Klondike Bob

My first trip to Alaska in 1991 included a stop in Skagway where I had to get the obligatory tourist photo of me as a gambler or some such legendary cliche.

Disney Comics Core Group 1989

October 27, 1989.

Someone had the idea to snap this photo soon after the team had been selected to put together the Disney Comics line after the company decided to publish the comics itself. We all squeezed into an office and someone grabbed the shot for posterity.

In front, squatting: My old pal- Michael Lynton, Executive Editor.

Standing behind him, left to right: My old pal Len Wein, Editor-in-Chief/Comics; Sally Prendergast, Marketing Manager; Randy Achee, Publisher; Bob Foster, Managing Editor, Editor, Disney Comics; My old pal David Seidman, Editor, Disney Comics. Len is holding two Gladstone comics, Sally is holding a Gladstone Album in her right hand and in her left hand is one of a handful of mock-ups (ashcans) of Disney Digest, which is what the publication originally was to be called. Soon after, Michael thought Disney Adventures would be a stronger title, and that's what it became. Disney Adventures ran for 17 years and has now ceased publication. Randy is holding a Gladstone comic and what appears to be a European digest, perhaps from Italy. I'm holding a Gladstone Donald Duck Adventures and David is holding a copy of Italy's Topolino.

Michael became President of Disney Publishing soon after this and in 1994 headed up Disney's Hollywood Pictures. From there he went on to become Chairman of Penguin Books in New York, then left to become President of America Online International and now is CEO of Sony Pictures.

Where was that WITH MY OLD PAL SIGN when I really needed it?

Berkeley Con Vol. 1 #1, April 1973

Just in time for Comic Convention season I found these in a box in storage yesterday. This is at the first Berkeley Con April 20, 21, 22, 1973. Lots of Underground cartoonists there, but I didn't get shots of most of them. Still, it's fun to see what some of us used to look like back in the day.

Left to right, top row: Bob Sidebottom, Milt Gray, Jim Vadeboncoeur, Bob Beerbohm, Tom Knowles.
Middle row: Bud Plant, Glen Bray, Terry Stroud and Dave Alexander, Fred Patten, Bruce Hamilton.
Bottom row: Richard Kyle, Bill Stout, Dave Gibbons, my old pal Mike Royer.

Resurrection of Doom - Part 3

I couldn't squeeze a "Rosebud" reference into this but the inspiration for Von Rotten Manor was the opening sequence from Citizen Kane.

The idea of an old Multiplane camera substituting for the operating table that rises into the dark and stormy night in Frankenstein was just too good to throw away. I had to use it here. I'd never have a chance like this again. The Racketa, Racketa, Racketa is a very subtle homage to the sound effects lettering in Harvey Kurtzman's Two Fisted Tales story entitled Hill 203, illustrated by Jack Davis.

Okay, now we're getting into some Don Martin sound effects. But can't you just hear the low, electric hum of the WOOJIE, WOOJIE, WOOJIE? I know I can.

And so, Doom is back and mayhem ensues. That's enough of that for now. Gotta move on to other stuff.

And finally - This material is presented here for historical and educational purposes. All material is Copyright Walt Disney and Amblin Entertainment, Inc, All rights reserved. Originally published by Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc., in 1989.

Resurrection of Doom - Part 2

Ron Dias did a beautiful background painting for this cover, then added the characters on an acetate cell which he inked and painted and positioned on top of the background. This is a wrap-around cover with the background scenery wrapping around to the back of the magazine. Elegant!

I sure admire how Dan Spiegle can interpret my sloppy roughs and come up with something so good.

We all know real character model sheets don't look like that, but most readers wouldn't notice. Looks like Disney pegs on that model sheet in panel 1.

Todd Kurosawa and Bill Langley jump back in with great, whacky toon stuff and an incredible ink-and-paint lady. Scholars and historians will catch the reference to Aurel Thompson's Ink and Paint Service in panel 7.

Next: Homage to Citizen Kane and Frankenstein.

Oh, and remember - This material is presented here for historical and educational purposes only. All material is Copyright Walt Disney and Amblin Entertainment, Inc, All rights reserved. Originally published by Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc., in 1989.

The Resurrection of Doom - Part 1

Okay, fans and scholars, here's an interesting morsel I just found in my files. It's the graphic novel sequel to the story in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? In the movie, Roger's nemesis was an evil toon named Doom, who dies in the end. After the success of the movie and its graphic novel adaptation, I felt there was a need for a follow-up. I pitched my idea for The Resurrection of Doom, and was given the go ahead to do it. I wrote the story, and did the breakdowns and layouts. Final art was done by Dan Spiegle (Illustrative style), pencils by Todd Kurosawa (Toon art) and inked by William Langley (Toon art). Lettering by Carrie Spiegle, coloring by Jo Meigniot.

On the left is my original script/breakdown/layout. On the right, the final, printed page. This is how I write comics. I'm not a big advocate of scripts from a typewriter or computer printer. I know most writers work that way, but I just can't see doing it any other way than with sketches like this.

The artists who worked on this were the perfect choice for the team collaboration. Dan Spiegle is one of the best illustrative story artists in the world and he's been doing it for 50+ years. Todd Kurosawa draws beautifully and his animation style is just right. Bill Langley draws extremely well and has one of the most elegant ink lines I've ever seen. Dan's daughter, Carrie Spiegle, is a terrific letterer and Jo Meugniot is a superb colorist. All of these people played key roles in the early days of Disney Comics (1990 - 93).

I'd forgotten that certain things were changed for legal reasons, and I think they were sound decisions. As funny as some of the characters depicted might be to fans with a knowledge of Disney characters, the generic alternatives work just as well. For example, the photo of Walt Disney's original studio in Kansas City was changed to a photo of my father standing next a friend's new car, back in the 20s. Even the narration was changed to fit the new image. The new character names are just as funny.

Much as I like the idea that Doom was a character actor who played various Disney character roles, the switch to non-Disney characters was maybe funnier. (Although, the idea of Doom running around town in his Queen of Hearts costume long after Alice in Wonderland was done makes me chuckle. Sort of a Sunset Boulevard thing.)

I'll post more pages next time, along with the cover, featuring great art by Ron Dias. Until then...

This material is presented here for historical and educational purposes. All material is Copyright Walt Disney and Amblin Entertainment, Inc, All rights reserved. Originally published by Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc., in 1989.

Grandpa at Grand Coulee Dam

I've become the archivist for the family's old photographs, which is fine with me. I love old photographs. Especially those with a good story attached. Or some historical significance.

A couple of years ago I finally visited Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State. If you go to the archives for this blog, go back to November 24, 2006 to see the pictures I took of that trip.

During the Depression my Grandfather left his wife and kids in Eastern Canada and rode the rails west to Vancouver to find a job. He sneaked across the border and stayed in Seattle briefly then headed east to Grand Coulee, Washington, where he found work as a cook for construction workers who had come from everywhere in the country looking for a job on the dam. The rule for getting work on the dam was you had to be an experienced construction worker and you had to be citizen of The United States. A lot of workers falsified their applications and listed their names as "Smith." In this photo from 1933, he's the one in the middle standing next to the pole.

It's not a crisp photo to begin with and it only measures 3" x 5", but between a good scanner and a good computer, you can get something pretty cool. Maybe these guys were all cooks, returning from a day of fishing. Notice that slope-shouldered working man stance?

Here he is in Memphis, Tennessee in 1951 where he lived with one of his daughters (I blew up the image and read the date on the license plate). I didn't know it snowed in Memphis. He still had that slope-shouldered working man stance that he wore like an old suit. He was born in 1882, worked hard all his life and died in 1955 at the age of 73. And he worked on the Grand Coulee Dam!

With My Old Pal Jean Giraud

If you're at all interested in unique photographic portraits of cartoonists, there's a great book available called The Artist Within by Greg Preston. Greg has an eye for capturing the unpretentious essence of many famous cartoonists around the world in a series of riveting black and white photographs often taken in their studios. Others show the artists in places away from their studios, and even then Greg manages to use those settings to tell us something about the artist. In my opinion, one of the best in the book shows Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, standing on the beach in Santa Monica, California with his back to the ocean, facing the beach. It's a wonderful portrait of Giraud, a gentle man and an amazing artist. The fact that Greg depicted him not facing the ocean, as might be typical in a snapshot or travel image, makes for an interesting, maybe even introspective portrait. Greg began taking photos of cartoonist more than fifteen years ago and many of those included in the 216-page book have since passed away. This book was published in 2007 and I understand a second volume is due out sometime this year. Great stuff!

Eat your heart out, Greg Preston! Is this a great photograph or what?
I first met Jean Giraud in 1981 when he was at Disney Studios in Burbank, California, working on Tron. When I heard that he was on the lot I made a point of meeting him. We had lunch a few times and got along wonderfully. His English was far better than my French but we managed to communicate quite well. This photograph was taken ten years later at the San Diego Comic Con. He remembered me and by then I had the stupid WITH MY OLD PAL sign which brought a smile to his face.

Perfect

I posted this last night and thought the title said it all. But in case some of you were wondering if there's a backstory to this, there isn't. It's a post card I bought off of Ebay last year and was so struck by the elegance of the image, the shape of the head and hat, the subtle hand tinting, the beauty of the girl's face, that I had to bid on it. I cleaned it up a little in Photoshop, eliminating all the blotches and scratches on the surface. I did a little research after the posting and dated it to somewhere around 1917 - 1923, according to the stamp on the back. I'd guess the girl is about 20, give or take, which means she'd be at least 100 years old today. The signature on the back looks like Kater. That's about all I can tell you about her.

Humboldt Trail

After a few years of pastel paintings I finally switched over to oils. I took a few seminars, went to a lot of gallery shows, absorbed a lot of fine art, joined the California Art Club, and began to sell paintings. The learning curve was very steep and I had a lot of fun painting on canvas with brushes and gooby swaths of wet paint. I felt like an artist again. And I got work in animation again.

This was a location somewhere in Northern California, near the Redwoods. I have a habit of exploring roads that aren't on maps, then looking at a map later to see where I'd been. This was done in October 2001 and measures 30" x 15". I'm happy to say it's in a private collection.

Painting on locations like this is very invigorating and energizing. I recommend it to anyone who wants to paint.

Topanga Hillside Pastel

I lived in Denmark for two years, 1993 - 1994, and when I returned to Los Angeles in 1995 I couldn't find work in animation for a year. In the two years I'd been gone from the States I'd lost all studio contacts and pretty much had to start over again. In all fairness, when I moved to Europe I had no intention of coming back, but things didn't work out and I did. That's another story. Meanwhile, I wondered where I'd gone wrong and what had steered me into the art and animation field in the first place. I decided to take a look at myself as an artist and at what inspired me in art school. I took a pastel painting class at Santa Monica College and rediscovered pastels.

One of the first places I went out painting with some friends was in Topanga Canyon. One of those friends, whom I will talk about more in the future, kept bugging me to try oil paints. As much as I love pastels, once I tried oils it was hard to go back. This painting was done with Schmincke soft pastels on sanded paper. I think it was about 12" x 16".

Adventures of Crusader Sneak and Raggs Maggee

November 1954. This is the first comic book I ever did. I had just turned 11. I'm not saying that what I do today is any better than this stuff, but I do wonder how anyone who started off like this wound up working for Disney. There's hope for everyone.




The obvious influence here was Crusader Rabbit and Rags the Tiger although it's hard to see. Most of my stuff looked like this up until, oh, about a year ago.










Another gripping yarn in the tradition of Jack London.

Look-alikes

A couple of years ago I was rummaging through some old photos at the Rose Bowl Swap Meet when I found this. My head jerked back in reaction to this image of myself from about 100 years ago, maybe more. I looked even more like him before I started wearing glasses. Creepy but cool, eh?

See? Same beady little eyes, chubby cheeks, pathetic beard. All it needs is a sign that says WITH MY OLD PAL...

Wow! This looks more like me than anyone I ever met.

My friend Ron found this and had the same reaction I did. Another eerie resemblance. As far as I know, neither of these men are related to me, but they sure could be. I have no idea who they are.

Same beady eyes, etc. Oh, well. Just an amusing little blog-filler.

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

In 1992 my old pal Don Rosa was preparing a special edition of his Scrooge McDuck stories under the title The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. This edition was destined for European publishers, in this case as shown below, Norway and Finland. Since I was the Managing Editor of Disney Comics, and Editor of the comic book Uncle Scrooge Adventures, I guess someone thought I needed to rough out the cover for this book.

This is my rough, dated March 28, 1992.
This is Don Rosa's finished art done shortly after that.


Here's the final printed cover as it appeared in Norway.


And this is the final printed cover as it appeared in Finland.

This material is shown here for informational and educational purposes for fans, historians and students of comic art. All material is Copyright 1992 The Walt Disney Company.

Kids' Art

Kids do great art but by the time they turn 6 or so they begin to lose it, becoming more focused on making the image more precise, paying attention to the tools and making the images more recognizable to parents, relatives and friends so they'll all recognize what you've drawn and heap praise on you by doing so. So to get the reward, the pure childish pleasure of mushing paint and crayons around on paper gives way to identifiable objects and critters. At this point the child could develop either as a fine artist or a cartoonist, depending on the reward motivation. Both possibilities exist. The drawings shown here are right at that point where the child who wants to be an artist could go in either direction.

I love this drawing. See the door in the rainbow teepee? Great! And the setting sun, setting on this side of the mountain, burning a hole in the fence on the hill. And the Indians on the left and right... I can't imagine what's growing out of their chests.

Now here's a scary family, dressed in hand-me-down recycled crazy quilts purchased from an old clown outfitters store in Florida.

Here's the albino Barone family just back from their first trip to the beach. Left to right: Susan Barone, her sister Cheryl, their father Ed, who seems be pretty excited, his third daughter Eileen, and her mother Sarah, whose left leg is six inches shorter than her right and loves her new Mickey Mouse shoes.

The Molina Hawaiian Mariachi Family Band poses with their new plaid outfits as the All Pan American Riding Academy participates in a Civil War reenactment behind them.

Donut and pickle vendors dancing at the Annual DPV Association Picnic in San Francisco.