thumb|upright=1.2|Still from an Inkwell Imps cartoon featuring Koko the Clown and Fitz the Dog.

Plot

The series is the result of three experimental short films Max Fleischer produced independently in the period 1914-1916 to demonstrate his invention, the rotoscope, which was a device made up of a movie projector and a stand used as an aid to obtain realistic movements in cartoons. The rotoscope projected a film through an opening in the stand, covered by a glass plate acting as a design surface. The image on the projected film was drawn on paper, advancing the film one frame at a time as each drawing was made. Brother Dave Fleischer was working as a clown at Coney Island, and served as a model for what became their first famous character, Koko the Clown.