Crowdfund This: Cartoon Roots: 'Bobby Bumps and Fido'

AFA is a big supporter of the work of early animation historian and archivist Tommy Jose Stathes. For a number of years he's been working to ensure that important and often forgotten works from the era of early and silent animation is preserved and available for current and future generations. He has previously run a crowdfunding campaign to secure a Blu-ray and DVD release of the work of the first major animation studio Bray, and now he's back with a new similar project.

Bobby Bumps was a mischievous young boy- and obvious precursor of the likes of Dennis The Menace and Bart Simpson- who starred in dozens of films between 1915 and around 1925. He was the creation of a newspaper cartoonist and animation pioneer by the name of Earl Hurd. Alongside his canine sidekick Fido, young Bobby got into a great deal of mischief over the years and became one of the most popular characters of his time. Like much of the pre-sound era of animation though, he has been largely forgotten- and much of his shorts were thought to have been lost.


Work has begun on restoring 15 Bobby Bumps shorts, that will each be given a new 2K high-definition scan and digital restoration. To get an idea of the quality of the final product, you can take a look at the video below.



Stathes seeks $6,000 in total and a pledge of $25 will net you a copy of the finished  Blu-ray and DVD. Other reward options include copies of previous iterations of Stathes' Cartoon Roots series. To anybody who is interested in gaining a true understanding on animation's earliest days, projects such as Cartoon Roots are truly invaluable and worth supporting. If you want to help this project along head over to the campaign page now.