I just posted a great trio of Kurtzman and Elder Little Annie Fanny stories at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

What?! No Log?! All kids love log!

The only thing the chimp looks unhappy about is having to stand still for the camera. I bet he'd rather be banging around on his toys instead of posing.

There's a great short from the "Speaking of the Animals" series where an all chimp band performs a rousing rendition of "Down in Jungle Town". If someone can find that, post it to YouTube please.

Gotta love monkey calendars, Lance Link, and that new Jack in the Box commercial with the chimp blasting off in a rocket ship! To quote a great philosopher, "Monkeez iz da kwaziest peoples!"

In 1904, Ernst Haeckel did a study on finding design inspiration in natural forms. His book, Kunstformen von der Natur (Art Forms in Nature) caused a sensation at the time, and it's still in print today. At the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, we digitized a popular picture book adaptation of Haeckel's study titled Die Natur als Kunstlerin (Nature as Artist). The illustrations look like creatures from outer space, but they are actually jellyfish, diatoms or the patterns of folds on the face of a bat. I posted a bunch of scans. See...

ASIFA Archive: Incorporating Natural Forms

Stephen Worth
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has some great resources on Caniff too...

Caniff's Nephew's Rememberence

Caniff Articles In Coronet Magazine

Steve Canyon Dailies Part One and Part Two

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

The hired help eats in the kitchen. The family dines in the dining room.

See ya
Steve

John is doing an internet prototype of the sort of cartoon show he would like to do on television. If you go to the page, you'll see YouTubes of the sort of mix of modern cartoons, classic cartoons and animated commercials he would like to do in an animated TV compilation series. This is the third episode he's assembled so far. Check the archive on his site for previous episodes and the explanation of the concept.

See ya
Steve

Check out the links at the bottom of the Aladdin's Lamp page... In particular, look at Jeckyl & Hyde Cat, The Temperamental Lion and the insanely screwy Barnyard Actor.

See ya
Steve

This isn't the full story. It's a whitewashed fictionalization of the real story. Ben Washam was a wanna-be cartoonist and partner to Bob Wian in the hamburger stand. It was Ben's idea to create the Big Boy hamburger. The concept was, if you take the same amount of meat, and split it into two patties... and you take the same bun and cut it twice instead of once... people would think they were getting more for their money. Washam also sketched the mascot character, Big Boy. People loved it. But just as the stand was beginning to take off, Washam received an offer to work for Warner Bros cartoon studio. He quit the stand and turned over his interest in the business to Wian. Soon after, Wian started franchising the hamburger stands and became VERY wealthy. Washam was working at Warner Bros making a weekly salary. His co-workers used to razz him, saying "Gee Bennie... You coulda been a HAMBURGER BARON!"

See ya
Steve