His revealing letters, written in an elegant style, in fact are the reason we know as much about his life as we do; together they form an autobiography of sorts. They also are interesting for another reason: many of them are graced with sketches, a few of which you can see here.



Storyboards drawings by Anthony Michael Jackson for BATMAN RETURNS (1992).



Brigitte Bardot with her family at her grandparents' house in May 1952. Photos by Walter Carone. "That house holds my fondest childhood memories," BB wrote in her autobiography. It's located at 17 Rue du Général Leclerc in Louveciennes, near Paris.





Animation art from the very first Tom & Jerry cartoon, PUSS GETS THE BOOT (1940).

Transgender synth pioneer, Wendy Carlos (1939). She composed the TRON score-one of my favorites. She also composed music for A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and THE SHINING (you remember the main theme & Rocky Mountains). Much more commercially successful perhaps was SWITCHED-ON BACH (1968).

Italian artist, Dino Buzzati (1906-1972). 1963.

Concept art by Claire Keane for unmade Disney feature, MORT.

Zombie designs by William Stout for RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1984).

Art from the Rankin/Bass version of THE HOBBIT (1977).

Illustrations by Tove Jansson for a Swedish edition of THE HOBBIT. 1962.

Halloween card by Jack Davis. 1959.

Art by Iwao Takamoto (1925-2007). After working for Disney (where he assisted Marc Davis & Milt Kahl), Takamoto went on to work at Hanna-Barbera, where he designed the Scooby-Doo gang, among others. Image 1 shows his pitch art for that show, 2 is pitch art for Penelope Pitstop.


Geof Darrow concept art for THE MATRIX series.

Storyboards by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski for the opening sequence to BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (1992).