Illustrator Eric Sturdevant has posted some terrific Cliff Roberts illustrations on his blog Fun All Around. Roberts (1929-1996) drew these illustrations for the FORD TIMES in the late-1940s while living in Detroit. Right around the time he made these illustrations, he also began to work in animation at Detroit’s Jam Handy Organization. Gene Deitch writes more about Roberts’s early animation career in his on-line autobiography. The first animated work that Roberts designed at Jam Handy was the industrial film BUILDING FRIENDS FOR BUSINESS (1950). Here’s a cel setup from it:
In the 1950s, he became one of animation’s major character designers on the East Coast and there’s a lot more written about him in my book. Below is another example of his work: a late-1950s drawing for TOP CEL, the newsletter of the New York animator’s union.
(click on image for larger version)
