Dan Gordon
Encyclopedia
Dan Gordon was an American
storyboard
artist and film director
, best known for his work at both Famous Studios
and Hanna-Barbera Productions. Gordon was one of Famous' first directors, and he wrote and directed several Popeye the Sailor and Superman
cartoons. Later, at Hanna-Barbera, Gordon worked on several cartoons featuring Yogi Bear
, Huckleberry Hound
, and others.
In the late 1940s, “funny animals” and “teen humor” were two of the most popular categories in the ever growing world of comic books. Gordon specialized in both genres and combined the two in the world’s first funny-animal teen-humor title. When he created comic books, he used the pen name
"Dang."
, and by 1936 he was receiving a director’s credit there. When Van Beuren went under, Gordon and many of his colleagues went to work for Paul Terry
’s Terrytoons
. It was here that Gordon worked with Joe Barbera (another Van Beuren alum) on Pink Elephants, a cartoon that Barbera described as one of "... the first cartoons I had a hand in actually creating from the beginning.”
Gordon and Barbera headed out west to MGM in 1937, but Gordon bolted back to the East shortly thereafter to help re-write the troubled Gulliver’s Travels animated feature film at Fleischer Brothers Studios
. Gordon’s rewrites couldn’t save Gulliver, but Gordon was instrumental in the success of the Fleischer Studios
’ next hit: the 1940s Superman theatrical animated shorts
. Gordon served both as writer and head animator on many of those timeless cartoon classics.
When Paramount
seized control of the Fleischer studio in Miami, Gordon was one of four directors put in charge of production. Gordon stayed only a couple years at the newly dubbed Famous Studios
, but the few Popeye shorts he directed are quite remarkable. Cartoons like A Jolly Good Furlough and Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue
are completely manic in their cartoony intensity, and stand apart from the usual Popeye-Olive Oyl
-Bluto
love triangle
stories. 1943’s Popeye cartoon The Hungry Goat stands out even more because Popeye is not even the hero of this picture! For reasons that remain unclear, Gordon left Famous Studios — and the animation field — in 1944. The fast-paced, hyper-kinetic, and over-caffeinated mayhem of those Popeye cartoons leads right into the comic book stories he crafted for The American Comics Group
(ACG).
. Gordon’s work began appearing in Giggle Comics
in 1944, and by Giggle #9, he introduced the long-running character Superkatt
. Superkatt is a funny animal
jab at the “long-underwear” genre of superhero comics. The title character does not have any super powers at all, but is a normal (talking) house cat that dresses in a diaper, a baby’s bonnet, and a big blue bow to fight minor neighborhood injustices.
In 1949 came Funny Films, a funny animal anthology title that tried to convince the reader that its stories were the filmed exploits of famous Hollywood cartoon characters.
Gordon’s Puss and Boots was a dog-and-cat version of Tom and Jerry
on crack
, with unbridled cartoon violence its only delicious theme. Gordon’s other Funny Films character was the comical rabbit inventor Blunderbunny. In La Salle Comics' Hi-Jinx, he experimented with the hybrid idea of “teenage animal funnies.”
Cookie is a rare example of a knock-off surpassing its inspiration. The explosive popularity of MLJ Comics’ “Archie” in the mid-1940s gave birth to an entire comics genre: the teen humor comic. While the Archie gang is clearly more iconic and enduring than Cookie and his pals ever hope to be, the Cookie comics are a much more entertaining read.
Gordon continued to make comics for ACG (and ACG imprints like La Salle) until he was called back into animation service by his old friend Joseph Barbera
.
Gordon jumped on board to help out at Hanna-Barbera
, and (with partner Charles Shows) was soon writing and drawing storyboards for most of the episodes of those earliest, foundational H-B cartoon classics: Huckleberry Hound
, Yogi Bear
, Pixie & Dixie, Quick Draw McGraw
, and Augie Doggie. Emboldened by their early success in Saturday morning, Hanna and Barbera set their sights on producing a prime-time domestic comedy with a prehistoric twist. Gordon had some experience with cartoon cavemen, having worked on the “Stone Age” series of animated shorts for the Fleischer Brothers Studio back in 1940. Although many talented people had a part in creating what would become The Flintstones
, Bill Hanna generously points to Gordon. “Now you may not get the same response from anybody else, Bill Hanna recalls, ”but to me, Dan Gordon is responsible for The Flintstones. He came up with the basic concept of doing it with cavemen in skins.” And Joe Barbera recounts in his autobiography that, ”the first two Flintstones were the work of Dan Gordon and myself; I controlled the content, and Dan did the storyboards.”
Dan Gordon continued to work for Hanna-Barbera until his death in 1969.
, online comic shops, and cartoon/comics blogs, today’s Gordon fan has a decent chance of finding some of his comics at a reasonable cost. Well-worn back issues of Giggle, Ha-Ha, and Cookie comics are fairly easy to find, and many fans have been scanning and sharing these public-domain stories online.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
artist and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, best known for his work at both Famous Studios
Famous Studios
Famous Studios was the animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount acquired the aforementioned studio and ousted its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1941...
and Hanna-Barbera Productions. Gordon was one of Famous' first directors, and he wrote and directed several Popeye the Sailor and Superman
Superman (1940s cartoons)
The Fleischer & Famous Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films released by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman....
cartoons. Later, at Hanna-Barbera, Gordon worked on several cartoons featuring Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear is a fictional bear who appears in animated cartoons created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in The Huckleberry Hound Show. Yogi Bear was the first breakout character created by Hanna-Barbera, and was eventually more popular than...
, Huckleberry Hound
Huckleberry Hound
The Huckleberry Hound Show is a 1958 syndicated animated series and the second from Hanna-Barbera following The Ruff & Reddy Show, sponsored by Kellogg's. Three segments were included in the program: one featuring Huckleberry Hound; another starring Yogi Bear and his sidekick Boo Boo; and a third...
, and others.
In the late 1940s, “funny animals” and “teen humor” were two of the most popular categories in the ever growing world of comic books. Gordon specialized in both genres and combined the two in the world’s first funny-animal teen-humor title. When he created comic books, he used the pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
"Dang."
Van Beuren Studios and Fleischer Studios
Dan Gordon began his animation career as a story man at New York’s Van Beuren StudiosVan Beuren Studios
Van Beuren Studios was an American animation studio that produced theatrical cartoons from 1928 to 1936.Producer Amedee J. van Beuren first became involved in the animation industry in 1920, when he formed a partnership with Paul Terry and formed the "Aesop's Fables Studio" for the production of...
, and by 1936 he was receiving a director’s credit there. When Van Beuren went under, Gordon and many of his colleagues went to work for Paul Terry
Paul Terry (cartoonist)
Paul Houlton Terry was an American cartoonist, screenwriter, film director and one of the most prolific film producers in history...
’s Terrytoons
Terrytoons
Terrytoons was an animation studio founded by Paul Terry. The studio, located in suburban New Rochelle, New York, operated from 1929 to 1968. Its most popular characters included Mighty Mouse, Gandy Goose, Sourpuss, Dinky Duck, Deputy Dawg, Luno and Heckle and Jeckle; these cartoons and all of its...
. It was here that Gordon worked with Joe Barbera (another Van Beuren alum) on Pink Elephants, a cartoon that Barbera described as one of "... the first cartoons I had a hand in actually creating from the beginning.”
Gordon and Barbera headed out west to MGM in 1937, but Gordon bolted back to the East shortly thereafter to help re-write the troubled Gulliver’s Travels animated feature film at Fleischer Brothers Studios
Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...
. Gordon’s rewrites couldn’t save Gulliver, but Gordon was instrumental in the success of the Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...
’ next hit: the 1940s Superman theatrical animated shorts
Superman (1940s cartoons)
The Fleischer & Famous Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films released by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman....
. Gordon served both as writer and head animator on many of those timeless cartoon classics.
When Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
seized control of the Fleischer studio in Miami, Gordon was one of four directors put in charge of production. Gordon stayed only a couple years at the newly dubbed Famous Studios
Famous Studios
Famous Studios was the animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount acquired the aforementioned studio and ousted its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1941...
, but the few Popeye shorts he directed are quite remarkable. Cartoons like A Jolly Good Furlough and Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue
Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue
"Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue" is a 1943 American cartoon short featuring Popeye, directed by Dan Gordon. It's a World War II propaganda cartoon featuring Bluto trying to escape the draft and fighting along with Popeye against some Japanese spies, Hirohito and Adolf Hitler.-Plot:While Bluto is busy...
are completely manic in their cartoony intensity, and stand apart from the usual Popeye-Olive Oyl
Olive Oyl
Olive Oyl is a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar in 1919 for his comic strip Thimble Theatre. The strip was later renamed Popeye after the sailor character that became the most popular member of the cast; however Olive Oyl was a main character for 10 years before Popeye's 1929...
-Bluto
Bluto
Bluto is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his Thimble Theatre comic strip . Bluto made his first appearance September 12 of that year...
love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
stories. 1943’s Popeye cartoon The Hungry Goat stands out even more because Popeye is not even the hero of this picture! For reasons that remain unclear, Gordon left Famous Studios — and the animation field — in 1944. The fast-paced, hyper-kinetic, and over-caffeinated mayhem of those Popeye cartoons leads right into the comic book stories he crafted for The American Comics Group
American Comics Group
American Comics Group was a New York City-based comic book publisher which operated during the Golden and Silver Age of comic books. ACG published one of the first horror comics titles, Adventures into the Unknown. Another of ACG's claims to fame was the character of Herbie Popnecker, who starred...
(ACG).
Superkatt and funny animals
Gordon was part of a group of animation pros led by Jim Davis (of Fox and Crow fame) that supplied original funny animal comic book stories to ACG and DC ComicsDC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. Gordon’s work began appearing in Giggle Comics
Giggle Comics
Giggle Comics is an American comics anthology. It was originally published by Creston Publications, which became an imprint of American Comics Group in 1943. Giggle Comics had many stories with funny animals, mirroring a wider trend....
in 1944, and by Giggle #9, he introduced the long-running character Superkatt
Superkatt
Superkatt is an American "funny animal" comic book series by Dan Gordon , a jab at the “long-underwear” genre of superhero comics. The series stars Superkatt, an anthropomorphic cat who wears a bowtie, bonnet, and diaper as a superhero costume...
. Superkatt is a funny animal
Funny animal
Funny animal is a cartooning term for the genre of comics and animated cartoons in which the main characters are humanoid or talking animals, with anthropomorphic personality traits. The characters themselves may also be called funny animals...
jab at the “long-underwear” genre of superhero comics. The title character does not have any super powers at all, but is a normal (talking) house cat that dresses in a diaper, a baby’s bonnet, and a big blue bow to fight minor neighborhood injustices.
In 1949 came Funny Films, a funny animal anthology title that tried to convince the reader that its stories were the filmed exploits of famous Hollywood cartoon characters.
Gordon’s Puss and Boots was a dog-and-cat version of Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
on crack
Crack cocaine
Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
, with unbridled cartoon violence its only delicious theme. Gordon’s other Funny Films character was the comical rabbit inventor Blunderbunny. In La Salle Comics' Hi-Jinx, he experimented with the hybrid idea of “teenage animal funnies.”
Cookie O'Toole
Gordon's final major character from this era is Cookie O’Toole, the teenage star of Cookie comics. Cookie began his run in 1945 when he and his whole gang (best friend/hipster Jitterbuck, heartthrob Angelpuss, sharp-dressed rival Zoot, and their egghead pal, “The Brain”) appeared fully formed in a one-shot issue of Topsy-Turvy Comics. By the next year, Cookie had his own title, and began a run that lasted nine years and 55 issues.Cookie is a rare example of a knock-off surpassing its inspiration. The explosive popularity of MLJ Comics’ “Archie” in the mid-1940s gave birth to an entire comics genre: the teen humor comic. While the Archie gang is clearly more iconic and enduring than Cookie and his pals ever hope to be, the Cookie comics are a much more entertaining read.
Gordon continued to make comics for ACG (and ACG imprints like La Salle) until he was called back into animation service by his old friend Joseph Barbera
Joseph Barbera
Joseph Roland Barbera was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century....
.
Hanna-Barbera
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera had been creating the classic Tom and Jerry cartoons at MGM since 1940, but by 1957 the studio’s animation division was shut down. In a desperate bid to stay alive in the new TV era, Hanna and Barbera struck out on a foolhardy mission to make a weekly animated television series for a tiny fraction of their old Tom and Jerry budgets.Gordon jumped on board to help out at Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
, and (with partner Charles Shows) was soon writing and drawing storyboards for most of the episodes of those earliest, foundational H-B cartoon classics: Huckleberry Hound
Huckleberry Hound
The Huckleberry Hound Show is a 1958 syndicated animated series and the second from Hanna-Barbera following The Ruff & Reddy Show, sponsored by Kellogg's. Three segments were included in the program: one featuring Huckleberry Hound; another starring Yogi Bear and his sidekick Boo Boo; and a third...
, Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear is a fictional bear who appears in animated cartoons created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in The Huckleberry Hound Show. Yogi Bear was the first breakout character created by Hanna-Barbera, and was eventually more popular than...
, Pixie & Dixie, Quick Draw McGraw
Quick Draw McGraw
The Quick Draw McGraw Show is the third cartoon television production created by Hanna-Barbera starring an anthropomorphic cartoon horse named Quick Draw McGraw following their success with The Ruff & Reddy Show and The Huckleberry Hound Show. The show debuted in syndication in the fall of 1959,...
, and Augie Doggie. Emboldened by their early success in Saturday morning, Hanna and Barbera set their sights on producing a prime-time domestic comedy with a prehistoric twist. Gordon had some experience with cartoon cavemen, having worked on the “Stone Age” series of animated shorts for the Fleischer Brothers Studio back in 1940. Although many talented people had a part in creating what would become The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
, Bill Hanna generously points to Gordon. “Now you may not get the same response from anybody else, Bill Hanna recalls, ”but to me, Dan Gordon is responsible for The Flintstones. He came up with the basic concept of doing it with cavemen in skins.” And Joe Barbera recounts in his autobiography that, ”the first two Flintstones were the work of Dan Gordon and myself; I controlled the content, and Dan did the storyboards.”
Dan Gordon continued to work for Hanna-Barbera until his death in 1969.
Legacy
Gordon's cartoons live on through sales of DVD reissues featuring many of his Superman and Popeye cartoons, and deluxe DVD sets of Huckleberry Hound and The Flintstones. Some of his work from the early Van Beuren Studios and Terrytoons days can be found on streaming video sites on the Internet. With the advent of eBayEBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, online comic shops, and cartoon/comics blogs, today’s Gordon fan has a decent chance of finding some of his comics at a reasonable cost. Well-worn back issues of Giggle, Ha-Ha, and Cookie comics are fairly easy to find, and many fans have been scanning and sharing these public-domain stories online.