Blackwing Biography Series: Chuck Jones

Born in Spokane, Washington in 1912, animator Chuck Jones was perhaps most famous for drawing the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for Warner Brothers for almost 30 years, starting in 1933, but he’s also very well known for animating How the Grinch Stole Christmas, many Tom & Jerry cartoons, and many others. He was responsible for the creation of the Roadrunner cartoons, as well as the French skunk Pepe Le Pew.

Jones contributed many stylistic attributes to cartoons, such as the now-classic “wait-a-beat” paus used before something bad happens to a character. His characterizations were so refined that, according to WikiFur, “a single eyebrow wiggle could be a major gag as opposed to the wild, frenetic style usually associated with cartoons.”

With three Oscars and many others under his belt, Jones was one of the most celebrated animators since motion pictures began. And no other was as big an advocate of the pencil as he.

His pencil of choice was the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602, which was apparent for the many public sightings of Jones with the distinctive pencil in his hand.

Jones died in 2002 from heart failure, but his work is timeless, and appears daily on cartoon shows internationally. Countless artists and animators were influenced by his ubiquitous style, so Chuck lives on through each of them.