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    Optimus Buys Out Partner Craig Leffel; Industry Vet Launches Big Spoon Industries

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments5935 Views
    Craig Leffel

    By Robert Goldrich

    CHICAGO --

    Optimus has bought out partner Craig Leffel, bringing to a close his 18-year tenure at the company, the last three as head of its production arm, ONE at Optimus. Executive producer Lisa Masseur has been promoted to succeed Leffel at the ONE at Optimus helm, according to Tom Duff, president of Optimus.

    Meanwhile Leffel has hit the ground running, launching his own Chicago-based venture, Big Spoon Industries, through which he is already packaging projects for clients. Leffel said his departure from Optimus was amicable as reflected in the absence of a no-compete clause, enabling him to continue to operate freely in the production and post sectors.

    Leffel first established himself as a colorist, working at Skyview Studios and Editel before joining Optimus once it was acquired by its partners from Anheuser-Busch in 1986. Two years later, Leffel became a partner in Optimus. He was a colorist there for 15 years, moving up to sr. colorist, before shifting over to ONE at Optimus as director of production.

    Leffel said that the people at Optimus have always been fair with him and he leaves the company on good terms, albeit sooner than he expected. Leffel noted that as Optimus is adapting to a changing marketplace, part of the restructuring led to the decision to buy out his minority stake in the company.

    “I had a great run at Optimus and enjoyed a lot of success there in production and post,” said Leffel. “I was able to develop a lot of different skills and establish relationships with directors, creatives and clients. Now I can bring that skillset to this new chapter in my career.”

    Duff said that while Leffel will be competing on occasion with Optimus, there may also be projects which could bring them together again as collaborators, a reunion which Duff looks forward to. “Craig did an incredible job for us over the years, including in his role as head of ONE at Optimus,” assessed Duff. “He’s a mover and a shaker with great connections.”

    As for the moniker of his new venture, Leffel explained that words in German and Yiddish that approximate the spelling of his last name mean “spoon” and “ladle,” respectively, leading to his nickname as a youngster being “Big Spoon.” He now hopes to stir things up with his new shop, tapping into diverse talent bases, including freelance directors with whom he has developed relationships over the years.

    Category:News
    Tags:Craig LeffelOptimusTom Duff



    Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist and Writer, Dies At 95

    Tuesday, January 21, 2025

    Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer whose prolific output ranged from a long-running comic strip to plays, screenplays and children's books, died Friday. He was 95 and, true to his seemingly tireless form, published his last book just four months ago.

    Feiffer's wife, writer JZ Holden, said Tuesday that he died of congestive heart failure at their home in Richfield Springs, New York, and was surrounded by friends, the couple's two cats and his recent artwork.

    Holden said her husband had been ill for a couple of years, "but he was sharp and strong up until the very end. And funny."

    Artistically limber, Feiffer hopscotched among numerous forms of expression, chronicling the curiosity of childhood, urban angst and other societal currents. To each he brought a sharp wit and acute observations of the personal and political relations that defined his readers' lives.

    As Feiffer explained to the Chicago Tribune in 2002, his work dealt with "communication and the breakdown thereof, between men and women, parents and children, a government and its citizens, and the individual not dealing so well with authority."

    Feiffer won the United States' most prominent awards in journalism and filmmaking, taking home a 1986 Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons and "Munro," an animated short film he wrote, won a 1961 Academy Award. The Library of Congress held a retrospective of his work in 1996.

    "My goal is to make people think, to make them feel and, along the way, to make them smile if not laugh," Feiffer told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1998. "Humor seems to me one of the best ways of espousing ideas. It gets people to listen with their guard down."

    Feiffer was born on Jan. 26, 1929, in the Bronx. From... Read More

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