R.I.P. Gordon Kent

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Yesterday we lost another one of our own in the Animation industry in Gordon Kent who’d been in the business since 1977. I met Gordon many years ago at Warner Bros. on my very first job working as a character layout artist on the series Tazmania where he was the Story editor and have bumped into him off and on at studios and parties throughout the years. He was a kind and thoughtful man who had a dry sense of humor and he had a unique style of drawing which I really liked(and you can see above). Incidentally, we interviewed Gordon last year about how he got into the business.

I’ve been doing this since 1977… I worked on a show called CBS Storybreak for two seasons. I was associate producer – but my job entailed hiring character and background designers, storyboard artists and story editing (and some writing). I also was the voice director for most of them and worked with the composers and sound effects people as well as working with the engineers on the final mix. I got to learn and do a lot. That was for Buzz Potamkin at Southern Star. I also worked for him years later at both Disney TV and Hanna-Barbera. At HB I got to be Supervising Producer on a couple of movies for TV – Titles change in animation all the time – today that would be supervising director. The Flintstones’ Christmas Carol was my favorite project there. I’ve been an animation timing director since then and have been lucky enough to work on Kim Possible, Teamo Supremo, Billy and Mandy and Bob’s Burgers among dozens of other shows.

Rest In Peace Gordon Kent… you will be missed by many.

You can read the full interview here if you like.

 

 

RIP Liz Holzman

Liz tribute

So sorry to hear this news. Our producer on Pinky and the Brain and a friend of mine Liz Holzman passed away yesterday. Liz was like a mother hen to us all. She mentored me during my first real directing job, she taught me how to make a shot epic, and she taught me how to be a good boss to my crew. She used to make waffles for us in her office if you can believe that! She was a really nice lady and although I didn’t stay in touch with her lately I will miss her. It’s weird to think it I know but it’s almost like both mom and dad are gone from Pinky and the Brain since Rusty Mills passed away as well ALSO from Cancer and we’re all left orphans. Rest in peace Liz Holzman. Narf. Narf.

We interviewed Liz early last year.