GETTING LACED

Its that time of year again!! Everyone is polishing the chrome, the paint, getting the grills ready, the cameras ready and the family... We are all getting ready for the Biggest Cruise Day of the year hosted by the Majestics Car Club. Here are a couple fliks of last years thanks to JaeBueno for the fliks.

STAY SHARP

We just got in some inventory from Greenspans of the original Pendleton's, Cascade, Carhart Jackets (U.S. made deadstock) and these grey Fedoras..
for those of you that haven't heard of Greenspans they are an original clothing store that have been open since 1928 in the same location.
Come through and get yours at
The Last Laugh
129 e 6th st
L.A. Ca, 90014
213.488.0313

FOR THE LADIES

Here is a piece from a while ago.. She wanted a piece to inspire the rest of the ladies.

GOING ALL OUT

Here is a recent piece.. Our client wanted to start his sleeves for his first tattoo!

SOUL SUNDAY

Here is another rare classic soul record for all loyal listeners.

The Whispers - Great Day

Julie Newmar as April Conquest (part 1)

From "The Monkees Get Out More Dirt" (1967)

Look at the size difference between Julie and Davy Jones! Avatar without the special effects.

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

One of our clients sent us a copy of this documentary after seeing our collection of films in the studio. Since then we have kept it on our top ten list.
Check it out!

EY HOMES

Merry Christmas !

STORY TIME

Cheech and Chong, Santa and his old lady from chris clark on Vimeo.

Check out the Santa Clause and his Old Lady story with the classic comedy duo Cheech and Chong. We were trying to see if anyone put together a video for this, but sometimes you just can't replace the original..

POR VIDA

Here is a flik of one of the latest backpieces... Treat yourself, don't cheat yourself!

MALICE N WONDERLAND

Here are a couple fliks of the Malice N Wonderland canvas that I painted for the homie Snoop and his tenth solo album.. If you haven't already picked that new record up you need too. Another Banger from the WestCoast Don.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

SOUL SUNDAY

Here is another Classic Soul record for the rest of your days..

TRAILERS OF THE WEEK

I Love these movies I never get sick of watching them. I sometimes forget that younger people don't know about them. These documentaries are worth adding to your collection.

STREET LIFE

Trip out on this recent one... One of our repeat clients came in to add to his collection, he wanted to get some of that old school collage street life imagery.

DEVILISH

Here is something different, our client wanted to get his interpretation of what hell is going to be like..

Thanks For Everything, Roy.

I'm so sad to hear that Roy E. Disney passed away earlier today. I wasn't aware that he'd been battling cancer, so it was quite a shock to me. There are a lot of memories that are flooding back from the last 25 years - starting in 1984, when there was that attempted takeover of Disney, which coincidentally reared its ugly head only several months after I'd first started my Disney career in the Canadian office.

I recall that Disney staff far and wide were all pretty nervous of how that would end, but once the attempt was thwarted and the dust had settled, Disney had a new management team in Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, with Roy having been instrumental in negotiating their installation at the helm. Admittedly, I wasn't that thrilled with the direction they soon started taking Disney in, but I was happy that Roy's part in the deal was that he would be the, albeit, figurehead in charge of Disney Feature Animation, as we saw him as the protector of that most important, yet under-appreciated division of the studio. It seemed that, were it not for Roy Disney, Disney Animation might have been dissolved soon after Eisner and Wells took charge. Fortunately, Roy convinced them of how important it was and that eventually led to such films as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, putting Disney once again at the forefront of animated entertainment.

After Frank Wells was tragically killed in a helicopter crash in 1994, Michael Eisner started getting too big for his britches, making a lot of ill conceived decisions that were judged by many to be detrimental to Disney. Eventually Roy became so fed up with it all that he quit the board of directors (or was in danger of being squeezed out ) and started the "Save Disney" campaign to oust the tyrannical Eisner from his position as CEO. His efforts ultimately proved successful, leading to a humiliating revolt against Eisner at the 2004 shareholders' meeting, forcing his hand to leave the Company during the following year before his contract officially was up.

Back around 1981 or 1982, before all that mess with the Disney takeover attempt, I have one very fond, personal memory of Roy that I think says a lot about the man's character. Here in Canada on CBC (our public network) there's a long running current affairs show called The Fifth Estate, similar in format to CBS's 60 Minutes. Back at that time, they did a show where they investigated the mistreatment of animals that was purported to be rife within the TV and movie industry. It ran at least a couple times in repeats, so I remember it well. One of the guys they interviewed on the subject was Marlin Perkins, former host of TV's Wild Kingdom. When confronted with information from people who'd worked with him on some of his nature shows claiming there were contrived setups with animals that put them at risk of injury and death, Perkins denied it all, eventually losing his cool and demanding that they turn off the camera and stop the interview. Perkins came off as a bald-faced liar as a result.

Afterwards, there was a similar confrontational grilling of Roy Disney in what looked like his living room at home. The journalist confronted Roy with the accusation that there had been deaths of animals during the making of some of the True Life Adventures of the 1950s, in which Roy had been in charge of one of the camera units filming animals supposedly going about their business in the wild. I recall the journalist aggressively accusing the filmmakers of stampeding a horde of lemmings over a rocky cliff in White Wilderness. And while lemmings are believed to commit mass suicide in such a fashion, apparently these weren't the right sort of lemmings who are purported to do that! While the self-righteous journalist was accusing him of these misdeeds, Roy just sat there in his armchair very calmly smoking his cigarette before finally being given a chance to respond to the accusations. Instead of denying it all like Marlin Perkins had done, Roy just casually replied (and I paraphrase) "Yeah, that probably was what happened. We wouldn't do that type of thing today, but back then we did what had to be done to get some exciting footage in the wild". No vehement denials - just a somewhat sheepish grin, perhaps denoting some small pangs of latent guilt. Anyway, it took the wind out of the sails of that indignant interviewer and I admired Roy Disney for his refreshing frankness then and ever since, as every time I'd seen him on camera I was struck by how genuine and devoid of Hollywood b.s. this mild-mannered man was.

If you'd like to see Roy at his finest, I'd highly recommend checking out his lengthy interview with Leonard Maltin on the On the Front Lines DVD set, devoted to Disney's wartime cartoons. Roy fondly shares his firsthand memories of visiting his dad's and uncle's studio as a boy during World War II. His incredible knowledge of that period and nostalgic anecdotes are just a joy to watch. You can see just how much Roy loved and respected his uncle Walt's legacy, which explains why he felt so compelled in later life to defend Disney animated filmmaking at all costs. I'll always love ol' Roy for that, and I'll miss the man very much.

DEC/JAN ISSUE OF COMPLEX MAG

Check out the new issue of Complex.. When you open it this is the first page you will see. Complex is a dope magazine that reflex the taste of style from the East to the West Coast and from Tokyo and back. It is one of the few magazines that supports hip hop and is still original.

Charley in New Town (1948)

YOU KNOW WHAT IT DO

Here is some footage from last weeks Snoop Dogg X F.S.A.S event..

GOOD TIMES BAD TIMES

Here is a recent session on a first time client that came in.. She wanted to get the tops of her feet done with classic smile now cry later theme.

SOUL SUNDAY

Once again Soul Sunday comes through with another hard to find, kick back and check it out.

Happy Birthday, Frank Sinatra!

Yes, it's that time of the year again, when The Cartoon Cave pays tribute to the greatest of them all, Frank Sinatra. I've written about Frank often on this blog, but he will always be celebrated here, as he typifies the entertainment from that glorious past that I love so much. In honour of his birthday, I sketched a new caricature of him, this time trying something a little different in the rendering technique. Instead of my usual brush and ink with Photoshop colour, I decided to draw him on toned paper with coloured pencils just to see how it would look. It may be a bit overdone in some areas, but I'm relatively happy with the result. I actually got the inspiration from having seen a similar approach by several of my very talented Sheridan animation students while reviewing their sketchbooks this past week.

The reference I used for this one was a scene from Tony Rome, in which Frank played the title character, a rough and tumble private detective operating in modern day Miami, Florida. The film also starred the delectable Jill St. John. Though I unfortunately can't embed the YouTube clip for this one, here is a link to the opening clip of Tony Rome, featuring the title song sung by Frank's little gal, Nancy Sinatra. Enjoy!

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

Check out this documentary about graffiti, the east and west coast vandals. Check out Amoeba or online to purchase.

MAESTRO KNOWS CARTOON

Maestro Knows - Episode 2 (Mr. Cartoon) from Maestro Knows on Vimeo.

Check out this interview i did with the kid Maestro

WEST WEST

Here are a couple more so you can see how it went down..

Chuck Jones: BARBARY COAST BUNNY

Another plug for the Chuck Jones blog. It's not only full of incredible drawings, but the "Chuck Jones' Letters to Linda" are filled with fascinating insight into Chuck's thought process during his most creative period. I especially enjoyed reading this section on the recording of Daws Butler and Mel Blanc for one of my favorite Jones cartoons, BARBARY COAST BUNNY:

I just returned from recording a new picture:  BARBARY COAST BUNNY.  I used a new actor, name of Daws Butler, in the role of the heavy.  He’s a very clever guy, hard working, intelligent and refreshing.  He’s the one who worked with Stan Freberg on all those records, they wrote and acted in them together.
 
I must say that I learned a great deal from him.  He gave a splendid and new angle to this character, a sort of Marlon Brandoish mushy-mouthed delivery that seemed very funny to me.  In Streetcar Named Desire Brando was a troglodyte but with his speech dotted with completely incongruous delicacies.  This effort to attain elegance was what gave the character its odd twist, like an orangutan in an evening gown.  So we rewrote the dialogue a little to fit this new conception and, as I say, it came off beautifully.
 
Another thing I noticed is that Mel Blanc, who was there to record the rabbit, was well aware that he has some competition from Daws.  He really worked today.  I have never seen him evidence more interest in his work.  I think I shall hire a sort of stand-by talent on recording days if this is what the goad of rivalry does for Mel.  Like others, I suppose, he is likely to get a trifle smug occasionally.  All in all, a good day.

Chuck also writes about his next cartoon, another favorite:

I am on the backstretch of another story I think you will like. The one about the year when Mars approached so close to the earth that it affected a cosmic mix-up and a Martian baby was diverted to the earth while the Earth baby went by mistake to Mars. At any rate a pleasant average young married couple find themselves with an odd lightish green highly intellectual baby with a disconcerting knack of talking to bees. Before the babies are traded back we have quite a time for ourselves. I’m using a wholly new drawing technique for me, like the enclosed drawings, they’re rough but I think you can get the idea.

This cartoon turned out to be "Rocket bye baby", of course. I'd love to see those drawings! The style Chuck used for this cartoon is so perfect, very 1950's Hank Ketcham.

S.

THE UPDATE

Here are a couple fliks from the event last night courtesy of JaeBueno.com
Snoop and Trav killed it! It was a good way to kick off the next 10yrs..
Congratulations to the homies, Travis B. and Big Snoop for doing their thing these past 10yrs & 10 solo albums.