Craig Clark (born 1960 in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

) is an American animator, an

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...

darkwave Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...

musician (

Chorus of Souls Chorus of Souls was an industrial music, art rock, darkwave Los Angeles band formed in 1988. The main members of the band were drummer Craig Clark Craig Clark (born 1960 in Santa Monica, California) is an American animator, an art rock, darkwave ...

on Fluxus Records), a

comic book artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

( Nemesister and Astrothrill), and an album cover artist ( The Nymphs on

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and ...

Biography

Clark began his career as a child actor at the age of 8, when he starred in an

educational film An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods. History Determining which videos should count as the first educational fi ...

called "Forgive and Forget" directed by voice actor Shep Menken in 1968. Switching to animation at age 14, he was discovered by animators Corny Cole (

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...

) and Duane Crowther ('' Yellow Submarine''), and was mentored by longtime Disney animator

Amby Paliwoda Ambrozi "Amby" Paliwoda (December 20, 1909 – June 9, 1999) was an American animator. Early life and education An American of Ukrainian descent, Paliwoda grew up in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Paliwoda graduated with honors from ...

. Clark was one of the original animation and layout artists on the first three seasons of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

'', and has gone on to animate on various other animated projects such as several ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...

'' TV specials for

Bill Melendez José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Melendez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008) was an American character animator, voice actor, film director and producer. Melendez is known for working on the ''Peanuts'' animated specials. Before ''Peanuts'', he p ...

productions, and many

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual w ...

feature films, such as ''

Forrest Gump ''Forrest Gump'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth. It is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson ...

'', '' The Mask'', ''

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film '' Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produ ...

'', '' An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'', ''

Big Trouble in Little China ''Big Trouble in Little China'' (also in known as ''John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China'') is a 1986 American fantasy action comedy film directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun and James Hong. ...

'', ''

Cool World ''Cool World'' is a 1992 American live-action/animated black comedy fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi and written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor. Starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt, it tells the story of a cartoonist ...

'', and '' Poltergeist II: The Other Side''. Clark has produced and directed

The Kustomonsters The Kustomonsters is an animated web series and TV show created by, Craig Clark, an art rock, darkwave musician ( Chorus of Souls on Fluxus Records), animator (''Forrest Gump'' and ''The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sit ...

animated show for the web and TV through Cheeky Entertainment, and has aired on

AMGTV AMGTV is an American family-oriented television network featuring television programming consisting of drama, sports, movies, entertainment, how-to, hunting and fishing, children's shows, and other features, much of it repackaged from off-netw ...

in U.S. syndication and also streaming TV service OSI74. Clark also released a Kustomonsters feature film via Vimeo ON Demand in 2015. A second Kustomonsters feature, Kustomonsters 2, was released on OSI74 on Roku in 2020.

Filmography

Published works

*
Nemesister
' (1997) (Cheeky Press) *
Astrothrill
' (1999) (comicbook/CD) (Fluxus Records) and

External links

* *

1960 births Living people Animators from California Artists from Santa Monica, California Musicians from Santa Monica, California Art rock musicians American rock musicians American comics artists Album-cover and concert-poster artists Special effects people {{US-animator-stub