The Great Fangdini
As with Chester, The Great Fangdini began originally as a manuscript creation, but still had managed on entering the Toon World. Fangdini spun the incredible adventures about a Wolf-magician (possessing W.C. Fields' voice) who traveled to far-off, exciting locales. In essence, Fangdini served as a children's version of Gulliver's Travels, since the mystical traveler always visited places dealing with the problems kids had to contend with in the late-Seventies. Despite the similar concepts, and Fangdini's backfiring magic, the real message behind these intriguing tales had always been clear: always be proud of what you are, and be yourself (I think there's an old commercial in there somewhere).
Amazingly, people began developing open-minds towards Fangdini. For one thing, he never used his spells for bullying people, but instead as a unique method of teaching them about themselves instead. Although more wolf-propaganda films continued to be produced, people seemed on accepting Fangdini as a gentle being, rather than another demented creature of destruction.
Nonetheless, even with this small success, I had never imagined Fangdini would become illustrated. That is, until a strange event had taken place at New Caney Elementary.
The Toonerization of Fangdini
Whenever you start watching a Seventies cartoon that's been produced by an independent studio (not Hanna-Barbera, Filmation or Rankin-Bass), you've probably wondered why the characters resemble something a child might have dreamed up than a writer. Chances are, the characters probably were. In fact, Fangdini's transformation from the literary to the illustrated world originated from a very unique scam which some unscrupulous cartoonists would pull on unsuspecting kids.
You're probably thinking: what kind of desperate schmuck results to stealing from kids? Similar to our Internet, the Seventies was a time where you could literally get away with most things. Except for murder, naturally, and around this decade, kids didn't have many rights as they do now. Especially when it came to owning literary works, illustrations, or animation. Back then, minors weren't permitted to legally reserve, or copyright, such properties. Apparently, state and federal laws considered adults as the exclusive, responsible party in handling such legalities, therefore, if you wanted to copyright something [while under 18], you technically could do so through your parents [if they were willing].
Regrettably, this temporal, legislative oversight (In 1977, a Texas Bill came out protecting kids' rights for copyrighting properties.) gave many corrupt artists fro the Animation Underworld the chance for conjuring elaborate schemes of snatching ideas which were solely drawn and developed by kids. At the time, most got away with the crime since technically the ideas had not been copyrighted, and they were willingly donated to the person. Thus, no actual laws were broken. Unless, of course, the schemer ends up misrepresenting his/her self, and a possible illegal cash transaction was made in the bargain as well.
On October 1976, the unspe
akable, aforementioned fate had befallen the students of New Caney Elementary. And I had also nearly fell victim for the alluring mechanization myself. The incident had occurred when a stranger [whom I'll refer to as Jack Parsons] had come to NCE. Parsons had spun a wild tale about his studio conducting a character-search contest. The contest required us in creating a supplementary character for the studio's residential werewolf Toon. Common sense promptly took a back seat, as my mind instantaneously went Hollywood, for I had seen this as an opportunity for Fangdini to transfer himself into the Tooniverse.
Previously, about several months earlier, The Great Fangdini had been sent into limbo, since I had begun working on other ventures within the Toon realm. One particular project was for a temporal local kids' publication, Orange You Nuts? when I had stayed in Orange during the Summer of '76. Orange You Nuts? (OYN) was sort of Orange's version of Mad for Kids, it had showcased parodies and alternate realities of popular characters and shows. My brief stint for OYN had been the superhumanization of Harvey Comics, in the form of Super Casper & Wonder Wendy (neat names, eh?). Thus, it had seemed reasonable for me wanting to Toonerize one of my own, personal charcaters for an animation studio.
Ironically, when I had gone on a Fall weekend visit to Orange, in for Li Chan (a Japanese friend, who I'll tell you about later) assisting me with Fangdini's prototype, I had never suspected Scott would save me from making an erroneous mistake.
Toiling feverishly on a Fangdini prototype, Li and I had finally produced the primary image for The Great Fangdini. Obviously Fangdini was a magician, so we dressed him in the standardized tuxedo and top hat. We went with the Loopy-De-Loopesque design over the Fangface template everyone had been using. One reason was as a fail-safe measure, meaning if he was rejected by the studio, I could still safely use Fangdini in other projects. After the initial image was finalized, we realized Fangdini required some props.
Long before Harry Potter came upon the scene, Fangdini utilized his mystical feats with a wand and a spell book. Before revealing anything to Mr. Parsons, something had forewarned me to first show the Toon to Scott. As with all good artists, I had essentially wanted an unbiased opinion upon the character before unleashing on an unsuspecting public.
Scott liked the character and had inquired about what I had intended on with Fangdini. Considering OYN had now gone out of print and there were no other kids' publications out there at the time. When learning about Jack Parsons, Scott had forewarned me about a similar scheme which had occurred in Bridge City. Except here, the school board had the common sense investigating the so-called representative's claim before allowing the contest to begin. Consequently, they had discovered the whole thing was a scam, with the representative stealing the submissions for himself. They also learned by the time most schools realized the ploy, it had been far too late to legally pursue these guys.
Returning to Conroe, I had immediately contacted one of the school board members, who in turn, contacted our principal. They promptly checked out Parsons' story with the studio. Turns out, not only was Parsons dismissed from the studio, they had claimed he had been dismissed for (get this) copyright infringement. The authorities were called in, and Parsons was arrested. Fortunately, I had felt relieved my suspicions had prevented me from giving Mr. Parsons any cash (he claimed there was a $15 entry fee), and not showing him any preliminary sketches.
When the disturbing news had reached the NCE classes, everyone who had painstakingly contributed to the contest were less than thrilled, feeling ultimately betrayed and hurt. Although I had managed in recovering their works, it was like when offers you chocolate cake and you get carob cake instead. One of my New Caney friends, Scott P. had come up with an idea: recalling how I had worked on OYN, he had wondered why couldn't the NCE produce a similiar publication. Taking into account the effort the students had gone through, my teacher and principal had immediately consented. And The New Caney Comical Times had been forged.
The New Caney Comical Times (NCCT) ran comic strips and articles produced and written by the students, and it was here The Great Fangdini had emerged upon the illustrated scene.
Yet, despite Fangdini's Toon debut, his mystical hijinks had only produced an episode count of ten strips. And unlike his literally persona, taking the Classic Harvey Comics route, the strips were shorts of Fangdini performing malfunctioning tricks and spells. Ironically, it wasn't because Fangdini was a wolf that did him in, but rather the changing fads at the time. Thanks to George Lucas' upcoming film, Star Wars, as well as Star Trek reruns hitting late-night TV, the genre had slowly shifted from fantasy to science-fiction. Space travel expediently had submerged such lands like OZ and Wonderland. The result had sent Fangdini into his final disappearing act around January 1977.
As with Chester, The Great Fangdini began originally as a manuscript creation, but still had managed on entering the Toon World. Fangdini spun the incredible adventures about a Wolf-magician (possessing W.C. Fields' voice) who traveled to far-off, exciting locales. In essence, Fangdini served as a children's version of Gulliver's Travels, since the mystical traveler always visited places dealing with the problems kids had to contend with in the late-Seventies. Despite the similar concepts, and Fangdini's backfiring magic, the real message behind these intriguing tales had always been clear: always be proud of what you are, and be yourself (I think there's an old commercial in there somewhere).
Amazingly, people began developing open-minds towards Fangdini. For one thing, he never used his spells for bullying people, but instead as a unique method of teaching them about themselves instead. Although more wolf-propaganda films continued to be produced, people seemed on accepting Fangdini as a gentle being, rather than another demented creature of destruction.
Nonetheless, even with this small success, I had never imagined Fangdini would become illustrated. That is, until a strange event had taken place at New Caney Elementary.
The Toonerization of Fangdini
Whenever you start watching a Seventies cartoon that's been produced by an independent studio (not Hanna-Barbera, Filmation or Rankin-Bass), you've probably wondered why the characters resemble something a child might have dreamed up than a writer. Chances are, the characters probably were. In fact, Fangdini's transformation from the literary to the illustrated world originated from a very unique scam which some unscrupulous cartoonists would pull on unsuspecting kids.
You're probably thinking: what kind of desperate schmuck results to stealing from kids? Similar to our Internet, the Seventies was a time where you could literally get away with most things. Except for murder, naturally, and around this decade, kids didn't have many rights as they do now. Especially when it came to owning literary works, illustrations, or animation. Back then, minors weren't permitted to legally reserve, or copyright, such properties. Apparently, state and federal laws considered adults as the exclusive, responsible party in handling such legalities, therefore, if you wanted to copyright something [while under 18], you technically could do so through your parents [if they were willing].
Regrettably, this temporal, legislative oversight (In 1977, a Texas Bill came out protecting kids' rights for copyrighting properties.) gave many corrupt artists fro the Animation Underworld the chance for conjuring elaborate schemes of snatching ideas which were solely drawn and developed by kids. At the time, most got away with the crime since technically the ideas had not been copyrighted, and they were willingly donated to the person. Thus, no actual laws were broken. Unless, of course, the schemer ends up misrepresenting his/her self, and a possible illegal cash transaction was made in the bargain as well.
On October 1976, the unspe
akable, aforementioned fate had befallen the students of New Caney Elementary. And I had also nearly fell victim for the alluring mechanization myself. The incident had occurred when a stranger [whom I'll refer to as Jack Parsons] had come to NCE. Parsons had spun a wild tale about his studio conducting a character-search contest. The contest required us in creating a supplementary character for the studio's residential werewolf Toon. Common sense promptly took a back seat, as my mind instantaneously went Hollywood, for I had seen this as an opportunity for Fangdini to transfer himself into the Tooniverse.
Previously, about several months earlier, The Great Fangdini had been sent into limbo, since I had begun working on other ventures within the Toon realm. One particular project was for a temporal local kids' publication, Orange You Nuts? when I had stayed in Orange during the Summer of '76. Orange You Nuts? (OYN) was sort of Orange's version of Mad for Kids, it had showcased parodies and alternate realities of popular characters and shows. My brief stint for OYN had been the superhumanization of Harvey Comics, in the form of Super Casper & Wonder Wendy (neat names, eh?). Thus, it had seemed reasonable for me wanting to Toonerize one of my own, personal charcaters for an animation studio.
Ironically, when I had gone on a Fall weekend visit to Orange, in for Li Chan (a Japanese friend, who I'll tell you about later) assisting me with Fangdini's prototype, I had never suspected Scott would save me from making an erroneous mistake.
Toiling feverishly on a Fangdini prototype, Li and I had finally produced the primary image for The Great Fangdini. Obviously Fangdini was a magician, so we dressed him in the standardized tuxedo and top hat. We went with the Loopy-De-Loopesque design over the Fangface template everyone had been using. One reason was as a fail-safe measure, meaning if he was rejected by the studio, I could still safely use Fangdini in other projects. After the initial image was finalized, we realized Fangdini required some props.
Long before Harry Potter came upon the scene, Fangdini utilized his mystical feats with a wand and a spell book. Before revealing anything to Mr. Parsons, something had forewarned me to first show the Toon to Scott. As with all good artists, I had essentially wanted an unbiased opinion upon the character before unleashing on an unsuspecting public.
Scott liked the character and had inquired about what I had intended on with Fangdini. Considering OYN had now gone out of print and there were no other kids' publications out there at the time. When learning about Jack Parsons, Scott had forewarned me about a similar scheme which had occurred in Bridge City. Except here, the school board had the common sense investigating the so-called representative's claim before allowing the contest to begin. Consequently, they had discovered the whole thing was a scam, with the representative stealing the submissions for himself. They also learned by the time most schools realized the ploy, it had been far too late to legally pursue these guys.
Returning to Conroe, I had immediately contacted one of the school board members, who in turn, contacted our principal. They promptly checked out Parsons' story with the studio. Turns out, not only was Parsons dismissed from the studio, they had claimed he had been dismissed for (get this) copyright infringement. The authorities were called in, and Parsons was arrested. Fortunately, I had felt relieved my suspicions had prevented me from giving Mr. Parsons any cash (he claimed there was a $15 entry fee), and not showing him any preliminary sketches.
When the disturbing news had reached the NCE classes, everyone who had painstakingly contributed to the contest were less than thrilled, feeling ultimately betrayed and hurt. Although I had managed in recovering their works, it was like when offers you chocolate cake and you get carob cake instead. One of my New Caney friends, Scott P. had come up with an idea: recalling how I had worked on OYN, he had wondered why couldn't the NCE produce a similiar publication. Taking into account the effort the students had gone through, my teacher and principal had immediately consented. And The New Caney Comical Times had been forged.
The New Caney Comical Times (NCCT) ran comic strips and articles produced and written by the students, and it was here The Great Fangdini had emerged upon the illustrated scene.
Yet, despite Fangdini's Toon debut, his mystical hijinks had only produced an episode count of ten strips. And unlike his literally persona, taking the Classic Harvey Comics route, the strips were shorts of Fangdini performing malfunctioning tricks and spells. Ironically, it wasn't because Fangdini was a wolf that did him in, but rather the changing fads at the time. Thanks to George Lucas' upcoming film, Star Wars, as well as Star Trek reruns hitting late-night TV, the genre had slowly shifted from fantasy to science-fiction. Space travel expediently had submerged such lands like OZ and Wonderland. The result had sent Fangdini into his final disappearing act around January 1977.
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