Dan Gordon
Filed under: People, Artist, Director, Layout Artist, Producer, Storyboard Artist, Writer,
Dan Gordon
Occupation / Title:Artist, Director, Layout Artist, Producer, Storyboard Artist, Writer
Date of death:1969
Biography
Daniel Gordon is best known for being a Storyboard Artist, director, and producer. His most well known work is with Famous Studios and Hanna-Barbara Productions. While working with famous in the 1930’s and 40’s, he wrote and directed many stories for such animations as “Popeye the Sailor” and the “Superman” serials. While working on ‘Popeye,’, instead of having Bluto and Olive Oyl, Popeye dealing with his nephews, a suicidal sailor, and the hungry goat.
In the Gordon cartoons, the characters were more manic, energetic and frenzied, with Popeye usually being the bad guy instead of the protagonist in the Gordon cartoons. Dan Gordon was also an illustrator/comic book artist. He produced many titles for the ACG that included ‘Anglepuss,’ ‘Blunderbunny,’ ‘Bungle of the Jungle,’ ‘Jitterbuck,’ ‘Hep,’ ‘Snooper,’ and the more famous works, ‘SuperKatt,’ and ‘Cookie.’ Gordon worked on these titles until 1953, which is perhaps the explanation for gaps in the timeline of his animation career, where he did not work for any major companies or on any popular titles for a few years.
Dan Gordon’s career had him work for Terrytoons, Fleischer, Van Beuren, Famous, and MGM in the 1930’s and early 1940’s. Then, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Gordon moved on to work for Hanna-Barbara Productions, where he worked on Storyboards and as a story director for the first Flintstones Episodes, and worked on other titles, such as ‘Hey There Yogi Bear,’ ‘The Adventures of Johnny Quest,’ and ‘The Huckleberry Hound Show.’ Dan Gordon also worked on stories for two live action movies, ‘The Showdown,’ and ‘The Mutineers.’
Career outline
Writer (Famous Studios, Hanna-Barbara, Fleischer Studios) Producer (Famous Studios) Director (Famous Studios, Van Beuren Studios) Story Director (Hanna-Barbara Productions) Sketch Artist (Hanna-Barbara Productions) Storyboard artist (Hanna-Barbara Productions) Layout Artist (Hanna-Barbara Productions) Character Designer (Van Beuren Studios)
Personal style
He has a very loose, cartoony style. This is something you do not see very often amongst new artists today. He makes his drawings fun, and loose, while maintaining an excellent understanding of perspective (in regards to his comic serials). His poses are full of mayhem and very lively, not stiff. His exaggeration and understanding of the human figure is unique, rare, and something that may reside only in the golden age of animation.
Filmography
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