Earl Hurd (September 14, 1880 – September 28, 1940) was a pioneering American animator and film director. He is noted for creating and producing the silent '' Bobby Bumps''

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

short subject series for early animation producer J.R. Bray's

Bray Productions Bray Productions was a pioneering American animation studio that produced several popular cartoons during the years of World War I and the early interwar era, becoming a springboard for several key animators of the 20th century, including the ...

. Hurd and Bray are jointly responsible for developing the processes involved in

cel animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proc ...

, and were granted patents for their processes in 1914. Animator

Andy Luckey Andrew A. Luckey (born October 7, 1965) is an American animator, artist, author, designer, director, illustrator and television producer, primarily of animated works. He also writes and illustrates children's books and Bible studies. Luckey ha ...

is a maternal cousin, twice removed, of Hurd's.

Career

Hurd, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, was a cartoonist for The Chicago Journal and

The New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

. He then later worked for Bray Productions. Inspired by the cartoon character Buster Brown, Hurd invented the cartoon character Bobby Bumps, and his series of cartoons lasted from 1919 to 1925. The series is notable for the first example of a character appearing "out of the inkwell", years before the Fleschier Brothers. He and Bray developed and patented cel animation in 1914, which eliminated needs to redraw the background. They made a profit off of it with the Bray-Hurd Processing Co. until 1932, when the patent went into the public domain. After Bray, he worked for

The Van Beuren Corporation The Van Beuren Corporation was a New York City-based animation studio that produced theatrical cartoons as well as live-action short-subjects from the 1920s to 1936. History In 1920, the Keith-Albee organization formed Fables Pictures for the ...

, before ultimately making his own studio, making animations from 1922 to 1925. He worked later at the

Ub Iwerks Ubbe Ert Iwwerks (March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971), known as Ub Iwerks ( ), was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Iwerks grew up with a contentiou ...

studio and the Walt Disney studio as a storyboard artist. Animation historian Giannalberto Bendazzi has called Hurd "probably the best American animator of his time" after Bray and said of his films that they "display an uncommon visual inventiveness, gentle humour and attention to drawing and scenography". Hurd died on September 28, 1940, in his home in Burbank, California.

Gallery

Bobby Bumps Starts a Lodge (1916).ogv, ''Bobby Bumps Starts a Lodge'' (1916) Bobby Bumps and the Stork (1916).webm, ''Bobby Bumps and the Stork'' (1916) Bobby Bumps Starts For School (1917).webm, ''Bobby Bumps Starts For School'' (1917) Bobby Bumps' Fourth (1917).webm, ''Bobby Bumps' Fourth'' (1917) Bobby Bumps Puts a Beanery on the Bum (1918).webm, ''Bobby Bumps puts a Beanery on the Bum (1918) Bobby Bumps in Their Master's Voice (1921).ogv, ''Bobby Bumps in Their Master's Voice'' (1921)

Notes

References

Earl Hurd
. '' Lambiek Comiclopedia''. Retrieved September 6, 2007.

External links

* 1880 births 1940 deaths Animators from Missouri American comic strip cartoonists American film directors American animated film directors American male screenwriters Artists from Kansas City, Missouri American storyboard artists Screenwriters from Missouri 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters Bray Productions people Walt Disney Animation Studios people {{comic-strip-creator-stub