His style meshed very nicely with that of Lah’s layout man, Ed Benedict, who seems to have preferred the flat style popularised by UPA. Monte’s backgrounds tend to be very stylised. The two of them moved to the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio in 1957 where Monte’s work wasn’t quite as abstract.
Here are some of his backgrounds for the Oscar-nominee One Droopy Knight (1957). I like his use of colours. Mountain ranges are indicated by a simple purple line.
I don’t know if the characters are on overlays on this one.
Monte worked on all the early Hanna-Barbera syndicated shows and the ABC half-hours, like The Jetsons. He stayed with the studio through the early ‘80s, and died in California on April 29, 1991.
The first season of Huck's show and the MGM CinemaScope efforts do share a lot of background and character design similarities thanks to Montealegre and Bendict. The backgrounds started to get less abstract even by the second season of the show (and the first for Quick Draw), before settling into the 'cartoon realism' that carried the H-B efforts through most of the 1960s.
ReplyDeleteEd Benedict was interviewed--it might have been by John Kricfalusi--saying Barbera didn't want abstract artwork. I imagine that's why it was toned down.
ReplyDeleteDick Thomas also came on board in 1959 to paint a ton of stuff and he seems to have preferred a simple realism.