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Frank Tashlin’s VAN BORING (HE NEVER SAYS A WORD)

September 30th, 2008 by Scott Marks

An after work cocktail was never far from Van Boring’s (or Tashlin’s) thoughts.

An article in this morning’s edition of The Stripper’s Guide (a blog dedicated to the history of the American newspaper comic strip) caught my attention. It had been ages since I considered Frank Tashlin’s early work as a comic strip artist and the time seemed right to talk about this chapter in the career of my favorite comedic filmmaker.

Where I come from, Francis Fredrick von Taschlein (no wonder he went by the name Tish-Tash) is a cultural icon. I was with Tash in diapers, watching his Looney Tunes on my parent’s ancient black-and-white Philco. The films he made with Jerry Lewis followed me through adolescence and as a budding young cinephile, and his CinemaScope masterpieces The Girl Can’t Help It! and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? forever changed the way I look at movie comedy. As an adult, nary a day passes where I don’t view some aspect of our modern world through Tashlin-colored glasses.

Tashlin’s strip was so popular that it spawned its own doll!

Everyone knows that Frank Tashlin was a brilliant animator who later went on to apply his squash-and-stretch sensibilities to live-action features. He began his career in animation on Paul Terry’s Aesop’s Film Fables. In 1932, after a brief stint with Amadee Van Beuren, Tashlin moved to Termite Terrace where his rapid ability to crank out drawings made him one of Leon Schlesinger’s star players. What many of you may not know is that while at Warner Bros., Tash started up his own “silent” comic strip in 1934 called Van Boring (He Never Says A Word).

At first glance, the squat, bald-headed Van Boring resembles jazz band leader Paul Whiteman. In a 1971 interview, Tashlin told animation historian Michael Barrier, “We used to make cartoons (of our) bosses all the time, of Van Beuren, around the studio. We were always doing anti-Van Beuren things. We developed a character, which looked something like him. Well, I started using him in magazine cartoons, as a throwaway character, and then when I came out (to L.A.), I developed him as a pantomime comic strip.”

To the best of my knowledge, Tashlin never appeared in any of his live action features, but a fellow named “Tish-Tash” was a regular in the Van Boring strips. According to Michael Barrier, Van Boring’s lanky, stringy-haired accomplice “was a recurring character in Van Boring, especially in the continuity that made up its last few months, when Tish and Van were marooned on a desert island with two children, Nip and Tuck.”

Tashlin was fired from Warner Bros. when he refused to give Schlesinger a piece of his comic strip revenues. “He wanted a cut of it,” Tashlin remembered, “and I said go to hell. So he fired me.” At that time, Tash had his sights set on bigger fish: “The thing that I had in mind then was to have my own cartoon studio. That’s what I wanted.” After leaving Warners in 1934, Tashlin worked for Ub Iwerks’ animation studio and as a gagman for producer Hal Roach. In 1936, after Van Boring had been put to rest, Tashlin returned to Warner Bros. where he went on to direct several comedic masterpieces, most notably the existential antics of Porky Pig’s Feat.

See more Van Boring comic strips here.

Frank Tashlin’s “Porky Pig’s Feat” (1943)

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Dig A Hole: Bill Melendez, WB and “Peanuts” animator & the voice of Snoopy

September 3rd, 2008 by Scott Marks

Bill Meléndez, the Mexican-born American animator who is best known for directing half hour Peanuts television specials died Tuesday at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. He was 91.

As an animator, the distinguished mustachioed José Cuauhtemoc “Bill” Meléndez walked with giants. In 1938, began his career at Walt Disney Studios drawing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck shorts before moving on to such feature length masterworks as Bambi, Fantasia and Dumbo. Three years later he moved to Warner Bros. to become part of the Robert Clampett unit. J.C. Meléndez had a hand in such immortal Looney Tunes as Wabbit Twouble, Falling Hare, Wagon Heels, Baby Bottleneck, The Great Piggy Bank Robbery and The Big Snooze.

When Clampett left the studio in 1948, Meléndez moved over to the Art Davis and Robert McKimson units. Between 1941 and 1951, Meléndez worked on over 50 Warner Bros. shorts. In 1951, Meléndez went to work for UPA where he animated dozens of television commercials as well as numerous Gerald McBoing-Boing and Madeline shorts. Saul Bass called upon Meléndez to help animate the opening credit scene for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

In 1964, Meléndez formed Bill Meléndez Productions and became the only animator Charles M. Schultz permitted to work with his beloved Peanuts characters to. Along with producing partner Lee Mendelson, the duo worked on over 75 Peanuts TV specials.

Continue reading Dig A Hole: Bill Melendez, WB and “Peanuts” animator & the voice of Snoopy

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