Hey guys,
Today I talked Nicole Gray who is the daughter of Michael Germakian. He was credited for ‘secondary character design’ on the show but this was misleading. All of the ex Rankin Bass people that I’ve talked to so far will tell you that Mike was the one who designed the characters in season 1. He was there working before Bob Camp and Jim Meskimen and he’s probably more responsible for the look and designs of many of the characters than most people realize.
He was a close friend of Stan Weston’s who brought the concept of ThunderCats to Rankin Bass in the first place. Everything that I’m learning leads me to believe that Mike Germakian was one of the most influential people in early day ThunderCats history, especially in the designs of the characters and locations. There’s also an outside chance that Mike was the artist of my famous publicity piece.
The sad news is that I talked to Mike’s daughter Nicole today and she let me know that Mike passed away six and a half years ago. She told me how much Mike enjoyed working on the show and what a big part of his life the characters were.
Nicole wanted me to say thank you to the team for creating this website. She is planning to show Mike’s wife (Nicole’s Mom) the site and says that it will warm her heart to know that Mike’s work lives on and is appreciated by fans of the show.
If you guys are cool with the idea I’d like to post a brief memorial on Mike Germakian on the front page of the site and will invite his daughter to share some information about Mike and a photo of him so that we can let T-Cat fans know what this man did to help bring the great cartoon to life.
Cheers,
Mark
