TEX AVERY


TEX AVERY
Tex Avery was born under the name Frederick Bean Avery on February 26, 1908 in Texas. During his life he directed a lot of high points in movie cartoon history: those fantastically funny fireworks of outrageous invention and perfect execution that made every Tex Avery cartoon so very extra-special. His cartoons feature fast-paced, violent, zany humor, punctuated with outrageous "takes". When a character does a "take" in an Avery cartoon, his eyes literally pop out, his jaws drops to the floor like porch steps, and his tongue gyrates variously as he screams. Tex Avery can rightfully be called the King of Cartoons. As the creator of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and director of many of the "Looney Tunes" cartoons and numerous MGM masterpieces, his influence on American animation and comedy has been incalculable. He was leading a direction away from the imitation Disney, personality-orientated cartoons every studio in Hollywood was producing. Avery and his crew believed in making funny cartoons for themselves, with the kind of humor that he and his collegues enjoyed. His new approach to animation would greatly affect the style and the timing of cartoons at MGM. Avery's cartoons soon became the standard for cartoon comedy, so much so that his techniques, designs and gags are still copied today. It is often considered a great oversight that Avery never won an Academy Award. Avery was less interested in creating lasting characters than creating gags and funny situations. Of the characters he did create at MGM, Droopy has become his most popular star, though Red Hot Riding Hood, the Wolf and the obnoxious Screwy Squirrel have their own cult following. Many of Avery's cartoons have earned their place among the greatest cartoons ever made: "King Size Canary", "Bad Luck Blackie", "Magical Maestro" and "Blitz Wolf" are but a few. In the '70s Avery joined the lucrative world of TV-commercials, and created the original RAID insect spray ads and the Frito Bandito. Tex Avery died in August 1980. On these pages you will find three very different Tex Avery-cels, as well as two wonderful vintage drawings. I hope you'll enjoy my website, and if you have anything to add or any other comments, please e-mail me: hwalther@xs4all.nl Hans Walther All images © and TM of the respective studios. You can click on the thumbnails to see larger images.

	DEPUTY DROOPY (1955) Original hand-painted production cel of desperado Slim from the last Droopy cartoon Tex Avery directed for MGM. Tex Avery directed this cartoon together with Michael Lah. Produced by Fred Quimby for MGM, the cartoon premiered on October 28, 1955. The paint on this cel has been professionaly restored. I bought this cel at an auction at the Howard Lowery Gallery in 1996. I combined this cel with an original handpainted background from "Tumbleweed Tex", a Hanna-Barbera special. To see this combination, click HERE.
	ONE CAB'S FAMILY (1952) Limited edition serigraph cel (1993). Production 234 - Scene 59: Father Cab is awaiting his son's operation. This sericel is part of the book "Tex Avery" by Pierre Lambert, published by Demons & Merveilles.
	RAID BUG COMMERCIAL (1970's) Original three cel set-up from the American "Raid" commercial. I also have the matching drawings. Designed and directed by Tex Avery.
	SLAP HAPPY LION (1947) Original production-drawing from this cartoon directed by Tex Avery, about a lion who roars his tonsils out to prove he's King of the Beasts, but meets his Waterloo in the form of a little mouse. Production 154 - Scene 42 - Nr. 67. The cartoon was animated by Ray Abrams, Robert Bentley and Walter Clinton, and was released on September 20, 1947 (and re-released on May 28, 1955). The letters 'BS' on the drawing stand for 'Biff Sniff', a term they used for panning the cel across a background. You can see another 'BS' stamp on one of my Jerry (from Tom & Jerry) drawings.
	SLAP HAPPY LION (1947) Original production-drawing of the little mouse from this cartoon directed by Tex Avery. Production 154 - Scene 49 - Nr. 116.