Jon Bernhardt's Animation Art Collection

There are

people who've cared about my animation collection since Jan. 5, 1996.

The pieces below are not for sale, so don't even ask.

Click on any image to get a bigger, more detailed, rendering.

A key setup from the 1973 animated short "I'm Just A Bill", part of the Schoolhouse Rock series of shorts that played Saturday mornings on ABC television.

The bill and the boy are two separate cels. The background (what there is of it) is the original production background that was used in that shot.

Detailed image is 602x410 pixels and 46315 bytes.

Another Schoolhouse Rock piece, this one a production drawing from "Little Twelvetoes". I always liked this one because, aside from teaching how to multiply by twelve, it goes into a brief explanation of alternative number systems like base 12. "Now, if man had been born with six fingers on each hand... he probably would have invented two more digits when he invented his number system. Then, if he'd saved the zero for the end, he could count and multiply by twelves just as easily as you and I do by tens."

I am such a nerd.

Detailed image is 602x426 pixels and 38784 bytes.

A production cel from the 1966 Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas, directed by Chuck Jones. If you ever have the chance to see this cartoon in a movie theater, do it! You will be amazed at the extent to which video has washed out the vivid colors.

The entire image shown here, including Max's paw, is a painted cell. I mention this because I've seen other cells from this sequence for sale where only the head is an actual painted cell; the rest of the body is a color xerox background.

Detailed image is 782x600 pixels and 82069 bytes.

A production cel from the feature film Yellow Submarine starring The Beatles. This cel is from the Sea of Monsters sequence. The sequence ends when the monster on the right sucks up the entire universe, leaving our heroes in Nowhereland!

The cel did not come with a background. The background you see was achieved by taking a photograph of my TV screen at a point during the sequence when no characters were in the frame.

Detailed image is 800x512 pixels and 72669 bytes.

A production cel from my favorite first season Simpsons episode Krusty Gets Busted -- the one where Sideshow Bob frames Krusty the Clown for holding up a convenience store.

The image you see here is really three overlapping cels (one for each character) with a color laser copy background.

Detailed image is 800x583 pixels and 75932 bytes.

Here's another Simpsons cel. This one is a Limited Edition which means that it is one of 300 hand-painted copies based on an actual scene.

The Itchy & Scratchy cartoon from which this was taken is called Spay Anything and appeared in the season five episode Cape Feare.

Detailed image is 800x590 pixels and 99047 bytes.

A production cel from a 1960's or 1970's TV commercial for my then-favorite breakfast cereal, Quisp! Quisp was an impish alien who, originally, was always battling a big-muscled overweight coal miner named Quake. Later, Quake was slimmed down and transformed into an Australian Cowboy! Quake also had a breakfast cereal. In my neighborhood, growing up, the geeks liked Quisp, while the jocks liked Quake.

Quisp commercials were made by Jay Ward Productions, the same folks who brought you Bullwinkle! In the image you see here, the Quisp cel is "holding" a color laser copy of a box of Quisp cereal.

Detailed image is 800x577 pixels and 52548 bytes.

Here's another production cel from an early 1970's TV commercial for Quisp, Quake, and the then newest member of the Q family: Simon the Orange Quangaroo. There was a long series of ads in which Quisp and Simon raced from Long Island to Lompoc. Here they are at the starting line, with Quake holding a map of the race itinerary.

Like the Sideshow Bob cel, this image is really three overlapping cels (one for each character) with a color laser copy background.

P.S. Quisp won.

Detailed image is 800x543 pixels and 136497 bytes.

A limited edition cel from the 1952 animated short, Water, Water Every Hare, directed by Chuck Jones. The original line image for this edition of 500 was hand-drawn and inked on paper by Chuck Jones. The image line was transferred by hand-cut serigraph screen to clear acetate film, and each cel was individually hand-painted on the reverse side.

Although Chuck did not do the painting himself, he did individually sign each copy.

Detailed image is 490x690 pixels and 70178 bytes.

A production cel from the Ren & Stimpy cartoon, The Boy Who Cried Rat, directed by John Kricfalusi. The scene you see here is of Ren inside Stimpy's mouth! A consistent sense of relative size was never of great concern to John.

John K. also created the Ren & Stimpy characters, but was fired from the program at the start of the second season. If you need any evidence as to the importance of his creative input, just try and sit through one of the cartoons that was produced after he left!

Detailed image is 800x554 pixels and 52138 bytes.

Another John K. cel. This one is titled, My Idiot Nephew. It's a limited edition of 200, hand-painted on a photographic background, and hand-signed (in front of me!) by John.

Although John no longer has the rights to the Ren & Stimpy characters, he did retain the rights to some of the minor characters. The name of the little guy, who appeared in some of the Ren & Stimpy cartoons, is George Liquor. The name of the other guy is Jimmy. At the time I purchased this cel, in April 1994, John was trying to sell a new cartoon show via Spumco, his production company, of which these characters would be a part. He hasn't had much success selling an animated cartoon, however Marvel Comics did issue a Spumco Comic Book featuring these characters. You can also buy dolls of these characters, as well as paint-by-numbers kits and cel painting kits. For more info, check out the Spumco Homepage.

Detailed image is 640x582 pixels and 85364 bytes.

If you liked this page, check out these related resources:

Matt Groening/Simpsons Related Pages that I've Created: The Akbar Font, Springbats Deluxe, the Groening Windows Theme, Franklin Mint Simpsons Collector Plates --- All can be found here.
Animation Resources: Stephen Worth's great collection of animation resources on and off the web.

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