- Bill Peckmann has sent me a stash of original comic book covers for the Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. There are 20 in all, and they all are beautifully drawn and colored. It’s a real charge to see them; for the most part they’re the work of Walt Kelly, and it’s great to see how his comic styling develops. Bill wrote the following about them:
The issues of “Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories” are in order of publication, it’s not a complete run but it is a fun one. Being the number one selling title of it’s day, it’s easy to see why some of the kids put their names on the covers, I’m guessing they didn’t want to lose them or trade them off by mistake. (Trading comics and bubble gum cards in those days was always going on, easy way to save money.)
All of the covers were done by Walt Kelly, except the very first one (August 1942, “Goldfish Bowl”), that was done by Al Taliaferro, long time Donald Duck newspaper strip artist.
Here are the covers from December 1945 to May 1947.
As I pointed out a couple of weeks back, I’m going forward with recap posts of the Tytla scenes I’d previously posted. They should be seen and studied often. They’re too good.
- Here’s a scene all of 29 drawings in length, but if you check it out in the film it’s enormous. Everything’s moving – the wagon they’re standing in, the pots & pans, things on the table and most definitely Stromboli who in one enormous drawing changes the scene, Pinocchio’s world and the mood in the audience. “Quiet!” is all the dialogue shouted in the scene. It”s frightening.
(Make sure you click to enlarge every drawing here.)
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Closed position starting to open his body – legs first.
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Pulling it all into a ball,
he shouts, “QUIET” – the dialogue for the scene
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Couldn’t open up more than this.
Just look at the distortion in this drawing. Magnificent.
Open, loud, ready to burst. One frame only.
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Next frame he’s landed and gathered himself.
Only the secondary action – vest, pants, beard –
echo the outburst.
Quickly he starts to turn.
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His clothes lag behind in pulling themselves together.
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He’s set to give the demand and end the scene.
The following QT movie represents the entire scene from Pinocchio.
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.
Here are frames from the actual scene:
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What a difference the shake of the coach and the
bounce of the hanging utensils make to the scene.
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There’s danger everywhere, here.
It’s scary.
Many thanks to my friend, Lou Scarborough, for the loan of this scene.
- At last, we’ve reached the final part of the Carl Barks Donald Duck story, “Sheriff of Bullet Valley”. This is one of the most treasured of the Donald comics, and thanks to Bill Peckmann‘s sending the book, we can get to see it all of a piece.
You can visit part 1 & part 2 on this blog in the past two weeks.
Let’s start with another oil painting by Carl Barks adapted from the cover of this magazine. It’s from “The Fine Art Of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck.”
“The Sheriff of Bullet Valley” (18″x24″)
The handling of this third version of Bullet Valley is close to the original comic book
cover and truly conveys the ominous atmosphere of the showdown scene.
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Now here’s the remainder of the story, The Sheriff of Bullet Valley.
We pick up where Part 2 left off . . .
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To fill out this post Bill Peckmann had sent another couple of one-page gags. Here’s his additional note:
Here are the two end page gags done in the original two color format which looks great as well as the back cover gag done in full color, which also looks terrific. When we were kids, all of us “Good Duck Artist” fans, (Remember at that time we didn’t know the name of the cartoonist who drew our favorite DD stories) would have loved to have seen a whole DD comic printed and colored on cover stock (like back cover gags) and not on the ratty, pulp newsprint paper. Unfortunately now, when comic book reprint albums are printed on quality paper, the coloring is so ham fisted, they loose so much of the essence of the original book, especially Barks’ beautiful line work. It’s probably better to see it in it’s original black and white but then something else seems to be missing. (There are some people you just can’t seem to please!)
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Thanks again to Bill Peckmann in sharing his library with us.
- Having visited the multiplane camera scenes of SNOW WHITE, I can only see the usefulness of going to the keystone of the camera, “The Old Mill.” It’s on this lyrical and beautifully produced short that they admittedly devised the idea of testing the multiplane camera in action. However, in an interview I’ve read with director, Wilfred Jackson, we find that the camera wasn’t available for much of this film. It was being tied up with a number of shots from SNOW WHITE. The interview is by David Johnson posted on American Artist‘s site. Here’s the passage I’d read:
DJ: Since you worked on The Old Mill, you were involved with the multiplane camera. Can you tell me about Garity [the co-inventor] and the invention of this thing and some of the problems and miracles that it did.
WJ: What I can tell you about my experiences with it was the The Old Mill was supposed to be a test of the mutiplane, to see if it worked. Somehow, we were so held up in working on The Old Mill by assignments of animators because Snow White was in work at that time and animators that I should have had were pulled away just before I got to them and other animators were substituted because Snow White got preference on everything. And we got our scenes planned and worked out for the multiplane effects and by that time some of the sequences on Snow White were being photographed. The multiplane camera itself had all kinds of bugs in it that had to be worked out. We were held up until so late that I actually did work on another short – I don’t remember which short. I don’t even remember if I finished it up – did work on some other picture to keep myself busy while we could get facilities to go ahead on The Old Mill. By the time they had got the bugs out of the multiplane camera, they had multiplane scenes for Snow White to shoot and they got it busy on those first. Finally in order to get The Old Mill out the scenes that had been planned for multiplane had to be converted to the flat camera to do the best they could. You won’t find more than a very few multiplane scenes in The Old Mill.
DJ: I wasn’t aware of that.
WJ: I’ve had messed up schedules on pictures but I’ve never had a more messed up one than I can remember for The Old Mill.
So, of course, I’ve searched for scenes that I believe are definitely part of the shoot done on Garity’s vertical Multiplane Camera.
The film is little more than a tone poem of an animated short. It’s about as abstract a film as you’d find coming out the Disney studio in the 30s.
Let’s take a look at some frame grabs from the film, itself:
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We open on a slightly-out-of-focus mill with a spider’s web
filling the screen, glistening in focus, in the foreground.
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The camera moves in on the mill and the
spider’s web goes out of focus and fades off.
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Dissolve through to a closer shot as we move in.
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Dissolve through to an even closer shot.
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Foreground objects go out of focus as we move in on the mill.
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Cut to a bird flying in the foreground carrying a worm.
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The interior of the mill, viewed through the window, is dark grey.
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Dissolve into the next shot which looks as though it appears in the framed window.
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the window fades off as we move in on the birds’ nest.
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The flying bird lands.
Here, we cut to a long pan up the mill using the multiplane. The lighting in this scene is inconsistent. There are flares and glares and some minor jerks to the artwork. No doubt this was done on the multiplane camera, and it would have been reshot if there were time and money.
I couldn’t hook up the artwork to simulate the pan since overlays from one frame didn’t match the next. It was all moving with multiple levels (maybe five?) and they didn’t match from one frame to the next.
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The shot starts from the top of the mill looking down on the birds.
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It starts moving up the central column.
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Past a group of mice.
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Stopping on a pair of lovebirds.
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The camera continues upward.
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It passes an out of focus beam.
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Finally reaching an owl.
At this point there is a cut outside to bats fleeing the Old Mill for the night.
Gustaf Tenggren made some preproduction drawings of this scene which can be found in John Canemaker‘s book, Before the Animation Begins which in itself is something of a tone poem of a book devoted to many of the designers at the Disney studio.
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Now here are frame grabs from the film, itself.
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The multiplane camera is used only for the exterior shots of the mill
shown over the course of a number of scenes.
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Placed as I’ve done with them, they look as though
they’re one continuous scene over the length of the storm.
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Finally, things settle down and the camera comes to
the Old Mill at rest in the morning.
- The artists are always there first. In NYC, they settled in the 60s in Soho, just south of Greenwich Village where lots of warehouses & factories stood. Lots of galleries built around them, and the rents suddenly went high. The artists moved to Williamsburg in Brooklyn (just across the East River), a Polish neighborhood where the rents were low. Galleries and boutiques moved in, and the artists had to move out again. They went further into Brooklyn.
At 6am the other day, I was walking across Prince Street in Soho. It’s been years since the artists had fled, yet I realized a lot was still changing. Even bigger money was moving in, and the beauty and charm of the neighborhood was moving out. I took some photos and am about to give you a little tour.
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This is Prince Street which goes across Manhattan Island from East to West.
In this photo I’m looking West because that’s the direction I’m walking.
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This is the first N/S street we come upon, Mercer Street looking North.
I was also there at midnight, so some of the pictures were shot at night.
You’ll notice it’s not really cobblestone but bricks laid to make up the street.
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Even the crosswalk at Mercer Street is made of a different size brick.
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Here’s the next block, Wooster Street looking North.
The same brick composition poses as cobblestone.
It has its own sort of charm.
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Here’s Wooster Street looking South.
More bricks, very quaint.
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Aha! Construction has moved in, Greene Street, the next block up.
Those fake cobllestones will soon be history. Paved over.
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This is Vesuvio Bakery on Prince Street.
It’s a famous old bakery that sells great bread.
I wonder how long it’ll last.
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Right next door is a more fashionable Estate Jewelry store on Prince Street.
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Once you get to West Broadway, everything changes.
The streets are paved the stores are chi-chi.
Traffic is two-way.
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Here’s a fancy new store on West Broadway, a SportMax.
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Street sellers line West Broadway selling their wares.
They have to fight the City even after they get their licenses.
(This was an all-out war under Giuliani – cops vs vendors.)
At 6am this is the first vendor to set up, just off Prince Street.
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Even the construction sites look fancy on West Broadway.
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Here’s the last stop, the other end of Prince Street,
Sixth Avenue, looking back, East.
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Moving down Sullivan Street (the last small cross street) heading Uptown.
It’s the very last block prior to Sixth Avenue.
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On of my favorite stores on Sullivan Street is Something Special.
It’s a candy store with a lot of rental Postal boxes. The pictures
of Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker & their kids indicate
that the couple uses one of the boxes in this store. Their mail drop.
I get things notarized here from an older Italian gentleman.
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The Koho School of Sumi-E is going out of business on the corner
of Sullivan Street and Houston. This shop always reminds me of
the late Francis Lee, who studie Sumi-E painting.
He was a real Independent back in the day.
I often rented his Oxberry to shoot films overnight.
I wonder if the demise of this shop will mean that I won’t think so often of Francis.
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Here’s the big street that runs parallel to Prince Street. Houston Street looking East.
The photo shows one half of the traffic, so it’s a big street and separates NOHO from SOHO.
You can see that the nature of the neighborhood is changing. Brick-laid cobblestone is about to go completely. Old shops are being forced out of business, and money is moving in with higher prices and no concern for the little guy or the neighborhood. There are no artists here anymore, just vendors who pay high rents.
- Recently, NY passed the legal rights for gay and lesbian couples to marry. This has, of course, created a lot of difficulties as many couples rush to try to marry. The first day this is possible will be tomorrow, Sunday, and there’s a rush. They’ve begun something of a lottery to determine which couples can go first.
Here’s a story that developed out of San Franciso as reported by Now What Media:
At the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, at an exhibit entitled Seeing Gertrude Stein, two lesbians were asked to stop holding hands. When they protested they were asked to leave the museum. Let’s see – Gertrude Stein show. In San Francisco. Yes, we read that correctly. The Museum has apologized. The security guard works for an independent company, is not an employee of the museum and obviously knows nothing about the show or San Francisco.
The resourceful Tom Hachtman did the cartoon above (and the earlier one on Now What) which he sent me. Gertrude is always there for the comedy of the event.
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It’s amazing how big Comic Con has grown. The NYTimes has many daily reports from the event in their on-line spaces. Honestly, the thing sounds dreadful to me, but I suppose I should get myself out there one of these years just to see what I’m not missing.
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. Yoni Goodman
Yoni Goodman continues to do daily animated exercises on his blog at Dailymotion. They’re no longer quite daily, but they are frequent enough and excellent and worth your checking out.
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. You too can animate Sponge Bob (and pay for it.)
. - And now we have news of a new animation creation program. Take a look at this bit of info sent to me this week:
Smith Micro has announced it has joined with Nickelodeon and NetToons to bring the first-ever SpongeBob SquarePants Tooncast Studio. Now fans of every age and skill level can become part of their favorite show by creating their own pro-quality SpongeBob animations. The SpongeBob SquarePants Tooncast Studio is going to be unveiled at Comic-Con this week.
Using the SpongeBob SquarePants Tooncast Studio, fans can animate SpongeBob and his friends in hundreds of different ways by making them walk, run, jump, dance, and much more—all to the tune of a custom music soundtrack.
They offered to send a demo copy of the program, but I think my life is too short for such things.
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William Benzon, on his blog New Savannah, has an essay about Fantasia 2000. It doesn’t bode well for the newer film to be compared to the origianal Fantasia. A short quick read.
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. Ace and Son
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- Not sure what to make of it, as yet, but Richard O’Connor has moved on from Asterisk Animation to Ace and Son. I don’t know if this is a new company or just the name for the new blog, but it seems meaningful and I’ll let you in on any news I find out.
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. Beavis and what?
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Are we ready for more Beavis and Butthead? MTV has run short of ideas so they’re going back to oldies but goodies, except they don’t have music videos they can play off of. So there’s Jersey Shore awaitin’. This October.
- I recently posted the first two parts of this book by Greg Constantine, Vincent Van Gogh Visits New York. Here is the third and final part of the book.
It was a paperback book Bill Peckmann bought in the ’80s. He introduced me to it and he scanned and sent the material to me. Many thanks to Bill for sharing it with us.
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key to all art references used
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Greg Constantine also has two other books on the market: Leonardo Visits Los Angeles and Picasso in Chicago. Here are the front and rear covers of both books.
This is a continuation of yeserday’s recap post. Tytla was a genius and this scene is proof. Originally in five parts, here are the final three.
Nancy Beiman brought to my attention that T.Hee did some live action reference for Tytla as Stromboli. Here are some stills I located:
T. Hee as Stromboli in reference footage.
- This is part 3 of this large scene by Bill Tytla of Stromboli. The scene started in Part 1 with thoroughly frenetic anger from Stromboli. In Part 2 he tries to catch himself and get a grip on his emotions. Here in Part 3 he moves slowly and takes a 180° turn from where he started. The line against the curve. All this while playing out the lines from the scene. The drawing is stunning, the motion is brilliant, and the acting is the best animation has to offer. Those hands are just great; look at 126.
I pick up with the last drawing from Part 2.
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Tytla made sure he firmly planted Stromboli’s feet (in part 2)
before he attempted this firm bow.
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He’s made a solid line of the back, the strength of this move,
by using the left arm held firmly in place.
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This is the bottom of the bow, now he goes back up.
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All of the shapes change naturally in the bow, though it looks
as if it remains a solid. No noticeable change. Solid weight.
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Watch the timing on the hand from here to #128
as Stromboli blows a kiss.
Many an animator today would pop it and call it animation.
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Here’s the final QT of it all together:
Stromboli Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.
David Nethery had taken my drawings posted and synched them up to the sound track here.
As stated last week, I’m recapping some of my Tytla posts from the past. This very long scene was originally in five parts. Today and tomorrow all five parts will be posted.
- Bill Tytla‘s work has to be studied and studied and studied for any student of animation. He was the best, and it’s pretty doubtful his work will be superceded. He brought beautiful distortion to many of the drawings he did, using it as a way to hammer home some of the emotions in the elasticity he was creating. Yet, the casual observer watching this sequence in motion doesn’t ever notice that distortion yet can feel it in the strength of the motion.
Stromboli offers everything for that study. I have some old copies of a scene too large (a couple hundred drawings) to post in one shot.
Four drawings (#1, 11, 22, & 48) that shift so enormously but call no attention to itself.
Brilliant draftsmanship and use of the forms.
Here we have the beginning: drawings 1-48. More will come in the future.
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This note arrived from Borge Ring after my first post Bill Tytla’s scene featuring Stromboli’s mood swing:
The Arch devotees of Milt Kahl have tearfull misgivings about Wladimir Tytla’s magnificent language of distortions. ‘”Yes, he IS good. But he has made SO many ugly drawings”
Musicologists will know that Beethoven abhorred the music of Johan Sebastian Bach.
yukyuk
Børge
My first post spoke a bit about the distortion Tytla would use to his advantage to get an emotional gesture across. It’s part of the “animating forces instead of forms†method that Tytla used. This is found in Stromboli’s face in the first post. In this one look for this arm in drawing #50. It barely registers but gives strength to the arm move before it as his blouse follows through in extreme.
There’s also some beautiful and simple drawing throughout this piece. Stromboli is, basically, a cartoon character that caricatures reality beautifully. A predecessor to Cruella de Vil. In drawings 76 to 80 there’s a simple turn of the hand that is nicely done by some assistant. A little thing among so much bravura animation.
Many people don’t like the exaggerated motion of Stromboli. However, I think it’s perfectly right for the character. He’s Italian – prone to big movements. He’s a performer who, like many actors in real life, goes for the big gesture. In short his character is all there – garlic breath and all. It’s not cliched and it’s well felt and thought out. Think of the Devil in “Night on Bald Mountain” that would follow, then the simply wonderful and understated Dumbo who would follow that. Tytla was a versatile master.
Here’s part 2 of the scene:
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The full scene with all drawings. Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.
David Nethery had taken my drawings posted and synched them up to the sound track here.
- We’re taking a step back before we go forward. Last week I posted the April 12th, 1937 edition of the Action Analysis notes from the Disney studio’s after hours class. I had to skip the April 5th notes because all I really had was the cover page. The actual notes weren’t included. Mike Barrier to the rescue. He sent me the correct notes for April 5th, and I’m now able to post them here.
Don Graham conducts the session which includes some footage from “Bum Voyage” starring Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly. This is a 1934 feature from MGM and Hal Roach Studio. A madcap sequence which shows Thelma being chased by Patsy in a Gorilla outfit. Unfortunately, Netflix doesn’t seem to have this film, nor has TCM issued a dvd, as yet.
Mark Sonntag directed me to this great still
from “Bum Voyage” for sale on ebay.
Those who participate in the lecture include: Izzy Klein, Bernie Wolf, Joe Magro, Roy Williams, Eddie Strickland, Stan Quackenbush, Jacques Roberts, Chuck Couch and Jack Hannah.
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