Remembering (III)

Still more about recently departed artists. (One note here: A few, as you have probably read, passed away in 2005. We list them now because we didn't learn of their deaths until '06)...

Terry Smith: Terry worked as a Xerox processor at DePatie-Freleng and Disney from 1974 to 1977, died May 26th.

Helen Soule: an inker at Warners, Disney, Lantz and DePatie-Freleng from 1946 to 19789, died on February 10th at the age of ninety.

Jan Svochak: Jan started at Famous Studios on the east coast after World War II. He was an assistant to Marty Taras on Baby Huey, Little Audrey and Herman and Katnip. Mr. Svochak was also known for his animation on the thirty-year Hawaiian Punch commercial campaign (still memorable for the tykes who viewed it -- one of those tykes being me -- decades later.) Mr. Svochak was a long-time officer of New York's Cartoonists Local 841. He passed on September 6th at the age of eighty.

Alex Toth: Alex was a comic book artist and designer, best remember for his character disigns at Hanna-Barbera for Superfriends, Space Ghost and other action heroes of the '60s and '70s. He made his reputation drawing Green Lantern and Dr. Mid-Nite for DC Comics, becoming "the finest artist comics ever had," in the words of Gil Kane. Alex died at his drawing table on May 27, aged seventy-seven years.

Myron Waldman: Myron was likely the last surviving animator of the Fleischer studio's crew that created the Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons. Waldman started at Fleischer as an inker in 1930 and within four years had climbed to head animator. Besides the Popeyes and Boops, he animated on Fleischer's iconic Superman cartoon series. Waldman received TAG's Golden Award in 1986, and ASIFA's Winsor McCay Award in 1998. He died February 4, 2006 at the age of ninety-seven.

Robert "Tiger" West "Tiger" was an assistant animator, animation checker and supervisor in the business for 45 years. Starting at Disney in 1944, he worked as an animation checker and scene planner under Ub Iwerks. Thereafter, he was a character assistant under Bob Carlson and and effects assistant under Josh Meador.. He also worked as an assistant on Tom and Jerry at MGM, and later a supervisor of the Xerox department at Hanna-Barbera. Retiring in 1989, he received TAG's Gold Award in 2005.