA), George Griffin and Karen Cooper, among others. Though I’d only seen Stephen Quay at the opening, I was told that Tim was outside in the garden. It was an eventful day that felt filled with art and animation.

Today’s the anniversary of Rowland B. Wilson‘s Birthday,
and I have a great post to celebrate it.

- Completing the scanning and posting of Rowland Wilson‘s book, Whites of Their Eyes, I received a note from Suzanne Wilson and a series of scans of some beautiful color art by Rowland. Here’s that note:

Hello Michael,

It’s exciting to see Rowland B. Wilson’s “The Whites of Their Eyes” revisited. Perhaps your posting will initiate another half-century of shelf life to these cartoons!

Originally, most of them were presented in color but due to printing restraints of the time they did not appear that way in the book. I think Rowland said he had to rework some of them as line drawings.

I thought it might be of interest to make a comparison with the color versions. In the process I came across additional material from Esquire that wasn’t included in “Whites”, as well as from some unknown publications. They are interspersed here in no particular order.

Image 07, the lighthouse keeper, was selected by the great psychologist, Carl Jung as an illustration in “Man and His Symbols”. It was reprinted recently in “Understanding Psychology”, published by McGraw-Hill.

Thank you for keeping the RBW humor and oeuvre alive.

Sincerely,
Suzanne

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Finally, here are two drawings in honor of the Olympics:

This first one was published in Saturday Evening Post.

This sketch comes from RBW’s work on Disney’s Hercules.

According to Amazon, Suzanne Wilson’s book, Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets: Notes on Cartooning and Animation, was released yesterday, and is Out of Print with LIMITED AVAILABILITY. I guess that when I said to get one soon, a lot of people were listening.

This is a book I’ve been looking forward to reading for quite some time. I’m curious about the “Cartooning” part, but I’m wildly interested in seeing the “Animation” part. Rowland was a master of design when he worked in animation; I want to read anything he has to say about it.

- This is part 4 of 4 of the Rowland B. Wilson book, Whites of Their Eyes. You can find the other three parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

The book was scanned and sent to me by Bill Peckmann, and, of course, he’s the one to thank for this great material from this 1962 book. Here are the final images from the book, and boy are they good.

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Bill Peckmann sent me the following note with the scans:

For all fans and friends of Rowland B. Wilson, I just want to give Suzanne Lemieux Wilson a big standing ‘O’ and a shout out of our appreciation for authoring the very soon to be released book ‘Rowland B. Wilson’s Trade Secrets, Notes On Cartooning & Animation‘. Without her diligence and heavy lifting of putting this book together, we would never have seen this wonderful collection of RBW art in print form, plus the added topper of actually finding out Rowland’s thoughts and reasoning that went into producing the art that we’ve come to know and love. Suzanne, again, many, many thanks!

Here’s a little photo trip down memory lane with Suzanne and Rowland.

(England 1973.)

England 1973

England 1974

Belgium 1974

Connecticut 1981

Moving Day 1982

California 1984