{"id":2444,"date":"2011-02-22T03:06:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T07:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/?p=2444"},"modified":"2011-02-22T16:08:20","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T20:08:20","slug":"john-sparey-rip-1927-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/john-sparey-rip-1927-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"John Sparey R.I.P. 1927-2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sparey-k-laughing.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See that laughing maniac up there? That’s a caricature of me drawn by John William Sparey back in 1969, more than 40 years ago. Here John is comparing my laugh to the sound of a cackling chicken. We were working for John Wilson on the animated feature “Shinbone Alley”. It was my first real job “on staff”, doing inbetweens. It was on that picture that my friend the animator Frank Andrina gave me my first professional scenes to animate on the Archy Declares War sequence, layouts by Sam Cornell.\u00c2\u00a0 I also met among many others, the one-of-a-kind gent, John Sparey. John had been an assistant animator at Disney, animator at Hanna-Barbera, and worked on the original “Crusader Rabbit” TV cartoons in San Francisco in 1950 before working for John Wilson. My pal, James Tim Walker was also working as an inbetweener for Wilson that summer. The studio was in a ramshackle wooden building right across from the Colorvision studios lot, formerly Monogram Pictures, now it’s the home of KCET. Our wooden building was torn down years ago, the beat-up old\u00c2\u00a0animation desks were supposedly from the Disney Hyperion studio. Life there was a many-splintered thing. (John would have groaned at that one.) John, Bob Bransford and some of the other guys took great amusement at J.T. Walker and myself as we bumbled our way through the studio in our naiive fashion. I was an easy laugher in those days and used to laugh really loud, so John got a lot of gag cartoon material out of that (see above).\u00c2\u00a0 John loved to draw gags about his fellow workers, but had excellent work habits himself\u00c2\u00a0and stayed at his drawing board most of the time. His drawings were very precise, and we marvelled at his effects animation as well as his character. He did a snow storm cycle for “Shinbone Alley” that looked very convincing, every drawing had the path of each snowflake closely delineated. John had what might be called a “closely-held” personality, he looked at animation as a profession and he seemed to derive little joy from it. His amusement came from a rather detached attitude of an observer and critic of his fellow animation toilers. He loved to\u00c2\u00a0draw gag cartoons, and would proudly walk through the studio with his latest cartoon held out before him at eye level. It behooved you to laugh at the cartoon! \u00c2\u00a0Sometimes, if you crossed the line, John’s temper would flare up. John roomed with my old friend, Mike Sanger at Wilson’s. Mike was a very non-serious person, and John was a very serious one. Mike told one too many funny stories on a few occasions, and one morning, Mike came in to\u00c2\u00a0their room to find all his pencils broken, papers torn and his desk in total disarray. It was pretty clear who smashed the art supplies. \u00c2\u00a0John Wilson had to put Mike Sanger in a different room. Here’s a cartoon John drew before the broken pencils started flying: \"sparey-sanger-cartoon.jpg\"<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0That’s me, and I think, James T. Walker lurking outside John’s room, John on the right, Mike Sanger on the left. If anyone is interested, I have quite a few more of John’s cartoons of the goings-on at the Wilson studio I could post. John Sparey passed away on December 15th, 2010 at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills, aged\u00c2\u00a083 years. Here, in John’s own words, is an overview of the\u00c2\u00a0start of his career, beginning at Jay Ward’s, through his\u00c2\u00a0Disney years:<\/p>\n

In the summer of 1950, I stayed in Berkeley between spring and fall semesters for a chance to work on an animation project that was to be called the first animated series done for TV: “Crusader Rabbit”, by Alex Anderson (a nephew of Paul Terry) and Jay Ward, a real estate agent. They had two Disney veterans, Gerry Ray, who did storyboards pegged to serve as layouts, and Chuck Fuson, an animator. Bob Mills, a local boy, also animated. Joe Curtin was the writer. He had left a job at Terrytoons in New York by way of a window in the men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room.<\/em><\/p>\n

Come January, I graduated and went home to Indio. I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t begun preparing my assault on the Hollywood animation industry when I got a phone call from Jay saying that the studio was moving south and asking would I join him. But of course! Coming with Jay were Alex, Gerry, Bob Mills, Joe Curtin, and their cameraman. Bob Bemiller was hired as an experienced animator. Ted Bemiller was a second cameraman. For the rest of the crew, Jay placed an ad in the classifieds. Among others, he got Dean Spille, Jerry Bowen, Jim Scott and Ed King. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fairly certain about those last two names. Dean made a career in the industry. Jerry stayed in the Screen Cartoonists Guild long enough to become business agent before stepping out of a high window. Jim was a compact Marine veteran with a hearty, easily triggered laugh. Once, he got pleurisy, which caused him a sharp pain when he laughed\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich made him laugh again. The last time I might<\/u> have crossed his path was in the Pantages theater once when I heard what might have been his laugh carrying across the width of the theater. Ed surfaced a few years later with some sample newspaper comic panels he had split with three other artists, each tackling the topic of the day. One of the artists was Roy Williams. The title was something like “Four in a Square”. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if it ever reached publication.<\/em><\/p>\n

When the Crusader Rabbit shoestring broke in August, the Navy had already reminded me of my Inactive Reserve status. My last job for the studio was restyling the stock walk cycles to fit their evolution. We were helping Alex pack up everything when we took a break to watch Jay and his family and their St. Bernard take off for Berkeley in his MG convertible. <\/em><\/p>\n

A season of watching civilians testing guided missiles out in China Lake carried me through 1952. I figure that the name China Lake tricked the Navy into thinking that there must be a body of water somewhere around.<\/em><\/p>\n

I must have applied by letter to Disney, I got a meeting with Andy Engman, showed my college cartoon scrapbook, did test inbetweens of D. Duck and Snow White, and was accepted. A telegram asking me to start in March, 1953, made it official. Disney was no longer handling classified material, but new employees were still fingerprinted. “Melody” was being converted to 3D, and we were given an explanation in a tour of camera of how it was to be shot. Each frame was shot three times on B&W film stock using three color filters for three consecutive exposures. The Technicolor lab then used the film strip of three exposures with color filters to unify them in one image. That was how all Disney color animation was shot. But for 3D, art work had been split onto several levels, using as many peg bars as necessary. It was shot with one set of peg bar settings for one eye, which were then shifted by varying increments, to be shot three more times for the other eye. I filed all that info for possible future reference. The studio also shot a Chipmunk short in 3D: “Working For Peanuts”. But it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t given much thought. A rear end view of an elephant drawn on one depth level fell\u00e2\u20ac\u201cso to speak\u00e2\u20ac\u201cflat.<\/em><\/p>\n

We beginning inbetweeners honed our talents working on shorts. One specific I remember is “The Lone Chipmunks”, in which Chip and Dale faced “Peglegless” Pete. For their final triumphal scene they were astride a rearing steed. For that, a scene from “Ichabod” was destructively “borrowed” from the morgue. I erased the Headless Horseman from the saddle and some animator substituted the Chips. On “Lady and the Tramp”, I had no specific assigned position; I took whatever work was needed, moving up to temporary Breakdown during production. At some point around this time, I had my first specific connection with a picture. Bob Bemiller had joined Disney for the first time\u00e2\u20ac\u201cnot as a full animator, but essentially animating. The short was “Social Lion”, using the cat designed for “Lambert, the Sheepish Lion”. Bob tried introducing some limited animation techniques, but without much success. Perhaps he had asked for me to work with him.<\/em><\/p>\n

Before “Lady” was wrapped, artists with specific talents were siphoned off to begin developing projects for Disneyland. I forget the order of events involving the end of Feature layoff, the planning of Disneyland the park and the TV show, the winding down of the theatrical shorts program, the Mickey Mouse Club, the highly stylized Disney characters turned commercial pitchmen for TV. I was off for only about six weeks from Oct. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc54 to Jan. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc55 before joining Esta Haight\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Art Props Dept. This was essentially a clearing house for locating model sheets, cutting BG overlays to mount on cels, dry mounting various art materials. Some times Esta actually found props for the M.M. Club. I developed a project to refile all of the model sheets by production numbers rather than by subject matter. As a reward, Esta let me take all the copies of models that I wanted for my personal collection and gave me property passes to remove them from the lot. But you know about all of that.<\/em><\/p>\n

By July, I was back in the Animation pool, as an inbetweener. I was assigned to the Jack Kinney unit, which soon became the Woolie Reitherman unit. We started with doing bridges connecting old cartoons for the TV show. “The Great Cat Family” had a story of sorts of domestic cats from Egyptian times and on through Medieval ages with some inclusion of witchcraft (I think), and I forget what shorts were used. “The Goofy Sports Story” used a Spirit of the Greek Olympics to introduce various Goofy sports shorts, and “The Goofy Success Story” covered his movie star career, beginning with his discovery as a Extra in “Orphans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Benefit” through getting his ears tied atop his head and hidden under a hat for the character parts of Mr. Walker and Mr.Wheeler in “Motor Mania”. I was in to see head of personnel, Andy Engman, and came back from another chat with Andy to say I was now an Assistant Animator. Somehow, “The Truth About Mother Goose” fit in to the transition to “Sleeping Beauty”. Woolie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s group got “London Bridge is Falling Down”. Bill Justice had a couple of segments, one of them being “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary”(a.k.a. Mary Queen of Scots). I then began assisting with and cleaning up after, Eric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dragon. I had enough loose time to turn out a lot of my personal color works during that time, as well as some personal pencil tests. (Which were encouraged, camera shot them.) One of these was of an abstract artist (i.e. the artist<\/u> was abstract). Who would take slashes and slices with his brush at an easel turned away from the viewer. He would get excited by his work, do a little dance, trip, and tumble from the easel. He picked up his painting, looking shocked and dismayed. Sadly, he turned it toward the viewer, revealing Sir Joshua Reynolds\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 “Pinkie”. This got shown around a bit. I had hoped it might show Ward Kimball something of what I could do with abstractions. Instead, Frank and Ollie saw something in it they liked: I had given my character a convincing body weight. I got a scene of Merryweather sitting on her bed ineffectually shaking her fists as she says: “OOOOO! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to turn her (Maleficent) into a big old hop<\/u> toad!”, lifting off the bed to accent “hop”. I thought I did a decent cleanup job. I must have had other scenes; I had reason to ask if the fairies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 wands should be part of character cleanup or left for effects. A simple decision, but in called for a Committee decision. Those two ruled lines should be done by effects. Anyhow, I soon found myself back tending Eric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dragon. But there was<\/u> one other distraction. By the time “How To Have An Accident In The Home” was completed, Walt decided that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like the new stylized look given to the Duck. So I got the job of rekeying the short in conventional fashion. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how much difference it made. I segued from following Eric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dragon roughs to doing key cleanup, at which time I could give accurate counts of the plates down the Dragon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s throat, neck, chest, belly and tail. For scenes of the Prince slashing his way through the thorn forests and battling the Dragon, Ed Kemmer, starring as Commander Corey of “Spaaaace Patroool” for several years, was called in to perform astride a wooden sawhorse being rocked on a long handle by Woolie himself. I was surprised that a TV actor should be called in for such a function. Little did I know that he had provided live action of the Prince for the entire feature. Ken Hultgren, a specialist in animal action, did the horse. He needed no Rotoscope.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bob Bemiller had left the studio prior to this. Another Assistant Animator, Ed Solomon, left the studio in late \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc57\/early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc58. Anyone who chose to leave the studio in those days had to write a Letter of Resignation, explaining why he was leaving. Ed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s excuse was that (he) would be helping his brother-in-law sell used cars. Along about March of 1958, work on the Dragon was beginning to wind down. Copies of “101 Dalmations” were going around the studio to familiarize animators with the next project. I got a call from Ed Solomon. He and Bob Bemiller were at a studio called TV Spots, which was starting a new Crusader Rabbit series in color. Would I like to join them? What? Leave Disney? I politely said no and hung up. I told Eric about the call. Noncommitally, he made some response equivalent to “It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something to think about.” I could stay at Disney, expecting perhaps to become a career assistant. All. Those. Dalmatian. Spots. If I jumped, my base pay would automatically increase from $103.82 per week to $145.00 with built-in raises to follow. Within the hour I had called Ed back and said Okay. I had a chat with Andy. I wrote my letter of resignation. Janey, Andy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s secretary, typed it out. I signed it. In two weeks, I switched jobs on the weekend.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bob was head of the animation unit. He was one of three Directors. I had to unlearn such animation niceties such as softening changes of dialog poses with inbetweens. My new walk cycles (from 1951) were used through the entire new series. I usually worked with Bob, but sometimes picked up from others. One scene I got from Paul Sommer showed a bird on a tree branch suddenly grasp his chest, as with a heart attack, and topple from the tree. Paul gave me specific instructions not to animate the action but use just one pose and provide positioning guides for that drawing. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I did, but I handled the guides like animation, flipping them like drawings to work out the action. Paul said he had to study the scene very carefully afterward to determine that I had actually followed his specific instructions.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now if he had said to make the action look fake, that might have been more of a challenge for me. <\/em><\/p>\n

June 22, 2007<\/em><\/p>\n

Are you there, Mark? When I began my brief career summary, I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realized how it would expand when I got into it. When continuing events began crowding around me, I broke off to write the enclosed family letter. Then rather (than) edit it or rewrite the pertinent parts of it, I decided to send it as is. <\/em><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my plan to continue my story after I have cleared up some of my other involvements. Libba\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book comes first, then the Bakshi book. Then back to my story. Unless you say “no more!!” It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my intention to send you further installments as I get them done. Rather than send pieces of it to Mark Evanier or Jerry Beck or whoever for column fodder, anybody who is writing any responsible work on animation will be in touch with you, and you can distribute the material as you see fit. You can be my “agent”. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure you can find a file folder for it. I have found memorabilia from all of my Bakshi films but “Wizards”. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping that it just got buried deeper in my storage unit and I am still awaiting delivery of that 24 pound pack of goodies salvaged from the Auction house. One of those nicknamed blogger buddies expressed the hope that they would be downloaded on the Internet for general availability. And it was suggested that whoever got them should eventually donate them to the ASIFA archives. Are ASIFA and the Animation Guild in competition for Archive collections? They should join forces.<\/em><\/p>\n

I get the feeling that moving into a retirement home can enhance one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reputation almost as much as being dead.<\/em><\/p>\n

And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more fun.<\/em><\/p>\n

John S. (Sparey)<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is John’s Resume from his animating years:<\/p>\n

John Sparey (Resume)<\/strong><\/p>\n

FEATURES<\/p>\n

1955 LADY AND THE TRAMP<\/p>\n

1959 SLEEPING BEAUTY<\/p>\n

1965 THE MAN FROM BUTTON WILLOW<\/p>\n

1966 THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE<\/p>\n

1971 SHINBONE ALLEY<\/p>\n

1971 THE LITTLE ARK<\/p>\n

1972 THE WAR BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN<\/p>\n

1972 FRITZ THE CAT<\/p>\n

1974 HEAVY TRAFFIC<\/p>\n

1975 COONSKIN<\/p>\n

1976 HEY, GOOD LOOKIN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

1977 WIZARDS<\/p>\n

1978 THE LORD OF THE RINGS<\/p>\n

1981 AMERICAN POP<\/p>\n

1982 HEY, GOOD LOOKIN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (final version?)<\/p>\n

1983 FIRE AND ICE<\/p>\n

1985 STARCHASER; THE LEGEND OF ORIN<\/p>\n

1987 THE CHIPMUNK ADVENTURE<\/p>\n

1993 TOM AND JERRY; THE MOVIE<\/p>\n

1994 THE SWAN PRINCESS<\/p>\n

TV SERIES<\/p>\n

1950-51 CRUSADER RABBIT (B&W)Television Arts Prods.<\/p>\n

1958-59 CRUSADER RABBIT (Color) TV Spots<\/p>\n

1954 (?) THE KING AND ODIE (KING LEONARDO AND HIS SHORT SUBJECTS)<\/p>\n

First Season-TV Spots<\/p>\n

1960-BEANY AND CECIL \u00e2\u20ac\u201cBemiller (Snowball), 3 months<\/p>\n

1960-61 FRACTURED FAIRY TALES, TV Spots (Jay Ward)<\/p>\n

1961-62 CALVIN AND THE COLONEL -CRESTON (Was TV Spots)<\/p>\n

1963-64 THE FUNNY COMPANY\u00e2\u20ac\u201cSam Nicholson, Mattel<\/p>\n

1964-69 The Final Prime Time Flintstones-Jonny Quest-Atom Ant-The Impossibles-Space Ghost-Dino Boy-Laurel and Hardy-Birdman-The Herculoids-Moby Dick-Mightor-Abbott and Costello-The Three Musketeers-The New Adventures of Huck Finn-It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s The Wolf-Scooby Doo-Where\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Huddles?-Josie and the Pussycats-You name it and I probably worked on it-Hanna-Barbera<\/p>\n

1988-89 U.S. ACRES (GARFIELD AND FRIENDS) Film Roman, CRO-Film Roman<\/p>\n

1987 THE NEW ADVENTURES OF MIGHTY MOUSE-Bakshi<\/p>\n

DISNEY SPECIALS<\/p>\n

1953 MELODY -3D<\/p>\n

1954 SOCIAL LION<\/p>\n

1955-56 (?)Bridging old Goofy shorts for TV<\/p>\n

(?) The Great Cat Family for TV<\/p>\n

THE TRUTH ABOUT MOTHER GOOSE<\/p>\n

1956(?) HOW TO HAVE AN ACCIDENT IN THE HOME<\/p>\n

FIRSTS<\/dir><\/dir><\/dir><\/dir>1950-51 CRUSADER RABBIT-First Animated TV series1973 FRITZ THE CAT-First X-Rated Animated Feature<\/p>\n

1985 STARCHASER; THE LEGEND OF ORIN-First 3D Animated Feature<\/p>\n

ALSO NOTED<\/p>\n

1962 WIENER COMMERCIAL-Sam Nicolson<\/p>\n

1969 ARCHIE LAYOUTS-Filmation<\/p>\n

1971 A SESAME STREET QUICKIE- Fred Calvert<\/p>\n

1971 BIG YELLOW TAXI-Video-Fine Arts Films<\/p>\n

1972 TITLE ANIM. FOR SATURDAY MORNING SPECIALS-Fred Calvert<\/p>\n

1972 NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR-Sat. Morn. Specs.-Fred Calvert<\/p>\n

1983 EXPERIMENTAL SHORT SHORTS-Ralph Bakshi<\/p>\n

1987 HARLEM SHUFFLE-Video-Ralph Bakshi<\/p>\n

1988-92 GARFIELD PRIME TIME SPECIALS-Film Roman<\/p>\n

1993 VIDEO COMMERCIAL FOR SIMPSONS-Film Roman<\/p>\n

1993 NICK AND NOEL-Toys R Us-Film Roman<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0John wanted me to spread the story of his career around, but he never sent me any further installments. By the time he sent me this letter, 2007, he was in the Woodland Hills Motion Picture Home, and in pretty bad health. If there is any interest, I will print a few other letters he sent me, where he analyzes recent Disney features and gives me a little career advice.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to believe that more than two months have gone by since John died, and I learned about it from the TAG website. The last time I saw John, was\u00c2\u00a0in 2006, at a screening\u00c2\u00a0Jerry Beck\u00c2\u00a0and I hosted\u00c2\u00a0 of some “Calvin and the Colonel” TV episodes, a series John animated on. We showed them at the AFI screening room, and\u00c2\u00a0John Sparey, Frank Andrina,\u00c2\u00a0Mark Evanier, Earl Kress and a few other people attended. John was already pretty feeble at that point, and walked slowly and talked more slowly than that. Some of his wry humor about the show seeped though the gloom, however. I shall miss his letters, John was a pro to the end.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"felix-4-20-36.jpg\"<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\"felix-4-21-36.jpg\"<\/a>\"felix-4-22-36.jpg\"<\/a>\"felix-4-23-36.jpg\"<\/a>\"felix-4-24-36.jpg\"<\/a>\"felix-4-25-36.jpg\"<\/a>\"felix-4-26-36.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Felix, from 4-20 to 4-26-1936, continues the extortion plot. Felix escapes from his kidnappers, and Mr. Dooit, forgetting that Felix put the Dooits on Easy street, offers the catnappers $1000.00 to take Felix off his hands! In the Sunday, Felix is once again kicked out by the Professor, and Messmer shows that he can draw funny goats in the last panel.<\/p>\n

\"krazy_vintage10-7.gif\"<\/a>\"krazy_vintage10-8.gif\"<\/a>\"krazy_vintage10-9.gif\"<\/a>\"krazy_vintage10-10.gif\"<\/a>\"krazy_vintage10-11.gif\"<\/a>\"krazy_vintage10-12.gif\"<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Krazy, from 10-7 to 10-12-1940,\u00c2\u00a0Ignatz tosses bricks that do curves in the air like a baseball, and\u00c2\u00a0Ignatz does a perfect imitation of Krazy’s Yiddish accent in the 10-12.\u00c2\u00a0 He even fooled Offissa Pupp. I wonder if John Sparey would have liked these strips?\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\"patrick-7-8-and-7-9.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"patrick-7-11-to-7-15.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\"patrick-7-16.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m playing “Catch-Up” with Patrick this time, from about 7-8 to exactly 7-16-1966. On the 7-13 episode, I began to include the by-line, so it makes the strips a little larger. Patrick makes a fine art out of cheating at croquet, and is ecstatic about making Suzy hate him. It seems very obvious that it’s Godfrey Snodgrass hiding in the trash can in the 7-16 strip. John Sparey never really got into computers very much (lucky him), but lived to see a lot of his collection of his drawings go up on Ebay without his consent! If I get any comments on this post, I’ll print more of John Sparey’s drawings and letters. I guess\u00c2\u00a0there wasn’t much interest in\u00c2\u00a0my Mother’s song from last time, it’s OK.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See that laughing maniac up there? That’s a caricature of me drawn by John William Sparey back in 1969, more than 40 years ago. Here John is comparing my laugh to the sound of a cackling chicken. We were working for John Wilson on the animated feature “Shinbone Alley”. It was my first real job […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","comment-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsthecat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}