WEEKEND READING: BILL PEET, WALT DISNEY, and WUMPS

Unless you’re caught up in the nerd world of animation credits, the names of some of the top animators in the business are probably not on the tip of your tongue. They should be, though.

BILL PEET is definitely one of those guys. One of Disney’s great “storymen” – terrific artists who wrote scripts and gags in storyboard form. He worked for Disney on classic animated films from Song of the South and Pinocchio to Jungle Book. He’s the only storyman in the history of Disney Studios who did all the storyboards for an entire animated film and he did it twice: The Sword And The Stone and One Hundred And One Dalmations. You can read more about Peet at his website.

Even in his spare time, he was prolific and managed to publish a pile of children’s books that he wrote and illustrated: The Wump World, Huge Harold, Jennifer and Josephine, Pamela Camel, The Whingdingdilly are just a few of his titles and you can get the list here along with a nice cover gallery.

There’s also an essay from Peet that’s been culled together from his speeches. It’s called Bill Peet’s Approach To Writing and it has a lot of snippets of great advice for anyone who wants to create. Here’s a taste:

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