PAUL COKER, JR. designs from THE STINGIEST MAN IN TOWN

BIRTHDAY Weekend

Sara got to spend some time with her friend Ieva on her birthday weekend! A good friend from the old neighborhood.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Another GREAT HANNA-BARBERA figure FUNKO did! Box art by Patrick Owsley! Keep them coming! Love the vintage H-B characters...would love to see BREEZLY and SNEEZLY, MR. TWIDDLE, HOKEY WOLF and DING-A-LING, etc.

Some more pics of the GREAT sculpts FUNKO did on PETER POTOMUS and SO SO! Keep them coming FUNKO!

THAT GIRL!

Marlo Thomas starred in two RANKIN/BASS PRODUCTIONS: CRICKET ON THE HEARTH with her father Danny Thomas and then later in the RARELY seen THAT GIRL IN WONDERLAND. I was so happy when I located THAT GIRL IN WONDERLAND several years ago. Rhoda Mann, one of the voice actors in the ABC SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE, had it with commercials!

THE STARVING ARTISTS Live!

Come out and say hello! We are definitely excited by our new set of music and looking forward to playing it live!
Here is another book you may want to pick up on UPA!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

MR. MAGOO'S CHRISTMAS CAROL book continued

I really love this book! It is inspiring me to draw and design again (In fact I did for a little while tonight) and it makes you want to watch the special again, which I did the other night. It is great to see things in raw form and learn about all the creative talents that went into this production. I was telling Darrell that this type of book really needs to be done by someone that loves the special and the right guy definitely did it! I would hate to see the book that the rights owners would have done.
This special holds special memories for me too. I remember earning Christmas money when I was a kid watching this. My mom let me do the laundry and clean the house for Christmas money. I always liked this treatment of Dicken's Christmas Carol best!

BOB McFADDEN & DOR

My friend, the late great Bob McFadden gave me this picture of him in the studio with DOR (Rod McKuen) recording one of their novelty records. Bob did many great cartoon voices for RANKIN/BASS and other studios! He also did voice mail recordings for me as COOL McCOOL, JINGLE BELLS (From THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS), BORIS KARLOFF (From MAD, MAD, MAD, MONSTERS), MILTON THE MONSTER and FRANKENBERRY!

MEL BLANC

One of the greatest voice actors of all-time. Paul Frees called him the king.

MR. MAGOO'S CHRISTMAS CAROL book!

I am really enjoying this book right now and am half way through reading it (will post more later). Love the layout and the information and especially the layout drawings, storyboards and color art from one of my favorite holiday TV Specials! Well worth the price! If you like MR. MAGOO, UPA, HOLIDAY SPECIALS, GREAT ART, etc. ....order yours today!

LES PAUL passes at age 94


The great LES PAUL passed today in White Plains, NY. He was quite the inovator developing not only his great Les Paul guitar through GIBSON but also multi-track recording, which he used on two number one recordings with his wife MARY in the 1950's. My friend Tony Wray at GIBSON guitars said Les would often visit the plant and he made personal appearances even in his nineties. A legend has left the building.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

from my CHICAGO KID'S TV BOOK project! RAY RAYNER & FRIENDS

PAUL FREES: THE RANKIN/BASS voice actor

The late Paul Frees did a HUGE body of voice acting in his career BUT his favorite Producers to work for were Jay Ward and Arthur Rankin, Jr.. In fact, Arthur and Paul became very close friends. Paul has the distinction of being in the most RANKIN/BASS Productions of any actor and will be remembered for characters like the BURGERMEISTER MEISTERBURGER, the traffic cop in FROSTY THE SNOWMAN, Many Santa Claus voices including the one in HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL, Ali and the kings in THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY, just to name a few. Paul was an amazing talent!





One of Romeo's GREATEST scenes

This is definitely a classic moment in the RANKIN/BASS history written by Romeo Muller. Talk about heart and warmth!
Sara's 18th Birthday is coming up this coming Monday!

THE MOUSE ON THE MAYFLOWER

This is always fun to watch...especially with the McDonald's commercials! The DVD has some cool FESTIVAL OF FAMILY CLASSICS as well plus the NEWS appearances with the restored SANTA & RUDOLPH.


Here is another GREAT piece of art from Mark Christiansen's blog http://www.markscartoonart.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, August 11, 2009




I have a NEW brace on my wrist. THE STARVING ARTISTS set is tightening up too!

THUNDERCATS!

www.thundercatslair.org for statue NEWS and other cool THUNDERCATS items!
ARTHUR RANKIN, JR. at the multi-plane

ADAM-12 season 3 is out today!

We hear Martin Milner is in ill health and want to wish him well!!! I watch him every night on ME TOO in ROUTE 66 and ADAM-12 SEASON 3 is out today on DVD. Martin was the first actor to act with James Dean on television and then went on to act with the BEST in his series as well!