Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- MP Local 841, the NY Cartoonist’s Guild (when it was operational) printed their newsletter – Top Cel. This was the issue for Christmas 1944, 6 months before the end of WW II. The names of all those animation union members in the military show up in Santa’s Beard.

Since Christmas is a week away, and troops are “over there” (thanks to our scurrilous administration), I thought this would be appropriate.

Thinking about it, I wondered if any animation artists, other than Willard Bowsky, were killed in the War. I have some research to do.

In today’s Wall Street Journal John Canemaker has a piece about Joe Barbera.

– Sue Coe is one of those artists whose work I am drawn to. She has illustrated a number of books. Her political views are overtly stated in pointed observations. She follows in the footsteps of Daumier, Nast and Shahn. Her work isn’t delicate.

This book, Bully, was published in 2004. It features art that was part of an exhibit in New York at the Gallerie St. Etienne during the Republican Convention. With co-author, Judith Brody, Coe takes aim at the choices made by Bush and his agenda.

She actively takes inspiration from Hogarth, Daumier and Kathe Kollowitz. These sources can be felt in her work which breathes with a visceral passion.

Of course, this material doesn’t appeal to all people, but it certainly reaches me.
(Click on any image to enlarge.)

Some of the book’s illustrations follow:

BULLY – The cover of the book, both front and back.

Dodging the corporape bullet.

The Children’s Corner.

Denial

Gate Crash Clinic

Final Stages

- Yesterday I mentioned that I was a fan of Ralph Steadman’s work. The man is not only a brilliant artist/illustrator but is an excellent writer as well.

I have a collection of his books (both for adults and children) and treasure them all.

Imagine my delight, when I came upon this book and found that Steadman had autographed it on the inside cover with an elaborate illustration.
Now that’s a treasure!
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(Click any image to enlarge.)

All except for the color image was drawn with a crow quill and black india ink. The ink splotches spilled over to the back cover, which can be seen by clicking the self portrait.

The New York press has printed a number of obituaries for Joe Barbera, who died yesterday. I thought I’d post links to some of them in case you’d like to read about him.

The NY Times, of course, is the longest. Go here.

Newsday has a story here and an obit here.

The NY Daily News has their story here.

The NY Post just ran the AP (Newsday) story.

– The Hunting of the Snark, by Lewis Carroll, is one of my favorite poems. It is also, among the films I’ve made, one of my favorites.

Two of my favorite illustrators, Ralph Steadman and Quentin Blake, have both illustrated versions of the Carroll poem.

I didn’t know either of these books when I made the film, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t familiar with each other’s adaptations of the poem.
Yet, it’s interesting how similarly some of the illustrated settings are given only Carroll’s poem.

I thought it might be entertaining to post some of the illustrations from the two books, both in B&W, along with some frame grabs of the similar sequences from my film.

The cover of Steadman’s book is to the left.
(Click on any image to enlarge.)

The original book was illustrated by Henry Holiday.

I was never particularly fond of his images and found little inspiration, there, in adapting the poem to film.
He was an English Pre-Raphaelite artist who didn’t seem to do more than illustrate the poem, despite the fact that he supposedly delighted in the project.

I don’t think Carroll found an equal to Tenniel in Holiday.

For those who would like to read the poem, in its entirety, you can find it here.

Quentin Blake’s title page.

The opening sequence to my film.

The Butcher and Beaver meet.

Blake’s landing of the crew.

Steadman’s landing.

Chasms and crags.

Blake’s hunting.

“They walked along shoulder to shoulder.”

Steadman’s Butcher & Beaver “walk along side by side.”

It was a “Boojum,” you see.

Blake’s Vanishing

Steadman’s Vanishing

The End

– All around New York, Christmas is starting to show up. Streets and parks are glowing at night with lights and stars and declarations of Welcome.

I assume the same is true of the rest of the world as everyone triumphs their celebrations of the holiday. So I thought I’d post a couple of decorations in my sightlines as I start to get in the “Christmas mood.”

Decorations were absent for quite a few years when governments decided they couldn’t foot the cost of them, and there was a large pull back. I’m not talking about restaurants and stores or private establishments. The windows have continued to animate and the garland covered Macy’s and shoe stores and diners. I’m talking about public displays of decoration. What eventually changed on the streets was that individual groups started covering the cost.

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(Click on any image to enlarge.)

1. A week before Thanksgiving, visiting my mother, I noticed that Woodlawn, her neighborhood in the Bronx, already had some decorations on display.
2. The decorations got a bit more elaborate by Thanksgiving Day. These costs are covered by the “Woodlawn Taxpayer Assn. This is the same group that concerns itself with the local fire department and sewage systems.

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3. The first time I noticed the trees in Madison Square Park, four of the six little trees were knocked on their sides. It was early morning, and the very windy night had done its damage. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera that day, but I did by the next.
4. The same tree at night. No lights on lit, except for a star at the top (a yellow extension cord leading to it – seen on the ground in #3). The balls look like styrofoam. A week later these balls were also lit up.

In the park at Union Square, where a Farmer’s Market usually dominates, they’ve set up a small city of temporary kiosks to house all the craft vendors who sell their wares there.
It’s become so regular a site in the Christmas of the City that it actually feels more like a holiday when these structures are set up. However, if you’re in a rush, it’s hard to navigate the four blocks of window shoppers, buyers, tourists and those just soaking up the holiday atmosphere.
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5. In Greewich Village, 8th Street got its decorations the week after Thanksgiving. It took a couple of days before they were all up as . . .
6. . . . brilliant at night

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7. Christmas isn’t very brilliant during the day on Bleecker Street, though tourists dominate.
8. At night the street in Greenwich Village sparkles (though I could have used a steadicam when I shot this.) The sign reads,”Welcome to Greenwich Village.” What more cheerful Christmas greeting can you find.

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9. Of course, no Christmas display would be appropriate without the obligatory Nativity scene. St Anthony of Padua church, three blocks from my studio, has an enormous display. Life sized statues grace the manger which takes up half a city block. On weekends it’s hard to see it with all the street sellers blocking the view (a couple can be seen here.)
10. Last year I noticed that the creche was empty and wondered if some prankster had stolen the infant Jesus. Heidi informed me that they never put the child into the crib until he is born on Christmas day. Interesting that as a lapsed Catholic I had never learned this; a flaw in my religious education.

- This was the Richard Williams Christmas card for 1977.

- Harold Whitaker‘s “Timing For Animation.” is an animation book which I like very much, yet it has, I think, gotten short shrift in most animation circles.

The book can still be located on line, and I urge you to go for it. It reads like a hard covered Preston Blair primer, yet the information in it is much more detailed than Blair’s and doesn’t attempt lessons in how to draw. The focus stays solidly on how to animate.

The information is clear and concise with illustrations from HB films that Whitaker animated.
(Click on images to enlarge.)

Whitaker was the key animator at the Halas and Batchelor studio. His work has a looseness to it that stands out from most of the animation in the H&B product. He seems to have started animating during the production of Animal Farm and continued working right up through 1988.

Page by page the book offers what seems like a series of valuable lesson plans for would-be animators. There’s so much in the book, but it’s done in a deceptively simple manner, so it seems as if it’s not quite as thorough as it is.

Here, I’d like to post a couple of pages to give a sample of it for you.

The book is called Timing For Animation for a reason. Timing is the essence of animation, and the book focusses on this topic. There are plenty of examples of production charts, exposure sheets and spacing charts.

There are the usual definitions of “Anticipation” and “Follow-thru.” But there’s also examples of “Timing to suggest Weight and Force;” and a breakdown of how to use “Timing Cycles” and the “Timing of a Walk.”

I like the book and have used it for my classes, when I did teach. I also usually recommend the book when I lecture about animation. If you’re not familiar with it, try to check it out.

– There was an interesting bit in the Page Six gossip column of Tuesday’s NY Post. It’s about how close was the vote among the NY Film Critics for Happy Feet beating A Scanner Darkly.
The article is short enough for me to quote in its entirety:
FATEFUL FUNCTION – THE producers of “Happy Feet” have Andrew Sarris’ bladder to thank for their movie winning the New York Film Critics Circle’s prize for Best Animated Feature. Sarris, of the New York Observer, was in the men’s room during the vote yesterday that gave the prize to the penguin musical, narrowly defeating Richard Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly.” Back from the toilet, Sarris said he meant to pick “Scanner,” thus making it the winner – but his choice was discounted because the result had already been announced.

Something tells me the Oscar vote won’t be as close. Animators resist calling Linklater/Sabiston’s work animation, but they’re ready to accept the reincarnation of Savion Glover as a penguin.

– The Tribeca Arts Center is featuring a symposium on Contemporary Comics and Graphic Novels. It will host artists Dan Goldman (with Anthony Lappé), Marisa Acocella Marchetto and James Romberger. The program will be moderated by Calvin Reid of Publisher’s Weekly.

Thursday, December 14, 2006 @ 7pm
$5 All Tickets

To purchase tickets: Call the Box Office at 212-220-1460 (Tues-Sat, 12-6pm) or in person at the event at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at BMCC, 199 Chambers St. NYC (btwn. Greenwich and West St.)

- Debra Solomon is adamant that I should learn how to do Flash, and of course she’s right. So I’ll be taking some classes in doing it right. This is the first time I’ll have taken some formal instruction in a computer program; it’ll be interesting to see how it develops.

After so defiantly espousing annoyance at all the less than mediocre Flash animation out there, I’ll see what I’m able to do.

In the past, I’d taken the Flash trial offer and did two one minute pieces. I let the month pass and only years later have I had the program installed within my studio, but I had no real interest in playing with it anymore. It just didn’t offer – to me – opportunities for good character animation. However, I did those tests so long ago that that I certainly should give the program another try.

There have been some recent interesting comments on my site about Flash, given my not-very-positive comments. I think most people just ignore my obdurate attitude and move on.

It all comes down to one thing: Flash is a tool – a pencil, if you will. I want to see a piece of character animation done using that pencil. I won’t be convinced until I see it, though I’m willing to watch. Just don’t point me to those pop, pop, pop Cartoon Network clones. I want to see something animate.

The best is always just good design with limited movements, the worst is the worst animation has to offer – not even up to the speed of the Aesop Fables of Terry/Moser.

- Attached are three drawings of the Esso Tiger (Exxon was called Esso, once upon a time) drawn by Armin Schafer, who animated the spot.

There was a discussion on Mark Mayerson’s blog about Schafer. He’s listed on Alberto Beccatini‘s site, as an animator on Disney’s The Country Cousin (1936), but there was some difficulty locating him, otherwise.

The comments page on Mark Mayerson‘s site reveals quite a bit of speculation about Armin Schafer‘s career, the spelling of his name, and even whether he exists. Finally, Tim Cohea aka Sogturtle answered the question:

. . .he was an assistant animator from AT LEAST Jan. 1938 until he was canned in Fall 1941. As such the REASON why we don’t see his name turning up as animator except on a couple of shorts (including this one) is because he was just an assistant… But that Riley graciously gave him some actual scenes to animate in “Mickey’s Birthday Party”, shortly before Shafer was fired. Armin shows as never being employed at Walt’s after that, which is why he’s not in the 1946 studio phone directory. Later on he turned up at John Sutherland’s as a full animator.

Armin Schafer, it turns out, was an animator for years working at Trans Film, then for Jack Zander at Pelican then Zander’s Animation Parlour. Described as “a big man” by Tissa David, he was very close with a number of NY animators. Tissa told me a story about him and Phil Eastman (P.D.Eastman, Tony Eastman‘s father.)

I’m sure he worked for a short time on Tubby The Tuba done at NYInstitute of Technology in the early 70′s. Johnny Gent (Gentilella) supervised the animation on that film – though he doesn’t get enough credit on it. However, Schafer’s name is not in the credits (nor are many of the people that worked on that bad movie.)

These are Schafer‘s Esso drawings.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

Anyone with more information on this animator, please feel free to comment.

Additional Note:
There’s an article in today’s NY Daily News about a new series for Nickelodeon co-created by Amy Poehler of Sat Nite Live fame. It seems Nick is generating some publicity about their new shows in production.

About Jack Zander.
It’s amazing how little there is on the internet about him, as well.
I came across an interview in a 2002 copy of the New York Times that I found interesting and thought I’d post here. I couldn’t link to the archives since most people probably don’t subscribe. This is a copy of it.

– 18 months ago, an artist had set himself up in front of Our Lady of Pompeii church, about a block away from my studio. He painted a rosetta image of Madonna and Child using some kind of chalks, I wondered how long the image would stay. Three days, maybe five?

When it didn’t fade away quickly, I assumed it must have been done with oil pastels. I still don’t really know but am curious. The church, at Bleecker and 6th Ave in Greenwich Villiage, is a landmark in the city, and a lot of people walk by and around it.

Now it’s a year and a half later, and the Madonna is fading slowly despite hundreds of people walking over it.

The aging actually seems to have improved it; I’m impressed with its endurance.

I also wondered who the artist was. He obviously copied what looked to me like a Caravaggio. It took him about three days of work to complete. Though I walked past him several times (the church is on the way to the subway from my studio) I never stopped to ask who he was.

This past week, for the first time, I noticed another street painting by the same man at 8th Street in Greenwich Village.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

1. This is a more ambitious painting, and includes quite a bit of detail. There’s Mary and Child, two angels and two saints.

2. I had difficulty photographing it; I tried early morning – when crowds would be fewer – but had an overbearing sun blocking out Mary’s face. It seemed to glow. Hence, I had to go in for this close-up of Mary and Child.

With this picture, the artist left his name and phone number. I found his site on the internet. Hani Shihada takes pride in what he does, and he should. He also decorates stores, restaurants et. al.

I’m just happy with the way he’s decorated my City.

Additional Note:
The NYTimes, today, has an article on Nickelodeon and it’s money machine – cartoons.