Art Davis - "Bowery Bugs"

"Bowery Bugs" was Davis' only short that starred Bugs Bunny. Phil DeGuard painted some great backgrounds in this one (not that he didn't paint great ones in other cartoons.) Here's a model sheet of Steve Brody, who's great voice was provided by Billy Bletcher, and some backgrounds by Philip DeGuard.

Flip The Frog - "The Office Boy"

Just one of my favorite Flip the Frog cartoons to hold you over until I get around to scanning a couple of things.

The Office Boy

Uploaded by klangley

Art Davis - "Riff Raffy Daffy"

This is the cartoon that really got me interested in Art Davis as a director. I remember when I first saw it I rewound the tape halfway through it to double check who the director was. The opening scenes are hilarious and the scene with Daffy and Porky arguing through the window really cracks me up. The Daffy design is great too, right up there with Clampett's unit. I wish I had some art from this short, especially layouts from the scenes in the park, but I guess just the cartoon will do. Sorry.

Riff Raffy Daffy

Uploaded by klangley

Popeye Comics

Just a page by Bud Sagendorf.

Harvey Kurtzman-Sheldon

A couple of funny Sheldon pages from Kurtzman.

More Popeye Model Sheets

Here's a few more that the Masked Stinker was kind enough to send me.

Popeye Model Sheets

I finally got the Popeye DVDs the other day, my wife gave it to me for our anniversary. Ain't she great. So now it's time to post some model sheets of Popeye and the gang. I have to thank The Masked Stinker for hooking me up with some model sheets that I didn't have and also much better copies of the ones I already had. Thanks Stinker! Here's the main players for now and I'll post some more real soon. These were drawn by animators Doc Crandall and Willard Bowsky. Read more about Doc Crandall in Ray Pointer's comments in this GAC forum thread.

Andy Panda - "Meatless Tuesday"

Now that everyone's gone out and picked up the new Woody set I wanted to share one of my favorite Andy Panda shorts. I was dissappointed to see that "Meatless Tuesday" wasn't included on the set. But since "Playful Pelican" is on part of that "Spook-A-Nanny" bonus I got over it. Besides I've still got my VHS copy of it. Shamus Culhane directed this short, he had no real interest in Andy Panda as a character but I think the few he did were great. While this short is as great as "Fish Fry" it's definitely better than the Andy Panda shorts that were being made before his arrival at Lantz. This is also Pat Matthews first screen credit at Lantz. Thank god for that Woody set, I spent the other night freeze framing his animation. He is brilliant.

Meatless Tuesday

Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery - "Cellbound"

This was Tex's last cartoon for MGM which he co-directed with Michael Lah. Ed Benedict's design of the warden is great. You'd be surprised how many different people have emailed me to post about this short. I do remember it being on TV more frequently than some of the Avery shorts when I was a kid so maybe that's the case with so many other people.

Cellbound

Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery - "The Hick Chick"

I love this cartoon, but then again I love all of Tex's. I kind of get the feeling this one gets overlooked compared to the attention some of his other shorts receive. I dunno, it cracks me up. Lem is awesome. I love stupid/goofy characters like that. The Daisy Lou design is great too. This model sheet was drawn by Claude Smith and it was probably one of the last he did for Tex, "Northwest Hounded Police" being the other. Notice some of those Lem drawings were used in the original printing of Preston Blair's Animation.

Hick Chick

Uploaded by klangley

Bobe Cannon-"The Dover Boys"

If you read this blog often enough you probably know that Bob Cannon is one of my favorite animators. I've been studying his animation in the "The Dover Boys" a lot in order to understand the whole "smear" technique. I had saved an ass load of frame grabs and was going to post them but I realized that the page would probably go on indefinitely. So instead I'm just posting the scenes at regular speed and also at two frames per second. Can anyone think of cartoon that used smeared drawings since "Big House Blues"? I can't.

Bobe Cannon-Dan Backslide

Uploaded by klangley

Dan Backslide-Frame By Frame

Bobe Cannon-Driven To Drink

Uploaded by klangley

Driven To Drink-Frame By Frame

Bobe Cannon-Abduction

Uploaded by klangley

Abduction-Frame By Frame

Art Davis - "Mouse Menace"

Here's Art Davis' first cartoon after taking over for Clampett upon his departure for Warner Bros. There's so many great camera angles in this short. Not to mention how Davis has the backgrounds move and shake when there's a impact or explosion while the character remains still, never tilting in the direction of the background. I don't know if a lot of other directors did this but it really stands out here. What a great cartoon.

Mouse Menace

Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery - "Garden Gopher"

Here's another of my favorite Spike cartoons (notice they're all my favorites?) "Garden Gopher". I scanned some layouts and a model sheet from this short too. I'm not sure who drew the model sheet, Louis Schmitt possibly? Or maybe Walt Clinton, as both of them were drawing model sheets and or layouts around that time. It's a great design though. Silly but still kinda cutesy. It's a shame you can't freeze frame the flash videos, the scene when the gopher is yelling at Spike is really funny. There's so many goofy faces being made that just slip by at full speed. The drawings of Spike during the sledgehammer gag are too funny. I think those are by Grant Simmons, though I'm probably mistaken. Either way they're hilarious. And yes, it's uncut.

Garden Gopher

Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery - "Rock-A-Bye Bear"

I posted a clip from this short on Tex's birthday and figured I may as well post the whole cartoon along with some layouts. It has to be one of the funniest cartoons ever made. I think Tex really hit his stride in the late 40s and early 50s. I love the crew of Walt Clinton, Michael Lah, and Grant Simmons. My favorite of Tex's units throughout his career.

Rock-A-Bye-bear

Uploaded by klangley