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.

An "Out of the Inkwell" short featuring Ko-Ko the Clown, this time as a fireman.

"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 and Koko get mixed up with a live action gypsy fortune teller and then caught up with ghosts and monsters in this, as usual, delightful OUT OF THE INKWELL offering.

Max has a toothache, and it's up to The Clown and a bespectacled rabbit to pull out the aching tooth.

Ko-Ko the Inkwell Clown and a baby get caught in a hurricane.

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

Koko the Clown discovers a machine that can make cartoons.

In this Christmas season release, Max assembles a toy train track while Ko-Ko the Clown visits a cartoon toyland, playing cops and robbers and rescuing a doll in distress.

Max helps the Inkwell Clown prepare for a family reunion.

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?

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

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.

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).

Max tricks Koko with a jumping bean. Koko finds a way to duplicate himself to get his revenge.

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.

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

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