# RIP Gene Deitch

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gene-deitch/852066>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** celebrity-death\
**Created:** [April 18, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gene-deitch/852066 "2020-04-18T17:20:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gene-deitch/852066/1 "2020-04-18T17:20:23Z")

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> **[Gene Deitch, Cartoon Modernist Who Headed UPA New York And Terrytoons, Dies...](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/rip/gene-deitch-cartoon-modernist-who-headed-upa-new-york-and-terrytoons-dies-at-95-189756.html)**
>
> In the 1960s, he directed a series of infamous Tom & Jerry shorts while living in Eastern Europe.

> **[Gene Deitch (1924-2020) |](https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/gene-deitch-1924-2020/)**

I grew up on many of his cartoons, not realizing they had any connection to each other due to the many styles he adopted for them, particularly with the Weston Woods children’s books adaptations where he faithful replicated each books’ distinct style. It was his version of Where the Wild Things Are that I was exposed to, I think, as surely as others had as well.

Even as a lil’ kid I knew that some of the Tom & Jerry shorts were funky, and for the longest time the only works of his I associated with his name. However, “Dicky Moe!” was something that I found eminently amusing both then and now.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gene-deitch/852066/2 "2020-04-18T17:58:25Z")

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Sorry to hear about this. I recognize the name and the work. I had no idea he’d been living in Czechoslovakia all that time, or that he had a version of _The Hobbit_.

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**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gene-deitch/852066/3 "2020-04-18T18:17:55Z")

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I love his work. First heard about him when R. Crumb reprinted some of his classic single panel cartoons, “The Cat,” about an obsessive jazz collector, in _Weirdo_ comics in the 1980s. They had originally appeared in the 1950s magazine _The Record Changer._

When the hardcover collection _Cat On a Hot Thin Groove_ was published ten years ago, I paid _retail,_ brother, the first day it came out.

Of course, he is also the poppa of Kim Deitch, one of the pioneering underground comix figures of the 1960s

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-gene-deitch/852066/4 "2020-04-18T18:21:39Z")

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I wasn’t familiar with Deitch’s work, but browsing through his portfolio, it reminds me of many LP album covers in the 1950’s, especially low-budget releases. I don’t know if he was the artist, or it was a style he originated or copied. It would be interesting to find out.

Eastern Europe seems to have been a hotbed of animation innovation a few decades ago – maybe still is.