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