Sign in or register
for additional privileges

Birth of An Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation

Nicholas Sammond, Author

You appear to be using an older verion of Internet Explorer. For the best experience please upgrade your IE version or switch to a another web browser.

Labor, Page 110

This Out of the Inkwell cartoon from 1927 features the continuing Fleischer character Ko-Ko the Clown, who appears to draw himself and then battle with his drawn environment—a self-referential trope in early animation in which creations were made to rebel against their makers. 

Ko-Ko travels through time to 1999, when everything is automated. Eventually, a machine creates a wife and children for  Ko-Ko, who is unwilling to settle down; his enraged wife rips the clown to shreds and tosses the fragments into Max's "real" cinematic space. Max takes the paper shreds and creates two real women, ready to clean up the day's mess by putting it all back into the inkwell. 

Early animated characters often performed a fantasy of seeming autonomy, drawn by the animators only to be punished and constrained by their "masters" for their misdeeds. This sort of rebellion was a key characteristic of the blackface minstrel. 
Comment on this page
 

Discussion of "Labor, Page 110"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...

Previous page on path Labor, page 9 of 21 Next page on path

Related:  Performance, Page 84Space, Page 182Space, Page 177Race, Page 220Labor, Page 133Space, Page 188Race, Page 204Space, Page 165Performance, Page 77Conclusion, Page 289Conclusion, Page 302Space, Page 141Performance, Page 82Performance, Page 42Race, Page 229Race, Page 231Space, Page 187Introduction, Page 2Labor, Page 88Performance, Page 72Race, Page 221Race, Page 232Space, Page 155Race, Page 248Race, Page 253Performance, Page 60Conclusion, Page 300Space, Page 162Space, Page 181Introduction, Page 29Race, Page 213Race, Page 206Conclusion, Page 286Labor, Page 123Space, Page 172Space, Page 146Space, Page 178Labor, Page 129Labor, Page 98Performance, Page 43Performance, Page 46Performance, Page 50Performance, Page 47Labor, Page 122Conclusion, Page 278Conclusion, Page 298Introduction, Page 21Space, Page 190Space, Page 150Performance, Page 44Race, Page 239Race, Page 230Performance, Page 74Introduction, Page 23Conclusion, Page 292Space, Page 194Performance, Page 34Labor, Page 97Introduction, Page 6Space, Page 152Performance, Page 41Race, Page 258Introduction, Page 30Race, Page 224Labor, Page 112Race, Page 261Space, Page 148Race, Page 252Conclusion, Page 290Labor, Page 119Labor, Page 109Performance, Page 54Space, Page 191Labor, Page 101Introduction, Page 4Conclusion, Page 303Race, Page 251Space, Page 193Conclusion, Page 291Performance, Page 35Labor, Page 132Labor, Page 96Performance, Page 45Space, Page 143Space, Page 138Space, Page 183Labor, Page 128Race, Page 254Conclusion, Page 284Space, Page 175Conclusion, Page 304Space, Page 189Race, Page 235Labor, Page 113Race, Page 225Space, Page 163Conclusion, Page 296Space, Page 197Conclusion, Page 273Introduction, Page 14Race, Page 247Performance, Page 70Space, Page 184Performance, Page 52Introduction, Page 1Conclusion, Page 275Space, Page 156Space, Page 170