In a post last year it was remarked that Katrina’s devastation would be visiting us for years -decades- to come. On this first anniversary it’s all too evident that it’s true. Sure the Latin Quarter is a little bit back but the rest of New Orleans, and much of the Mississippi Coast is still in ruins.
I know we’re in cartoons and we like to block out a lot of the world. But please, donate something to help. Cartoons are a very American art form and this tragedy is one that Americans need to pay attention to, and to pay for in any way they can.
Give some money, buy some art or some music. Please try and do whatever you can.
Porky Pig as policeman — now, there’s a matter that demands further investigation! In today’s film, Officer Pig and his ever sneezing bloodhound, Eggbert, seem to be in charge of some sort of 1943 style Homeland Security activity (no yellow, orange or red alert here, gang — this is one of Warner Brothers’ last black and white cartoons.) And the operative word is ’silly.’ Porky wears a silly Keystone Kop suit, he chases a silly spy (Missing Lynx) who puts on silly disguises — we even have to sift through two minutes of silly signs in the beginning of the cartoon before we see any actual animation!
One of Warners’ unsung cartoon directors, Norm McCabe, piloted “Confusions of a Nutzy Spy” using lots of tricky angles and very stylized background art. Of course, one reliable thing about these wartime toons — you’re never far from a Hitler gag or a ‘V for Victory’ reference!
More arresting entertainment tomorrow — let us know what you think of Crazy Cop Week!
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A few of you have been asking why I’ve been MIA the last several months from my regular West Coast trips. Truth be told, I’ve been laid up with a spinal problem which finally looks like it’s been fixed with an operation and a long recuperation this summer. I’ll be showing up semi-regularly in my office soon, and should be back in Cali in the next month or two. And I’ll look forward to seeing a bunch of you up in Ottawa at the end of September. (Channel Frederator party! Thursday night, pass it on!) Thanks for all your kind words and thoughts.
We’ve hinted a tiny bit about the upcoming First Annual Channel Frederator Awards. Truth be told, we don’t know all that much about them ourselves, since we just came up with the idea when we were brainstorming about how to celebrate our first year’s birthday.
(SUBMIT your films now, or they won’t be eligible!)
But, as usual, we’ll try and keep you up to date on everything we thinking about them (what, when, who, where, why, how) as we make it up. So, check out this rockin’ poster comp by the famous Frank Rocco (famous to us, that is, for his amazing work on ChalkZone, The Fairly Oddparents, and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!).
I love cartoon pencil drawings, storyboards, and early, raw character designs. So, after writing about Amid Amidi’s Cartoon Modern on the ReFrederatorblog, I was taken by these model sheet designs in his book. ‘Little Guy’ and ‘Big Guy’ were desgined by little known (to me, at least) Sterling Sturtevant for a Chrysler car commercial. She worked at Disney, UPA, and Playhouse and had that neat-o 50s style that wormed it’s way into my consciousness when I was five years old.
Lots of you are fans of Tim Biskup, ‘lowbrow’ artist. But only a few of you are aware that Tim started in the animation business before he combined his prodigious talent with his entrepreneurial skill.
Here are a couple of postcards he did for Oh Yeah! Cartoons in the late 90s, when he not only was every creator’s background designer and painter of choice, but also created his own show, ‘Freddy Seymore’s Amazing Life’, featured in Channel Frederator’s Episode 23, last March.
So if you love cartoons, and anyone subscribing to ReFrederator does -almost by definition- then you know I’m a little late in telling you to run out and by Amid Amidi’s Cartoon Modern. Amid is one of cartoon-dom’s greatresources, and here he again shares his obsessions with us.
It’s got Amid’s trademark thorough research, his unwavering point of view, and not to be forgotten, thousands of unbelievable images (check out a lot of them on Amid’s dedicated blog).
Buy it if you haven’t already, enjoy it, and enjoy it again. Even if you just love cool 50s graphics this is one of the best books you could have in your library.
By summer 2003, the freelance work was drying up again so I decided to make another “viral” ( anyone else getting sick of this phrase?) cartoon. Since the NYC map was such a hit, I figured one that covered the entire country was sure to be an even more popular.
It took a couple weeks to make. 50 looping cartoons, some mild scripting, and a catchy soundtrack jingle. This time, my brother Ben decided to get in on the action and built a Cafepress store full of mugs and T-shirts for each state.
Well, it was a hit in the end. The highest profile attention it recieved was being shown on Tech TV’s (now G4 TV) “Unscrewed”. Host Martin Sargent played the cartoons for a live studio audience and there was genuine laughter. Did we sell any mugs or T-shirts? A few. Though a success, it didn’t reach the popularity of the NYC map. Perhaps, the jokes weren’t “inside” enough. Perhaps the banner ads and merchandise links turned people off. Or maybe by 2003, internet audiences just weren’t as excited about “viral” cartoons as they were two years prior.
Oh yeah, I guess now I can answer all those people who emailed me asking “What the hell is up with Rhode Island?” Well, it’s the space demon Cthulhu from the terrifying and awesome stories of Providence resident H.P. Lovecraft. I recommend everyone read that stuff.
Perhaps a Smart-Ass Guide to Europe for 2007? -DAN METH
Crazy Cop Week here at ReFrederator! Our initial offering is a 1939 Max Fleischer film, “Fresh Vegetable Mystery”, one of those great inanimate-objects-anthropomorphized-into-a-whole-cartoon-community deals. The Irish potato police force figure into things as the nominal heroes in this tale of crime in the produce department. Unfortunately, towards the climax, these night stick twirling tubers use some pretty scary interrogation techniques — I mean, they actually try to fry up one of the suspects (an ultimately innocent suspect I might add!)
Look fast — there is one nicely animated, but very quick ‘potato eyes’ sight gag early in the proceedings.
We have more constable cartoons on the way, so check in tomorrow!
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