Ron Cobb
Encyclopedia
Ron Cobb is an American cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director.
By the age of 18, with no formal training in graphic illustration, Cobb was working as an animation "inbetweener" artist for Disney Studios
in Burbank, California. He progressed to becoming a breakdown
artist on the animation feature Sleeping Beauty
(1959). (This was the last Disney film to have cels inked by hand.)
After Sleeping Beauty was completed in 1957, Disney laid off Cobb and he spent the next three years in various jobs — mail carrier, assembler in a door factory, sign painter's assistant — until he was drafted in 1960 into the US Army. For the next two years he delivered classified documents around San Francisco, then, after signing up for an extra year to avoid assignment to the infantry, was sent to Vietnam in 1963 as a draughtsman for the Signal Corps. On his discharge, Cobb began freelancing as an artist. He began to contribute to the Los Angeles Free Press
in 1965.
Edited and published by Art Kunkin
, the Los Angeles Free Press
was one of the first of the underground newspapers of the 1960s, noted for its radical politics. Cobb's editorial/political cartoons were a celebrated feature of the Freep, and appeared regularly throughout member newspapers of the Underground Press Syndicate
. However, although he was regarded as one of the finest political cartoonists of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Cobb made very little money from the cartoons and was always looking for work elsewhere.
Among other projects, Cobb designed the cover for Jefferson Airplane
's 1967 album, After Bathing at Baxter's
. He also contributed design work for the cult film, Dark Star
(1973) (he drew the original design for the exterior of the Dark Star spaceship on a Pancake House napkin).
His cartoons from the 1960s and 1970s are collected in RCD-25 (1967) and Mah Fellow Americans (1968) (both Sawyer Press), and Raw Sewage (1971) and My Fellow Americans (1971) (both Price Stern and Sloan). None of these volumes remains in print.
In 1969 Cobb designed the Ecology Flag
.
In 1972, Cobb moved to Sydney
, Australia
. Independent publishers Wild & Woolley
published a "best of" collection of the earlier cartoon books, The Cobb Book in 1975. A follow-up volume, Cobb Again, appeared in 1978.
In 1981, Colorvision, a large-format, full-colour monograph appeared, including much of his design work for the films Star Wars
(1977), Alien
(1979), and Conan the Barbarian
(1982), the first feature for which he received the credit of Production Designer. Cobb has also contributed production design to the films The Last Starfighter
(1984) and Leviathan
(1989), as well as conceptual designs to other features, including Real Genius
(1985), Back to the Future
(1985), Aliens
(1986), The Abyss
(1989), Total Recall
(1990), True Lies
(1994), The Sixth Day
(2000), Cats & Dogs
(2001), Southland Tales
(2006), and the Australian feature Garbo, which he directed. Cobb contributed the initial story for Night Skies
, an earlier, darker version of E.T.
. Steven Spielberg offered him the opportunity to direct this scarier sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind
until problems arose over special effects that required a major rewrite. While Cobb was in Spain
working on Conan the Barbarian
, Spielberg supervised the rewrite into the more personal E.T. and ended up directing it himself. Cobb later received some net profit participation.
During the early '90s, Ron worked with Rocket Science Games
. His designs can be seen most notably in Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine (1994) and The Space Bar
(1997), in which he designed all the characters.
Cobb also co-wrote with his wife, Robin Love, one of the (1985–1987) Twilight Zone
episodes.
By the age of 18, with no formal training in graphic illustration, Cobb was working as an animation "inbetweener" artist for Disney Studios
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
in Burbank, California. He progressed to becoming a breakdown
Script breakdown
A script breakdown is an intermediate step in the production of a play, film, comic book, or any other work that is originally planned using a script.-Film and television:...
artist on the animation feature Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...
(1959). (This was the last Disney film to have cels inked by hand.)
After Sleeping Beauty was completed in 1957, Disney laid off Cobb and he spent the next three years in various jobs — mail carrier, assembler in a door factory, sign painter's assistant — until he was drafted in 1960 into the US Army. For the next two years he delivered classified documents around San Francisco, then, after signing up for an extra year to avoid assignment to the infantry, was sent to Vietnam in 1963 as a draughtsman for the Signal Corps. On his discharge, Cobb began freelancing as an artist. He began to contribute to the Los Angeles Free Press
Los Angeles Free Press
The Los Angeles Free Press , also called “the Freep”, was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first such newspaper...
in 1965.
Edited and published by Art Kunkin
Art Kunkin
Art Kunkin is an American journalist, political organizer, machinist and New Age esotericist best known as the founding publisher and editor of the Los Angeles Free Press...
, the Los Angeles Free Press
Los Angeles Free Press
The Los Angeles Free Press , also called “the Freep”, was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first such newspaper...
was one of the first of the underground newspapers of the 1960s, noted for its radical politics. Cobb's editorial/political cartoons were a celebrated feature of the Freep, and appeared regularly throughout member newspapers of the Underground Press Syndicate
Underground Press Syndicate
The Underground Press Syndicate, commonly known as UPS, and later known as the Alternative Press Syndicate or APS, was a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines formed in mid-1966 by the publishers of five early underground papers: the East Village Other, the Los Angeles Free Press, the...
. However, although he was regarded as one of the finest political cartoonists of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Cobb made very little money from the cartoons and was always looking for work elsewhere.
Among other projects, Cobb designed the cover for Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
's 1967 album, After Bathing at Baxter's
After Bathing at Baxter's
After Bathing at Baxter's was released in 1967 and is the third album by the San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane.Unlike Surrealistic Pillow, released earlier the same year, After Bathing at Baxter's is classified as psychedelic rock because it eschews the more commercial type pop songs, such...
. He also contributed design work for the cult film, Dark Star
Dark Star (film)
Dark Star is a 1974 American comedic science fiction motion picture directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon.-Backstory and plot:...
(1973) (he drew the original design for the exterior of the Dark Star spaceship on a Pancake House napkin).
His cartoons from the 1960s and 1970s are collected in RCD-25 (1967) and Mah Fellow Americans (1968) (both Sawyer Press), and Raw Sewage (1971) and My Fellow Americans (1971) (both Price Stern and Sloan). None of these volumes remains in print.
In 1969 Cobb designed the Ecology Flag
Ecology flag
The Eco Warriors Flag originated in Australia during the late 1990s. It is a symbol for worldwide cultural change.- Description :The Eco Warriors Flag has four colours. Red / yellow / black are colours from the Australian Aboriginal flag...
.
In 1972, Cobb moved to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Independent publishers Wild & Woolley
Wild & Woolley
Wild & Woolley is an Australian book publisher founded in 1974 by Michael Wilding and Pat Woolley. The first books published by the firm were Zimmer's Essay and Wrappings by Vicki Viidikas....
published a "best of" collection of the earlier cartoon books, The Cobb Book in 1975. A follow-up volume, Cobb Again, appeared in 1978.
In 1981, Colorvision, a large-format, full-colour monograph appeared, including much of his design work for the films Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
(1977), Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
(1979), and Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...
(1982), the first feature for which he received the credit of Production Designer. Cobb has also contributed production design to the films The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan , an average teenage boy recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also featured Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Preston, Norman...
(1984) and Leviathan
Leviathan (movie)
Leviathan is a 1989 science-fiction horror film about a hideous creature that stalks and kills a group of people in a sealed environment, in a similar vein to such films as Alien and The Thing...
(1989), as well as conceptual designs to other features, including Real Genius
Real Genius
Real Genius is a 1985 satirical comedy film directed by Martha Coolidge. The film's screenplay was written by Neal Israel, Pat Proft and Peter Torokvei. It stars Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret....
(1985), Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
(1985), Aliens
Aliens (film)
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...
(1986), The Abyss
The Abyss
The Abyss is a 1989 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. The original musical score was composed by Alan Silvestri...
(1989), Total Recall
Total Recall
Total Recall is a 1990 American science fiction action film. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox & Mel Johnson, Jr.. It is based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”...
(1990), True Lies
True Lies
True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles...
(1994), The Sixth Day
The 6th Day
The 6th Day is a 2000 American science fiction action thriller film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as family man Adam Gibson, who is cloned against his will in the future of 2015...
(2000), Cats & Dogs
Cats & Dogs
Cats & Dogs is a 2001 American-Australian action-comedy film directed by Lawrence Guterman. The screenplay by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra centers on the relationships between cats and dogs. It was shot in Victoria and Vancouver. The film was released on July 4, 2001 by Warner Bros...
(2001), Southland Tales
Southland Tales
Southland Tales is a 2006 American-Franco-German science fiction dark comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Kelly. The title refers to the Southland, a name used by locals to refer to Southern California and Greater Los Angeles...
(2006), and the Australian feature Garbo, which he directed. Cobb contributed the initial story for Night Skies
Night Skies
Night Skies was a sci-fi horror film that was in development in the late 1970s, but never actually made. Steven Spielberg conceived the idea after Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Instead, material developed at the time was used in Poltergeist and E.T...
, an earlier, darker version of E.T.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
. Steven Spielberg offered him the opportunity to direct this scarier sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
until problems arose over special effects that required a major rewrite. While Cobb was in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
working on Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...
, Spielberg supervised the rewrite into the more personal E.T. and ended up directing it himself. Cobb later received some net profit participation.
During the early '90s, Ron worked with Rocket Science Games
Rocket Science Games
Rocket Science Games was a video game developer that created games for consoles and computers from 1993 to 1997. The company was responsible for games such as Obsidian, Rocket Jockey, and Loadstar.-History:...
. His designs can be seen most notably in Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine (1994) and The Space Bar
The Space Bar
The Space Bar is an adventure game co-developed by Boffo Games and published by Rocket Science Games and SegaSoft in 1997. The game featured a 3-D environment which allowed the player to rotate , and a humorous cast of aliens in the framework of a mystery...
(1997), in which he designed all the characters.
Cobb also co-wrote with his wife, Robin Love, one of the (1985–1987) Twilight Zone
Twilight zone
-Television series and spinoffs:*The Twilight Zone, the anthology television series and its franchise:**The Twilight Zone , the 1959–1964 original television series***Twilight Zone: The Movie, a 1983 film based on the original series...
episodes.
External links
- MobyGames, "The Space Bar," Adam Baratz, Jan 02, 2001.
- Wild & Woolley, publishers of Cobb's books
- Los Angeles Free Press http://www.losangelesfreepress.com/