This is the only known photo of Vlad Butch, taken in the spring of 1955 by Ralph Cohen.

VLAD BUTCH

It is unfortunate that so few people today remember a man using the name Vlad Butch, who lived in Los Angeles during the early 1950s. An autodidact, he wrote, produced, and directed a series of truly extraordinary short animated films. Beyond that little is known about this recluse. Most of the people who knew him seem to think, due to his accent, that he was of French ancestry, but he never spoke of his origins with anyone. He lived alone, and dedicated all of his time and money to produce a small, but critically acclaimed, body of work, consisting of a total of 13 short animated films. All of them were destroyed in a mysterious fire in 1971.

Although not a single frame of film has been found since then, LWBP has managed to acquire a large collection of preliminary sketches, detailed music cues, and four complete scripts (and a vast quantity of assorted notes). LWBP has now launched a project, in association with 2Step Animation Inc., to recreate several of Butch’s shorts, beginning with the four extant scripts, and using state of the art CGI-based animation. The first film to be released is “Negotiations” (originally Butch’s second film, finished in 1953) animated and directed by Saito Yukiko. All four films are slated to be released during 2010.

The last time anyone saw the man calling himself Vlad Butch was at a small bar on Fedora Street, on the 4^th of November 1957.

We would like to dedicate this project to his memory.

There are two conflicting eyewitness accounts that claim to have seen him in Europe, seven years later, on the same day; one in Paris, and one in Verona. It is also reported that a man fitting the description of Butch made impertinent and/or obscene remarks at a conference in October of 1966, at the John Hopkins University. This information seems less reliable, although it has not (as of yet) been completely disproven.

Concept Art (Character):
The Architect.
JL, 2010.