Thursday, December 06, 2007

This exciting news just in from David Lesjak:

[Over the past several years I have accumulated a very
large "stack" of Hank Porter information. The info
has come predominently from three family members, one
of which worked for Hank as his assistant at Disney's
during the war.

I have finally completed and transcribed extensive
interviews I conducted with two of his children. I
also have an incredibly huge library of images of art
he created during his time at Disney's, copies of
early family photographs, various related newspaper
and magazine clippings, correspondence, and even a
copy of the resume he submitted to Disney's listing
previous employment and education.

I have decided to start writing a book, with the oh so
imaginative tenative title:

One Man Art Department - The Life and Times of Disney Artist Henry "Hank" Porter

During the war Walt Disney referred to Hank as "a one
man art department," hence the reference.

I will self-publish the book and hope to have it ready
by the end of May at the latest.

Just thought you'd like to know!]

Can't wait!!

2 comments:

Pete Emslie said...

This is great news for me, Didier. I've long felt that Hank Porter was one of the biggest unsung talents at Disney. His drawings of the Disney characters in the publicity department were every bit as appealing as what Fred Moore was doing in animation. Like Fred, I believe that Hank Porter was incapable of producing a bad drawing. I have the books on Disney's art for "Good Housekeeping" magazine, as well as the book on Disney war insignia, both of which feature a lot of Hank's artwork. But it would be nice to see something specifically about Hank Porter, as I really know very little about the man himself. I'm hoping that your proposed book will fill in this gap in Disney's rich artistic history.

Pete Emslie said...

Oops, my mistake. Having just reread your post, I now realize that it is David Lesjak who is writing the book. Please tell David that I'm looking forward to reading it!