Today, October 9, is John Lennon’s 80th birthday, and it is still hard to believe that in just two months we will mark the 40th anniversary of his death.

I’d like to remember him with an account I wrote of my working with Yoko Ono in 1986 on JOHN LENNON SKETCHBOOK, an animated short based on Lennon’s personal drawings. It was written for the Sept/Oct 1987 issue of How magazine. Click on the cover image below to read the article:
Although the four-minute film was never released theatrically, it is available on YouTube:
Design and characters based on drawings by John Lennon
Animation produced and directed by John Canemaker
Executive Producer: Yoko Ono
Copyright © 1986 Ono Video
This autographed record album was a gift from Yoko and Sean, after we finished production on JOHN LENNON SKETCHBOOK.

Imagine.
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You were, indeed, the perfect artist to animate the drawings and herd together those disparate ideas of Lennon’s hand into a four-minute poem. What a marvelous, delicate, and surprising film. And your personal essay about the making of it is, among many other things, a delightful summary of how an animation happens. Bravo, John!
HOW magazine!!!!!! That brings back memories, haven’t thought of that in decades! My uncle (a graphic designer) always had a copy around the place.