Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings to all and to all a safe holiday season with this 1963 annual Disney Studio Christmas card.

Mickey & Uncle Remus Sundays - Feb. 21 & Sept. 15, 1953

My Indiegogo Campaign Update

As you're probably are aware from this blog or Michael Sporn's Splog, or you've heard via David Lesjak's wonderful plug or been reading Michael Barrier's excellent article regarding crowd funding (feel free to head over to Michael's page and read my commentsregarding some issues he raised) that I am running a campaign to finish a crucial phase of preproduction on my short CG animated cartoon Bounty Hunter Bunny. 
If you are at all interested in seeing the project and even are considering contributing please click the image above. We have 43 days left and have just hit the $1170 mark.

Mickey & Uncle Remus Sunday - January 10, 1953

Something a little different from the usual Sundays, I recently bought some Uncle Remus pages as I'd never really seen any.

Happy 84th Mickey

What better way to celebrate Mickey's 84th birthday this week on November 18, than with this two page spead drawn by members of the National Cartoonists' Society in honor of Mickeys 20th birthday in 1948?

My INDIEGOGO campaign

One of the reasons I haven't posted as much as usual is I've been working on a new online funding campaign to raise funds for my short film/pilot between meeting storyboard deadlines.

It's finally up:

http://www.indiegogo.com/BOUNTY-HUNTER-BUNNY-1?a=19459

Feel free to look it up and watch the animatic. Be warned, it's rough and it's not very Disney, in fact it has more in common with Warner Bros. The timing is still a bit slow, the gags have been punched up for the final version, I hope you enjoy.

If anyone contributes, you have my gratitude.

The Lost Art of Heinrich Kley

I just received my copies of THE LOST ART OF HEINRICH KLEY volumes 1 & 2. These books are great both as reference for the artist and art/Disney historian. In fact there are a few paragraphs in volume 1 regarding Kley's influence on FANTASIA. Click on the link below if you're interested in buying:

http://www.picturethispress.com/the-lost-art-of-heinrich-kley-volumes-1-2/

Mickey Sunday - August 21 & 28, 1938

The August 28 page is the start of the Brave Little Tailor adaptation, I'll try to share those soon.

From the Disney Art Class - 1935

It's amazing what you find when you move house, I totally forgot about this document until I unpacked a box full of files from my filing cabinet after my wife and I moved house recently.

Snow White was well into development by this point and Walt's famous memo to Don Graham articulating his views on the development of animation was just over a month away. This takes you there to that exciting time when animation was on the verge of the next exciting jump in evolution.

It's a great read, very fitting to find it as I'm about to push forward in finishing my first independant short film. All the Disney shorts mentioned by Dr. Morkovin are available on DVD and I believe the film "Sleep" he mentions is actually Robert Benchley's "How To Sleep" which was released in 1935.

Dr. Morkovin is Dr. Boris Morkovin who was the chairman of the department of cinematography at USC(University of Southern California).He was recuited in May 1935 to subject the construction of a gag to the same kind of scrutiny Don Graham scrutinized action.

Walt - 1938

Personally, I've never seen this photo taken during work on Bambi, I've seen other photos from the same shoot but not this one.

Mickey Mouse Sunday - December 18, 1938?

Walt and the King of the Little People

I love this publicity photo of Walt for Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

Walt - 1966

Walt won many awards over the course of his life and career, some 960 to be exact. Like many of us Walt was an animal lover, his films particularly Bambi and the True-Life Adventures confirm that as does this photo, for anyone that needed proof.

In this photo, taken in 1966, Walt is awarded this Resolution from the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association in "gratitude and appreciation for his immeasurable contributions to the veterinary profession."

Mickey Mouse Sunday - March 8 & 22, 1936

I haven't posted any Mickey Sundays in a very long time. I have quite a few now, probably covering most of the 30s now. I never tire of looking at them. When I'm working on a storyboard and feel uninspired I look at them, the clarity of the drawing is exceptional. I don't mean that I use them to inspire my staging, I just get a kick out of looking at someone elses work and their skill at executing it in such a simple way.

Walt and Ward

One of the Disney/animation history book highlights of the this year will no doubt be Amid Amidi's Ward Kimball biography Full Steam Ahead!: The Life and Art of Ward Kimball I'm looking forward to it. Here's a photo I have in my files, the reverse reads:

Walt Disney and a member of his staff, Ward Kimball(left) confer with Willy Ley, science-factual author and space historian, in the "World of Tomorrow"unit of Disney's forthcoming television productions for ABC-TV. Ley has been technical advisor on the science-factual productions being readied for TV release this fall. 

South of the Boarder Sunday - July 25, 1943

I meant to post this 2 weeks ago but one of my beloved pet rabbits passed away suddenly. It through our lives in disarray, both my wife and I have been very upset. But starting to move again and look to the future.

South of the Boarder Sunday - July 4 & July 18, 1943

Last year I posted some more Jose Carioca strips, I didn't know much about them, who drew them and what have you. David Gerstein left the following comment, which in case you didn't get to read it sheds some light on these strips:

The examples you published were drawn by Bob Grant and Karl Karpé (the earlier page) and Paul Murry and Dick Moores (the later one).

The José Sunday strip succeeded the Silly Symphonies Sunday; it was later replaced by a Panchito strip, which was itself then replaced with Uncle Remus (so you can see how this worked in succession).


Only a couple isolated Sundays from the José series have been reprinted in modern US comics, but they're incredibly popular in Brazil, where local Disney cartoonists followed up on the Sundays' continuity and cast of characters when starting their own José series (which continues today).

The strips David refers to here were posted on July 29 and August 7, 2011. I find it fascinating that the strip continues in Brazil, I wonder if they would ever be collected in book form and translated.

South of the Boarder Sunday - May 2 & May 9, 1943

THE RIVETER - model sheet

Sorry to anyone who follows the blog, I've been very busy with work and preparing my short animated film. I'm still here with lot's to share.

I have a stack of vintage photostat and ozalid model sheets from Disney in the 30s and early 40s, here's one I particularly like. It's from the 1940 Donald short THE RIVETER. The drawings look like they are trimmed from original animator sketches.

Walt shows off NATO Award

October 17, 1966 (according to stamp on reverse) :

Walt Disney, producer and Sophia Loren, actress, got their heads together as they showed off trophies they received recently in New York from the National Association of Theater Owners. Disney was named Showman of the World and Miss Loren was named Actress of the Year.

Walt meets an ancestor? - 1951

From the reverse side:

Walt Disney pauses to examine one of the crypts in a small church in Ireland. Disney's forebearers originally came from Ireland, and during his trip to Europe in 1951 he made it a point to visit the farms, villages and churches of his great-grandfathers.

If you look closely at around where Walt's right hand is you'll make out the name Disney, at least it looks like it says Dsiney.

More OSWALD advertising

Happy New Year everyone, it occured to me yesterday that this year will mark the 85th anniversary of Oswald The Lucky Rabbit. Here are a couple of ads from the Universal Weekly, I find it odd that  a/ the artwork looks nothing like the character and b/ that the Disney artists weren't paid to do it.