Welcome, Please Come In!
Hello everyone, (and I do mean ONE)! Welcome to the lonely blog! Come in and enjoy our comic offerings for today and the art gallery. Our painting today is by my wife, Catherine Hill and is currently on exhibit in the Contemporary Masters, Artistic Eden II show at the Pasadena Museum of History over on Orange Grove in Pasadena. Head over there for a fine show, featuring local scenes of San Gabriel and Pasadena, with work by the great Ray Harris, Jove Wang, Vic Riseau, Walter McNall, Donald Hildreth and many others. Cathy’s painting is an interior view of the Huntington Library’s art gallery with a group of art lovers enjoying the paintings. I especially like the subtle colors Cathy chose for the walls and way she painted the reflections in the gallery floor. You really should go over to the Museum, which was the Fennes mansion in a former life, and see this beautiful painting for yourself! You have until the end of April to do it.
I was asked to do a tribute to my friend Lyn Kroeger at the Afternoon of Remembrance at the DeMille barn on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 7th. I wrote about her in this very blog a few weeks ago if you recall. Unfortunately I ran a little long, it was hard to decide what to leave in and leave out in my speech. I did cut out a paragraph or two as I went along but that still wasn’t enough, I ran over 5 minutes. It’s frustrating to be hurried at these tributes, at least I was there and prepared. Many of the honorees didn’t have anyone to speak for them. The oldest person that was honored was veteran animator Al Stetter, who lived to be 100 years old! Maybe Lyn was not a veteran animator, but she was a very good assistant and a true artist, so I thought she deserved a good speech. I’m glad I could do it, I owed you one, my friend.
Our comics this week are “Dusty and Littlechief” by Bud Sagendorf from Coo-Coo Comics #4, the concluding two pages. The Japanese spy is socked and bopped all over the place but winds up more humiliated than hurt as they mail him to Washington D.C. as livestock! I wonder what Littlechief wanted the purple paint for? Marvelous Mike this week from 1/28/1957 to 2/2, continues the story of Mr. Kosno as he plants his secret information on Mike at the airport. Mike is already on to the plot in the Feb. 2nd strip, that brilliant little detective. Krazy Kat this week is from 6/19/1939 to 6/24, half the strips feature a continuity with Offissa Pupp’s Mechanical Stool Pigeon machine. It’s supposed to tell when Ignatz is in or out of “Jail”, but malfunctions in the 6/24 strip.
David Nethery says:
Hey, Mark,
Speaking of “The lonely blog” …. I don’t often leave comments but I do want you to know that I read your blog at least once or twice a week.
How’s the new “Cat” cartoon coming ?
“It’s The Cat” is one of my favorites , so I’m looking forward to the new one.
Your Pal,
-David Nethery
Mark Kausler says:
Hi David,
Thanks for breaking the silence. “There Must Be Some Other Cat” is moving through ink and paint at a snail’s pace, due to the troubles with the economy. I can’t afford to put any more money into the project, so now it is up to my producer, Greg Ford, to finish it. He is doing the best he can with what he has. The inking is being handled for the most part by one person, Igor, master of the pen, and the backgrounds by another stalwart, Kim Miskoe, wizard of watermedia. No color footage is extant right now, because Greg is saving money by shooting all the cels at once when they are done, to save lab costs. This will be my last short, as there is no way to get any money from a short, not even enough to pay expenses. There are little or no film festivals that don’t charge an entry fee, and most of their prizes are certificates, not money. No majors want to distribute shorts that they didn’t make, like Pixar. I’m amazed at Awards time every year at the abundance of short films. There is high turnover in the field, few filmmakers make more than two or three, and most have very cheap production, like Don Hertzfeldt’s. I think “Some Other Cat” will be a good one, worth waiting for. It could be another year or two, unless we get some more “ailurophiles” to donate completion money, and that’s quite scarce now. I worked a long time on the animation, and I’m very happy with it. That’s the state of the short right now. Yours truly, Mark
David Nethery says:
Hmmmm…. well, maybe put up a “tip jar” on the blog to get funds to help finish the film…
I’d toss some money in there just to selfishly feed my addiction for viewing NEW funny, cartoony hand-drawn animation (where’s it all gone ? It’s like there are more “fans” of classic animation then ever , but new films made in the classic manner are few and far behind, because as you point out , it is very difficult for the creator of such films to ever make back the money to cover the production costs, let alone actually make a profit . Sad but true. )
Like a lot of animation folk these days I don’t have much “disposable income” to throw around , but I’d be glad to put some money in there. I think Pay Pal tip jars are pretty easy to set up, although I’ve never done it.
I think the one you would want is the “Pay Pal Donate Widget for WordPress”
I read about this guy Dean Kalman Lennert making a short animated film . A lot of it was covered by an arts council grant, but he’s also taking individual contributions from people who would like to help support it.
Maybe an idea worth trying ?
Mark Kausler says:
Thanks for your advice, David. I’ve downloaded the widgets, there seem to be two required to get the “tip jar” on the Blog page. I can’t seem to get the widgets to load into the blog, however. Does anyone know what the correct path is or what part of the controls will load the widgets? I would appreciate any advice someone could give me. Thank you!