First of all, I want to say "Thank you" to all my wonderful friends and supporters, for making the DD6 video such a big success. Without your support, I couldn't do what I do, so I thank all of you, most humbly.
I want to apologize for letting this blog languish for so long. I tend to spend all my free time doing animation--sometimes to the detriment of everything else. I realized that there is so much fun stuff out there I could be talking about here. All animation and no blogs makes Animan a dull boy!
The other day, I was watching one of my all-time favorite Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows, "Jonny Quest", season one. The original artwork for the show was done by comic artist extraordinaire Doug Wildey. His drawing skills were so great that the animators who had been drawing Yogi Bear and The Flintstones up to that time, had difficulty trying to emulate his beautiful style. Often when I'm watching this show on DVD, I'll see a frame or more of video where the drawing sort of went haywire. I love to discover these drawings!
One of the first shows, "The Mystery of the Lizard Men" had a few problematic spots. My favorite hunky character Race is being held by a couple of thugs, and he pulls free, knocking another thug into a tight place. Race suddenly turns into a gooey, squash-and-stretch animation, and it's really fun to see him make the transformation.
I get the feeling that live models were sometimes used as a guide for the animators. Race's face looks a little bit too realistic in this frame. Notice the interesting bulge in the lizard man's wetsuit.
Race is going to ram the villain in the old "bread basket". Making him look all blurry is one way to solve the problem of how to draw it.
I love the villain's face here! For a moment, his green wetsuit goes into full "octopus-mode". Just the bare minimum of Race's face is visible. The animation goes by in an instant, but that's what remote control pause buttons are for.
I want to apologize for letting this blog languish for so long. I tend to spend all my free time doing animation--sometimes to the detriment of everything else. I realized that there is so much fun stuff out there I could be talking about here. All animation and no blogs makes Animan a dull boy!
The other day, I was watching one of my all-time favorite Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows, "Jonny Quest", season one. The original artwork for the show was done by comic artist extraordinaire Doug Wildey. His drawing skills were so great that the animators who had been drawing Yogi Bear and The Flintstones up to that time, had difficulty trying to emulate his beautiful style. Often when I'm watching this show on DVD, I'll see a frame or more of video where the drawing sort of went haywire. I love to discover these drawings!
One of the first shows, "The Mystery of the Lizard Men" had a few problematic spots. My favorite hunky character Race is being held by a couple of thugs, and he pulls free, knocking another thug into a tight place. Race suddenly turns into a gooey, squash-and-stretch animation, and it's really fun to see him make the transformation.
There's no need to apologize for having more going on in your life than this blog, we've all been there. As long as there's always hope that it's still going strong, we need not worry. I must say, Jonny Quest certainly made for some nostalgic entertainment. I didn't see too much of it, as I grew up in the 90's but I definitely see how it inspired many more shows that came after it. Interesting you bring it up now, especially when the secret adventures remind me of another of your DD drawings regarding another secret agent on some villain's lair, perhaps an inspiration of things to cum?
ReplyDeleteXOXO
The original first season of Jonny Quest was amazing for a lot of reasons. The James Bond books and movies were gaining popularity, and Hanna-Barbera wanted to make a kid’s show that dipped into that genre. The drawing style was a big improvement. It had a fabulous jazz score that was far out. It had international intrige. Jonny and his adopted Indian brother Hadji flew to remote locations in his dad’s private jet, with hunky Race Bannon at the wheel. The show seemed aimed at 12 year old boys, with its complete absence of female characters. It only ran for 1 season, and was not considered to have been a success, that is, until about 20 years later when it was discovered by a new generation. Hanna-Barbera produced new episodes. But they lacked the chic drawing, the cool jazz, the stories of the original. Also, they injected female characters into the family. Race and Dragon Lady lookalike Jade had a daughter now. It was as if someone at the network said, “We can’t have an all-male family; it’ll turn off the female viewers. Where can we start adding female characters?” So it became a completely different show. Ditto for The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest—a show which redesigned the characters so much, it lost all the appeal of the original. I hope to feature more funny frames from the original shows, because there are a few doosies out there!
DeleteXOXO
Johnny Quest on Boomerang commercials were my Favorite🙌💪
ReplyDeleteThe original first season of Jonny Quest had great art, great music and great stories. They tried making more seasons, and tried to remake it, but they couldn’t succeed. Jonny Quest rocks!👍
Delete