Not a whole lot is known about the life and times of Dan Gordon, but much of what’s identifiable as his work is fairly phenomenal in its execution. The brilliant, unconventional Popeye cartoons (like this one) bearing his name as “director” may be the only time a Golden Age Paramount short actually properly credited who was at the helm of the cartoon. His comic book work is very much the same as that directorial work, with seemingly normal stories abruptly taking a sharp right turn into lunacy; he never seems concerned that the plot is making any logical sense, only that the audience (and himself) are entertained by the hijinks. He ended up, after a hiatus from animation work altogether, doing ‘story sketches’ for Hanna-Barbera, probably the last place such a mindset would be appreciated.
This Superkatt story from Giggle Comics #71 (1950) is a nice example of his working process. Fortunately (?), the All Comics Group didn’t mind the comics getting as anarchic and meta as the theatrical shorts, something obviously kept at bay in the funny animal books of Western. He’s developing an interesting drawing style here; some of the side characters in particular are easily the closest thing to classic MAD Magazine I’ve seen outside of that title (save the work by Kurtzman, Martin, etc. al did themselves outside the title).
Sherm Cohen did a great bio of Gordon awhile back, Doug Gray has posted several Superkatt stories, and John K. has a nice write-up on Gordon’s skills here.
I believe I ran across a site collecting Gordon’s work presided over by his son…somewheres out there.
His brushwork, particularly the little scruffy half-hatching which give volume to his shapes, seems to move toward later political cartoons, but better tempered. A bright spot in the morass of Funny Animal books of the period, fer shure. I always loved the guy (?) who did alot of covers for Fawcett’s Funny Animals title… “Yippee! Blazing Adventures and Gay laughs” haw,haw…
It’s easy to get suckered by a sweet cover, the contents generally disappointing.
There’s a huge irony in Superkatt wearing a baby bonnet.
And dat dog’s street talk iz moider on da scalp! >.<
Sherm probably has about as much info about Dan Gordon that anyone can find. T.R. Adams’ book says Gordon died in 1969 (quoting Bill Hanna) but I can’t find anything about it. I imagine someone like Jerry Eisenberg who was at the studio at the time would know more.
It seems Gordon’s original function at Hanna-Barbera was to turn Charlie Shows and Joe Barbera’s ideas into a story board. I gather he did it for Mike Maltese, too, though Bob Givens says he and Maltese went over as a team from Warners, where he had cleaned up Maltese’s sketches at one time. It eppars Gordon also sketched character concepts during story meetings; Hanna and Barbera both credit him with coming up with the idea of a modern-day caveman for a half-hour sitcom.
Always wondered by Dan Gordon left Famous, as the films he is credited with directing are among the studio’s best (and easily the most original). It’s an understatement to say that the loss to animation was quite a boon for the world of comics.