Kurtis Findlay is an animation blogger. He also conceived the idea of a book focusing on animation legend Chuck Jones’ little-known comic strip, Crawford. The result is the Library of American Comics’ Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was, edited by Dean Mullaney and Kurtis Findlay; designed by Lorraine Turner; with an essay by Kurtis Findlay; and published by IDW. Westfield’s Roger Ash recently contacted Kurtis to learn more about this exciting new book.

Crawford

Westfield: For those who don’t know him by name, who is Chuck Jones?

Kurtis Findlay: Chuck Jones is best known for his work as an animation director for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from the forties and fifties. Anyone whose childhood involved Saturday morning cartoons has certainly seen a Chuck Jones cartoon, even if they may not realize it. Among the most popular are One Froggy Evening, What’s Opera Doc, and Duck Amuck. During his thirty years at Warner Bros., he created dozens of original characters, including the Road Runner and Wile. E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, and many others. His films have won numerous awards and Oscars, and his 1966 television adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas has become a holiday classic. He was a brilliant artist and a great thinker. Animator Carl Bell describes him as “a totally creative person at all times, and in all places.”

A Crawford Sunday proof

Westfield: This is a project that even fans of Jones may not have heard of. What is Crawford?

Findlay: In 1978, Chuck Jones wrote and drew a daily syndicated newspaper strip about a group of school-age children who contemplate life, existence and growing up. The main protagonist and titular character is Crawford, a red-headed, eight-year-old intellectual who, in many ways, embodies many of Jones’s personality traits. Jones was always challenging himself – intellectually and artistically – and Crawford was a chance for him to try out a medium that he hadn’t tried before. The writing leans more to the philosophical, drawing on many of the classic tongue-in-cheek thinkers, like Mark Twain, who Jones greatly admired. And of course, Chuck’s drawings are just as charming as ever. His experience as an animator brought Crawford’s artistic quality to a level above the average strip of the time.

Unfortunately, the comic strip had its fair share of problems and didn’t even last a full year. The book will take readers through the journey of how the world-renowned artist came to draw for newspapers, and why the strip ended before it had the chance to take off. We will reprint Crawford’s entire six-month run, and as a special treat, we have also included unpublished strips and many of Chuck’s preliminary sketches and unused gags. This will be the definitive book on the subject.

A Crawford storyboard

Westfield: Aside from the comic strip, what will readers find in the book?

Findlay: Crawford’s origins begin almost twenty years before its 1978 newspaper debut. Jones originally developed the character for television in the sixties but it never made it past the concept stage. Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was will present a behind-the-scenes look at Chuck’s original proposal, supplemented with a treasure trove of never before seen Crawford concept art, including an entire storyboarded episode. Fans of Chuck Jones’s art will marvel at the wealth of drawings we’ve uncovered.

The book will also discuss Jones’s post-Warner career, highlighting the films he produced at his own studio, Tower Twelve, which later became MGM Animation/Visual Arts, and how Crawford fits into the picture.

A Crawford Sunday strip

Westfield: What makes this book exciting to you?

Findlay: I first learned about Crawford while reading Chuck Jones’s Wikipedia entry. “From 1977-1978, Jones wrote and drew the syndicated comic strip Crawford (also known as Crawford & Morgan) for the Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate.” That was it; a single sentence. I longed to know more, but could only find two examples of the strip online. It isn’t discussed in any of the books on Chuck Jones, including his two autobiographies.

I started to do some investigating and quickly found that no one really knew anything about Crawford. Through various interviews with Tower Twelve employees, family members and even his editors from the Chicago Tribune, I’ve been able to piece together a history that will give this previously unknown strip some much needed attention.

Dean Mullaney, Creative Director of the Library of American Comics, shares my vision and has been instrumental in producing this book. Dean, himself a Jones fan, felt that a comic strip, even one that failed, by such a noteworthy cartoonist as Jones, deserves a spot in the Library of American Comics.

Sketches of Crawford

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Findlay: This will be a Chuck Jones book unlike any other. Almost all of the art has been reproduced from Chuck’s originals. I encourage everyone to check out our official webpage, http://www.chuckjonescrawford.com, and “like” our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/chuckjonescrawford, where you will find examples of the rare Chuck Jones art that will be included in Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was. This is a must-have for fans of animation, comic strips and, of course, Chuck Jones. You will not want to miss it when it hits stores in November.

Purchase

Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was