It's about time I paid tribute to a terrific artist and a good friend, Mike Fontanelli. Mike is an awesome character designer, a phenominal writer and gag-man, an ace director, a hilarious caricaturist and a legendary oogler of women. The designs on this page were done for Tiny Toons, which was his first character design gig. In other words he did these drawings when he was raw, almost right out of the starting gate. He's even better (and much thinner) now but I don't have his recent work at hand so these will have to do. 
Mike grew up in Brooklyn and went to the School of Visual Arts where he studied with Will Eisner. After SVA Mike got a job in a New York book store while he tried to figure out what to do next. While there he did some free drawings for a small-circulation fan magazine which somehow made its way to Los Angeles where Bruce Timm saw it and showed it to John K. John immediately called him and offered him a job. He even offered to pay his plane fare out to LA. The rest is history. Boy, it pays to get published, even in small venues! You never know who might be watching!
This drawing of Buster Bunny (above) is an interesting one for a couple of reasons. Look how happy and energetic it is! It just oozes charisma and appeal! And take a look at the clean-up line. The thick-and-thin is exquisite! Then there's the bear with human feet below.
Now all these years later Mike is a rich, ascoted bachleor living with his cheetah and fine art collection high atop a penthouse in Beverly Hills. Really, Mike is carried around everywhere by an army of naked butlerettes. We still eat pizza together but his tasters have to have the first bite. OK, I'm exagerrating just a bit.
It's about time I paid tribute to a terrific artist and a good friend, Mike Fontanelli. Mike is an awesome character designer, a phenominal writer and gag-man, an ace director, a hilarious caricaturist and a legendary oogler of women. The designs on this page were done for Tiny Toons, which was his first character design gig. In other words he did these drawings when he was raw, almost right out of the starting gate. He's even better (and much thinner) now but I don't have his recent work at hand so these will have to do. 
Mike grew up in Brooklyn and went to the School of Visual Arts where he studied with Will Eisner. After SVA Mike got a job in a New York book store while he tried to figure out what to do next. While there he did some free drawings for a small-circulation fan magazine which somehow made its way to Los Angeles where Bruce Timm saw it and showed it to John K. John immediately called him and offered him a job. He even offered to pay his plane fare out to LA. The rest is history. Boy, it pays to get published, even in small venues! You never know who might be watching!
This drawing of Buster Bunny (above) is an interesting one for a couple of reasons. Look how happy and energetic it is! It just oozes charisma and appeal! And take a look at the clean-up line. The thick-and-thin is exquisite! Then there's the bear with human feet below.
Now all these years later Mike is a rich, ascoted bachleor living with his cheetah and fine art collection high atop a penthouse in Beverly Hills. Really, Mike is carried around everywhere by an army of naked butlerettes. We still eat pizza together but his tasters have to have the first bite. OK, I'm exagerrating just a bit.
I remember watching Tiny Toons back in the day. I also remember that some episodes were pretty well done (as compared to what passed for TV animation at the time) and some that were almost watchable but not quite.
ReplyDeleteSeeing those images, I think Mike Fonzarelli (or whatever) might have been partly responsible for the "pretty well done" ones.
Mike is one of my all-time favorite people, along with Uncle Eddie! I only wish I could see more killer drawings...
ReplyDeleteUm... those aren't my drawings, Eddie! Except for the self-portrait, that is.
ReplyDeleteAt least I don't remember them. I think the bear was actually done by Jim Gomez.
Geez, I wish you'd asked me for old drawings - I could have supplied plenty of 'em.
Mike
Surely, BTW, that's Babs and not Buster. There are bows on the ears, and the drawing is labeled "Babs."
ReplyDeleteHey, Mike, tell 'em about the time Malcom Forbes came into your bookstore! That was cool.
ReplyDeleteEverybody: It looks like two of the drawings aren't Mike's (The rabbit and the caricature are definitely his). Maybe the running girl is by Mark Perry, Maybe the bear is by Jim Gomez. I called Mike about it and he said he'd get me some authentic examples ASAP. Man, this is embarassing!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Dick P. was showing me a pile old Tiny Tunes drawings he found while shifting through his library.
ReplyDeleteLots of wonderful examples of Mike's early drawings and a few Jim Gomez. I think the bear was his(Judging by the feet.)
The comic(Not a fanzine) was published by Pete Friedrich out our cartoon loft on Warren St. NYC.
Pete went to school with Mike, Dan Clowes, Rick Altergot, Joe Horne, Gene Fama.
I wish someone could talk Mike into Storyboarding again. On "Nightmare Ned" he did some the funniest and best drawn storyboards I've ever seen.
Vincent Waller
(Pete went to school with Mike, Dan Clowes, Rick Altergot, Joe Horne, Gene Fama. )
ReplyDeleteAnd tapped most of them to work on his comic.
I believe it was caller"Future Past" but he published several and I'm not sure which one contained Mike's story.
V
Everybody: This whole mis-attribution problem has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. To set the record straight Mike just lent me a pile of authentic drawings to post. They're all so good that I hardly know where to begin! I'll post some of them the day after tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to know more about Mike Fontanelli, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see the real Mike F drawings! He's one of my favorite cartoonists!
ReplyDeleteHey, Mike! I also love your rantings you leave as comments! You should post blogs about all your ideas too; I'd read it every day!
So who played Mike in "Art School Confidential?"
ReplyDeleteThese are really great pictures, whether they're done by Mike or not. Can't wait to see more of his drawings. He did amazing stuff in Spumco comic books. And, here's another vote for Mike F. blog
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Mike's finally getting some recognition. He's one of my artistic heroes just based on his spumco comics. Plus he's a helluva nice guy.
ReplyDeletePost as many drawings as possible!
Eddie! You should add about his amazing collection of everything pure and fun at his pad! He has a towering wall of interesting books that I've never had the gall to touch! Plus he's a super sweet guy and he's Italian. I am proud to share the first four letters in my last name with him.
ReplyDeleteMike's work is great. I've seen the pages from the unpublished Jimmy The Idiot boy at the Barber Shop. was that for Comic Book #4? Did he and Jim Smith collaborate on that? Mike should get a blog, he's an unsung hero of animation.
ReplyDeleteBrian Romero: That barber shop story that John posted was amazing too!
ReplyDeleteAmen! "Mike Fonanelli" was just a name I associated with Spumco until John posted those Barber Shop drawings - which I loved. Seriously - it was a small turning point in how I viewed drawing comics.
Now I want to see more.
Bring 'em on, Eddie.
- Corbett Font-vanoni
I was excited to see a post about Mike Fontanelli, one of my favorite modern day cartoonists! I was ready to just ooze jealousy when I read these posts and found out some of those drawings weren't even Mikes! How disappointing.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait until Mr. Fitzgerald posts those real Fontanelli drawings in the future.
Mike likes knickers
ReplyDeleteMike sure is an inspiration to cartoonist in training such as myself.
ReplyDelete"...Hey, Eddie, Mike, do you guys have any Tiny Toons horror stories?"
ReplyDeleteYes. Jean MacCurdy bent over once and I saw her ass. Years of therapy followed.
Aside from that, the biggest Tiny Toons horror story came from watching the finished cartoons.