As we all know, the best dog in Hanna-Barbara cartoons was Yowp. But if we had to pick a second-best, well, Astro would pretty much be up there (I’m talking about a dog as a pet, not a humanised dog like Huck Hound or a dogised something-else like Dino). Tony Benedict wrote the first Astro story on “The Jetsons” and made him the series’ funniest regular character. He was so good, the studio ripped off his “r” speech impediment and gave it to another character seven years later. Astro was voiced by the versatile Don Messick, who graciously signed this model sheet for a lucky fan.
This great drawing is from the collection of artist William Wray. Cornelius the Kellogg’s rooster is conducting the starring characters of the first season of “The Huckleberry Hound Show.” I couldn’t tell you what it was for, promotional material perhaps. The side of the piano is made from a Corn Flakes box.
These layouts are for one of the in-between cartoons on the Huck show. It would seem Dick Bickenbach was responsible for them.
Oh, no! Dixie is headless! Someone can correct me but I believe the little tree-charts on the side indicate which level the cels with various body parts (such as heads) are to be laid for camera work.
The note is have simply says this is a drawing of Cindy Bear by Ed Benedict. It seems odd Cindy would be dressed up as a maid.
These two great sketches are from the Wray collection as well. In the first one, we see Boo Boo, Huck, Pixie, Dixie and Iggy the crow on the top row, and Yogi (from “The Runaway Bear”) , the unnamed little fox that Yowp caught (in “Foxy Hound Dog”), Li’l Tom-Tom (from “The Brave Little Brave”) and Mr. Jinks on the bottom.
The second drawing features Ziggy and Iggy, Mr. Jinks, Yowp, the rabbit from “The Brave Little Brave” and Wee Willie on the top row and Yogi, Li’l Tom Tom, Huck, Pixie and Dixie and Boo Boo on the bottom. It was for a publicity photo. Here is it below.
And from cartoon historian John Cawley’s collection...
The Yogi hat looks more like something Larry Storch wore on “F Troop” and Huck’s resembles the ones I’ve seen people wear on St. Patty’s Day—except it has “WIGGL-EARS.” No hat is complete without them.
Ha! You're right, Yowp. The boy *Does* look more like Randolph Agarn that Yogi. Ed's drawing of Cindy Bear as the maid, with hands on her hips, kind of has a " Hazel-esk " look about it. Looks like she's about to give " Mr. B " and ear full.
ReplyDeleteThe charts to the right are indicating the spacing of the inbetweens for each character from this drawing to the next. The top chart is for Dixie. The exposure sheet indicates the levels under camera which is normally attached to the scene folder. Typically, HB cartoons would have multiple cel levels for eye blinks, head bobs and mouth levels, so each level would be indicated on the exposure sheet. The charts for each level on the animation drawings would indicate the spacing (timing) of the action for each eye blink, mouth move or head bob. Hope this helps!
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