The history of Chinese animation began in 1918 when an animation piece from the United States titled Out of the Inkwell landed in Shanghai.
"I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool" was the first of Columbia's comics to conspicuously show the influence of the animated cartoons of Fleischer Studios, particularly the Out of the Inkwell series with Koko the Clown and "dark" cartoons such as Bimbo's Initiation.
Out of the Inkwell | The Inkwell | Out Of the Inkwell | Inkwell Foundation | A still from the 1925 ''Out of the Inkwell |
In 1962, his studio produced and syndicated 100 new Out Of the Inkwell cartoons, based on the Koko the Clown character, originally created by Fleischer Studios.