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African American Animators Tag

Black is Beautiful 2022 – Brenda Banks

 

Brenda Banks was an animator born in Los Angeles California in 1948. I believe she grew up or spent time in Georgia but came back to LA to go to Cal Arts where she studied from 1966 to 1970. She did a student animated film and got her first gig working on the Flip Wilson show. Shortly after that she willed her way into a gig with Palestinian American animation director named Ralph Bakshi (Cool World, Fritz The Cat). At Bakshi films she worked on a adult satirical animation called Coon Skin which came out in 1977. She was described as shy, funny, and extremely talented with the pencil. She animated animals, people, and monsters. In her nearly 30 year career she worked as a layout artist, storyboard revisionist, and an animator. She also trained other artists. She is the one of the first Black women to work in animation if not thee first. In her career she worked on Charlie Brown, The Smurfs, American Pop, Looney Tunes, King of The Hill, The Simpsons, Lord of The Rings, The Jetsons, and Scooby Doo.  I’m sure she faced many barriers not only as a Black person but as a disabled person, and a woman. But, she is a pioneer  who people in the biz remember fondly. She passed away in 2020.
Sources: African Animators Past & Present, Cartoon Brew, Black Women Animate, Women in Animation, IMDB, BLK Animation.net
Check out this one of cartoonist Jackie Ormes
And the previous one this year was The Black Resurgents

Wanna see another Black animator? Peep Jim Simon
February 15, 2022
in Black is Beautiful, General
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Jim Simon-Black is Beautiful 18

Jim Simon is an artist and animator. He is the first African American to found his own studio called Wantu Animation. He worked on films/shows such as Fat Albert, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Smurf’s, X-Men, Vegetable Soup, Sesame Street, The California Raisins, Peter Pan, Sonic the Hedgehog, and he animated the opening credits to “Soul Train”! He was featured as an up and coming business man in Black Enterprise in 1977. Wantu was making nearly 100 short animations in the late 70’s for which, they received over 25 awards. Despite the awards in the early days, Simon had to go to work for the bigger companies to survive.  He had to put his studio Wantu (which would focus on content featuring African American stories) on hold, probably drained financially and emotionally from projects or studios that were not interested in Black characters. Simon left animation, went homeless for many years and stopped making art all together. It wasn’t until the last ten years that he returned to making art, and is now living in San Diego. I salute him because he was a pioneer in the art form. Today I see brothers like LeSean Thomas, Carl Jones, and Everett Downing out there today trying to extend the path. Shout out to “African American Animators Past & Present” who got me hip to Jim and so many other folks.
Dig this? Check out Brenda Banks and Floyd Norman

February 22, 2016
in Black is Beautiful, General, Series
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Floyd Norman – Black is Beautiful 15

Floyd Norman is an animator, storyboard, layout, and concept artist. He was born in in 1935 and grew up in Santa Barbara California. He came to have a career in animation nearly 60 years ago when he started as the first African American to work for Walt Disney. While there he worked on films like The Jungle Book, Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, One Hundred and One Dalmations, and many more. He would later go on to work for Hannah Barbara, Ruby-Spears, Film-Roman (a Latinx owned studio), and Pixar. Most recently he worked on Monsters University, Mulan, The Hunchback of Norte Dame, and Toy Story 2. He has been recognized through many awards, invited to lecture and speak at countless schools. He has also published a book called “Animated Life”, and is the focus of a new documentary about his life. I found out about Floyd through the African Americans in Animation past & present facebook page.

February 17, 2016
in General
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Characters 51-54- African American Animators

I can’t remember where I first saw this page exactly. I think maybe through LeSean Thomas’ facebook forum. Either way, I thought it was freaking awesome. Not only because I have been working on character design, but because I like the idea of building awareness of people of color in the field, and definitely realizing our power when it comes to telling our own stories. this is especially important to remember when we parents get mad when there are no accurate or culturally appropriate stories that reflect our children, no?

There is now one of Latino Animators in the works too!

Dig this? Check out these ptgs of Brenda Banks,  Floyd Norman and Black Paranorman

July 10, 2013
in General, Ilustration
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