Back in 1975, when I was in the thick of making my first animated cartoon, Film Comment came out with an all-cartoon issue, which included an interview with Chuck Jones, one of my major animation heroes. This issue also featured a poster-sized wall chart by Joe Adamson (author of "Tex Avery: King of Cartoons") that highlighted the major cartoon stars from each Hollywood studio during the Golden Era. This chart went on my wall in '75 and stayed on my wall, wherever I happened to be working, until the early 90's when it started to disintegrate. I took it down, put it in a drawer, and I never saw it again. Until today! I was looking for some papers in a drawer and instead I found, lo and behold, the long-lost "Cartoon Constellations" chart by Joe Adamson! I spent the last few hours scanning and restoring my old copy of it, cleaning up some of the scratches and pushpin-holes that it's collected over the past 36 years. I can't find another copy of it on the web, at least at the moment, so I thought I'd share it with you. I've always found it very inspirational.
AWSOME!!!
ReplyDeleteWould like a second page though.
With you on it, of course.
Wouldn't that be cool! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt sure shows how far we've come in the study of animation history. I imagine in 1975, a lot of the information on here would not have been known by a lot of people. Now, there are all kinds of places to look it up.
ReplyDeleteYes, back in '75, animation was not yet being seriously archived or studied in a historical context -- that would change with Joe Adamson articles in this issue of Film Comment and, among other things, with Leonard Maltin starting to teach a course on Hollywood cartoons at the New School in NYC in 1977. (I took that class). In 1981, Scarecrow Press published The Warner Brothers cartoons by Will Friedman and Jerry Beck, which gave a capsule summary of every Warner Bros. cartoon along with credits and history. Scarecrow Press was headquartered in my hometown of Metuchen, New Jersey!
ReplyDeleteI take it "Krazy Kat" is supposed to be the same cat from the old comic strip. I don't see it.
ReplyDeleteI got too much interesting stuff on your blog. I guess I am not the only one having all the enjoyment here! Keep up the good work. cartoonshow.me
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