Alien: Dan O'Bannon meets Ron Cobb part 1

leading from 

Early development of the Alien script

and

Ron Cobb

a) Introduction

Dan O'Bannon, then around the age of 23, contacted Ron Cobb who was now around 32, somewhere in the year of 1969 while in the middle of the period when Ron was doing the cartoons for Free Press, just to talk. This would also be the year when Playboy would feature an article about Ron and his work in September.

Dan was visiting LA from St Louis, he liked Ron's cartoons. He looked him up in the phone book and called as he just wanted to meet him, telling him that he was a fan. He managed to visit him at his apartment in Westwood above a dance studio. The place was dominated by a drawing board and when he saw Ron's science fiction and fantasy paintings and his response was "My God!"

 

b) Jefferson Starship commission

Rob showed him a rather small canvas that he was working on, "It's a 20 mile long spaceship, The Jefferson Airplane is changing their name to Jefferson Starship, and they want me to do something to go in their next album."

 

Dan was awestruck at the most amazing spaceship he had every seen,.

 

2001 had come out the year before and Dan decided that this spaceship was better than anything in it.  Not only was the design and the shape more attractive and startling, but it looks so damnably real, more like a photograph than a painting.

"I didn't know you could paint" said Dan

"Painting with my always my first love," Ron said "I've got into cartooning thought of by accident"

c) The starship "Harry S Truman"

As Dan studied the immense colony starship (the Harry S Truman so he noticed it was christened) hanging in orbit above a multicoloured incredibly real looking earth (better even than the NASA photos) he realized that he found the man who must design his science fiction fiction movies - whenever it might come to pass that he would make them. 

 

It was clear to him that Ron Cobb was a genius, not only from his work but also from his conversation, which washed over him in dazzling waves of erudition and wit.

 

 

d) The need to communicate film making

Dan told Ron that he heard he was very interested in science fiction films

"Oh yes, I certainly am" Ron told Dan 

Here Dan realised that he found a man who had to design his science fiction movies that he intended to make in the future. The next thing to do was communicate that he himself was interested in this, so they talked a little bit, Dan managed to show off that he was someone with an amazing imagination, he mentioned that he wanted to make films one day, that he was going to take film in USC and maybe he'd get back to Ron sometime.

Ron said "Well fine. I'd love to. You know, I have a lot of thoughts on this."

 


Quote sources

1. Ron Cobb: I didn't know who Dan O'Bannon was , he just wanted to come meet me in my little apartment in Westwood, and very quickly got around to the fact that he was working on this student film or was trying to get this student film going with John Carpenter who I did not know, and as soon as I discovered that, I was you know that really peaked my interest because I was fascinated by film design and the idea of erm depicting space flight in movies, you know, and I had a lot of gripes about how, how many opportunities are missed and so I started rambling away and we went of to er the House of Pancakes, I think in the middle of the night
   ("Let there be light: The Odyssey of Dark Star" documentary)
2. Ron Cobb: Dan contacted me once, in the middle of the period I was doing the cartoons for Free Press, just to talk. He liked the cartoons, and he wanted to meet me.. He was just out from St. Louis and was very interested in making SF films. He had heard that I was interested in that sort of thing.  I said "Oh yeah, I certainly am." We talked a little bit and he said he was going to take film in USC and maybe he'd get back to me sometime. I said "well fine. I'd love to. You know, I have a lot of thoughts on this."(Fantastic Films) 
3. It was through his cartooning for the L.A . Free Press that Cobb got to meet Dan O'Bannon. (Starlog 57)
4. Ron Cobb: He'd been following them and wanted to meet me. We shared an enthusiasm for films, science fiction and filmmaking. (Starlog 57)
5. Dan O'Bannon: Yes. Back in 1969 I sought out Ron Cobb. I was nothing, he was a cartoonist for the LA Free Press. I looked him up and I told him I was a fan. I visited him and saw his science fiction and fantasy paintings, and I thought, "My God!" (Heavy Metal, July, 1983)
6. Ron Cobb: Toward the end of the period when I was doing the cartoons for Free Press, I met Dan O'Bannon , and he was kind of a fan of my cartoons. He'd just seen them and just wanted to meet me. We had a really nice talk, and I really liked him because he had this amazing imagination, and he said something about how he wanted to make a film someday. "(Rocketblast Comicollector 148, p27)
7. Ron Cobb (2:59) : We got to talking, I realised that Dan was a cinema student as USC, and had...was in the process of making a kind of a spoof on 2001, a small film called Dark Star, and er, and he was surprised to find that my secret love was, was film and, er, particularly fantastic cinema always, always attracted me. So basically I helped out on Dark Star.(2:59, The Beast Within : Starbeast:  Developing the story) 
   
8. Starburst: Who approached you about Dark Star
   
   Ron Cobb: Dan O'Bannon. I met him initially in the period when I was doing the cartoons. He called me up once saying he wanted to meet me because of the cartoons. I learned that he wanted to get into films. He'd just come out for St Louis to LA. I barely remember meeting him. He finally got onto the subject of making films, particularly fantasy films. That really rang a bell. I had a science fiction childhood, so we had a very animated conversation about all the things that hadn't been done on the screen and wouldn't if be great if we could do that some day. (Starburst #? "Ron Cobb On Alien)
9. Dan O'Bannon: "It's a 20 mile long spaceship," said Ron Cobb. This was back in 1969 and he was at the height of his career as a political cartoonist the radical freeko Los Angeles Free Press. I had arranged to meet him through the simple expedient of looking his number up in the phone book and calling him. Now I was in his tiny Westwood apartment above a dance studio and dominated by a drawing board and he was showing me a rather small canvas he was working on.
   
   "The Jefferson Airplane is changing their name to Jefferson Starship, and they want me to do something to go in their next album." he explained I stared awestruck at the most amazing spaceship I had ever seen. 2001 had come out the year before and this was better than anything in it.  Not only was the design - the shape - more attractive, more startling, but it looks so damnably real, more like a photograph than a painting.
   
   "I didn't know you could paint" I said
   
   "Painting with my always my first love," Ron said "I've got into cartooning thought of by accident"
   
   As I studied the immense colony starship (the Harry S Truman I noticed it was christened) hanging in orbit above a multicoloured incredibly real looking earth (better even than the NASA photos) I realized that I found the man who must design my science fiction fiction movies - whenever it might come to pass that I would make them. It was clear that R. Cobb was a genius, not only from his work but also from his conversation, which washed over me me in dazzling waves of erudition and wit. (Colourvision, 1980)