Pres Romanillos, RIP

Pres (on the left) one month ago.

When a good friend of Pres Romanillos's called from the City of Hope late last week to say Pres was going home, I knew it wasn't a good sign. Pres had been tenaciously fighting a recurrence of leukemia, and lately he'd had setbacks. On Saturday night, the fight ended ...

Priscillano A. Romanillos came into the animation industry in the late 1980s, at a time the cartoon business was undergoing a Renaissance. Starting as a trainee at Disney Feature Animation on The Little Mermaid, his career grew like a Sequoia. Within a few years he became one of the top animators in the biz, animating on a string of Disney and DreamWorks Animation hits, swinging from hand-drawn to digital production with relative ease. His last feature film, completed this Spring, was Shrek Forever After.

Pres was always kind, always enthusiastic, always willing to reach out. (He and his wife Jeannine were "parents" to a large menagerie of dogs and cats that they had rescued from various shelters.) If there was anyone in this whacky business who deserved another twenty or thirty years of artistic success, Pres was at or near the top of the list.

He was 47. And one more reason I don't believe in the word "fair" when I contemplate this mist of tears.

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The Pres-Aid Art Auction

CHARLES SOLOMON (right) introduces the guest of honor, PRES ROMANILLOS.

... happened yesterday at the Animation Guild's second-floor meeting hall.

KEVIN KOCH, who coordinated the auction, helps set up along with Executive Board members BOB FOSTER and STEPHAN ZUPKAS.

Over 200 art pieces were donated and sold. Over $70,000 was raised. TAG President Kevin Koch was the lead engine of the enterprise, and it was his hard work and organizational chops that pulled the auction together.

One hundred-plus collectors and animation professionals spent Sunday afternoon bidding against one another for one-of-a-kind animation art, original comic panels, and paintings and drawings from some of the biggest names in our business.

HOWARD LOWERY, the auctioneer.

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Retired H-B director RUDY CATALDI, who contributed original drawings.

Viewings of the assembled artwork started at 1 p.m., and the auction started at 2, running until 5:40 p.m.

Among the hundreds of pieces: development sketches from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Corpse Bride," production drawings from "Ferdinand the Bull," original illustrations from Rowland Wilson, artwork from animation legend Marc Davis, as well as production maquettes, autographed one-sheets, and vintage art books.

SCOTT JOHNSTON with ERIC GOLDBERG. "Goldberg Jam," a pen-and-ink illustration of several of Eric's best-known Disney characters, brought the highest price ($3400) of any item in the auction.

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Don't forget the Pres-Aid live auction - THIS SUNDAY, June 20

This coming Sunday, the live Pres-Aid charity auction will be held in our auditorium in Burbank. Registration will start at 1 pm and bidding is scheduled to start at 2 pm. The address:

Animation Guild 1105 N. Hollywood Way Burbank, CA 91505

Approximately 150 pieces of animation, cartoon and illustration art will be auctioned to benefit animator PRES ROMANILLOS and his wife Jeannine in his fight against leukemia. Included are works from Disney, DreamWorks, Don Bluth, Futurama, The Simpsons, Frédéric Back, Secret Of Kells, Tex Avery, Eric Goldberg, Drew Struzan, Al Hirschfeld and many others.

If you want to see the artwork that's going to be up for sale, Gallery 839 will be open at the following times between now and the auction:

• Friday, June 18: 11 am to 2 pm
• Saturday, June 19: noon to 4 pm
• Sunday, June 20: noon to 2 pm

Don't miss this chance to pick up some great artwork and help a fellow artist in need. For more details, views of all the artwork, and updates on Pres's condition, go to the website at www.pres-aid.com.

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Pres Aid Cross Plug(s)

We've been gearing up for this the past several weeks.

Animator Pres Romanillos has suffered a relapse of leukemia, and is in the hospital awaiting a repeat bone marrow transplant. His friends are putting together a charity art auction for his benefit. ...

And we're happy to see other sites shining lights on the event, it's much appreciated. (And I would be remiss in not mentioning how Guild President Kevin Koch has been pulling the event together for a long while.)

Friday is just around the corner.

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Pres Romanillos and the Pres-Aid Charity Art Auction

Fellow animator and former TAG executive board member Pres Romanillos needs our help. A few years ago, while producing and directing his own film in Spain, Pres was diagnosed with leukemia. He returned to the US and underwent chemotherapy and a successful bone marrow transplant. He had less-than-optimal medical insurance at the time, and so his treatment (which is very expensive), and his long recovery during which he was unable to work, wiped out most of he and his wife Jeannine's savings. Eventually Pres returned to work, and animated on The Princess and the Frog at Disney and then on Shrek 4 at DreamWorks.

Unfortunately, Pres relapsed in March. He's back at City of Hope, getting chemotherapy and gearing up for another bone marrow transplant. At this point, the burden of medical copayments and the associated costs of his illness have Pres and Jeannine at a financial tipping point. Pres and his wife Jeannine, along with their brood of dogs and cats, are in a difficult spot, and they need our help.

We've planned a charity art auction in June to benefit Pres. On the evening of June 4, the monthly 'First Friday' event at Gallery 839 (and in the upstairs meeting space) will feature the artwork we've collected for the auction. At that reception, we'll have a silent auction for some selected pieces, and we'll have information on how to become a bone marrow donor.

Then on Sunday, June 13, we'll conduct a live auction at the TAG building in Burbank. Howard Lowery has volunteered to help run this auction, and as most of you know, Howard is the expert in these kinds of things. Also, during the first couple of weeks in June, we're planning to have selected pieces sold on eBay. Our goal is to collect about 100 pieces of art for the auction, and we're about half way there now.

I've created a website for the event (Pres-Aid.com) as well as a Facebook group, where you can get more information. I'm regularly posting artwork to the website that will be sold in the auction, and both those sites have additional information about Pres, his illness, and the auction.

We've contacted many friends and coworkers of Pres's to donate artwork, but we haven't been able to reach everyone we'd like to. If you're interested in helping, contact me at kevinwkoch(a)gmail.com.

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