The World of Knight

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Sunday, November 16, 2014

BOOKS REVISITED

Hey, Mark; I forgot to include this photo on Saturday. Yes, the summer was good to me...

IT'S A HAP HAP HAPPY DAY

Star British comic includes the rarely heard verse.

Played by the jazz great of France.

Accompanying footage from REEFER MADNESS.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

BOOKS!

This summer has been good to me bookwise. Here are a few acquisitions...

Got in trade for $2 credit over the weekend. Covers just about off, held together with aging tape. Undated. Title translates as "Friend of the Cougar", meaning a friend you DON'T need. I like the look and feel of the cosmopolitan, "adult" Latin cartoonists.

This one is copyrighted 1956 by Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulation Co. Industrial cartooning.

TOO MANY NAIL SALONS, NOT ENOUGH BOOKSTORES! SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSELLER!
- MK.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

THANKSGIVING THEATRE

A HAPPY FAMILY-Krazy Kat, 1935: One of director Ben Harrison's rubber hose extravaganzas, full of motion, detail and creepiness. Pretty quartet sings clever theme lyrics.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

THOUGHT

I'm a Democrat (for want of a better choice), but feel that Obama's bait-and-switch tactics broke too many hearts to inspire any voter fervor. Even I almost didn't. It's not as if these last 8 years have been exceedingly Liberal; in fact not at all.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

ELECTION DAY

I have been as turned off by Obama's bait-and-switch policies as anyone, and I decided pretty early on that I wasn't voting. But I changed my mind today & did. Why? For me. I'm just selfish, that's all.

A SATISFIED STUDENT

New from a student who took my online cartooning classes:

"ah, great stuff Milton! Another dose of learning! I have all day tomorrow to look over these lessons and really absorb the knowledge. I am also wondering if you could tell me the name of the Chinese artist who made those illustrations? They are incredible!
I am 100% that I will take another class from you. I am going to spend a good amount of time with this one for the time being, but I will be ready in the next month or so. Many thanks!"

$35 per lesson. Contact me if YOU'RE interested!

Monday, November 3, 2014

Did you know that the familiar 1930s animation look was less an artistic decision than an economic one; that they were faster to draw and learn, and allowed artists to move between studios without having to learn all over again? Did you also know that the "rubber hose" method came to being because it was decided that articulated joints could flicker too much onscreen? So stop being uptight about it.

Cordially Yours,
Milt

Sunday, November 2, 2014

ANNIVERSARY

Today marks the first anniversary of my blog.We'll see how long I continue it, for I hear very little from readers. It's like working in the dark, with my own satisfaction being the only reward. Oh well.

Friday, October 31, 2014

HALLOWEEN STOMP!

Illustrations I did for the Jass Records holiday compilation way back in the eighties.

And here's a playlist of five selections from the CD:

G'bye now!-MK

COPYRIGHT 2014 BY MILTON KNIGHT

HALLOWEEN CARTOON CARNIVAL!

DANEMON'S MONSTER HUNT AT SHOJOJI (1935)
A slapstick tale of a legendary figure: Ban Naoyuki (1567 -- May 26, 1615), also known as Ban Dan'emon was a Japanese samurai general of the late Sengoku and early Edo periods.
Drawings: Yoshitaro Kataoka; made some of the earliest efforts in color productions, and was also an artist of manga.

A MAD HOUSE-Terrytoon (1934)
Mad Doctor who rooms with a house of skeletons plans mischief. M.D. animation largely by Bill Tytla.

BEANSTALK JACK-Terrytoon (1932)
Fairy Tale rehash in which Jack encounters a gang of pseudo-jazz skeletons (animated by Eddie Donnelly). The pre-sound stylings of Frank Moser & Jerry Shields highly contrasts with Bill Tytla's advanced, otherworldly Giant.

TARO'S MONSTER HUNT (1936)
A Bosko-cloned samurai battles traditional monsters and demons. Drawings: Hiromasa Suzuki.

G-MAN JITTERS-Terrytoon (1939)
Young Gandy dreams he is a "G-man" (actually an old-fashioned deerstalker-capped detective) investigating strange noises in a haunted house. With Frankenstein, Dracula and Mrs. Jones.
Opening musical theme: "The Happy Farmer" by Schumann.

A HOWLING SUCCESS-Terrytoon (1954)
A favorite plot at the studio: a character running around the house being terrorized mostly by his own imagination. A sure-fire setup for freak-out animation by Jim Tyer, Carlo Vinci, Conrad "Connie" Rasinski (the director, after whose dog "Pago" was named) and Paul Sommer.

THE NUTTY NETWORK-Terrytoon (1939)
Jungle animal spoof of the public reaction to Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast. With the Bert Lahr lion as "The King". Fine "cartoon-hot dance" music by Philip A. Scheib.

Enjoy!-MK

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

PALS

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

LEGALLY BLONDE 2

Saturday, October 25, 2014

TRICK OR TREAT

FAT WITCH, 2000s.

Friday, October 24, 2014

MORE ANIMATION, MORE ME

Two more animated scenes from my unfinished project, CAPRICE, dating from about 2008.

There would be a camera shake here due to an earthquake...

It's a thrill looking at your animation after a period of years. You can see the errors, but also thrill on where it's at its best.

Esteemed animator Mark Kausler advised me to use more held drawings because the drawings were too interesting to miss. He feels my animation drawings are more like printed comic art than an animation style, I suppose due to the joints and knuckles.

I don't believe Mark was putting the work down, just saying it was different, and I like that; after all, if I'm working on my own time, it should be something I like myself. And I'm not working on it now; just pulled some files out. When I'm working on a film in the future, I'm not telling anyone. I'll spring it on you, and you'll have to pay to see it.

COPYRIGHT 2014 BY MILTON KNIGHT

Thursday, October 23, 2014

DANCE CYCLE BY ME

From the unfinished CAPRICE project, 2000s. The character, Bitsy the 'B'.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

BOOKSTORE

I swear. I was in the bookstore, trying to make my way through one of them, and this happy-dappy jogger dude with a paper cup of tea comes up the aisle, bumping an old man in passing. "'Scuse me!" He is obsessed with small talking to anyone around, often about his tea, which he can't live without.. He makes a couple of friendly remarks to me. I smile, say "yeah", return a remark or two, and go back to my reading. Then he actually pulls a book from the shelf and reads the texts of it out loud in a clear voice, turns to me and says something like, "Yeah, right, funny, eh, Dude?" I have to put on a more concentrated expression as I read mine so he'll take the hint.

Monday, October 20, 2014

THOUGHT

I'm finding a lot of people don't look at the art closely anymore; it's who did it that counts. If it's not a work of "somebody", it's not worth looking at.

Society makes the assumption that if an artist is REALLY good he'll make the history books thru sheer merit. Bull. Who knows how many Van Goghs there were in his time who people STILL refuse to observe and treasure?

***

Cartoon from "HOT DOG", 1930.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

I HAD A DREAM...

Had a dream I was seeing a newly discovered Laurel & Hardy short from 1936. Stan tells Ollie he wants to become a songwriter. Ollie puts him down. Fade out. Fade in some time later, and Ollie is a chauffer driving the wealthy Stan, who’s lounging in the back seat. Sharing the front seat is Finlayson, Stan’s lawyer. They stop at a big department store. From then on, my dream becomes cloudy, but there’s an “I’ll hurt you, you hurt me” match being played by two good looking female customers. They are doing pleasant things such as twisting and cracking each others’ wrists. The ending had Ollie losing Stan’s fortune with a bad investment.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Pages from A GUIDE TO BETTER FIGURE DRAWING by Cecile Hardy

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

MORE CHARLES X. CARLSON

Drawing with blood, guts, heart and balls!

Sunday, October 12, 2014

THINGS I MISS #348:

Virile drawing manuals; as tough & gritty as the charcoal pencil itself. Many members of today's neutered (or simply raging) society consider this quality "scary".

From SIMPLIFIED FIGURE DRAWING by Charles X. Carlson, 1952.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

ART WALK

Last nite, had a table in the "Graphic Artists and Their Art" section at the Pasadena Central Library. It was part of the "Art Walk", a night of bus shuttles to various museums around town. It was a crowded house but a rocky start; only two of us cartoonists showed, and it was only when we demanded a table in the main lobby that we got traffic, but not much at first. (I got the vibe pretty quickly and put the HUGOs away.) The other artist got fed up and left early. I nearly did too, but ...then it started going well. A lot of impressed people (non-comics peoples' reaction are always fresher and more open), good conversation, sold a pair of GRAPHIC CLASSICS volumes ($32 big bucks, buddy!). Giving the prices broke my heart; moms will NOT shell out $6 for a 32 page magazine for their kid; people are really impressed (almost amazed) to find someone drawing with their own hands, and many regard it as BETTER, and many prefer the word "comic" to "graphic novel". Though they're supposed to be "mainstream", "graphic novels" are a hard sell to civilians.

Friday, September 19, 2014

THOUGHT

Business today is all about eliminating the little man.

COPYRIGHT 2014 BY MILTON KNIGHT

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

MISH MISH EFFENDI

Thanks to teenage pal Marc Thorner for finding this link to a video history of the Frenkel family, their escape from Russia, and the sons' creation of the first Egyptian cartoon series. http://youtu.be/YZTRe_e_gJg