I have been talking a lot about the creators of all the characters in Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on the radio and at my appearances lately! In fact, one interview will air today on WJQZ in Wellsville New York at 8:45 AM and another in Rockford Illinois this week on WKCL 96.7 FM

 c. 2001 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives

 Antony Peters was a very close friend of mine and designed all of the characters as we know them in Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer including the lettering style used in the credits!  He started very early with Rankin/Bass as their original designer/Artist in the 1950s.  He worked on all of their commercials and developed The New Adventures of Pinocchio and later The Tales of the Wizard of Oz.  He even went to Canada to oversee the animation at Crawley studios for Oz.  He developed their feature film, Willy McBean & His Magic Machine and then designed all of the characters in Rudolph such as Hermey the Dentist, Yukon Cornelius, The Bumble, The Island of Misfit toys, etc.

Romeo Muller, Jr., seen here behind the great Sid Caesar, whom Romeo wrote for, created all of the characters in Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV Special including Clarice, The Misfit Doll, Sam the Snowman (Who he based on Nicely Nicely from Guys & Dolls), the foreman elf, etc.   Romeo is the reason we are still talking about Rudolph on it's 55th Anniversary!  I recently did an interview for Smithsonian Magazine about all of this, that will be out before Christmas!