Many people credit Walt Disney as the man behind bringing animation to the masses. Sure Walt did a lot to create an empire based on a whistling mouse, and has brought smiles to the faces of countless people all over the world, but there was always something lacking with his cartoons, they were missing a little bite.
Thankfully Tex Avery stepped up to the plate, and brought the world Bugs, Daffy, and the rest of the Looney Toons characters. The cartoons Tex created weren’t just for kids, in fact quite a few of his works were “banned” for a while because they were deemed too risqué for some audiences. It was these cartoons that really paved the way for many animators to see that animated movies and shorts could be targeted to a larger audience. So while the big mouse was carving out his slice of the pie, Tex and those who came after him skipped the pie and went right for the devil’s food cake.
Cartoons didn’t need to be all flowers and rainbows, they could raunchy, violent, and sarcastic. Is it any wonder so many people love his cartoons?
So while browsing the old school tattoo galleries I came across this take on Tex’s “Wolf” character uploaded by Thakkrad. The leering, catcalling, oversexed cartoon character that was created as part of a re-telling of the Red Riding Hood story, appropriately named “Red Hot Riding Hood”. The one thing I noticed though was in some of the details. I really like how the artist took the classic Tex wolf, and infused some aspects from the works of Ed Roth (of Rat Fink fame). The exaggerated tongue and the bold colors in the hair really work well with the iconic image of Avery’s wolf.
Were you a Looney Toons fan, or was Mickey and company more your tastes?
