Sunday, January 18, 2026

Spider-Man "67" Title Storyboards

  The 1967 Spider-Man cartoon has always been one of my favorite cartoons. I'm sure it's mostly out of nostalgia. It was obviously done on the cheap. I remember waking up early as a kid just to catch it before heading to school. I guess it went out of syndication in the New York area sometime in the early 80s. Probably around the time the the 1981 "Spider-Man" cartoons aired. Followed by "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" soon after. The show's first season was produced by GrantRay-Lawrence Animation, which was founded by MGM animators Grant Simmons (a personal favorite of mine for his work in Tex Avery's unit), Ray Patterson and producer Robert Lawrence. The show may have one of the best themes songs ever written. Here are the storyboards for the opening title sequence. There are only a few changes to the finished version compared to the boards. I don't know who to credit with the storyboards. They were reprinted in James Ballman's "Spider-Man on TV! Book One: The 1967 Cartoon".  Hopefully the accompanying video doesn't get removed. 


Saturday, January 03, 2026

"The Mouse On 57th Street" Backgrounds

I was rewacthing Chuck Jones' "The Mouse On 57th Street" recently and was drawn (no pun intended) to the backgrounds. Great use of perspective, particularly for the scenes that focused on the mouse. Lots of upshots emphasizing how big the city is compared to our little drunken mouse friend. Layouts were done by Owen Fitzgerald and Maurice Noble and painted by Phil DeGuard. I assume Fitzgerald mostly did character layout. A few poses throughout the short reminded me of his posing in his Bob Hope comics. Though I have nothing docmenting that as a fact. I find this to be one of the more enjoyable of Jones' later Warner Bros. shorts.