Thursday, March 19, 2009

A Couple Of Wiseguys Who Still Owe My Pop Some Dough

Below is a draft of a letter my father wrote in reply to his good friend, cartoonist Larry Silverman (Yeah, I call everybody who ever worked in animation a cartoonist - it's an old habit). Larry was questioning the veracity of Wiseguy Graham, who dismantled the studio after the first successful season of The Linus The Lionhearted Show. At that point, Graham's name would appear in the end credits as "Produced and Directed by..."


Here's another real pip. Total B.S. wrapped in even more bureaucratic B.S. Forget about the signature on the bottom by wannabe-Wiseguy Saunders; Animation House was actually owned by Wiseguy Bob Mills. The best thing about this gig was that my dad got out of Los Angeles for a bit, and if you knew the L.A. animation scene in '73, maybe my dad actually won out...uh, on second thought...


I'd write more, but my computer is hung-up calculating the compounded interest...

3 comments:

Dave Mackey said...

I remember Bob Mills as being a camera operator for the DePatie-Freleng studio, late 70s.

What would Irv have been working on for DePatie-Freleng in 1973?

p spector said...

Dave, if you can tell me what the particular DFE output was in 1973, then I can see if I have anything that corresponds.

As far as Mills being a DFE camera operator in the late 70's: I don't know much about his career, but I can tell you that at any given time, that any jackass can go off and be an entrepreneur.

Eric Noble said...

Oh Paul, here is a way I found you can submit your father's work to Fantagraphics. This is from their website.

We do not assume responsibility for unsolicited submissions. This means sending nothing that you'd mind us throwing away, since we don't have the room to store rejected submissions and won't spend our own money to send them back to you. If you really want your submission back, include a self-addressed envelope with appropriate postage or International Reply Coupon (IRC). If you don't, your submission will be discarded.

Do not send original art, portfolios, or other expensive packages. We receive a great volume of submissions, so sending your work by any of the various express-mailing services will not appreciably speed our decision. Please allow two to three months for a response. Hopefully, we can get back to you sooner, but there are periods that we are especially swamped with submissions. The old saw "Don't call us; we'll call you" certainly applies. Do not stalk us.

While we request that you include a cover letter (stating your name, address, etc.) with your submission, we need no resumé - your work stands or falls on its own merits.

Send a self-adressed, stamped envelope for us to enclose our reply in, or an International Reply Coupon if you're located outside of the United States.

Address all submissions correspondence to:
Submissions Editor, c/o Fantagraphics Books, 7563 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115 USA.