The Kid in Me

Holiday comic covers like this one by Daan Jippes are so appealing to the kid in me. And it's a good reminder that now's the time to find your tree, if you celebrate that way.

Daan Jippes — Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #2 — 1989

Warm 'n' Cozy

It's really cold outside my cozy little studio right now.

Hope where you're at, YOU are dry, safe, warm 'n' cozy!

Carl Barks — Blizzard Tonight — © Walt Disney Company

Exotic Locales

Carl Barks took us on so many adventures with Uncle Scrooge and the boys. The exotic locales were always my favorite, yours too?

Carl Barks — Adventure in Old Persia

(Rug Riders Last Flight)

Collaboration

Society, of any sort, cannot exist without collaboration. Every organization from a family unit to an international corporation, from city government to military services depend on collaboration. Any economy would disintegrate without collaboration. Collaboration is a given in our world—taken for granted usually, but is constantly forming and reforming.

Collaborations start with individuals, those willing to see the large picture and participate in it, knowing that they, too, will benefit from their efforts. Units then work together so that collectively they can achieve more than one individual can.

If you think of each entity as a circle, then we could show circles by the millions, overlapping other circles that overlap larger circles that continue to overlap to a world-wide scale.

One form of collaboration that presents itself in an obvious way is the end-credit scroll for modern movies. It is asTONishing to see how many individuals come together to make, oh, say, an Avengers movie, or Lord of the Rings. It is a small army in itself that has come together with a single mission to accomplish: to bring a movie to the screen, so that WE can collaborate and pay them for their time and effort, so they can go do it again and again.

Usually, such collaborations as movies are led by one individual, akin to a general, with a staff of other leaders, directing divisions, battalions, companies, platoons and squads—right down to the feller that sets out the napkins for the lunch trollies.

Movie auteurs, the ones with stars on their shoulders, pretty much started with Charlie Chaplin and expanded exponentially over the decades. Walt Disney was one that led his army of artists, storytellers, technicians and financial soldiers to battle again and again, gaining many milestones along the way.

Music has always been a part of the movies, but Disney's Fantasia made a star out of music by collaborating with the musical world in innovative and entertaining ways.

The Disney Studios also collaborated with the US military during WWII. The military more-or-less blitzkrieged the partnership by moving onto the studio lots the day after Pear Harbor. But Disney's people greatly aided the war effort with educational and propaganda films, as well as hundreds of insignia designed for troop morale. One of the films, starring Donald Duck, even went so far as to persuade citizens to pay their taxes in a timely manner, so that the war chest could maintain its flow.

Anonymous rendering of Walt Disney as he frequently looked

when his staff wasn't quite on the mark with what he wanted.

Disney Studios in 1930s, with Walt and Mickey flanked by his battalion. Of course the numbers would ultimately be an army.

Original program cover for Fantasia, one of the industry's

great collaborations, initial 'flop' that it was.

Uncle Walt in storyboard conference with Leopold Stokowsky

and Deems Taylor, collaborating between the arts.

General Disney in conference for a war-time movie with

Commander "Hutch" Hutchinson, USN and Ub Iwerks.

Insignia for Aviation Cadet Detachment, WWII.

Insignia for Commander Carrier Division 24, WWII

Isolated graphic from Victory Through Air Power,

demonstrating the value of strategic bombing, 1943.

In the midst of the Disney organization expanding its world, creative individuals evolved into an organization of Imagineers, an elite force that conceptualized and engineered most of the magic in the magical kingdoms of Disney. One definition of the Imagineers was 'when science collided with art'. Through their efforts, and the work force that followed their leads, major accomplishments in entertainment were made and are enjoyed by millions.

Imagine if we, those who look to the future, had imagineers of sorts to help design educational ways and means in imaginative ways—helping our kids to think and act in innovative ways . . . what might be accomplished?

Perplexed

There are some images that perplex me, and all I can do is rub my eyes, and go "What th'—?!" . . .

Daniel Adel — Walt Disney

Actually, I'm going to start a new label category, called "What th'—" and whenever you see the panel below associated with an image on this blog, you'll know that I have no idea what to make of it. If the Man of Tomorrow can be perplexed, well by golly, so can I.

The Barks Treatment

It's interesting to compare the 1988 cover below by Daan Jippes with the bottom cover from 1949. With the exact same pose and everything, Jippes' rendering gave the characters spirit and liveliness that the original cover lacked. He gave it the 'Barks treatment'.

Daan Jippes — Mickey & Donald #1 — 1988

Donald & Mickey _ Firestone Giveaway — 1949

Bright and Cheery

Here is a bright and cheery duck cover by Daan Jippes — the only (in my opinion) artist to draw the ducks (slightly) better than the good duck artist himself, Carl Barks. It's sort of a scene from Christmas on Bear Mountain, but not quite (in the original story, none of the boys knew a bear cub was in the tree until later that night).

Does anyone know if Jippes' Disney art has ever been collected in one place? I'd pay real money for an album like that.

Daan Jippes — Gladstone's Christmas Parade #2 — 1989

When They were Very Young

I should have included this image with the previous post, but, well, I forgot. From the same book is an 'official' portrait of baby Mickey, as part of a 2 page spread showing all the contributors to the book, 'when they were very young'.

© Walt Disney Productions

Mouse's Finest Era

Created specially for then Princess Elizabeth, now Queen, way back in 1935, this art of Mickey and friends, charming and cheerful as they spend time in London, appeared in The Princess Elizabeth Gift Book, In Aid of the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital for Children.

Donald is still pretty primitive in appearance, Goofy is still Dippy Dawg, the Limeys are loopy—and this is definitely the mouse's finest era.

Note how Horace is demonstrating the royal backhand wave.

Mickey Mouse and His Retinue Arriving at the Party

The End of the Party: Mickey Mouse takes a Photograph

© Walt Disney Productions

Cartoon Shorts

This blog jumps around just as much as my pictorial interests do. Sometimes I get dizzy leaping and twirling between all the arts.

I get a kick out of early Disney cartoon short posters, and I like the Donald Duck posters a fair amount more than I like the cartoons themselves (just as I like the Warner Bros cartoons a whole bunch better than their posters).

Donald's Dog Laundry — 1940

Mr. Duck Steps Out — 1940

Autograph Hound — 1939

The Hockey Champ — 1939

Officer Duck — 1939

Sea Scouts — 1939

The Riveter — 1940

Donald Duck's Lucky Day — 1939

Well, I Never . . . Never

One of my favorite areas of Never-Never Land — Mermaid Lagoon.

Visualists

Who knew in the late 70s that Computer Generated Imagery would become the backbone of feature film production? Well, Steven Lisberger did, and from some team vision the movie Tron was conceived and produced, with ground-breaking visual effects.

But as most always is the case, before motion pictures are put into motion, artists are called upon to be visualists, taking high-flying concepts and bringing them to earth, visualizing a semblance of reality, allowing them to truly take flight. In this case a terrific team of technical artists came together to give life to a new way of making films.

Final logo design by Syd Mead, using backlight composite technique by Richard Taylor, John Scheele, Marta Russell and Douglas Eby

An earlier design by Syd Mead

An even earlier concept by Chris Lane

Illustration by Richard Taylor of the carrier bridge in Sark's map of domains

Concept drawing of an electronic cave interior by Harrison Ellenshaw

A background by Peter Mueller

A helmet design by Moebius

And more costume designs by Moebius

A Peter Lloyd colorization of a Moebius character concept

A circuit pattern costume design by Syd Mead

A costume design for 'Yori' by Syd Mead

A costume design for 'Yori' by Moebius

A preproduction illustration by Peter Lloyd based upon Syd Mead's design

Concept design for a Solar Sail by Moebius

The final design for the Solar Sail by Moebius

The Solar Sail parked in its hangar

The concepts go on and on, but this is a good sampling

Sea of Simulation

Tron, a 1982 Walt Disney production, was not only a movie ahead of its time, it helped create the time it was ahead of.

The pre-production art was leading the way as well, with concept designs by—among others—Moebius, John Norton, Peter Mueller, Syd Mead and Peter Lloyd. Below is Lloyd's pre-production illustration of a solar sailer traveling through a domain in the Sea of Simulation.

I will pull up some more Tron art, as I get the time.

More 'Centaurettes'

More 'Centaurette' concept studies for Disney's Fantasia: