LOS ANGELES—Brian Mainolfi has been drawing since he came to this city in 1994. The Baltimore native started as an assistant to legendary Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones, worked on Disney’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Mulan,” and spent a decade on the animated sitcom “American Dad.”
The appeal of the work was simple. “People love cartoons,” he said. “And I love making cartoons.”
Since his last show was canceled in 2024, Mainolfi’s artistic output has been limited to dinosaurs and monsters in his sketchbook. Like thousands of people who work in the entertainment industry, he has become collateral damage of a precipitous slowdown in production. The only work he’s found is teaching an animation class at a Cal State campus three hours away, for $350 a week.
