Carl Macek: RIP


I just found out from Mark Vezina's blog that Carl Macek died. He was 58.

Robotech, Macek's hybrid combination of various Japanese animated series, was my introduction into the genre of mecha. My family moved to Misawa AFB, Japan in the mid-eighties. I remember waking early every Saturday morning to watch it on the Armed Forces TV station. I was enraptured.

I will forever thank Mr. Macek for opening my young, gaijin eyes to a wider, more armored world.

http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=418

Best,
JBR

PS. A Youtube Marathon of Mr. Macek's work seems fitting for this weekend, in memorium...
Here's a link to subscribe to Robotech: The Macross Saga

Comments

Slade Hart said…
No!!! The last time we were at Comic Con I had a great conversation with Mr. Macek. I thanked him for doing such a great job creating a cool continuity between three different awesome anime. I loved Robotech as a kid and as an adult. I was please to pass this love on to my son. Just a couple a weeks ago I was walking by his room at bed time and he was busting up over Exedore sing Minmae's song.
John Bear Ross said…
It was brutal news. I didn't sleep well last night.

Give me a call when you can. You coming back to Vegas soon?

Best,
JBR
Slade Hart said…
We have a Selene pick up in early June but I'll call you later today and chat.
Unknown said…
I met Carl when he had an animation store in Orange, California. This was in the late '70s. The store was really a warehouse for hundreds of thousands of animation cels from various animated movies: Wizards, Lord of the Rings, Fire and Ice, Fritz the Cat, American Pop, several Hanna Barbara toons including The Hobbit, and Heavy Metal.

These were literally every scene with backgrounds, key cels, in-betweens, pencils, roughs, clean ups, timing sheets. And they were stored in banker boxes, row upon row. You went to a box, thumbed thru each cel with its corresponding pencil behind it.

Sometimes Macek would give you a xerox of the background if you were interested enough.

The guy was a decade ahead of his time as no-one but us geeks were interested in animation back in the 70s.

He did come out with The Animation of Heavy Metal selecting choice animation cels from the movie. He had several colored key animation cels in sequence that he placed on large original backgrounds. These were works of art.

The best thing was that he was in the shop, talking animation with you as you perused and panted and awed over the backgrounds and cels.

Farewell Carl,

John Paul
John Bear Ross said…
John Paul,

Thanks for giving us that gift from your memory. Appreciate it.

Best,
John Bear Ross

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