Cartoon bosses

I'll admit that I always feel dirty when I attempt drawing someone else's characters, but I couldn't resist with this.

Stuart Suchet is one of the main characters in a syndicated strip Retail. He's the manager of a department store that the strip takes place in, a corporate yes-man who runs the store strictly by the letter in the company rule-book. In another words, he's the type of boss that you dread having to work for.

His design is also great. In most cartoons that features a mean boss he, and it's often always a he, is drawn as either a fat man smoking a cigar or a short man who yells alot (think Mr. Spacely from The Jetsons). Stuart is an rare case in that he's drawn as a stuck-up thin white man in a suit. It's odd that there are not many cartoon bosses drawn as such, as that is probably the most realistic depiction of such people. The only other cartoon boss that comes close is probably Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.

I also love the shape of his head, too. It's no wonder where his nickname, Zucchini Head, comes from.

Pencil Test...

A pencil test I did.

Clint Clobber's Cat

Jerry Beck gave me a DVD full of Terrytoons shorts when we met in LA last week. Among those included was this short.

"Clint Clobber's Cat" (1957) was the first of the seven Clint Clobber shorts released by 20th Century Fox in CinemaScope.

The designs are very stylized. Many people often compare the Deitch-era Terrytoons to UPA shorts. I think what makes these different from them, though, is that the animation is otherwise done in traditional fashion from the early fifties (even if the lower budget forced them to economize). Jim Tyer does some of the animation in this short and it's just as broad and cartoony as in Terry cartoons animated just a year before.

With the exception of Jim Tyer himself, most veteran Terrytoons animators had a difficult time adjusting to the new designs; the film's director, Connie Rasinski, was one of the more vocal opponents of the new style and resented having to direct them. You can see it in the animation itself starting at 2:50. Clint is drawn like an old-school Terry character in that shot and is animated as such.

Doug Moye does Clint's voice (Allen Swift takes over in subsequent cartoons). Lionel Wilson voices the old lady and the radio announcer.

As usual, this is a TV pan-and-scan print.

Pictures Galore

Me and Will Finn. I'm holding the sketch he drew for me; Will's holding the Cartoonist PROfiles back-issue I gave him (has articles on Chuck Jones and Eek & Meek strip)

The all-knowing cartoon historian Jerry Beck

Animator Mark Kausler. We talked about 16mm collecting and how these days we have to pay obscene price to obtain some prints (Mark's been doing this for decades and also has a huge 35mm collection).

Mike Kazalah. We met while waiting in line at the Gene Deitch screening. He did a drawing of Mighty Mouse (he worked on the show) for me, which I will post soon.

When I told him I have the DVD, Mike told Mark Kausler "Hey, somebody actually bought it!"

Pictures continued

Me with the ever-hilarious Eddie Fitzgerald at IKEA Burbank.

More pics soon.

Pictures

I've been in Burbank for the week. Met alot of animation guys.

Here's me with Gene Deitch. More pics soon.