Earl Hurd (September 14, 1880 – September 28, 1940) was a pioneering American

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

and

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. He is noted for creating and producing the silent '' Bobby Bumps'' animated short subject series for early animation producer J.R. Bray's Bray Productions. Hurd and Bray are jointly responsible for developing the processes involved in cel animation, and were granted patents for their processes in 1914. Animator Andy Luckey is a maternal cousin, twice removed, of Hurd's.

Career

Hurd, a native of

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, was a cartoonist for The Chicago Journal and The New York Herald. 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 1915 to 1925. The series is notable for the first example of a character appearing "out of the inkwell", years before the Fleischer 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

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. After Bray, he worked for The Van Beuren Corporation, before ultimately making his own studio, making animations from 1922 to 1925. He worked later at the Iwerks studio and the Walt Disney studio as a

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding proce ...

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 Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

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 Film directors from Missouri 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