Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Ronald Searle (1920-2011)

This morning while I was at work I learned that Ronald Searle, the legendary illustrator and cartoonist, passed away just days ago at the age of 91.

Searle's aesthetic sensibility was truly unique, and his influence incalculable. It's no secret that his work made a notable impression on Milt Kahl, whose visual tastes are almost single-handedly responsible for establishing what would come to be known as the "Disney style". So, in the geneology of the visual language of popular animation, Searle can arguably be viewed as a distant godfather, or a cool uncle who lives way out of town.

I was having trouble deciding which pieces of his to include with this blog post, but I'll let this Google image search do the talking.

Also, Ron Searle and I shared a birthday. And I think that's pretty cool.




(Searle on the left, Kahl on the right):