Month: February 2006

One of the last remaining significant figures of the golden age of American animation is gone–Myron Waldman has left us, at the age of 97. Mike Dobbs has the news and a good career overview, covering everything from Waldman’s Fleischer work–he started at the studio 76 years ago–to Eve, his pioneering graphic novel.

I met Waldman only briefly, at a Museum of the Moving Image event in Queens about a decade ago. I’m glad I had the chance. And now I’m glad I didn’t berate him for creating Pudgy.

So who’s left from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s? Joe Barbera and Ollie Johnston…Stan Freberg, Arnold Stang, and June Foray…Bill Melendez and Bill Justice come to mind. Who am I forgetting?

CNN is reporting that all six members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have sent a letter to the Washington Post condemning this cartoon by Pulitzer winner Tom Toles, depicting Donald Rumsfeld as a doctor giving a rosy diagnosis to an multiple-amputee soldier who represents the Army.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff find Toles’ drawing offensive (surprise!). Great political cartoonists, of course, are often offensive–and Toles is one of the best that’s still working in this rapidly-fading artform, whose vital signs make hand-drawn animation look healthy.