Iverx, Ab

Iverks owes his unusual name (Ubbe Ert Iwwerks) to his father, who was an emigrant from East Frisia (a region on the northwest coast of Germany). Ab Iverks met Disney in 1919 when he got a job as an illustrator at the Kansas City Slide Newspaper Company . In 1922, Disney launched production of animated series at his Laugh-O-Gram studio and Iverks joined the project as a senior animator ^[1] . Aba Iverks's developments largely determined the characteristic style of early Disney animation.

After losing the rights to the lucky rabbit Oswald (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit), which Iverx and Disney developed in 1927 for Universal ^[2] , the studio was in dire need of a new hero. In the course of his creative searches, Iverx invented and developed the image of a mouse, which later received the name Mickey Mouse . The first cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphonies series were animated almost exclusively by Ab Iverks.

Iverx’s further relationship with Disney was not easy. The story of the rabbit Oswald developed a suspicion and painful attitude towards his authorship at Disney (in the cartoons of that period the names of the artists who worked on the painting were not indicated, instead, “Walt Disney Productions” ^[3] was indicated in the credits). Iverks, tired of the pressure from Disney and believed that his contribution to the work on the most successful cartoons was not appreciated, breaks with Disney and in 1930 opened his own animation studio.

Despite an order from MGM for a series of cartoons about the frog Flip and liar Willie (Willie Whopper), as well as the release of short films from the ComiColor Cartoons series from 1933 to 1936, Iverks Studio was not able to achieve significant commercial success. Sponsors refused Iverks financial support, and soon the studio ceased to exist.

In 1937, Leon Schlesinger hired Iverks to work on four episodes of “Looney Toons” with Porky Pig and Gabby Goat. After working for Schlesinger, Iverks completed another project for Screen Gems . In 1940, he returned to work at Disney, where he mainly engaged in the development of visual effects, and also performed work outside the Disney studio (for example, Iverks designed and created special effects for Alfred Hitchcock's film “Birds” ).

Ab Iverks died in 1971 from a heart attack in Burbank , California .

• A rare self-portrait of Iverks was found in the trash can of the multimedia studio in Burbank. Currently, the portrait is stored in the animation archive of the ASIFA Hollywood branch in Burbank, its image is used on the splash screen of some animated films also stored in the archive.

• It is a well-known fact that the founder of the anime, Osamu Tezuka, developed his visual style under the influence of early Disney cartoons. However, this usually does not emphasize that the early films of Disney Studios were created by almost one person, Ab Iverks, and therefore, Tezuka was impressed not by Disney, but by Iverks.

• The 18th episode of the 7th season of the animated series " The Simpsons " "The Day the Violence Died" Tells about the partially fictional events of the origin and development of Hollywood animation. The animator Roger Myers , in the story, who stole Tickling and Scratch from his subordinate, is a direct parody of Walt Disney, while the creator of the characters Tickling and Scratching Chester J. Lampwick is a parody of Aba Iverks.

• In the episode "The„ Good Old Days! ", The animated series Magic Parents Timmy and Daddy fall into the cartoon of the past, repeating the style of black and white Disney films. A traffic sign at an intersection indicates the intersection of Ube and Iwerks.

• In the episode "Superstitious Stimpy" of the animated series " The Ren and Steampie Show ", Iverks's name sounds in the spell against evil spells that Steampie casts.

• Ab Iverks on Disney Legends
• Ab Iverks on the Internet Archive