Daily post 10 Jul 2009 07:56 am
Wild things
There are a couple of pieces worth checking on line, if you haven’t already seen them.
- Ward Jenkins has an extraordinary 2 part interview with Jon Graboff the son of illustrator/designer Abe Graboff.
Ward, who has obviously taken a lot of inspiration from Abe Graboff and his many children’s books, asks insightful questions and posts lots of material to give you a good overall view of the masterful work. Everything from samples of the many books to the opening titles to The Danny Kaye Show. Ward makes a strong case for this work and helps to keep it alive.
- Ward Jenkins, on his blog, also introduced me to a wonderful site, Terrible Yellow Eyes. Cory Godbey has created a home for a lot of art inspired by the primal children’s book, by Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are. Many works are posted by many and varied artists (including Ward Jenkins) who have been invited to post something. Take a look at some of this artwork; many are beautiful. The range of styles is wide, but there being one source of inspiration it’s nice to see what people do with it. Some are clever, some are brilliant. It brought me back to the original which didn’t inspire me as much as Mickey in the Night Kitchen did. Maybe it’s generational.
The inimitable Hans Bacher on his brilliant site, posts about Errol LeCain‘s work with Richard Williams on the film The Sailor and the Devil. This film is just impossible to see these days, so it’s wonderful to view frame grabs, courtesy of Hans, from the short. Unfortunately, of course, the still pictures don’t capture the beautiful rhythms of the film. As a Le Cain fanatic, however, it’s wonderful to have this much. Many thanks to Hans for all the pleasure, inspiration and instruction he gives me with his site.
Of course, if you don’t go to this site regularly, you’re missing real treasures. Just this week, aside from The Sailor and the Devil, Hans focused on the real locations of Pinocchio and Williams daredevil animated feat, the Jovan commercial. So much gold to view.
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Stephen Worth on the Asifa Hollywood Animation Archive has posted some excellent and early artwork by Ray Patterson from the Mintz Studio. There’s a wealth of material here and some fine drawing.
I have a real love of the early material from animation’s beginning. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t get enough. Simply charming.
- Finally, there’s an article in today’s New York Times about a Wall Street analyst who apologizes for predicting that UP would not be a financial success.
- “The recent success of Pixar’s ‘Up’ (well ahead of our forecasts) has renewed investor confidence in Disney’s creative capabilities,†he added. “Up†has so far sold $265.9 million in tickets in North America and $35.4 million overseas, where it has only begun to arrive in theaters.
However, he still recommended selling the company’s stock, saying he believed the next 12 to 18 months would be “substantially more difficult for Disney than investors are currently anticipating.â€
Perhaps he’ll be wrong about that as well.
on 11 Jul 2009 at 2:19 pm 1.Ward said …
Thanks for the mention, Michael! It was a great pleasure to connect with Jon Graboff and talk about his dad’s work. Abner was a great artist and loving father – two things that I strive to be myself. I’m hoping to share some more of Abner’s art & career at a later date.