Heather

Came across this pencil drawing of Heather, a friend’s daughter, while going through my ‘catch-all’ drawer. It was in the 80’s when I drew it. Now she’s a young woman. I have no idea where my friend or Heather is today.

Sentimental Journey…

Going through a book of mine for reference I glanced at the autograph at the front and recalled the great opportunity of meeting this legend of Animation. It suddenly dawned on me that I’ve been blessed to have met three of Disney’s Nine Old Men: Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, and Ward Kimball, all in good health and productively vibrant. Here are others I’ve met and am glad I shamelessly asked for autographs: Chuck Jones, Ray Harryhausen, and one I treasure for the brief time I spent with him, a fellow fan of Laurel and Hardy, Joe Ranft. Thanks guys, for inspiring us all.

So Long August...

Thought I would post something before the month ended. This is from the series I’ve been working on. You can definitely tell I’m a child of the sixties.

Tom Oreb

One of my many heroes: Tom Oreb. If you don’t know this guys work, get a copy of Disney’s “Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom” for starters. Then, “Sleeping Beauty”, then “101 Dalmatians, and then anything else he ever did.

Cartoon Inspiration

I've no way of proving it but I’m pretty sure Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908) inspired cartoon directors to put in motion a lot of visual gags he had worked out years before in print. The posting I’m showing isn’t very good, you may want to click on the image to enlarge it, but you can clearly see gags that are now considered cliché. There is the steamroller gag where a character is pan caked into a silhouette, an eye pop ‘take’, multiple limbs and digits, enlarged body parts and a morph into one large eye to show surprise. Busch is already recognized as the inspiration for the comic strip “The Katzenjammer Kids” but I suspect he inspired the Avery’s and the Clampetts as well.