chicken dressing bobby bumps!

I am happy to report that the project to restore the Bobby Bumps video library is continuing to move along very nicely!
First, I was treated to the first video of the boy and his faithful companion - just in time for the Year of The Dog, too!
Then, last month, I was given another episode to view of this bumptious Bobby Bumps, in the times (early 1900's) that he was 'living'.
Now, I have a third - and in as many months!
Well done, Tommy Jose Stathos!

"February 2018 Update

Dear Backers,

Despite continued slow movement through my and some collaborators' workflow pipelines, I'm pleased to share some exciting new visuals in this month's update.

As with most of these restoration projects, some films occasionally have title cards that are very brief, damaged, and cannot be presented as-is. One such film in this project is Chicken Dressing, a later subject released in 1923 by Educational Pictures. It combines live action and animation. There are only two known prints, one of them being mine which was scanned for this project. Both the main and end titles on my print were heavily damaged and brief.

Artist and animator friend Maira Vergara has recently finished restorations of these titles, and I'd like to share the main title. Isn't it gorgeous?

Chicken Dressing is a truly bizarre film, with filmmaking/animation techniques that are on par with Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell films of the period, if not even more complex—so I'm sure you'll really enjoy seeing it.

One of the films in this project that is rather complicated is Bobby Bumps' Last Smoke (1919). Our main print has various splices in it, and my heavily water-damaged back-up print (these are both practically unique 28mm prints struck around 1920) contains some of the missing frames—but it's taking some very careful re-animation (taking needed picture elements, cleaning them up, and pasting over good background frames) to try and rescue some of this missing footage...in order to make it presentable for the restoration. Here's a scan of one of the missing sections, by photographer friend Louie Despres, showing the extent of damage in the back-up print:

Last Smoke may very well be one of the wildest and risque Bobby Bumps cartoons ever produced that survives today, at least from the Bray years...so I want to get the restoration of it as close to perfect as possible. Like Chicken Dressing, I'm sure all of you will really enjoy seeing this one once it's ready.

Finally, I'm happy to report that research and design collaborator David Gerstein will soon have more time to dedicate to his contributions on this project, as he wraps up a couple current book projects of his own. Just this past weekend, he was able to tackle one of the most stunning aspects of his part in this project: the packaging for the Blu-ray! Between Josh Latta's art and David's design work, it really looks like Master Bumps is finally getting his due...

My hope is that this project will be in the midst of authoring and replication by the time our next monthly update is due. Fingers crossed, and as always, thanks kindly for your continued patience...

Sincerely,
TJS
"

Still looking for the video link?
Here it is!
No, he didn't point me towards it this time, I found it on my own.
(smile)
Oh, that Bobby boy! And his little dog, too!
(smile)