Farewell, Jack: part 7

Our last post of the MegaCollector's offerings of artwork from Disney artists wishing a fond farewell to Jack Fergus, includes an entry from a longtime Disney veteran ... and another from someone whose identity has us stumped.

Below, from the late Art Stevens:

This last one is just about my favorite of the bunch and also the favorite of the Megacollector. It's signed "Effingham Howard Warner IV" (or maybe "Wagner"), but we have no record of any member by that name or anything close to it. So it's probably an in-joke made-up moniker ... anyway, we leave you with the mystery: who's the artist?

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Farewell, Jack: part 6

The penultimate post in our collection of Jack Fergus's going-away presents, courtesy of the Mega Collector.

below, Hank Porter ...

... and Rudy Cataldi.

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Farewell, Jack: part 5

Above from artist Bill Higgins.

Floyd Norman calls Jack Fergus a "gentle giant". When Fergus left Disney's feature department to work with Blaine Gibson in Imagineering, he and Gibson worked on a huge mermaid sculpture for Disneyland. When the moving crew dropped the sculpture and shattered it, Gibson and Fergus laughed it off: "We never liked it anyway". (from Jim Hill Media)

More from the book his fellow assistants presented Fergus when he left Feature Animation. Below, Al White's self-portrait next to Bing Crosby.

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Farewell, Jack: part 4

Above, Ed Aardal's contribution to the copy of the Fantasia book that was presented to to Jack Fergus. Courtesy of the Megacollector.

Illustration below by Dave Detiege.

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Farewell, Jack: part 3

More from the presentation that his fellow assistants made to Jack Fergus (above), when he left the Disney feature department for Imagineering. Courtesy of the Megacollector.

This is one of our favorites; unfortunately we don't know the artist (any suggestions?)

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Farewell, Jack: part 2

More from the book that Disney assistant Jack Fergus received from his fellow artists. Courtesy of the Megacollector.

Below, Ken O'Brien; bottom, George Kreisl.

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Farewell, Jack: part 1

When JACK FERGUS, who is third from the right in John Sparey's portrait of the 1954 Disney bullpen, left the feature animation department for Imagineering, some of his fellow artists presented him with a first edition copy of the Disney Fantasia book, complete with some of their own artwork and farewell thoughts for the six-foot six-inch artist whose nickname was "Tiny".

As Disney veteran Dave Michener recalls (via Didier Ghez):

"[Disney artist] Jack [Fergus] belonged to a club called the “Tip-Top Club,” which was anybody over 6 foot 6 inches. I can tell you a funny story about Jack because we were assistants together at that point in my career. We were walking down the main hall in the animation building one day coming back from lunch. He had such an incredible arm span he was dragging his finger tips on both sides of the wall as we came back in the building. Walt Disney had just gotten out of the elevator and was coming our way. He looked and saw Jack and he said, “ Jesus Christ!” Jack was a very, very big man ... "

Courtesy of our friend the MegaCollector, we present a collection of artwork from this great artifact of cartoon history.

Above, the work of Earl Combs.

More to come ...

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