Tex Avery - "King Size Canary"

I posted the first model sheet once before but I don't think I posted the other one. If so it was a really low resolution copy. This one's much better.

Tex Avery - "Field And Scream"

Gotta love this cartoon for Ed Benedict's layouts alone and the loads of corny gags. Johnny Johnson's backgrounds are something else here too. He's just as good with more stylized backgrounds as he is with realistic ones. I suppose these are the types of backgrounds we could have seen in the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons had they had more time and money to spend on them.

Field & Scream

Uploaded by klangley

MGM - "The Hungry Wolf"

"The Hungry Wolf" has some great animation in it, then again most of the MGM shorts from the Harman/Ising period on do. I love the scene when the wolf is chasing the mouse and tearing up the floor. Who incidentally, looks like a precursor to Jerry. Think Joe Barbera worked on this short? I don't know who animated that scene or any other for that matter. My knowledge of the Harman/Ising era is pretty limited and what I did know I have since forgotten. My books have been collecting dust in a box.

Looks a little like Jerry huh?

Hungry Wolf

Uploaded by klangley

Dick Lundy - "Bird-Brain Bird Dog"

Another great Barney Bear short directed by Dick Lundy and animated by Walt Clinton and Grant Simmons. I've been way to busy to post but I'm going to try and pick up the pace a little over the next few weeks.

Bird-Brain Bird Dog
Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery - "Jerky Turkey"

I figured I'd post something with a Thanksgiving theme, so what better than a Tex Avery short. While "Jerky Turkey" might not be one of his best MGM shorts it's loaded with great gags. And who doesn't love a Jimmy Durante impersonation? So here's the short along with a couple of model sheets and animation drawings. Happy Thanksgiving.

Jerky Turkey

Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery - "Doggone Tired"

Here's a model sheet and layout drawing by Louie Schmitt from Tex Avery's classic "Doggone Tired". Yes, when you come here everything Tex did is considered a classic. There's some great animation from Bobe Cannon who worked for Tex briefly. I wish he had stayed with Tex. His animation in the few shorts he worked on at MGM is some of my favorite work by any animator.

Doggone Tired

Uploaded by klangley

Dick Lundy - "Impossible Possum"

I've mentioned before that Michael Lah is one of my favorite animators, and "Impossible Possum" has some great Lah animation in it. Particularly the dance scene. I might be in the minority on this one, but I really love Lundy's Barney Bear shorts. Maybe it's because it's basically Tex's unit.

Impossible Possum

Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery - "Half Pint Pygmy" Model Sheets

Here's two great model sheets drawn by Louis Schmitt from the last George and Junior short. While I like the character designs I don't think of them as George and Junior. Thad posted the cartoon as part of last Saturday's bowl of WTF so check it out there.

Officer Mutt Comics

I recently got a hold of issue number 5 of Red Rabbit Comics. I'm assuming like Foxy Fagan, this is also a collaboration between Harvey Eisenberg and Joe Barbera. Most of the star characters are directly or indirectly taken from MGM characters. King Looey the Lion is basically the lion from "Jerry And The Lion", Slapsy Squirrel is Screwy Squirrel with pants, and Officer Mutt is just Officer Pooch revisited from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name.


The comic is in awful shape and was literally falling to pieces as I read it so I made sure to scan the whole thing before it completely disintegrates. The artwork is fantastic so I'll be sure to post the whole thing in a few different posts. Though maybe not the covers, as there's not much left of them. Luckily the rest of comic is in better shape.

Tex Avery - "Ventriloquist Cat"

Another Tex Avery classic animated by Michael Lah, Walt Clinton and Grant Simmons. Grant Simmons' Spike is hilarious. They're are without a doubt my favorite unit out of all the animators and directors from any of the studios that were making theatrical shorts.

Ventriloquist Cat

Uploaded by klangley

Tex's 100th Birthday

Tex Avery is by far my favorite director, no other director's shorts make me laugh like Tex's. I don't think any other director was as influential as he was. Not even Chuck Jones. I won't try and persuade anyone that Tex is the all time greatest. But for me there's no one better. I wanted to do something really special for Tex's centennial but PC troubles kept me from really putting together a great tribute. But I did manage to finish up a clip reel of scenes from his MGM shorts. (Which for me, are the all time greatest cartoons.) I've spent many hours watching these shorts in chronological order and each one gets funnier and funnier. I think one gets sucked into Tex's "world" when viewing them that way. Anyway, Happy Birthday to the greatest cartoon director of all time.

Tex at the drawing board with Fred Quimby

Tex and Fred Quimby

Tex at Schlesinger's. Tex is second from the left, seated next to a rather large Frank Tashlin.

The Termite Terrace Crew

Tex and musical director extraordinaire, Scott Bradley. (Even though Tex didn't think so)

Tex Avery Tribute

Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery - "Red Hot Rangers"

I just noticed the other day that it's been two years (this Wednesday) since I started this blog. It doesn't seem like I've been blogging that long. I originally started this blog to post drawings and clips from a short that I was working on. I was inspired by Wil Branca and Nick Cross' production blogs, but quickly realized that I need to really work on improving my drawing ability and practice animating before I would have been happy with any of the work I was doing. (I'm still working at it) I started posting model sheets from some classic shorts to just post something in between my crap. Thanks to links early on from Thad, John K., Amid, Mark Mayerson, and the Animation Archive blog (thanks guys!!) people actually started reading this blog, or at least looking at the pictures since I say very little. It's been great "meeting" fellow bloggers like Thad, Ryan, David, Benj, Pedro, Greg, Craig D, Kasey and plenty of others. Thanks for all the drawing advice that I've been given and all the historical information that's been tossed around here. Even relatives of Jim Tyer and Robert Gentle have visited, very cool. This whole blogging thing has been much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Thanks everyone!!

Here, enjoy another one of Tex Avery's MGM classics.

Red Hot Rangers

Uploaded by klangley