December 27 - Jack Bradbury

Image courtesy of comicvine.gamespot.com

On this day, in 1914, John Morin Bradbury was born in Seattle, Washington. Jack was always interested in the comic strips he saw in the newspapers growing up and felt that drawing them must be a pretty great way to spend one’s time. So he practiced his skills as often as he could, waiting for an opportunity to break into the business. In 1933, he saw the Disney produced Silly Symphony The Three Little Pigs and not only was enamored of it himself, but noticed how everyone in town seemed to be talking about it. He heard rumors that the Disney Studio was hiring and sent a portfolio down to Hollywood. He was invited to come down for a two week trial run, mostly at his own expense. Jack put $50 in his pocket and took the offer. He passed the test and, at just 20 years of age, started his life in cartoons for the princely sum of $15 per week.

Image copyright Disney

For the next four years, Jack worked as an inbetweener on such classic Mickey Mouse shorts as The Band Concert and Through the Mirror. As work ramped up on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, he began working under Eric Larson and Milt Kahl. The employees of the studio were encouraged to work up their own little pieces of animation and actually have them filmed so they could be critiqued and given pointers on how to improve. As the big drive to finish Snow White wound down, Jack made a couple of those pieces and asked Ham Luske, who’d been supervising animator for Snow White’s title character, to look at them. Ham approved of them and showed them to Walt, who also approved.

Image copyright Disney

In 1938, Jack became a full animator. He worked on shorts like Ferdinand the Bull (one of his sequences is when Ferdinand sits on the bee) and Barnyard Symphony. He also lent a hand to the next several features the studio produced. Jack’s work can be seen in some of Figaro’s scenes in Pinocchio, the Pegasus family in Fantasia and the stage fight in Bambi. Then, in 1941, Jack got caught up in the big animator’s strike at the studio. After being out for several weeks, he was invited back to work when the strike ended but his return didn’t last long. By the end of the year, Jack was one of a number of animators who would be permanently laid off.

Image copyright Disney/Western Publishing

From 1942-44, Jack went across town to work for Friz Freleng at Warner Brothers, mostly working on Bugs Bunny shorts. Following his stint there, he went to work for American Comics Group working on comic book stories for characters like Fremont Frog and Spencer Spook. In 1947, Jack began working for Western Publishing, the company that produced comic books based on works by Disney, Walter Lantz and Warner Brothers. For the next 31 years, he drew practically every Disney character that existed for comic books and the Little Golden Books. He was so adept at it that Walt reportedly told Western that if Jack drew it, it didn’t need to be submitted for approval.

Starting in late 1969, Jack would begin to suffer from macular degeneration. As his eyesight worsened, he gradually moved from drawing comics to writing them instead. He finally had to call it quits for good in 1978. Towards the end of his life, Jack enjoyed a resurgence of interest in his work and would occasionally make appearances at various comic cons. He would pass away from kidney failure on May 15, 2004 in Sylmar, California. He was 89.