Once upon a time, way back in 1937… MGM decided to produce its own cartoons and set up a studio on the lot. They ended their arrangement with Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising (and their Happy Harmonies series), bought the rights to popular comic strip The Captain and The Kids, and hired Friz Freleng away from Leon Schlesinger to direct the shorts. A funny thing happened on the way to the big screen – the cartoons were not popular. Here’s an example:
A year later Freleng went back to making Looney Tunes, the studio brought back Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising — and Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera had an opportunity to emerge…
Cut to 75 years later… Mike Van Eaton has come into a cache of Captain and The Kids model sheets and has graciously agreed to let me post them here. As best I can tell, these were all drawn by Charles Thorson. Thorson really got around, designing significant characters for Disney, MGM, Screen Gems, Warner Bros., Fleischer, Terrytoons – even George Pal – in the 30s and 40s before settling into a career in advertising and illustrating children’s books. Now everything you need to know about drawing the Captain and the Kids is here for you to enjoy (click on images below, and thumbnails below that, to enlarge).
Here’s a few more (below). The first two – probably not designed by Thorson – are from the short Old Smokey (1938).
Last weekend, Profiles in History in conjunction with Van Eaton Galleries (disclosure: they are an advertiser on Cartoon Brew) staged a massive animation art auction. I’m not a collector, but found it fascinating to browse through the auction results and see what prices the lots commanded as well as what pieces didn’t sell (for example, lots of Fantasia art).
Here’s a sampling of twenty pieces and how much each sold for. The last few prices are staggering.
1.
Original MGM Studios Barney Bear model drawings
Sold for $354
2.
Frank Thomas original production layout drawing from Pinocchio
Sold for $354
3.
The Ren & Stimpy Show complete 135-page storyboard for the episode, “Stimpy’s Fan Club”
Sold for $944
4.
Four drawings of Adolf Hitler from Scrap Happy Daffy
Sold for $944
5.
Tex Avery’s Blitz Wolf original title background
Sold for $1,121
6.
Bart Simpson panoramic multi-cel background setup from The Simpsons
Sold for $1,416
7.
“Once Upon a Winterime” cel and production background from Melody Time
Sold for $1,652
8.
Original model sheet from Mickey’s Mechanical Marvel
Sold for $2,006
9.
Doug Wildey Jonny Quest original model sheet
Sold for $2,124
10.
The Flintstones Pebbles original model sheet (drawn by Gene Hazelton?)
Sold for $3,540.00
11.
Mickey’s Service Station production background
Sold for $7,080
12.
Original Tim Burton artwork for Jack Skellington as “Santa Jack” from The Nightmare Before Christmas
Sold for $7,080
