Sam Henderson has uploaded a rare, heavily illustrated article about UPA on his Magic Whistle blog. The article, by Catherine Sullivan, appeared in the November 1955 issue of American Artist. The text is rather slim, but the images are from a variety of UPA works including commercials and industrials, as well as theatricals like The Jaywalker (pictured above). Worth a look.

I don’t post links to eBay items frequently, but I can’t resist pointing out this huge, stunning Fifties silkscreen mural by Boris Gorelick (1912-1984), who painted backgrounds at UPA, Warner Bros. and Format Films. Gorelick’s animation work consists exclusively of paintings based on the layouts of other artists, so it is a pleasant surprise to discover that he was such a facile draftsman and that he drew characters so beautifully. The design is busy but never cluttered, and his use of color is bold and imaginative. With so many contemporary artists creating mediocre gallery paintings using a “cartoon modern” style, it’s easy to forget how exciting and interesting a stylized cartoon painting can be. Gorelick had it down.

I’ve written about Gorelick before on the Cartoon Modern blog. He had a fascinating history. Born in Russia, his parents emigrated to the US when he was an infant. He was politically active throughout the 1930s, and hung out with artists like Arshile Gorky, Max Weber and Ben Shahn. In 1935, while creating art for the W.P.A., he made a lithograph of a circus scene that is much darker than the Fifties version, and shows his vastly different approach to drawing in his pre-animation years.

I checked with the eBay seller, and he said if the reserve isn’t met on the listing, the mural will be available for sale at Izzi Modern which is located in the Vintage Collective showroom in Long Beach, CA.

A couple years back, Montreal-based animator Malcolm Sutherland picked up a copy of my book Cartoon Modern at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. He wrote to tell me that, “A year or so later it inspired a short film as a present to my mom for Christmas, called Great Ambition.” The short is based on a vintage recording called “The Arizona Yodeler” performed by the DeZurik Sisters (aka the Cackle Sisters), and it’s a lovely example of how to capture the spirit of stylized Fifties animation using contemporary production tools:

Sutherland just completed a short called The Astronomer’s Dream, which is in a different style that is more lush and illustrative. A description of the film: “When a hungry astronomer falls asleep while working on a problem, he discovers a solution not in outer space, but in the surreal food-chain of his subconscious mind.” Viewers who enjoy the film below can purchase a DVD of ten of his animated shorts plus bonus materials, directly from his website.

Internet broadcaster Stu Shostak has an almost complete collection of TV Guide magazine. While waiting for his radio show to start (which I was a guest on yesterday; rebroadcasts of the program run everyday at 7pm EST/4pm PST) I browsed through several back issues and found a few items of interest for Cartoon Brew readers.

For example, this three page spread from the December 30th, 1961 issue, on the fine art of Format Films animators Jules Engel, Bob McIntosh, Joe Mugnaini and Herb Klynn. Engel, McIntosh and Klynn are well known animation veterans, Mugnaini is best known for his illustrations for Ray Bradbury novels. It’s great they received this sort of exposure in a national magazine at a time when the perception of animation as an adult artform was waning. (Click thumbnails below to enlarge)

Check out this self-produced mini-doc by writer Matt Zoller Seitz about Peanuts director Bill Melendez — covering his artistic roots, his directorial style, and his influence on the films of Wes Anderson. The juxtaposition of Melendez’s art between Hitchcock’s and Kubrick’s presents a fresh and exciting way of looking at animation in a filmic context. Bonus points to Matt who writes in the YouTube comments that he used my book Cartoon Modern as a resource when preparing this film.

The animation above aired on the 1962 ABC special “Stan Freberg Presents The Chun King Chow Mein Hour: Salute to the Chinese New Year.” It’s been rarely seen since then. It was directed by Roger Ramjet creator Fred Crippen, designed by Saul Bass, and the song is taken from Stan Freberg’s comedy album “Stan Freberg Presents The United States Of America.” Another important name involved with this piece was Bass Office designer Art Goodman, who Crippen remembers working with closely and who contributed significantly to the overall look of the piece.

Since Cartoon Modern was published a few years ago, the most frequently asked question I’ve received about the book is, “Where’s the DVD?” While I was working on Cartoon Modern, we considered including a DVD that showed the animated pieces discussed in the book, but practical issues of time and money prevented it from happening. Since then, I’ve spoken to a few people about producing a DVD and while nothing has come of those discussions, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that someday I’ll put together a curated collection of commericals, shorts and industrial films related to that period.

Until that happens, let me point out the next best thing: a “Cartoon Modern” playlist on YouTube created by an awesome user who goes by the name of criticalmetrics1. I have no idea who this person is, but I want to thank them for putting so much effort into creating this playlist. They’ve even gone so far as to organize the films by the contents of my book. There are a hundred items on the list but because of copyright takedowns, only ninety-three are currently available for viewing. Still, that’s enough stylized cartoon animation to keep anybody busy for a while. If you know of other Cartoon Modern-related YouTube links, feel free to add them to the comments below.

The Cartoon Modern playlist:

If you appreciate good design and color work, then you’ll want to add the new hardcover publication The Whimsical Work of David Weidman and Also Some Serious Ones to your bookshelf. While this career retrospective features mostly his silk-screened prints from the Sixties and Seventies, there is also a healthy sampling of Weidman’s animation artwork from studios like UPA, Storyboard and TV Spots (later Creston Studios). Some of his UPA art from 1955 is identified as being from the ’70s and the writing (what little of it there is) didn’t particularly impress, but the star of this show is the artwork and there is loads of nicely presented imagery throughout. To see some of David Weidman’s artwork online, visit WeidmansArt.com.