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