Out of the Inkwell Films

“Tramp, Tramp, Tramp the Boys Are Marching” features a song that dates back to the Civil War, one which was still familiar to audiences of the 1920s. The cartoon begins as Koko the Clown emerges from an inkwell-- an iconic image for animation buffs --and then steps over to a chalkboard to draw an orchestra. The band, “Koko's Glee Club,” marches to a nearby cinema (accompanied by a dog who beats cymbals with his tail) where they lead the audience in the title song.

This fascinating series features Max himself, filmed in live action, sitting at a drawing board and concocting adventures for his star performer Ko-Ko the Clown. Max is supposedly the guy in charge, and he takes sadistic glee in putting Ko-Ko through various forms of hell, but the clown usually fights back and sometimes gets the best of his Uncle Max. FADEAWAY elevates this charged relationship to new heights (or depths?) of nightmarish surrealism; it's also one of the most enjoyable Inkwell cartoons I've seen to date, packing lots of imaginative, unpredictable twists and turns into an eight minute running time.

The Clown causes trouble for the Cartoonist, and a sculptor using the studio, when he escapes from his backdrop and hides in the wet clay of a bust.

Max and Koko The Clown bet who can blow the biggest soap bubble.

Max and Dave Fliescher are eating hot dogs in their animation studio and begin drawing. The hot dog becomes a "real" dog, and it and Ko-Ko the Clown alarmingly end up inside a Gas Chamber.

Ko-Ko the Clown is brought to life with a needle and thread.

In this one, Max has run low on ink, so Ko-Ko finishes drawing himself and then heads over to the camera room, where he creates his own characters, a mechanical dancing Dresden doll with whom he falls in love and a couple of automaton musicians. He gets rid of the musicians, but, alas, the projectionist gets oil onto Ko-Ko's soon-to-be bride, melting her.

Koko the clown is sent to the nut house by Max.

Ko-Ko and Fitz find that everything in their cartoon world is moving backwards. After entering the real world, they go inside a clock and move the hands backward, causing life all around the city to run in reverse.

Koko The Clown continually interrupts an animator, who turns his attention to trapping the clown.

Out of the Inkwell Films delivers the song "Margie".

"The Einstein Theory of Relativity" is the short version (587 m) of the lost American long version (1219 m) of Hanns Walter Kornblum's original German feature "Die Grundlagen der Einsteinschen Relativitäts-Theorie" from 1922 that is also lost.

Max is too rushed to do a thorough job of drawing Koko this morning. Max is going fishing. However, to amuse the clown, he draws a fishing pole and a pond before he goes.

Koko likes to join Max and his friends for Thanksgiving dinner. He can, under the condition of screening his films.

Ko-Ko is chased by a cartoony spider while Max deals with a mouse in his office.

Max is inspired by a cute puppy, and gives Ko-Ko a trained dog to show off in a circus ring. The dog performs a variety of tricks, but things get out of hand once Ko-Ko's trained fleas are let loose into the crowd.

Koko is trying to rescue his sweetheart, who is trapped atop a rugged mountain. However, when Max Fleischer runs out of ink, how will he draw the ladder for Koko to climb?

Max is moving out of his studio, so Ko-Ko the Inkwell Clown packs up everything in sight (even using a super-charged vacuum cleaner that sucks up the furniture and the moving men).

Ko-Ko and Fitz celebrate the Fouth of July with fireworks and end up rocketed to an island inhabited by cannibals.

Neighborhood cats come to the tiny Ko-Ko Theatre to watch Ko-Ko and Fitz stage a variety of entertaining acts, from acrobatics to high-diving to statuelike tableaux vivants.