Animated Thoughts: Pow! The Art of Comics

It's shaping up to be a good year for animation and animation-adjacent arts here in Michigan. Over in Muskegon, they had a special exhibit highlighting comic book art at the Muskegon Museum of Arts.

Titled "Pow! The Art of Comics", this exhibit was a good look at the experience running from comic strips to comic books, the memorabilia and props as well as their impact on popular culture.

Above and beyond the animation cels and model sheets, what I enjoyed the most was the frames upon frames of concept art and storyboards for feature films. They definitely hit some of my favorites including the Matrix films, the live-action Speed Racer, and a couple of the Marvel films.

'Nebuchadnezzer'
The Matrix, 1999

'Mach 5 and Racer X Trading Paint' by Warren Manser
Speed Racer, 2008

A classic painting by artist Julie Bell shows the far reaching nature of comic book art as inspirations stretch into the realm of fantasy.

Pegasus Befriends the Muses
2018, Julie Bell

And it wouldn't be a comic book exhibit without Batman!

The Batcave, complete with the Batmobile, circa 2015

The Super Friends cartoon from back in the 1970's. Boy does that take me back. Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, who remembers? I love looking at model sheets from animated films. Really shows the thought that went into developing the characters and ensuring consistency across a series.

Ah, Red Sonja, the 'She Devil with a Sword'. I'm only three issues from completing the 1977-1979 Marvel series and two issues away from having their 1983-1986 series completed in my collection. Below is a classic John Buscema panel from the first Marvel series, circa 1979.

Red Sonja Vol.1 #15 Page 7, 1979

Loved perusing their section on Vintage comic strips, especially the section on Terry and the Pirates. The skill that is displayed in the rendering of these images still leaves me breathless. I'm consistently in awe of the drafting skills that these men and women developed back in the days before computers.

Terry and the Pirates, George Wunder, 1951

For years, I've looked to the larger more well known museums for special exhibitions and rare film screenings. As of late, I have been learning to appreciate the smaller regional museums and keep their calendars on my radar for those exhibits that are closer to my interests.

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Animated Thoughts: Realms of Wonder

After a quick lunch and a nice walk at Meijer Gardens, I drove over to the John Ball Zoo. It was time for the annual lantern festival. This year was... interesting. They didn't have the Chinese acrobat show when I was there last year. It didn't feel like they had as many of the sensor-activated animatronic statues. But what they had was enjoyable.

The "Realms of Wonder" had three sections this time around: Underwater, Cultural and Fantasy. Obviously, my favorite was the fantasy realm.

I made my usual two passes through the Zoo, once in daylight and again in darkness with all the lanterns lit up. 

The best animatronic statue there was the ice dragon--though the sensor to activate it was a little frustrating. They had this "gravity sensor" in front of the dragon but it was a little difficult to get the timing right--activating it once it stopped moving. I kept asking little kids to step on the sensor so I could get pictures and video. Fun for them once it started roaring and breathing smoke at least.

The gravity sensor was new. I'm used to those pressure plates that are hidden under mats. This one was a circle that would light up when stepped upon. 

Haven't decided yet, but am debating the merits of going back in June before the event closes. Would really like to take a closer look at the sensor arrays and compare them to the Detroit Zoo's "Dinosauria" animtronics. Sometimes the "how it works" is just as interesting as the end product itself.

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Animated Thoughts: Unexpected Finds in Unexpected Places

"Follow your nose!"

Every so often you find an unexpected find at an unexpected place. Every couple of months, the Lansing Collectable Toy, Comic and Record Show is held at the Okemos Conference Center. It's one of those fun events to wander around and look at the nostalgia. People are there selling records, comicbooks, old G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Shogun Warriors toys and much, much more. There's no admission fee, just come in and browse. I'm usually on the look for the old Marvel Red Sonja comics from the 70's and 80's at a reasonable price. My plan is to donate my comic book collection to the Wallace Library at R.I.T. when I die, so I'm looking to complete the full run of those two series along with a couple others.

Well this time, there was a guy who had included a box of animation cels with his toy selection. Lots of Filmation stuff: He-Man, She-Ra, Conan, Ewoks, and My Little Pony. But stuffed in there was a single bag with about forty production drawings from a couple of Kellogg's cereal commercials.

Now animation cels are wonderful for framing and hanging on the walls, I'm in total agreement with everyone on that score. But I still love production drawings more. Mainly because you can really see the mind of the animator at work in the different shades of pencil that make up the drawings, the areas that have been erased and redrawn, and the notes that they leave behind--in the above and below cases: a timing chart written in the margins.

You can also see scene instructions like "Reg BG4". This one puzzles me. Could be a notation on what background cel to use. Could be something else. Would really love to see the X-Sheets for this commercial.

I'm slowly working on an assignment for my animation history class that deals with how animation was used in advertising. These drawings will make for some great examples to show my students, even moreso if I can track down the commercial that utilized these drawings. There are a fair number of 'how we made it' videos on YouTube from feature film and short film productions; not so many videos on 'how we made that cereal commercial'--which makes production drawings like these all the more valuable to people like me.

A most excellent find, if I do say so myself.

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