Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Merry Christmas

- Walking to the studio this morning (Robbie has to be fed before I can start my Christmas)
I passed through my favorite park, Madison Square Park. There was my Christmas tree.

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Coming up on the entrance at 26th Street, you can see the tree.

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It sits in the empty reflecting pool. In past years,
they’ve had smaller trees surrounding it. I guess
the recession has hit the Christmas decorations.

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Walking beyond the tree on the way downtown to 23rd Street.

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Just before exiting the park at 23rd Street, you can still see the tree.

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20 minutes later, heading into NYU’s Washington Square Park,
the sunlight’s beginning to rise and the colors are more alive.

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From the other side of the arch, you can see that the back of
the tree is not decorated. More recession or just lazy?

Have a Merry Christmas everyone.

Tintin

A number of movies premiered this past week and I got to see a lot of them. So let me give you brief comments about what I did see. But first a film I saw a few weeks back opened on Tuesday this week and didn’t get the rave reviews that were expected. Tintin shows up at the Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer with a 76% from critic notices. The papers in NY weren’t kind. However, Manohla Dargis in the NYTimes saw the exact film I did, and I’d like to share the last three paragraphs from her review, summing it up:

Drawn in a simple, elegant style known as clear line, Hergé’s Tintin has a spherical head, a stub nose and black ovals for eyes. His half-circle brows sit on his face like accent marks and, with his red-smudged cheeks and beads of sweat that invariably pop off his head, give Tintin surprising expressivity.

The simplicity is as crucial to the comic’s power as is Hergé’s ability to turn a recognizable world into bold lines and blots of color. It’s a face that looks like a mask, one readers can slip on as they rush through the story or leisurely turn the page. And it’s a face that, along with Tintin’s asexuality and lack of a family, makes him into a marvelous blank, an avatar for armchair adventurers.

Like the screen Tintin, the movie proves less than inviting because it’s been so wildly overworked: there is hardly a moment of downtime, a chance to catch your breath or contemplate the tension between the animated Expressionism and the photo-realist flourishes. Relax, you think, as Tintin and the story rush off again, as if Mr. Spielberg were afraid of losing us with European-style longueurs. Bore us? He’s Steven Spielberg! This lack of modulation grows tedious, which is too bad because, as always with him, there are interludes of cinematic delight, when his visual imagination (like the transition in which Tintin and Haddock seem to appear in a puddle someone steps in) and his Spielbergian playfulness get the better of his insistence on bludgeoning us with technique.

Graphically, it isn’t the MoCap that bothers me so much as the unattractive half-drawn, half-photorealist style. Are they not able to flatten out the art, using the MoCap, to simulate the actual look of the comic strip? I don’t know, but I’d be curious to know. The problem in this film is the story: rush, rush, rush, scream, make a lot of noise and end it. That’s not a movie. It’s the Mummy formula – or for that matter Sherlock Holmes. Cheap and uninventive.

Movies

Now to the films I saw this week:

Two more of the animated features list passed on by.
1. A Cat in Paris. This film was great. Beautiful to see such excellent graphic design done so well. The story was exceptional and the film, in French, was one of the better animated features I’ve seen this year. The animation wasn’t always the best character animation, but no film these days offers that. It was always fluid and well drawn.

2. Hoodwinked Too. Trash. I couldn’t get out of it fast enough. The non-stop violence was supposed to be funny, and it was just pathetic. I stayed to the exact half-point and left, disgusted. The worst animated feature seen thus far.

3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This was a nasty crime film based on the novel of the same name. David Fincher (Zodiac, Se7en) is up to his usual smutty stuff. As a director, he’s good enough to keep you watching, but cheap enough to make you want to leave. The film plays like a film defending the rights of women, but it felt awfully misogynist to me. The acting by Rooney Mara is worth the ride.

4. We Bought a Zoo. A sweet, light entertainment with the heart of a RomCom and completely dependent on Matt Damon to bring most of the personality to the film with his performance. He does. The other performers, including Scarlett Johansson, help. The film would have been better with a bit more darkness in it. The music was good, and the film would have worked as well on DVD.

5. A Separation. This was the best movie this week. An Iranian film about a failing marriage involving an Alzheimer father, a really poor caretaker whose daughter and husband don’t help the situation, a daughter caught up in the middle of the parents’ squabble, and the morality behind a situation that arises involving the civil courts. Ultimately, it all boils down to a father/husband whose arrogant stubborn way stops him from telling his wife that he loves her and would like her not to abandon him and their daughter. It’s a real story, told matter-of-factly with a lot of heart but no melodrama.

6. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. This was a heart-breaking film about a teenager whose father dies in the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster. The very smart boy finds a key with the word “Black” on its envelope, and he decides to search all the families in NY with the surname “Black”. He feels this will unlock the key to understanding why his father died and will, at the least, extend the father’s life for however long the search will take. The boy has Asperger’s syndrome, so he has a method. The film is a bit too manipulative for my taste, but the actors are all brilliant (particularly Max Von Sydow who doesn’t talk in the film). It should definitely be seen, but prepare for a few tears along the way.

No more movies until after Christmas.

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The Films of Michael Sporn

- Network Awesome is an amazing site that offers more and more films (including very many animated films) for viewing. Most are from the archives of YouTube, but Network Awesome has collected them and intelligently written about them. (Included in the site is a magazine.) The Films of Michael Sporn has just turned up on the site, and you may want to check it out for a collected number of shorts that have been present on YouTube but not very public.

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A Wedding

- Congratulations to Bill Plympton and Sandrine Flament. They were married yesterday. It’s big news because Bill has a reputation for being NY animation’s inveterate bachelor. I hope they have a long, happy marriage.

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Linkage

There were a lot of links that didn’t make it to my blog last week. I do intend to continue that, probably next Saturday. I have more I want to pass on detailing my weekly travels around the internet. Sorry I couldn’t get them all into the one post.

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A Funeral

- Yesterday, Václav Havel was buried. Gene Deitch sent an email about the funeral. It hasn’t yet gone up on his site, so let me post the email:

Today was the state funeral for Václav Havel. During these days of mourning, six black horses drew the same coffin-bearing carriage through the streets of Prague, that 74 years ago carried the body of Czechoslovakia’s first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.

Václav Havel was surely the only person in history who, within just a couple of years, was the president of three separate nations, each with its separate constitution, currency and postage stamps!

Havel was the last president of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the only president of the short-lived Czech & Slovak Federative Republic, and the first president of the present Czech Republic!

Watching it all, Zdenka and I were transported back 22 years when we stood in the throngs, jingling our keys as he spoke to us all, proclaiming the end of the long dark night of Soviet imposed dictatorship.

Today, most of the world‘s leaders are here to pay homage to the man who was the symbol of the end of the long dark night of the totalitarian régime in this country, when the “Velvet Revolution“ concept of 1989 was spreading throughout the countries of central and eastern Europe.

Now we can expect that soon the Prague Airport at RuzynÄ› will be renamed “The Vacláv Havel International Airport,” and that almost every town in the Czech Republic, and perhaps many throughout the world, will have streets, squares, libraries, cultural centers, universities, named for him, and surely statues and postage stamps of him will proliferate! He will be long be remembered as writer, dramatist, dreamer, activist, and ultimately three times president, who restored the good name and worldwide prestige of this little country.

I’m attaching here one of our treasures, a signed note of thanks to Zdenka, for the original piece of Japanese calligraphy which we brought from San Francisco and which Zdenka and I sent to him. Havel typically signed his name with a green pen, adding a little red heart, that became his symbol.

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A Christmas Card

- Tom Hachtman sent me a bunch of tries at his Christmas Card featuring Gertrude, Alice and Pabs. I was going to select one and feature itl then I was going to aim for a couple of them. I’ve decided, finally, to post them all. Here they are:

Nativity Eight | Nativity Eleven

Nativity Fifteen Nativity Five

Nativity Four | Nativity Fourteen

Nativity Nine | Nativity Seven

Nativity Six | Nativity Ten

Nativity Thirteen | Nativity Three

Nativity Twelve | Nativity Two

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Another Christmas Card

- This is the first year I’ve done an animated card. I admit to not liking the medium. There’s something about a mailed hard copy of a Christmas Card that’s nice, but seeing Richard O’Connor‘s Ace and Son animated card convinced me to try my hand at it. The art and animation took me a couple of days to do it (by myself), and it’s more a compromise than a great piece. But I’m not embarrassed by it. At least it’s different. I sent it out to a lot of friends but have decided to embed it here in case you haven’t seen it (or among the few who were unable to get the link to work).

Merry Christmas

- It’s Christmastime. The perfect time to fall under the spell of Carl Barks for a few moments. Here’s the second and final installment of the piece started yesterday, “A Letter to Santa”, published in 1949 as the comic book titled, A Christmas Parade. This comes courtesy of Bill Peckmann who scanned the cover from the original magazine, but the story was taken from the reprinted and recolored version. Many th\anks to Bill for sharing this treat.

The cover, pencilled by Walt Kelly.

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Merry Christmas

Bill Peckmann offered a holiday treat. A Carl Barks, Donald Duck story. It’s a bit on the long side, so I have to break it into two posts; I’ll complete the piece tomorrow. It’s a cliff hanger. Meanwhile, many thanks to Bill who writes:

Here’s the cover of original comic book, “Walt Disney’s Christmas Parade” No. 1. It came out in 1949, it was one of the first 25 cent Disney comic books that I can remember. The price really put a dent in a kid’s pocket from that era, but at over 100 pages it was worth every cent!

The biggest gift in the first issue of “Christmas Parade” was of course Carl Barks’ 24 page Donald Duck “in Letter to Santa” story. There’s nothing more natural than having Scrooge McDuck in a Christmas story and fortunately nothing more natural than Carl being at the top of his game in 1949. It’s one of the best of the best!

(Note, I’m not scanning the story from the original comic book, I just didn’t have the heart to break the square binding of the old comic book. The scanning will be of a Gladstone Publishing reprint. Purists and anti-gradationists will probably be unhappy with that but it still is a handsome job when seen on the computer screen and Carl’s line work sings.

Second note, there’s also some Jesse Marsh art in the issue. He illustrated the text of “So Dear To My Heart”. Seven illo’s. I’ll see if I’ll be able to scan those without damaging the book.)

The cover is listed as being penciled by Walt Kelly.

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This is one of the very early appearances of
Uncle Scrooge McDuck in a Barks story, so he
isn’t quite the character yet that we came to know and love.

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- We end the animation of the Shadows in this scene where Mickey conquers the undead, the brooms. The violent attack on the broom that he brought to life is done completely in shadows.
We have left Mickey walking out of the backroom and into the light. That will come next week.

The scene was animated by Riley Thompson with Harvey Toombs assisting. The sequence director was James Algar.

To see the last three parts of the shadows go to: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

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The following QT incorporates all the drawings from this post
and the two earlier shadow posts.
All posts will be combined in the final piece.

All drawings were exposed per the Exposure Sheets.

this scene comes in at 5’30″

- Howard Beckerman‘s book, Animation: The Whole Story, published in 2003 by Allworth Press, comes close to being the book as described in the title. There’s an extensive history of animation, followed by a guide to animation production, followed by an analysis of the Business side of animation, and ending with exercises and a list of available resources (including schools, studio addresses, places to buy equipment and animation publications.) That’s a lot of book for the price.

This is definitely a down and dirty book, just the facts ma’m, nothing but the facts, and for that I am grateful. There are no pretensions; in ways it reminds me of the Lutz animation book. The material is straightforward, and the presentation is complete. The illustrations throughout are done by Mr. Beckerman, himself, and the material is just about all-encompassing. I would use it as a classroom text were I teaching first level animation, and I’m sure there are many teachers who already do this.

There’s a lot of handy information in here, sort of an all-purpose guide to animation. It’s a bit like one of those tool boxes that have every sort of wrench in it, so that you’re always prepared. There are directions for setting up a director’s workbook, how to do a storyboard, even a guide for properly flipping paper-drawn animation. There is an explanation of a field guide, frame to footage counters, information on how to build a drawing table light box, and even an explanation of exposure sheets – showing how to fill them out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book that transposes the meter on a metronome to frame counts. This has always been information handed down from one animator to another. Books don’t include it. This one does. This is incredibly useful for any animator looking to animate to a beat, and all animators SHOULD be doing that.

Howard Beckerman has been teaching animation and the history of animation in New York at the School of Visual Arts and Parson’s School of Design for a very long time. He’s also a professional having directed, designed and animated for many companies, including Paramount, as well as for his own company. He’s done many short films as well as written hundreds of articles for film and animation magazines. He knows his stuff.

This, to me, is most evident in the first half of the book, the history of animation section. This is a no-nonsense guide to the history from the beginning days right through the book’s publication date – 2003. In 85 pages he covers more material than many other elaborate and celebrated books. And the amazing thing is that it’s all accurate and correct material. I don’t think I’ve ever covered so much history – and it’s WORLD HISTORY – in so short a read. Yet it feels like nothing is left out. This is quite a feat. For my money. this is the absolute strength of the book.

The weakness is one you can probably guess at from the descriptions I’ve already given. The book came out in 2003, and quite a bit has changed. There’s virtually no reason anymore to read about the Oxberry camera and how it works. The same could be said of the inking and painting of cels or even field guides and exposure sheets. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s absolutely vital for everyone in the business to know this information, but I know it’s not part of the job anymore. Today’s book would be more about the computer: Flash and AfterEffects, Toon Boom Studio and FlipBook. The book is peppered with
caricatures of key people.
Perhaps someday there’ll be a new edition with more of that information. Although to be frank, there are hundreds
of books telling how to use the software. There are a lot of young kids making their animated films in Flash and calling themselves animators. Perhaps if they read this book, as it is, they’d have a bit more of a grasp as to what an animator does.

There’s so much in this book, I wholeheartedly recommend it if you’re looking for a great “how to” book. Even if you’re not, that history of animation section is world class.

Here are a few of the many illustrations in the book:

1. Building a lightbox - – - – - 2. Flipping and Rolling Animation

3. Walk cycles - – - – - – - – - 4. How to Ink & Paint cels

5. The director’s Workbook

It’s a practical little book, and is well worth checking out. (There are copies on Amazon that are incredibly inexpensive!)

- As I wrote yesterday, the author, Russell Hoban died on Dec. 13th at the age of 86. He was a favorite author of mine. I was lucky to have met him after we completed an animated version of his book, The Marzipan Pig. Prior to that, a feature had been done of his children’s novel, The Mouse and His Child. Here’s a couple of pieces I did about that feature in the past few years.

Sanrio, a Japanese company that made all their money on Hello Kitty products, produced two animated features in the US. Metamorphosis and The Mouse and His Child. Both films failed at the box office. However, The Mouse and His Child, directed by Fred Wolf and Chuck Swenson, has some small glimmers of fine animation throughout the film.

I don’t really know who did any of the animation. Corny Cole, certainly, did the big closing animated zoom of the film. I sought out the work of one animator I liked, and it turned out to be Vincent Davis. It was the first work I saw by him, and I’m still charmed by it.

Here’s a small walk at the beginning of the film. Lots of shape shifting in the assisting, but there’s something nice about it, too. I don’t know who animated it.

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Mouse and Child walking on three’s

The Mouse and His Child has some real charm. However, it created a small problem for me.

When I’d begun work on The Marzipan Pig, I had to guarantee the brilliant writer, Russell Hoban, who authored both books – The Marzipan Pig and The Mouse and His Child – that no spoken dialogue would be created by me or Maxine Fisher, who was writing the script. Hoban was annoyed by the script for The Mouse and His Child. He felt they had butchered his story.

In fact, the film ends 3/4 of the way into the story. Elements of the last quarter of the book are rushed through the film in one last scene before the end titles. (I have to admit it’s a bit confusing.) This is a scene Corny animated. It’s all one scene; no cuts; an animated BG.

The Jack In The Box looks very different from the guy in Raggedy Ann.

You can watch this film on YouTube.

- We couldn’t get by another week without more sad news. I was hard hit yesterday when I learned that Russell Hoban had died on Dec. 13th. He’s been one of my favorite authors for years. I produced and directed an animated version of one of his books, The Marzipan Pig back in 1983. It was not easy getting funding for it. I gave my backer a choice of two of his books, and they were into transubstantiation so it was The Marzipan Pig.

There is a great quote in the Washington Post obituary: “If I am kept away from writing I become physically unwell,” he told the Guardian in 2002.” It is art and the creation of art that . . . make me feel it is a good thing to be part of the human race.”

Here’s the NYTimes obituary.
Here’s the obit from the Washington Post.
Here’s a great piece from The Scotsman.

When we completed The Marzipan Pig, Hoban came to NY from his home in London. We arranged a screening for him after which Tissa David, he and I went to lunch. In his very dry way, he told me that he was pleased with the film. As I do with all authors, I asked for criticism not compliments, and he told me there was only one complaint. We didn’t get the bridge quite right at the end of the film. Of course he was right, and it’s hard for me to watch those final scenes, now, without thinking about that damned bridge.

I’ve read every book of his I could including at least 60 of the children’s books and all of his adult novels. In film, I know only of the work we’ve done and The Mouse and His Child. Unfortunately, the feature film stopped midway through the book’s story. It’s a brilliant book and what they did of the story carries whatever is happening on the screen. Tomorrow I’ll post some material about that feature.

For The Marzipan Pig DVD we included a copy of a section of the animatic. This includes the actual film superimposed over the stills so you can make a comparison as the film runs. Film in film. I like this format; you can really take in the animation and layout of the piece when both are on the split screen.

I thought I’d post here some of the storyboards and the animatic for that section. Of course, this is in a low res version; more can be discovered in the dvd version.

Tissa David did the storyboard and animated the entire film by herself. This film is a beauty, if I do say so myself. It’s a truly adult film, though it was sold as a family film. It deals with love in all its forms, albeit, obviously, through metaphor. It was adapted from a brilliant children’s book; one of Russell Hoban‘s finest.

Quentin Blake illustrated the original book, and we didn’t purchase the illustrations. Hoban told us that it wasn’t how he’d imagined the pig to look, so he drew it for us. He was once an art director in an ad agency, so he was able to draw. This is the pig we used.

Hoban had hated what was done with his book, The Mouse and His Child, so demanded that all the spoken dialogue in the film be found among his words. We wrote a script; Maxine Fisher went to London to work with him in revising it. Finally, when it came to recording the actor Tim Curry, I threw out the script and had him read the book – with the exception of one line. It was a good decision, and it made for a great performance from a great actor.

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The animatic for Seq. D with the final film superimposed.
You’ll notice that some changes were made
in scenes and scene cuts as the animation progressed.
This is typical.

The Marzipan Pig will air on HBO Family Tuesday December 27th
7:30 AM HBO FAMILY – EAST
10:00 AM HBO FAMILY – EAST
10:30 AM HBO FAMILY – WEST
1:00 PM HBO FAMILY – WEST
After that check each month at Michael Sporn Animation.com for future screenings.

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Here’s are two films we did for a home video of children’s poems. The first is a poem by Russell Hoban. The animation is by Mark Mayerson, and the design is by Jason McDonald. The music is by Caleb Sampson. I think all of these artists did brilliant work, but then Hoban’s thoughts and words always pull out the best.

Russell Hoban’s The Tin Frog

This second poem of Hoban’s also brought out the best in the artists, Jason McDonald who designed and storyboarded the whole piece. The excellent animation was by Sue Perrotto..

Russell Hoban’s Jigsaw Puzzle
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.

This week was another packed week full of tight deadlines and lotsa movies. We finally got the go-ahead for our airline safety film. We contracted in March, started the board in April. The first pass was done by early May, but we went through another dozen versions adapting it to the client’s request. The thing was so tight that I don’t have to do layouts. The client has no conception of how to do animation, so despite the low budget, I have to try to educate them as I make the movie. It’s not fun. The voice recording was done three times. The track is very good, but I also thought the first version was very good.
However, it’s fun to be animating again. Now I have to work like the devil to try to get it done quickly. The budget’s too low to take my time with it.

We’re also doing a spot for R.O. Blechman which will go directly to the internet. I’ll post it on this site when it’s done. It was originally to be animated by Ed Smith but he dropped out at the last minute for personal reasons. My loss. However, Matt Clinton, who’s been working with me for the last twenty years (actually it’s only about seven) is animating it. The spot is in good hands. The film is supposed to be done by Christmas. Given that Bob always has revisions, I imagine it’ll go to New Years. Another low budget job. Is that all they make anymore?

Other than that, I’ve been seeing movies. There have been a bunch more than usual in that I’m voting for the animated feature. That means I have to see at least 14 of the 18 on the eligible list. This is a hard category. For the most part the films stink. There have been a couple recently that I liked, but those are few and far between. I really enjoyed Rango, and was fortunate to get to meet Gore Verbinski last week. We sat at the same table at a dinner. The film sagged a bit in the middle, but the opening was exceptional.

This past Tuesday I saw a double-bill:

Gnomeo and Juliet – This is not a film I would have chosen to see, however I was quite entertained by it. Unfortunately I’m still humming Elton John’s songs (“Rocketman” today) after listening to the Elton John songbook playing in the background for an 90 minutes. I thought Emily Blunt’s voice was remarkable. She truly has a voice for animation, and I enjoyed her performance quite a bit. The textures on the garden gnomes was a plus, but the characters seem to be made of feathers not clay. The animation could have done with a bit more weight. This is often a problem I have with CG animation.

Happy Feet Two was another film that I wouldn’t have selected for myself. However, I really enjoyed it. Finally, an animated film ABOUT SOMETHING. Global warming from frame one of this movie. I loved it. The penguins dance in an inch of slushy water in the opening, as we witness the melting of the polar ice caps. I was a bit confused by the insertion of the Krill brothers. I suppose they were saying that even the smallest of creatures is being affected by the human destruction of the environment. It is the Krill dance underwater that finally knocks down the one ice cap so that the trapped penguin village can escape. The movie moved, and was quite entertaining.
MoCap was used for the dancing penguins. All other characters were animated without the aid of the device.
The film also used 3D smartly.

On Wednesday there were another two features:

Roman Polanski‘s Carnage is his adaptation of the hit stage play by Yasmina Reza. The four actors on screen were brilliant. Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz all did superlative work. The film is worth the price of admission just to see Winslet get soused. She’s become a truly sparkling actress. Polanski’s wit is very dry and very dark. I can imagine what some other director would have pulled in driving home the underlying comedy of this film and was grateful to see him masterfully choreograph this movie.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has to be hands down the most subtle of films done this year. A quiet and steady pulse beats trough the magnificent editing of this movie. Gary Oldman’s performance is so quiet that it takes you time to realize how wonderful he is in the part of “Smiley.” There’s no doubt he took Alec Guiness’ version of the character and just added his own subtleties atop that. However, I have to warn you that this film requires the audience to work for its supper. You have to pay minute attention to it or you’ll miss key elements that keep coming at you. I can’t imagine seeing this in DVD unless your eyes are glued to the set and you sit about two feet away from the monitor. It’s worth it; a very good movie.

On Thursday night I saw one film of the double-bill:

Albert Nobbs stars Glenn Close as a 19th Century woman posing as a man so that she can work without difficulties. This was probably a film I would have waited to see on DVD, but I want to see all films I vote on in theatrical screenings. I’m glad I did. The film was OK, but Close was remarkable. I am not one of her biggest fans – I hated her in Sunset Boulevard -, but I have to hand it to her. This performance was mostly virtuoso. However, it was one of those films where a character alone, on screen, has to say everything aloud so that they can further the exposition. Sorry, people just don’t say everything out loud. I can see why SAG gave her a nomination. However, I think one of the performances of the year was Charlize Theron’s brilliant work in Young Adult. I can’t believe they didn’t even nominate her! Instead, the horrendous Tilda Swinton’s overacting in that amateurish film, We Need To Talk About Kevin, got a nomination.

War Horse also screened last night, but I’d gone to the World Premiere of that at Lincoln Center. Spielberg and the cast introduced the film which was not a great effort. I would have preferred seeing Black Beauty on the big screen. Even the recent version that starred David Thewlis would have been better. This Spielberg film was all too serious and, as a result, tedious. He stole from John Ford, he stole from Gone With the Wind, he stole from everything under the sun, and it all was too predictable.

I was sad to learn of Christopher Hitchens‘ death yesterday. He was someone who always made me gnash my teeth while listening to his outrageous political commentary. But he was particularly articulate and intelligent albeit acerbic which always forced me to stay with him. He was an Atheist and argued his points well. I’m sure this didn’t please many watching him on television, though I usually felt in agreement with him on this subject.

I watched closely in the last 18 months or so as he very openly talked about his esophageal cancer and how it was forcing him to slow down. It was great to see that the NYTimes gave his obituary front page coverage.

A.O. Scott in the NYTimes praised Brad Bird‘s work in Mission Impossible 6, while appropriately taking the movie with little seriousness. Goodbye Brad Bird, animation director. Neil Genzingler did the dirty work in reviewing the new Chipmunk film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. I can’t believe this is one of the films I’m supposed to watch for the Oscar race.

Last night, Friday, I went to a Christmas gathering at Richard O’Connor‘s new company, Ace and Son. I’d been to the space once before after he’d just opened for business. Richard had brought a catalogue from this year’s Ottawa Festival for me, and I went to retrieve it. Then the studio was sparsely decorated, but now it’s starting to feel lived in, with a warm aura about it. They’d just completed their animated Christmas card so shared it with us. We also got a piece of the film as we left, a painted drawing that served as a cel from the film. It’s always fun to take home gifts from parties.

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- As of yesterday the IFC Center in NY is presenting 15 films from Studio Ghibli. Mosat of Miyazaki’s masterworks can be seen in this series which runs through January 12th. Here’s a NYTimes article about the screening. The films to be screened will include:

Castle in the Sky *
Wednesday, December 28 – Thursday, January 12

The Cat Returns
Friday, December 30 – Thursday, January 5

Howl’s Moving Castle *
Wednesday, December 28 – Thursday, January 5

Kiki’s Delivery Service *
Friday, December 16 – Thursday, January 12

My Neighbors The Yamadas
Friday, December 23 – Thursday, December 29

My Neighbor Totoro *
Friday, December 16 – Thursday, January 5

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind *
Friday, December 16 – Thursday, January 5

Ocean Waves
Thursday, December 29 – Thursday, January 5

Only Yesterday
Friday, January 6 – Thursday, January 12

Pom Poko
Friday, January 6 – Thursday, January 12
Ponyo *
Friday, December 30 – Thursday, January 5

Porco Rosso *
Friday, December 23 – Thursday, January 5

Princess Mononoke *
Friday, December 16 – Thursday, January 12

Spirited Away *
Saturday, December 17 – Thursday, January 12

Whisper of the Heart
Wednesday, December 28 – Thursday, January 5

* Those followed by * are films by Miyazaki.

Go here to see the schedule and the exact times for the screenings.

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Another excellent post from the collection of Bill Peckmann. Here, I turn it over to Bill:

“King of the Cowboy Cartoonists”. If there was ever such a title, Jack Davis would garner my vote!

Here are two westerns by Jack that ran in EC Comics’ title “Two-Fisted Tales”.

In “TFT” No. 34, July-Aug 1953, the first story “Betsy”, was not only drawn by Jack but also written by him. The usual editor/writer of the comic book Harvey Kurtzman, was laid up with a serious illness, so Jack and the rest of the cartoon crew jumped in and wrote their own tales.

Jack’s story “Betsy” is a riff on “High Noon”, a very popular movie of its’ day. (Gary Cooper even makes a cameo appearance in the story. More on that in a later post.) It’s a labor of love for Jack and it shows. It’s laid out by him in that wonderful Kurtzman lay-out style and the coloring by Marie Severin is really exceptional.

Jack also seems to be ahead of his time with this story because it’s done quite a few years before the gritty, gnarly noir western movies of Clint Eastwood, but it certainly has the feel of one those films.

(Here’s the cover of the comic, which we’ve posted already, but you might want to run it at smaller size, ala “Ben and Me” today. I hope your readers enjoyed “Ben” as much as we did.)

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Here’s Jack’s second western story titled “Gunfire”. This appeared in “The New Two-Fisted Tales”, No. 36, Jan. 1954. With this issue, Harvey Kurtzman was not at the writer/editorship helm of the comic any more, the success of Mad comics took up all of Harvey’s time, and the running of “The New TFT” went to John Severin and writer Colin Dawkins.

“Gunfire” was written by Dawkins and illustrated by Jack, and Jack’s in his best Kurtzman type lay-out mode, beautifully constructed pages and panels.

(Even though Clint Eastwood was only 23 years old at the time when this story came out, and not a movie star yet, somehow Jack was able to come up with the perfect prototype of a Clint Eastwood western hero. It’s all there, looks and costume and action! It makes ya wonder.)

Here’s the cover of #36.
This cover of “The New Two-Fisted Tales” no. 36
was penciled by John Severin and inked by Bill Elder.
It’s not a Jack Davis cover.

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Here are a couple of ruffs Jack did for Western illustrations.

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Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for sharing his collection with us.