Gil Turner (animator)

Gilbert H. Turner (September 11, 1913 – March 19, 1967) was an animator, comic book artist and American producer.

Gil Turner
Gil Turner.
Born(1913-09-11)September 11, 1913
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
DiedMarch 19, 1967 (aged 54)
Los Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
OccupationAnimator, producer

Career

He started out working at Disney, and eventually moved over to other studios, such as Hugh Harman's and Jam Handy in Detroit, Michigan. He also worked for Warner Bros in Hollywood during World War II and for Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera at the MGM studio. He worked for various Holloywood cartoon studios, such as Disney, Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Walter Lantz, UPA, Hanna-Barbera and Format Films. He also drew comic books based on characters from these studios.

Biography

Turner was born in 1913. He worked as an ice cream salesman before starting as an animator at Disney Studios in January 1933. His stay was so brief that no credit known for his work there survived. He joined Harman-Ising Studios a year later, which would eventually evolve into the animation department of Warner Brothers.[1] After working at Hugh Harman's studio, he moved to work at the studio of Jam Handy in Detroit, Michigan. Despite a short period at Jam Handy's studio, which specialized in industrial and promotional films, he returned to Warners in 1938, where he remained until the mid-1940s, primarily under the direction of Friz Freleng. He worked anonymously on Looney Tunes classics such as The Trial of Mr. Wolf (1941), Rhapsody in Rivets (1941), The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (1942), Fresh Hare, Pigs in a Polka (1943) and Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944).[2][3]

Around 1948 Turner joined MGM, where he was an animator on Tex Avery's What Price Fleadom? (1948) and a few 'Barney Bear' shorts by Preston Blair and Michael Lah. Between 1953 and 1955 he briefly worked at Walter Lantz' studio on several 'Woody Woodpecker' and 'Chilly Willy' shorts, before joining UPA for an equally brief time as a director/animator on the 'Mr. Magoo' series until the end of the decade. Turner concluded his animation career at the Hanna-Barbera Studios, where he worked on TV series like The Flintstones and Yogi Bear. He also directed several episodes of Alvin and the Chipmunks for Format Films in the early 1960s before passing away in 1967.

Although mainly active in animation, Turner also worked as a comics artist from the mid-1940s on. Together with Jim Davis he worked freelance through the Sangor Shop for companies like Better Publications, Dearfield Comics and ACG ('Little Pancho Vanilla') and funny animal comics for Coo Coo, Giggle, Barnyard and Ha-Ha. At Dell Comics he mainly drew comics based on Warner Brothers characters like 'Bugs Bunny', 'Porky Pig' and 'Sniffles & Mary Jane', followed by stories about the MGM character Barney Bear. During this same period he also scripted 'Barney' comics which were illustrated by Carl Barks. Barks, however, couldn't really identify with the characters and often rewrote dialogue and plot developments to fit his own personality. Eventually he departed from the series, leaving Turner in charge of both text and illustration. One of Turner's innovations was Barney's antagonistic neighbour Mooseface McElk.[4]

The artist was also a regular contributor to Dell's 'Walt Disney's Comics and Stories' from 1947 on, where he was one of the original artists to create stories about the Big Bad Wolf and his good-natured son Lil' Bad Wolf. Colleagues who also drew comics about these wolves around the same time were Carl Buettner, Roger Armstrong, Harvey Eisenberg, Jack Bradbury, Ken Champin and Paul Murry. Turner drew comics starring 'Mickey Mouse', 'Bucky Bug' and 'Dumbo'.

While Turner predominantly drew comics based on characters others created he also had two original newspaper comics of his own, namely 'Trudy' (1947-1948), 'Chico' (1948-1949) published in the teen magazine Cookie and 'Holly Wood' (1950) which could be read in the weekly Redwood Journal from California.

Filmography
  • Disney Studios: Animator 1933.
  • Jam Handy: Animator 1936-1938 (commercial films).
  • Warner Bros. Cartoons: Animator 1938-1944 (Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny a.o.).
  • Carry-Weston (independent studio with Jack Bradbury a.o.): Educational films for the government. 1944-1946.
  • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio: Animator 1948-1953 (Barney Bear and Tom & Jerry).
  • Walter Lantz Productions: Animator 1953-1956 (Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, Maw and Paw).
  • UPA: Animator 1956-1957 and director 1958-1961 (Mr. Magoo).
  • Hanna-Barbera: Animator 1961 (Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss).
  • Format Films: Director 1961-1962 (The Alvin Show).
  • The Man from Button Willow, 1965
  • Hanna-Barbera: Storyboard artist 1967 (The Flintstones).
  • Comic strips & Illustrations: Editorial Art Syndicate/Sangor Shop: Script and artwork for Standard Comics, American Comics Group and Dearfield Comics 1944-1948 (Homer Hound, Bugsy Bear Family, Ringo, Happy a.o.).
  • Script and artwork for his own newspaper strip Chico 1948-1949.
  • Western Publishing: Artwork for characters from Disney (Li’l Bad Wolf, Mickey Mouse, Bucky Buck, Dumbo), MGM (Barney Bear) and Warner Bros. (Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig) 1947-1957.

Death

In the 1960s, he settled in Los Angeles, California, where he passed away in 1967 at the age of 54.

References
  1. Barrier, Michael (2014). Funnybooks: The Improbable Glories of the Best American Comic Books. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  2. Solomon, Charles (December 29, 1985). "The Woodpecker and the Mouse : The Walter Lantz story With Woody Woodpecker and Friends by Joe Adamson (Putnam's: $19.95; 254 pp., illustrated) and Disney's World by Leonard Mosley (Stein & Day: $18.95; 330 pp., illustrated)". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  3. S. Shull, Michael; E. Wilt, David. Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films 1939–1945. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  4. Sigall, Martha (2005). Living Life Inside the Lines: Tales from the Golden Age of Animation. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
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