David Weidman 1921-2014

By now, most of you will have heard of the passing of David Weidman, who painted backgrounds on Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, did color styling on numerous Fractured Fairy Tales and also painted for Hanna Barbera in the late 60s.  He was even more well-known for his serigraphs from the mid-60s to the 70s, some of which can be seen here.  I profiled David about 3 years ago, which you can see here and if you're interested in reading more about David Weidman, check out his book here.

Unfortunately, he passed away while I was out of town, hence this late posting.  David died peacefully and in the home he built.  His memorial service was yesterday and family members and friends celebrated his life, recounting his sense of humor and unique, iconoclastic approach to life.  He lived a long life, long enough that he was around when his work was rediscovered late in life.  In fact, some of his serigraphs could be seen in episodes of Mad Men, as you can see here. 

I always found my visits with David to be humorous, stimulating and informative.  My last big visit with him was during research for the Jay Ward book, when we discussed his work for TV Spots, a Ward subcontractor, on Fractured Fairy Tales.  Although that part of his career had been largely overlooked, even by him, he was a font of knowledge about his time there and why he did what he did.  It was as if we had opened up a long forgotten closet and the information just came tumbling out.  Because the shorts he art directed there are so visually arresting, I ended up devoting several pages to his work.  Here's an example below:

It was an honor to have become a friend of David Weidman as well as chronicler of his animation work. Good-bye David, your keen eye for design and your wonderful sense of humor will be missed.