« It was a fanatic’s world, and I was one of the fanatics » – Gene Deitch
Say, for a bit of a twist, let’s pay tribute to a living* legend. I’m referring to none other than Gene Deitch (born ninety-four years and change ago: August 8, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois).
This fascinating man has led a life of such distinction, achievement and all-around coolness that I’m tripping all over myself trying to boil it down to a few highlights. Art director of legendary jazz mag The Record Changer, animator-director-scenarist for UPA, Terrytoons, MGM… Academy Award winner for his direction of his animated adaptation of Jules Feiffer‘s Munro (watch it right here), creator of Sidney the Elephant, John Doormat, Clint Clobber, Gaston Le Crayon… and co-creator of Simon, Seth and Kim Deitch. Some fine artistic genes, to be sure!
If you don’t terribly object, I’ll sidestep the pitfall of ambition and restrict this post to a single facet of Mr. Deitch’s orbit, namely his jazzy cartoons of the 1940s and 50s. Incidentally, these succulent needles have been collected, in their usual, exemplary fashion, by the Fantagraphics team. If you dig these, and the odds are good, you’ll need to acquire, dentro de poco, their The Cat on a Hot Thin Groove (2013).
He is the veteran animator illustrator film director producer & cartoonist who wrote & created animated cartoons like Tom & Jerry Popeye Tom Terrific & other classics & he is of Czech Slovak Austrian Hungarian & German ancestry his real name is E.Merrill Deitch under his signature as Eugene M. Deitch/Yevgeni Deitchova/E.M.D./G.D.
He is the veteran animator illustrator film director producer & cartoonist who wrote & created animated cartoons like Tom & Jerry Popeye Tom Terrific & other classics & he is of Czech Slovak Austrian Hungarian & German ancestry his real name is E.Merrill Deitch under his signature as Eugene M. Deitch/Yevgeni Deitchova/E.M.D./G.D.
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