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TAG FOR “RIP”Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
January 18, 2012 11:31 am
This video offers a look at the memorial celebration for New York animation legend Vincent Cafarelli that took place on Friday, January 6. There are glimpses of Vinny from old home movies interspersed between the memorial clips. The lovely event was attended by a who’s who of the New York animation community. See if you can spot Vinny Bell, Candy Kugel, Howard Beckerman, Don Poynter, Tony Eastman, J. J. Sedelmaier, Jimmy Picker, David Levy, John Canemaker, Doug Crane, Michael Sporn, Larry Ruppel, Richard O’Connor, George Griffin, Debra Solomon and John Dilworth, among many others. 1 Comment » posted in Animators, Buzzco, RIP, Vincent Cafarelli 
September 21, 2011 5:27 am
Experimental filmmaker and abstract animator Jordan Belson passed away on September 6 at the age of 85. He created more than thirty films between the 1940s and 2000s, and contributed special effects to the 1983 feature The Right Stuff. More details about his life can be found on his official page at the Center for Visual Music and in this New York Times obit. Unfortunately, Belson explicitly stated that he didn’t want his films to be posted on-line so if you’re unfamiliar with his work, you’ll have to remain unfamiliar with his work. Film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon wrote this eloquent tribute about Belson on his blog recently:
[Image at top: From the film Allures. Copyright Jordan Belson, courtesy Center for Visual Music.] (Thanks, Sterling Sheehy) 6 Comments » posted in Animators, Experimental, Jordan Belson, RIP
September 20, 2011 2:17 am
Tom Wilson Sr., the creator of everyone’s favorite clumpy loser Ziggy, passed away last Friday, September 16, at the age of 80. I never knew much about Wilson until last year when I read the book Studio Cards. Wilson actually had a really interesting career in the Sixties and Seventies as the art director of the goofy Hi-Brows division of Cleveland’s American Greetings. Through his position, he helped encourage a lot of artists and writers including a young Robert Crumb. The most complete obituary about Wilson that I’ve read so far is this one in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I was surprised to see the article directly contradict Wilson’s own version of how he came up with the name Ziggy. It quotes one of Wilson’s former colleagues Tom McGreevey who says that Ziggy’s name was actually inspired by the barber of one of Wilson’s colleagues. Because of some research I’ve recently done, I feel that I can add a bit to the story. The unnamed colleague was John Gibbons, a prolific greeting card writer who Crumb once called “Cleveland’s funniest person,” and Gibbons did more than suggest Ziggy’s name. He was also the concept person for Wilson’s illustrated book When You’re Not Around, published by American Greetings in 1969 and featuring a proto-Ziggy before he even had a name. Gibbons felt enough ownership as co-creator that he even tried to sell a Ziggy newspaper strip before Wilson sold his in 1971, and he was the strip’s primary writer in the early years. With both Wilson and Gibbons now gone, the true genesis of Ziggy may be lost to history, but it’s safe to assume the strip eventually became Wilson’s baby, and as time passed, came to reflect his personal viewpoint more than anyone else’s. To bring this back around to animation, here’s the beginning of the delightful 1982 TV special Ziggy’s Gift which was directed by Richard Williams. 14 Comments » posted in Comics, John Gibbons, Richard Williams, RIP, Tom Wilson, Ziggy
September 19, 2011 8:00 am
That’s Earl Kress (above left) with me at the Van Eaton Galleries in May 2010. My friend, animation writer and Hanna-Barbera historian par excellence, Earl Kress passed away early this morning, succumbing to liver cancer. He had just turned 60 years old. Earl’s credits are so numerous – I don’t know where to begin. For theaters he worked on story for Disney’s The Fox and The Hound, and the great Looney Tunes short Little Go Beep. In comic books, Earl penned many stories for Hanna-Barbera as well as The Simpsons for Bongo Comics and Looney Tunes for DC. The list of his television credits is too large to recount here (check IMDB), but highlights include various episodes of Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Tom & Jerry Tales – not to mention a pilot I produced called Hornswiggle. He was also a devoted animation historian, and he produced several DVD and CD compilations that are indispensable: His Rhino Records’ Pic-a-nic Basket of Cartoon Classics and Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Sound FX are important preservations of these classic television soundtracks. His expertise made Warner Home Video’s Hanna Barbera DVDs as great as they could be: The Flintstones – Seasons 2, 4, 5 and 6, Top Cat – The Complete Series, Wacky Races, Huckleberry Hound – Volume 1, Yogi Bear – The Complete Series and Magilla Gorilla – The Complete Series. Without Earl, The Flintstones laser disc that John K. organized would not have been half as good. Earl also served as a Vice President of the Animation Guild and was a founding member of the Writers Guild Animation Caucus. But of course, Earl was more than a great writer and historian – he was a true friend and a great lunch buddy. He really helped me out on more than one occasion, eagerly sharing his knowledge and film collection when I needed help on several of my books regarding Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera. His work on Hornswiggle and several other projects we did together was top notch, and thoroughly professional. That’s what he was – a top professional and one of the good guys – make that one of the best guys – in the business. I’ll mourn his loss. This is a very sad day. He will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace, my friend. POST SCRIPT: Internet radio program Stu’s Show aired a tribute to Earl Kress on Monday with Mark Evanier and I sharing our memories. It is available to download at no cost for the next two weeks. Scroll down near the bottom of Stu’s main page to locate the link. 38 Comments » posted in TV, Earl Kress, RIP
September 17, 2011 5:00 pm
Animator/layout artist Kevyn Wallace passed away on September 14th, at 3am, succumbing to the injuries sustained after being hit by a drunk driver on August 9th, 2011. He was 48 years old. Kevyn was an accomplished Feature Animation Layout Artist having quietly spent much of his career at Disney (Tarzan, Mulan), Universal (Land Before Time series) and Film Roman (The Simpsons Movie). At the time of his death, he was working on his own documentary chronicling the history of African-American Artists in Animation and their invaluable contributions to the industry. We received this information from his family:
We also understand that donations to the LAC+USC Burn Center would be welcome in lieu of flowers. 22 Comments » posted in Animators, Kevyn Wallace, RIP
August 17, 2011 6:35 am
Del Connell, who was a veteran Disney animation artist, Western Publishing editor, and comic strip/book writer, passed away on August 12 at age 93. Connell started working at Disney in 1939. Among other accomplishments, he worked in Joe Grant’s Character Model department, served as a story artist on Alice in Wonderland, and wrote the shorts The Pelican and the Snipe and The Cold-Blooded Penguin. In the 1950s, he started a thirty-year run at Western Publishing where he wrote and edited thousands of Dell and Gold Key comics featuring cartoon characters from Disney, Warner Bros., Walter Lantz, Hanna-Barbera, and MGM. He remained especially close to the Disney characters: he wrote Donald Duck comics for decades, scripted the Mickey Mouse newspaper strip between 1968 and 1988, and invented Goofy’s alter-ego Super Goof. I never met Connell, but heard plenty of nice things about him from his colleague Pete Alvarado who worked with him at Western Publishing for many years. For more about Connell’s life and work, follow these links: Extensive chronology and memories of Del Connell by his grandson (story via Disney History blog; the Connell photo at the top of this post is taken from Mark Evanier’s remembrance post) 4 Comments » posted in Animators, Comics, Disney, Del Connell, RIP
August 15, 2011 12:05 am
Experimental animator Robert Breer has passed away. Breer was a fine art painter who became interested in creating films as art in the 1950s. In his early shorts he experimented with the form by creating films using distinctly different images photographed one frame at a time. He became one of the most important figures in the 60’s New York experimental scene. In his later years he taught at Cooper Union in New York and created films for PBS’ The Electric Company. His longest piece, an experiment using the rotoscope, Fuji (1974), was added to the National Film Registry in 2002. You can watch a nice selection of his shorts at UBUweb. Below is one of his most celebrated later films, Swiss Army Knife With Rats and Pigeons (1980): 5 Comments » posted in Animators, Experimental, RIP, Robert Breer
August 12, 2011 12:12 am
The outpouring of love and affection after Corny Cole’s passing has been tremendous. In the past three days, over one hundred artists have shared their appreciation for Corny’s friendship and teaching on our obituary post. Take a few minutes to read through the comments in that post. You may be touched, as I was, seeing the profound effect he had on the lives of so many artists. Dozens of former students have shared lessons they learned from him, such as these words from Scott Morse:
It’s not just younger artists expressing admiration either. Bob Inman first met Corny over fifty years ago:
Dan Haskett perhaps put it most succinctly:
Cole’s death has also spurred some wonderful tributes. Legendary director Bob Kurtz posted Corny’s animation reel: Also, historian Michael Barrier posted a fantastic interview that he conducted with Corny Cole in 1991. It’s packed with fresh insights about the early years of Corny’s animation career, and especially about working at Warner Bros. For example, I never knew Corny was Abe Levitow’s inspiration for the animation of Daffy Duck in Robin Hood Daffy. In the interview, Corny also offered the following thought about how he felt he differed from his boss Chuck Jones:
The image at the top of this post shows Corny (at far left) surfing at Malibu in the late-1950s. The photo is from Tom McBride’s website about vintage SoCal surfing. |
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