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January 27th, 2023

Illustration: Rojankovsky’s Frog Went A Courtin

Animation Resources supporter, Kent Butterworth dropped by with a wonderful children’s book by the great illustrator Feodor Rojankovsky. Titled, Frog Went A-Courtin’, this book won the Caldicot Prize in 1955 for Best Children’s Picture Book of the year.

Rojankovsky was born in Russia in 1891, and served in the Russian army in the first World War. He spent some time in France, then emigrated to the United States when war broke out again in 1940. He was a prolific illustrator, creating over 100 picture books for Western Publishing’s Golden Books line and for other publishers as well. When asked how be began his interest in art, he replied…

Two great events determined the course of my childhood. l was taken to the zoo and saw the most marvelous creatures on earth: bears, tigers, monkeys and reindeer, and, while my admiration was running high, l was given a set of color crayons. Naturally, I began immediately to depict the animals which captured my imagination. Also when my eider brothers, who were in schools in the capital, came home for vacation, I tried to copy their drawings and to imitate their paintings.

Later when l went to school in Reval Tallinn, an ancient town on the shores of the Baltic sea, my love for art was enhanced and strengthened by a passion for nature. Tallinn was surrounded by forest. The sea presented wonderful opportunities for excursions and study of sea life. But there were also steamers, sailboats, flags, and all the excitement of a port. This was no less exciting than playing Red Indians or reading James Fenimore Cooper, the beloved author of all Russian children before, during, and after the Revolution.

SELECTED ILLUSTRATIONS FROM
FROG WENT A-COURTIN’

>Make sure to click on these to see them large. Rojankovsky was a master of texture, and the smaller size images don’t show that as well.

If you like this book, you’re in luck… it’s still in print. You can find it at Amazon.

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

This posting is part of a series of articles comprising an online exhibit spotlighting Illustration.

Labeled: golden book, illustration, rojankovsky |

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Posted by admin @ 11:17 am

January 26th, 2023

Comic Strips: Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon Dalies

Today, we have an exciting post for you… original artwork by Milton Caniff for the Steve Canyon newspaper strip.

Animation Resources supporter, John Ellis is working with the family of Milton Caniff on a DVD release of the live action Steve Canyon television series, which debuted in September of 1958 on NBC. In searching through the family’s collection of memorabilia, John stumbled across a batch of original inks of daily and Sunday pages that the family didn’t realize that they had. The estate of Milton Caniff has generously allowed Animation Resources to digitize the material for inclusion in our cartoon database.

John Ellis has been doing considerable research into Caniff and Steve Canyon. I asked him to write a few words about Caniff…

Milton Caniff has been referred to as "The Rembrandt of the Comic Strip", and oft by himself as "an Armchair Marco Polo", but in fact this whirlwind of a comic strip innovator and writer was essentially a sincerely nice man who loved to draw. Yes this gentleman born in Hillsboro Ohio in 1907 created and drew Terry and The Pirates from 1934 to 1946, which absolutely set the standard for the adventure comic strip. True, he raised the bar with Steve Canyon, which unlike Terry, he owned lock stock and barrel from the first daily strip in January 1947 through to June 1988, the final installment published shortly after his death. Absolutely he worked rain or shine, seven days/strips a week for 54 years, even from his hospital bed, the deadlines never ended.

Milton Caniff in his studio ca. 1947
(click for a larger view)

But beyond the art and dedication, what is true is that I’ve never heard an unkind word in his regard. His nephew Harry Guyton can’t even remember Milton ever losing his temper. My friend David Haft, who produced the NBC Steve Canyon primetime TV series in 1958, made a comment as we watched Milton on a vintage filmclip promoting the series recently. He said "Lovely, lovely man". Happy 100th birthday Milton.

John Ellis
Hollywood, 2007

Make sure to click on the images to see high resolution versions. Caniff’s amazing adventure strip from the late 40s has never looked better!

STEVE CANYON TV SHOW

For info on the Steve Canyon TV show DVD, see… www.stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com

STEVE CANYON AT AMAZON

Fantagraphics has a great book on Caniff’s career, and Checker has released year by year reprints of the classic Steve Canyon strip. Caniff was a master storyteller, and the first few years of Steve Canyon are examples of his genius at the height of its powers. Click on the pictures of the books for more info.

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Comic Books.

Labeled: comic strips, Milton Caniff, steve canyon |

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Posted by admin @ 12:28 pm

January 25th, 2023

Animation History: The Building Of The Disney Studio

Among the collection of Clair Weeks was a publication from 1939 dealing with the construction of Disney’s studio in Burbank. It’s a fascinating look at the way the Disney operation was structured at the peak of its success. The end of the article is taken up with a detailed description of the production process at Disney. (Note: There’s an error in the order of the steps in the section on story- the script was transcribed from the storyboard, not the other way around. And they discuss voice recording out of sequence as well.)