Monster Mohawk

“If an
inter-esting monster can’t have an inter-esting hairdo, then I don’t know what
things are coming to!”  So says the
barber of Termite Terrace, Bugs Bunny. 
Give him a chainsaw for hair-clippers and there’s no telling what might
happen.  Our poor orange-furred,
hump-headed monster, Gossamer, peeved, but too stunned to act, looks askance at
his new ‘do’.  Gossamer first appeared in
Chuck Jones’ 1946 short animated film Hair-Raising Hare. 

Based on
original watercolors painted by Chuck Jones Monster Mohawk has been
re-interpreted as storyboards* complete with dialogue, cork bulletin board and
push pins.  Monster Mohawk bears the
official signature-mark of Chuck Jones.

“Designing
a character does involve drawing, but as soon as the character is animated, it
is the animation that makes the
character, not the drawing.  When you are
engaged in full animation, the character pushes aside and takes over.  Drawing becomes as unconscious a necessity to
you as body mechanics are to the dancer during a performance.  You are the interpreter of actions that
surprise both you and the character you visualize.  You and the character become that series of
surprises that is comedy.” —Chuck Jones in Chuck Reducks, Drawing From the
Fun Side of Life

*At Warner Bros., in the Golden Age of Animation…”writers
and directors wrote and directed animated cartoons by the development of
storyboards, very similar to gigantic Sunday comic strips—one hundred fifty 3 x
5 inch sketches thumb-tacked to a framed 4 x 8 foot storyboard.”  These storyboards were then presented to the
entire group in what Chuck Jones has called a “yes” session.  During these “yes” sessions, no one was
allowed to say no, each idea was allowed to have its moment, whether eventually
used or not, and all participants were afforded the opportunity to contribute
positively to the project at hand. 

Quote from Chuck Amuck, The Life and Times of an
Animated Cartoonist