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The 70's

In 1971,I heard of an opening at Ralph Bakshi studios in NYC, It was a beginners job opaquing a new Animated Cartoon, An X rated animated cartoon called "Fritz the Cat. The feature film was looosely based on Robert Crumbs character created for the underground Comix copyrighted in 1965.

I met Ralph Bakshi,interviewed for the job, and was hired as one of the many opaquers on Fritz the Cat.

It was , what most people would feel a boring necesary job.

We were the infantry, we took the inked film acetate cell, turned it over, and painted the

reverse side with an acrylic cell vinyll paint. . That was it, that was all we did all

day long.

We followed a chart with a lined drawing of the character on it. The line drawing had numbers and coresponding arrows pointing to the character for color. So simple almost anyone could do it.For an artist, this was mana. I loved my job. Every day I would grab the train from Long Beach, NY and travel the 90 minute ride to the city, just so I could be a part of this animation film. I met wonderful people, and watched an animated film come to life. Face it I was a kid.

I met the guy who created Baby Huey, I believe his name was Marty Taras, he was a gentleman, and he was a dead ringer for Baby Huey, in size, demeanor, and personality. . He

was one of the animators on the film, in New York City. It was amazing to watch how animation was created via Ralph Bakshi and company. The Original drawing was drawn by an animator, and given to another animator, called an inbetweener. He or she would , t

race the pencilled art, and make small adjustments to give the illusion of movement.. Sometimes only a part of the body, not the whole body was was drawn, it was all dependant on the characters movement. The crew involved was a tight knit group of incredibly talented artists,

The finished pencils were all checked , then given to an inker. He, or she would trace over the lines with a pen, on each cel. When that was completed, the acetates were given to the cell painters. The background was based on photos of the city, then turned into a magnificent water color paintngs for the film, It was an amazing production, and a lot of fun to see it being produced.

There is a wonderful book called "Unfiltered" The complete Ralph Bakshi, by Universe Publishing Co, I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys great art, cartoons, or animation.

It will explain the whole process, and display the amazing artwork that went into each of the RalphBakshi animated films, Enjoy

Below is my little animated cartoon, promoting the web site