GEORGE WAISS
Amazing Animators No. 3
GEORGE WAISS
George C. Waiss nasce a Chicago, Illinois, il 1° giugno 1907. Suo padre, di professione medico, muore di appendicite quando George ha appena due anni. Successivamente sua madre, Nellie Redfield Waiss, si risposa, e si trasferisce a Colorado Springs con il suo nuovo consorte, George e i suoi due fratelli. Nellie muore quando George ha undici anni, ed egli viene affidato alla zia paterna, Margaret Waiss. Dopo aver brevemente intrapreso la carriera di pugile, impara a disegnare da autodidatta e lavora nella redazione grafica dei quotidiani Rocky Mountain News e Denver Post.
Trasferitosi in California, intorno al 1936 debutta nell’animazione presso lo studio di Walter Lantz, lavorando ai cartoni di Oswald the Rabbit. Nel 1938-39 è alla Disney come assistente animatore per Fantasia (1940), poi passa allo studio Schlesinger/Warner Bros., dove è animatore degli effetti speciali per i cortometraggi della serie Merrie Melodies diretti da Chuck Jones e Tex Avery. Nel 1940 si trasferisce in Florida, per contribuire al secondo lungometraggio prodotto dai fratelli Fleischer, Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941). Torna alla Disney nel febbraio 1943, stavolta nel Reparto Fumetti. Per tre anni cura chine e lettering delle strisce e tavole di Paperino, collabora alle tavole settimanali di Topolino e ne disegna alcune strisce quotidiane. Negli stessi anni produce storie Disney anche per gli albi a fumetti. Disegna Mickey Mouse and the House of Many Mysteries (Topolino e lo scienziato pazzo, 1946), The Li’l Bad Wolf (Lupetto, 1946) e Bucky Bug (Buci, 1946-47). Tratteggia inoltre i personaggi della Warner Bros. Sniffles and Mary Jane (1945) e Porky Pig (1946).
Mentre è ancora in forza allo Studio Disney, nel 1945, sposa Annette S. Westermann, che gli darà due figli, Fred e William. Lascia la Disney nell’estate del 1946.
Sul finire degli anni Cinquanta, Waiss cura gli effetti del cortometraggio animato My Milkman Joe per la Rainbow Pictures.
All’inizio degli anni Sessanta è designer per Martin Marietta, dove progetta sili per i missili Titan. Successivamente Waiss lavora come disegnatore free-lance e come animatore di film didattici di argomento medico.
Annette è vissuta a Brighton, Colorado, cosicché i Waiss vi si trasferiscono in pianta stabile nel 1966.
Successivamente è animatore per Playhouse Pictures (The Night Before Christmas, 1968) e Fine Arts Films (Shinbone Alley, 1970). Dal 1969 al 1976 è alla Filmation Associates, dove contribuisce all’animazione di serie e special TV quali Archie’s Funhouse, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Ghoulies, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Star Trek, Lassie’s Rescue Rangers e Space Sentinels. Tra il 1976 e il 1979 scrive dieci storie a fumetti con i Paperi e con Archimede Pitagorico nell’ambito della produzione dello Studio Disney per i paesi extra-americani. Ritiratosi, si dedica alla pittura fino alla sua scomparsa, avvenuta per una polmonite il 17 luglio 1990 a Thornton, nel Colorado.
George C. Waiss was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 1, 1907.
His father, a medical doctor, died of a burst appendix when George was two. His mother, Nellie Redfield Waiss, later remarried and moved to Colorado Springs with George and his two older brothers. Nellie died when he was 11 and he was taken in by his paternal maiden aunt, Margaret Waiss. After a brief career as a boxer, he taught himself to draw and worked as an artist for the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post.
After moving to California in the mid-thirties, he worked as an animator for Walter Lantz on Andy Panda and Woody Woodpecker cartoons. Waiss then joined Walt Disney Studios in California, where he worked on Fantasia, then moved to the Schlesinger/Warner Bros. Studio, contributing effects animation to Merrie Melodies shorts directed by Chuck Jones and Tex Avery. In 1940 he moved to Miami, where he worked for Fleischer Studios on their second animated feature, Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941).
In December 1942 he went back to Disney, this time as a staffer in their Comic Strip Department, contributing to the Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse newspaper strips. During 1945-46 he also freelanced comic-book art for Dell/Western Printing, working on such characters as Mickey Mouse, Bucky Bug, and The Li’l Bad Wolf.
He married Annette S. Westermann in 1945 while working for Disney. They had two sons, Fred and William.
In the late fifties he was an effects animator on My Milkman Joe, a short produced by Rainbow Pictures.
In the early 1960s, he was a draftsman for Martin Marietta, where he helped design Titan missile silos.
Later Waiss worked as a free-lance artist and animated on medical educational films.
Annette had lived in Brighton, Colorado, so they moved back there in 1966.
In 1967, he did the animation for The Night Before Christmas and in 1968 for Archy and Mehitabel, which was released in 1971 as Shinbone Alley.
His last stint in animation was at Filmation associated, where he worked off and on from 1969-77 on such series as Archie’s Funhouse, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Ghoulies, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Star Trek, Lassie’s Rescue Rangers, and Space Sentinels.
From 1976-79, he wrote ten stories starring the Disney Ducks for the Disney Studio Overseas Comic Book Program. These stories, most of which were drawn by Tony Strobl, were in fact never published in the US, but appeared in Europe, South America, and other foreign countries.
Parkinson’s syndrome forced Waiss to live his last few years at the Alpine Manor nursing home in Thornton, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. He died of pneumonia on July 17, 1990. He was survived by his wife (who died in 2007 at age 93), his sons, and three grandchildren. He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Brighton.
FILMOGRAPHY / FILMOGRAFIA
[NOTE: All dates in this section are day/month/year]
Studio: WALTER LANTZ c. 1937-1938
Animatore / Animator
Andy Panda
Woody Woodpecker
Studio: DISNEY c. 1939
Animatore / Animator
13/11/1940 Fantasia
Studio: SCHLESINGER/WARNER BROS. 1939-1940
Animatore degli effetti / Effects animator
08/06/1940 Tom Thumb in Trouble [Merrie Melodies]
09/11/1940 Wacky Wild Life [Merrie Melodies]
Studio: FLEISCHER 1940
Animatore / Animator
05/12/1941 Mr. Bug Goes to Town
Studio: RAINBOW PICTURES c. 1958
Designer e Animatore degli Effetti / Designer and Effects Animator
00/00/1958 My Milkman, Joe [per/for Denver Dairy Council]
Studio: PLAYHOUSE PICTURES 1967
Animatore / Animator
00/12/1968 The Night Before Christmas [TV Special]
Studio: FINE ART FILMS 1968
Animatore / Animator
07/04/1971 Shinbone Alley
Studio: FILMATION ASSOCIATES 1969-73/77
Animatore / Animator
12/09/1970-04/09/1971 Archie’s Funhouse [TV Series]
12/09/1970 Computer Suitor [TV Series: Jerry Lewis Show aka Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down]
12/09/1970-04/09/1971 Sabrina and the Groovie Ghoulies [TV Series]
09/09/1972-09/12/1972 Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids [TV Series]
18/11/1972 You Took the Words Right Out of My Tape [TV Series: The Brady Kids]
02/12/1972 It’s All Greek to Me [TV Series:The Brady Kids]
16/12/1972 Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Ghoulies [TV Series: The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie]
08/09/1973-00/00/1973 My Favorite Martians [TV Series]
08/09/1973-00/00/1973 Mission: Magic!
08/09/1973 Beyond the Farthest Star [TV Series: Star Trek]
15/09/1973 Yesteryear [TV Series: Star Trek]
22/09/1973 One of Our Planets Is Missing [TV Series: Star Trek]
29/09/1973 The Lorelei Signal [TV Series: Star Trek]
06/10/1973 More Tribbles, More Troubles [TV Series: Star Trek]
13/10/1973 The Survivor [TV Series: Star Trek]
20/10/1973 The Infinite Vulcan [TV Series: Star Trek]
27/10/1973 The Magicks of Megas-Tu [TV Series: Star Trek]
03/11/1973 Once Upon a Planet [TV Series: Star Trek]
10/11/1973 Mudd’s Passion [TV Series: Star Trek]
17/11/1973 The Terratin Incident [TV Series: Star Trek]
24/11/1973 The Time Trap [TV Series: Star Trek]
01/12/1973 The Ambergris Element [TV Series: Star Trek]
15/12/1973 The Slaver Weapon [TV Series: Star Trek]
05/01/1974 The Eye of the Beholder [TV Series: Star Trek]
12/01/1974 The Jihad [TV Series: Star Trek]
07/09/1974 The Pirates of Orion [TV Series: Star Trek]
14/09/1974 BEM [TV Series: Star Trek]
21/09/1974 The Practical Joker [TV Series: Star Trek]
28/09/1974 Albatross [TV Series: Star Trek]
05/10/1974 How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth [TV Series: Star Trek]
12/10/1974 The Counter-Clock Incident [TV Series: Star Trek]
00/00/1973 Lassie’s Rescue Rangers [TV Series]
10/09/1977-00/00/1977 Space Sentinels [TV Series]
10/09/1977-19/11/1977 The New Archie/Sabrina Hour [TV Series]
FUMETTOGRAFIA / COMICOGRAPHY
COMIC BOOKS
Editore/Publisher: DELL (aka KK PUBLICATIONS, WESTERN PRINTING)
Bucky Bug – WDC&S #74 (11/1946), 75 (12/1946), 76 (01/1947).
The Li’l Bad Wolf – WDC&S #70 (07/1946), 72 (09/1946), 73 (10/1946).
Mickey Mouse in The House of Many Mysteries – Four Color #116 (08/1946) [con/with Dick Moores].
Porky Pig – Looney Tunes #57 (07/1946).
Sniffles and Mary Jane – Looney Tunes #47 (09/1945), 48 (10/1945).
Editore/Publisher: WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS, INC.
[Storie prodotte negli USA per la pubblicazione Oltreoceano; Solo testi / Stories produced in the US for Overseas publication; Scripts only]
S 76007 (1976) – Uncle Scrooge The New Image
S 76015 (1976) – Uncle Scrooge The Clock Buyer
S 76016 (1976) – Gyro Gearloose The Unbreakable Toy
S 76034 (1976) – Donald Duck The Bear’s Reward
S 76093 (1976) – The Junior Woodchucks Twin Lake Valley
S 76129 (1976) – Uncle Scrooge The Dream
S 76136 (1976) – Donald Duck The Mountain Climber
S 78178 (1978) – Donald Duck Stones
S 79005 (1979) – Uncle Scrooge The Cyclops’ Eye
S 79145 (1979) – Uncle Scrooge Gold Belongs To The Indians
FUMETTI PER QUOTIDIANI / NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS
Editore/Publisher: WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS/KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, INC.
Donald Duck – Strisce quotidiane / Daily strip Chine / Inks Mar 1 1943-May 18 1946.
Donald Duck – Tavole settimanali / Sunday page Chine / Inks Mar 28 1943-May 25 1946.
Mickey Mouse – Strisce quotidiane / Daily strip Matite / Pencils Dec 25-30 1944, Jan 15-17 1945, Jan 29-31 1945, Feb 10 1945, Feb 17 1945; Matite e chine / Pencils and Inks Mar 1 1946.
Mickey Mouse – Tavole settimanali / Sunday page Matite e Chine / Pencils and Inks Mar 3 1946; Chine / Inks Mar 10-17 1946, Mar 31 1946, Apr 14 1946, Apr 28 1946, May 12 1946, June 6 1946.
BIBLIOGRAFIA / BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRAZIONI PER LIBRI / BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS
Editore/Publisher: WHITMAN PUBLISHING CO.
The Better Little Book – Mickey Mouse and the Desert Palace #1451 (1948) [Da / From Four Color #116 (1946)].
