ESSENTIAL // 11.21.02

BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS
By Jeff Chon

BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS
Kim Deitch with Simon Deitch
Knopf Publishing Group
US $21.00
ISBN: 0375421912

Kim Dietch's THE BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS is a sprawling epic starting at the birth of animation at the turn of the 20th century and ending in 1993, with an amusing Beavis and Butthead reference that makes one infer that things aren't as rosy as they once were. It is the story of old time animation, but it's also a tale of the enduring power of love and of how we pass our sicknesses on to others.

Dietch, a legend of the underground comix scene of the 60's and 70's, blurs the lines of fantasy and reality in this compelling tale of sensitive animator, Ted Mishkin; his brother, Al; their love interest, Lillian; animation legend, Windsor Newton; and Ted's nephew, Nathan and their tragic link to Waldo, the little cartoon critter that controls and ruins their lives.

Waldo the cat is a mischievous force of creation-a "demon from Hell," according to some-which haunts the dreams of cartoonists, from the put-upon Ted to Deitch himself. A perversion of the muse concept, Waldo impels men to create his whims until he finally destroys them. What makes this equally unusual is that many black-and-white cartoons from Krazy Kat to Felix, featured black and white felines that all bore eerily resemblances to one another. It makes one wonder how many other cartoonists were haunted by this malevolent trickster.

We first encounter Waldo in Deitch's introduction, in which he tells a story of how he and his father (an executive at Terry Toons, home of Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle) went to visit an old animator, only to find the animator's nephew stoned out of his mind in a dingy basement filled with animation artifacts. The nephew offers a toke of something that may have been pot, although Deitch isn't sure. As the drug takes effect, Deitch is sucked into the most vivid hallucination ever, which is very reminiscent of the old cartoons watched by the girl without a mouth in the TWILIGHT ZONE movie.

The ringleader of this cartoon parade is a small cat named Waldo, the same Waldo we see in this book, the same Waldo that has been a Deitch staple for years, the same Waldo on the painting Deitch's father grabs from the old animator's house-a painting in which Waldo is tearing at the poor animator's face apart.

Is this a true story? I doubt it, but it perfectly captures Waldo's function in the story and the dark urges that drive artists to create. Waldo is the madness that lives inside all artists, the persistent little voice that drives these men and women to be more than mediocre, the unseen weight on their shoulders which leads despair.

Ted Mishkin is an animator at Fontaine Fables, the small animation studio run by his brother Al. A dark, troubled soul, Ted is the star of the studio with his creation, Waldo the Cat, his imaginary tormentor brought to life in cel form. Waldo drives Ted to drinking and depression with his constant meddling, but as far as the Fontaine Fables bean-counters are concerned, there's no need for alarm. They're making money and keeping pace with the fledgling animator, Walt Disney.

"The thing to keep in mind about Waldo is," says Ted in a very telling moment, "he's all charm and cute on the outside, but inside he's pure devil!"

Waldo stands in the way of Ted's happiness in every way, from holding on to his sanity to his relationship with Lillian Freer, the young animator he's secretly in love with. The animated cat permeates every aspect of Ted's life, as he's shown as a cartoon phantom that shadows the drunken Ted, berating him, undermining what little confidence he has left.

The fact that old black and white cartoons are inherently creepy just adds to the unease one feels while watching this googly-eyed, rubber-limbed cat torture the hapless Ted. It gets to the point that one can no longer distinguish between Ted and Waldo, as one slowly and deliberately sucks the life out of the other.

In many cases, it is Al Miskin's rejection that leads to Waldo's emergence. From Ted, to Nathan, to others, it seems as though Waldo emerges to fill a void left by Al's desertion.

Al is smart, charming, and handsome in that Howard Hughes sort of way. The kind of man Ted would like to be and the kind of man a woman like Lillian would gravitate toward. When they were placed in a halfway house for boys and his parents only had room for one boy in their home, they chose Al and left Ted to rot as an orphan. Al was the trusted confidant of studio boss, Fred Fontaine, and Ted was just a simple animator. These feelings of loneliness and inadequacy are what led to the creation of Waldo, first an imaginary friend in the orphanage, later the symbol of every success and soul-crushing defeat in his life.

As an old-time animation "insider," Deitch gives us a very informative look into the infancy of the artform. Referencing classic animation characters such as Farmer Alfalfa and Oil-Can Harry, he demonstrates the motivation of all his characters while giving the reader a nice history lesson on the medium.

From the Windsor McKay-esque Windsor Newton, whose Milton the Mammoth vaudeville act leads to Fred Fontaine creating Fontaine Fables (just as McKay's Gertie the Dinosaur "Chalk Talks" ultimately led to the formation of Terry Toons) to the changing of Fontaine Fables toons from simple black and white to garishly cute color cartoons to ape the Disney look, he captures these moments perfectly and connects them in with a thematic cohesion that lesser storytellers may have overlooked.

The fusion of real life and fantasy, made palatable by Deitch's complex cartooning style, is very jarring and liberating to witness. There are sequences in which cartoons and the animators drawing them are woven together in a fashion that's self-referential and disturbing at the same time. It's as if we were in that basement with the young Deitch, smoking that substance and sharing his oddball visions. The art is very reminiscent of the old black and animation from the 20's and 30's, and enhances the storytelling in ways which conventional comic book art never could.

Everything in this story leads to something else, as random images in seemingly throwaway panels are interconnected in the grand scheme of the story, as if he were carefully laying down springs and sprockets in some sort of brilliant machine. This is comics craftsmanship at its best, an intricate story more in love with function than design, and further proof that Kim Deitch is a master of this medium.

BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS is published by Knopf Publishing Group, and has a cover price of $21.00. This book is in print, so if your local comic store can't get a copy for you with the ISBN code of 0375421912, we suggest finding a better store.