Dear Friends, Colleagues and Supporters:

I'm very pleased to let all of you know that my latest project dealing with early cartoons is now in progress: a new Blu-ray/DVD combo collection!

Cartoon Roots: The Bray Studios--Animation Pioneers will be release #2 in my catalog of professional home video collections. Much to my surprise and satisfaction, the original Cartoon Roots, released at the end of 2014, has been a very popular title, considering the niche nature and popularity of early animation history. My long term goal has always been to properly release more early cartoons to the general public, and an introductory Bray cartoon set seemed like the smartest entry to continue on with this series.

I've turned to crowd funding to make this release a reality, and am hoping that any of you who are interested in this project can make a pledge to guarantee the creation of this new collection. In any case, it's a great way to pre-order the set. To read more about the project and lend your support, visit the project's Kickstarter page...and, if possible, please share this with any other silent film, animation, media history, comic and illustration aficionados who might find this of interest.

https://www.kickstarter....-pioneers-blu-ray-and-dv 

Thank you kindly for your continued support!
Tommy

I'm already in! I loved the first edition and can hardly wait to see what you come up with next!

I'm in. This looks great!

BTW if anybody is interested, I noticed that Tommy and Andrew recently reopened their Cartoon Carnival crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo . If you missed out on last year's Kickstarter , then you should jump on this.

Thanks guys! And yes, good point, bort. We have what we need to make a solid film already, but there's an opportunity to film more interviews and include more stock footage from my archives, for which Andrew will need additional funds. So now is a great time for anyone else to lend support and pre-order the completed film.

"Cartoon Roots: The Bray Studios--Animation Pioneers" pledges are now past $9000. Tommy has unofficially stretched the goal. If the pledges get to $14,000 by Sept 9, he'll produce a special Cartoon Roots Blu-ray/DVD combo featuring fifteen films from Earl Hurd's cartoon series, Bobby Bumps.

For more information, see Update 3 .

I was just about the post the new update here--thanks L!

Thanks again to everyone here who has pledged their support so far 😃

Congrats on reaching your goal, Tom. [felix]

Thanks Nic...

There's exactly one week left to the Cartoon Roots Kickstarter campaign. If and when it gets to $11,500, I'll consider adding new reward levels where pre-existing backers will be able to raise their pledges and effectively pre-order the third collection--a big boost which would hopefully further guarantee that the stretch goal is met. Fingers crossed, and thanks again for everyone's support here!

https://www.kickstarter....-pioneers-blu-ray-and-dv 

Thanks Nic...

There's exactly one week left to the Cartoon Roots Kickstarter campaign. If and when it gets to $11,500, I'll consider adding new reward levels where pre-existing backers will be able to raise their pledges and effectively pre-order the third collection--a big boost which would hopefully further guarantee that the stretch goal is met. Fingers crossed, and thanks again for everyone's support here!

https://www.kickstarter....-pioneers-blu-ray-and-dv 

Thanks Tommy. What happens to our preorders if the $14,000 goal is not met? From the description it sounds like we just lose that money?

If we don't reach $14k, new pledges will still be handled as pre-orders for the Bray collection, and any remaining net profits will simply be absorbed and treated as much needed overhead here at the Stathes Archives. After all, an independent archivist must eat and pay bills while producing these releases!

I'm very interested in the Bobby Bumps set, but I don't want to increase my pledge if I don't know whether I'll be getting anything in return for my hard earned money.

Hi bort--great question, and sorry if the Kickstarter update is not completely clear.

If we get to $11,500 and I do decide to introduce new reward levels for pre-ordering Bobby Bumps (I may decide against it), there's a very good indication that many pre-existing backers (say, 100 people or however many of them) will raise their pledges at that time and all those extra funds will pretty much guarantee that we hit $14k. It's definitely a risk, though...but by that point, there will be enough funds to do a good amount of production on the collection. It will just take a bit longer, since I would have to put in more of my own money (which there is not much of!). Backers' money would not be lost, but the Bobby set would come out later than originally planned. I'll be sure to address this a bit more thoroughly if and when we get to the point of introducing new reward levels.

A couple high-ranking friends in the social media world have promised to plug it as we get closer to the end so I have high hopes that we will reach that stretch goal.

There are just 48 hours to go now on the Cartoon Roots Kickstarter. I've posted an update today asking for peoples' feedback to see if I should introduce new reward levels so the stretch goal can be more easily met.

Check it out, and thanks again to everyone here who has been supportive!

https://www.kickstarter....ray-and-dv/posts/1346252 

Well, as many of you already know, the campaign (and stretch goal) was a success! Many, many thanks again to all here who contributed pledges or spread the word.

Here's the first production sneak peek:
https://www.kickstarter....ray-and-dv/posts/1357208 

Tom,

Will the two releases be available on amazon in the future?

Tom,

Will the two releases be available on amazon in the future?

Absolutely. [felix]

Cartoon Roots: The Bray Studios—Animation Pioneers gets the DVD Talk Collector Series Rating! 😃

http://www.dvdtalk.com/r...dios-animation-pioneers/