Decades before Nick Park was winning Academy Awards for his Wallace and Gromit animated shorts, animator Art Clokey brought to life lovable characters Davey, Goliath, Gumby, and Pokey. Sixty years of never before published images from Clokey’s career are being compiled for a new book by Dynamite Entertainment. Gumby Imagined: The Story of Art Clokey and His Creations will take a behind-the-scenes look at the life of the man who changed the world of animation for generations to come.
But the book is not a done deal yet. It is being rolled out as a Kickstarter campaign that began last week and is sixty percent funded with 16 days to go. So it’s well on its way. The campaign, linked here, is quite impressive, revealing in teaser images a nostalgic fix for fans of decades of Clokey’s work on the Davey and Goliath TV show (1960-1967) and The Gumby Show (1957-1968), as well as stop motion animation enthusiasts everywhere.
Gumby Imagined: The Story of Art Clokey and His Creations will be a 300-page deluxe hardcover retrospective and tribute to the artist. While working on the project, the writers–Art Clokey’s son Joe Clokey and Joe’s wife Joan–amassed incredible images that encapsulate Clokey’s life and vision, and his painstaking animation process. Photos have been scanned, cleaned, and inserted into a loving tome well befitting the storied history of Gumby and his friends. The images reveal a rich and colorful history of not only the development of the pop culture icon, but a name that influenced and defined stop motion animation for generations.
Dynamite has gone all-out to attract backers for this book, with incentives designed for all levels of interested contributors, including other Dynamite publications as rewards. With an expected shipping date of November 2017, backers who support the Gumby Imagined: The Story of Art Clokey and His Creations Kickstarter have the opportunity to receive the book and collectible prints, DVDs, toys, and creator signed exclusives. These include:
- A digital copy of the Complete Alice in Wonderland graphic novel
- PDF copies of Boo, the World’s Cutest Dog and Bettie Boop graphic novels
- A digital edition of Gumby Imagined: The Story of Art Clokey and His Creations
- A Kickstarter Exclusive hardcover edition of Gumby Imagined: The Story of Art Clokey and His Creations
- A Kickstarter Exclusive hardcover edition of the book signed by both Joe and Joan Clokey
- Gumbitties and Gumby flexible figures
- A Gumby 60th anniversary T-shirt
- The full 1950s Gumby television series on DVD
- A hard cover copy of both The Art of Atari and The Art of Atari Poster Book
- Gumby foam top hats, Gumby canvas tote bag, Gumby and Pokey bendable figures, and Gumby socks
August 3, 2017, is the last day for the Kickstarter, so act now. The campaign needs to be funded simply because our knowledge and interest of the history of television demands it–we all need to get these incredible images into a book, and onto bookstore and library shelves. More information is available at the Kickstarter campaign website here.
C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com
