Alex Toth Dead at 77
Alex Toth was one of the most influential artists of his era. He died on May 27 of natural causes. From the Los Angeles Times obituary:
“For 50 years he did what he wanted to do — smoke cigarettes, sit on the couch and draw,” his daughter Dana Palmer said Saturday. “But in his final year there was such a great spirit in him, and he had made peace with everybody on Earth that he needed to make peace with.”
Toth did the character designs for “Superfriends,” “Space Ghost,” and “Herculoids” among others.
[tags]Alex Toth, animation, comic, comic book, superfriends, spaceghost, herculoids, animation news, obituary[/tags]
Max Fleischer – Animation Legend Out of the Inkwell
From the earliest days of animation, Max Fleischer and his brother Dave were in direct competition with Walt and Roy Disney. His studio made the first sound cartoons in 1924 but over the next two decades they gradually lost ground to Disney. Disney’s Snowwhite pushed Fleischer to produce their own full length feature which failed to make enough money to pay back the bank ending one of the most creative entertainment enterprises of the twentieth century.
The “Out of the Inkwell” DVD set, now widely available, shows some of the earliest animation methods used by the Fleischer Brothers on Koko the Clown. If you look at the animation of the 1920s, it isn’t smooth like the animation from the 1930s. Dave Fleischer was a performing clown and Max made a series of short movies with his brother dancing around in his clown costume. Fleisher used the individual frames of these movies to create the animation for Koko the Clown. The early Koko the Clown cartoons that mixed real people and animated creatures are the true antecedents of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.
Grant White’s Animated Bugs With Borderline Personalites
Grant White was chose by the BBC Showcase for New Talent as one of the best new animators of 2004 for his short short film “Bugs”. “Bugs” is available for viewing on Mr. White’s website. The website itself seems to be a bit neglected. There are more animations as well as great cartoon strips on his page. Be sure to visit “Tadpoles” which is a combination cartoon strip and Flash animation. It’s all very innovative and great fun. Dimples loved “Bugs” and would like to know more about Mr. White but he seems to be a mystery man. If anyone out there knows anything about this guy, please let Dimples know.
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