KITCHEN Blair Joseph
https://www.animationmagazine.net/2020/01/canadian-animation-veteran-blair-kitchen-passes-away/
Born 19 November 1976.
He studied traditional animation at Sheridan College. This training gave him the technical skills to be an animator, cartoonist and children’s book author.
In 1997, he began his career as an in-betweener on the children’s television series Stickin’ Around 1996-1998) produced by Nelvana Ltd. and on the feature science fiction film Titan AE (2000). He did character layout for The Ripping Friends (2001-2002).
At Yowza Animation Corp. he worked on the films Three Wise Men (2003), Kronk’s New Groove 2005) and Curious George (2006) which was his first job as animator. He worked as storyboard artist on Johnny Test seasons 2-6 (2005-2014) which involved Cookie Jar Entertainment as lead, and Nelvana and Atomic Cartoons.
About this time, he created “The Possum” and founded Possum Press. Of this creation he has said, “… as a highlight, there was nothing better than putting out my first Possum comic book. What I enjoy most is creating my own stories … something I get to have full ownership of. Up until Possum #1, I never felt that.” The Possum” originated back in high school when he and a friend “were trying to come up with the lamest superhero we could”. Ten years later he came across the sketch book and “The Possum” was born. This character’s only superpower was that in a bad situation he could play dead by reducing his vital signs to almost zero. The Possum 1, September 2006 was followed by four other issues. Issue 5 in which “The Possum” battled “Bathsheeba” a sixty-foot robot is dated July 2011. “The Possum” also appeared as an eight-page story in the 64 page Indie Comix Magazine, 2, February 2011. For Ethan Nicolle’s Axe Cop comic book, he did a four page ‘Possum/Axe Cop” team up which was written by his two children and drawn by Blair.
Back at Nelvana he was an artist on the series Wayside (2007-2008) based on books by Louis Sachar. Meanwhile, he was a designer on now defunct Cookie Jar Entertainment’s Busytown Mysteries (2007-2010).
He became a stop motion animator at Cuppa Coffee Studios which collaborated with Teletoon on Life’s a Zoo, (2008-2010) which was awarded Best Animated Program or Series at the 24th Annual Gemini Awards; with Warner Brothers Animation on A Miser Brother’s Christmas, (2008) and with Tormante Animation on Glen Martin DDS. (2009-2011).
He returned to storyboarding on two Nelvana’s television series Splice, 2009-2010) and Scaredy Squirrel (2011-2013) the based on books by Mélanie Watt. As story board artist at House of Cool, Book of Life (2014) became the first feature where he did story boarding. He continued in this function on Dreamworks/Netflex series Trollhunters:Tales of Aracadia, (2016-2018) and on the Fox/Blue Sky’s movie Ferdinand (2017). He combined storyboard artist and animator on the series Welcome to the Wayne. (2017-2019) made a reality by Nickelodeon Animation and Yowza Animation Corp.
In addition to all of this he was teaching animation at Seneca College.
Shortly after he was married in 2000, Blair had discovered he had a liver condition that would some time require surgery. That time came in 2012 when he had a liver transplant. While in the hospital he started writing and illustrating a story about a young cat that would learn to stop following others and be true to himself. Once out of the hospital and back into a daily routine he left the story unfinished. About five years later he was forced to undergo another liver transplant. Again, convalescing in the hospital, he resumed writing and illustrating the story and completed it. Under the Possum Press banner, this story became a children’s book, Copy Cat vs The Bullies (2018). published after a successful Kickstarter campaign.
In 2019, he was working as animation supervisor at Yowza Animation Corp on the television series Green Eggs and Ham (2019-2020) which has since received critical acclaim for its animation. He suffered a blood clot over the Christmas holidays and died in Hamilton Hospital 5 January 2020.
At the time Book of Life director Jorge Gutierrez said of him,
“I was lucky enough to have worked with Blair (through House of Cool) on both The Book of Life and Maya and The Three. His boards were always so full of life and inventive ideas. As if he became the character he was boarding with a million subtleties and insights. And his positive attitude even on crazy days was always infectious and welcome. Behind the scenes he would always chime in with hilarious ideas or suggestions on how to help the younger board artists in the team in Toronto. He was such a nurturing and kind mentor that I’m sure his legacy as an artist and teacher will be felt for generations to come.”
SOURCE:
Obituary newspaper:
Halton News 16 January 2020: Smith’s Funeral Homes, Burlington.
Internet:
animationmagazine.net/2020/01/Canadian-animation-veteran-blair-kitchen-passes-away/ Accessed 20 March 2024
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic-Cartoons Accessed 29 March 2024
en. Wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny-Test#:-text- Accessed 29 March 2024
gocollect.com/blog/possum-creator-blair-kitchen Accessed 20 March 2024.
kickstarter.com/projects/1563216804/copy-cat-a-childrens-book-by-blair-kitchen Accessed 20 March 2024.
sibermedia.com/qrd/achives/73kitchen.html Accessed 20 March 2024.
GALLERY:
sibermedia.com/qrd/achives/73kitchen.html
animationmagazine.net/2020/01/canadian-animation-veteran-blair-kitchen-passes-away/
kickstarter.com/projects/1563216804/copy-cat-a-childrens-book-by-blair-kitchen