Apr
2010
R.I.P. Carl Macek
Carl Macek is not a name I expect any of my regular readers to know, but if you have ever watched any Japanese Anime in North America, you owe him a debt of gratitude.
Mr. Macek passed away this past Saturday of a heart attack at the age of 58. Over his career, Mr. Macek was a figure of much controversy because of his dubbing of Anime, but as he once said at a convention panel, “All Anime is dubbed.”
The reason, despite the arguments over the years, that he was so important because he was responsible for Robotech, an Anime series that aired on American television in 1985 and is considered one of the corner stones of what launched the popularity of the medium in this country. The series was put together from the contents of three Japanese series (The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA) due to the fact that American stations required a show to be 65 episodes (13 weeks, five episodes per week), meaning they could cycle through it four times per year. The three series were in no related to one another, but Mr. Macek was able to string together a unified narrative in a matter of weeks when he learned that he couldn’t air them as separate works like he hoped.
After Robotech, he worked with John K. to form Spumco which eventually went on to sell Ren & Stimpy to Nickelodeon, and to form Streamline Pictures which introduced America to Anime movies such as Akira and Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro. The latter two films are considered milestone works in the genre, and once again helped to propel the fandom forward in the United States.
Unlike other obituary pieces I have written on this site, I knew Mr. Macek and had several dealings with him over the years. I never found him to be anything other than professional and gracious. One of my fondest memories of him happened in a St. Louis animation gallery where we just happened to stumble into one another while we were both attending a conference. I had returned to the gallery to finish purchasing a cel, and he was talking to the gallery owner about possibly carrying some of the animation cels from his vast archive. The gallery owner seemed to be not that interested, and to actually not be a hundred percent sure who Mr. Macek was. After a few moments of the gallery owner being rather rude to be honest, Mr. Macek turned to me even though he and I had done nothing more than to nod to one another, and he goes, “Sean, are my cels legitimate and quality?” referring to several cels I had bought from him over the years. I confirmed that they were, and the owner seemed at a loss as a paying customer had just confirmed this man was on the up and up when he had been rude to him before. Mr. Macek and I shared a good laugh the next day on the conference floor.
My original exposure to Anime happened in the 1970′s with Battle of the Planets (Science Ninja Team Gatchaman in Japan), but I knew the moment I saw Robotech on television in 1985 that things were about to change in the United States for the art form. I was thrilled when I met Mr. Macek a few years later, and I am even more thrilled that he and I had the opportunity to work together a few times.
So, the next time you sit down and watch Dragonball Z, Naruto, Bleach or any of the other dozens of Anime currently on American television, smile, and say a quiet “Thank you, Mr. Macek.” I know I do.
John Paul | April 26th, 2010 at 12:05 am #
I met Carl when he had an animation store (Macek Gallery) in Orange, California. This was in the late '70s and I was a teanager. 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, Heavy Metal, several Hanna Barbara toons including The Hobbit, and various miscellaneous shows.
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 after row. You went to a box, thumbed thru each cel with its corresponding pencil behind it.
I bought key scene of the 4 hobbits and Bill the mule from Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings, many cels of Taarna on and off her bird, cel of Harry Canyon flipping off.
Sometimes Macek would give you a xerox of the background if you were interested enough and I got copy backgrounds for Taarna and Harry. Carl actually stamp embossed each cell for authenticity.
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 and displayed in his store.
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. If you wanted to know about a certain cel or technique, he would kindly and patiently describe its process. He could get quite “animated” though.
He had some Beta tapes of these new Japanese animations movies that he called Anime and would we like to go to a showing down in Newport Beach?
Carl introduced the movie Castle of Cagliostro to the special theater audience and took questions afterwards. Unfortunately, I don’t remember much of that.
The guy was a decade ahead of his time as no-one but us geeks were interested in animation back in the 70s.
I do not know what happened with his Macek Gallery, but it wasn’t there when I went back in the mid-80s to buy some more. However, I have remembered it fondly through the years and cherish the now framed cels I bought from him.
Farewell Carl,
John Paul
Sean P. Aune | April 26th, 2010 at 12:45 am #
John Paul –
Thanks for sharing your memories of Carl. I think people that actually talked with him and got to know him know who he was and what he meant to to the world of animation. People that never talked to him and just went "He messed up Macross!" are unfortunately the ones everyone listens to.
He was so important to American animation, and sadly I doubt most people will ever even realize it.