Another discovery, for me, at the recent Book Expo was this new book from University of Michigan Press. Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist is not about an animator, but is the fascinating true story of a female black comic strip artist who achieved considerable success between the years 1937 and 1956. The author has set up a nice website devoted to Ormes with samples of her comics work, excerpts from the book (by Nancy Goldstein), and images of Patty-Jo doll, inspired by her most popular strip. Publishers Weekly has an in-depth article about how Ormes’ work was rediscovered and turned into this biography. If you are interested in the history of comics, Ormes’ story is a long-forgotten part of its legacy.

Western Spaghetti, the latest stop-motion short from director PES, has been posted onto his website EatPes.com. The film was animated by PES and Javan Ivey. Stills and videos from the stop-motion shoot can be seen on PES’s Facebook page.

We’re delighted to report that the Cartoon Brew Facebook community recently surpassed 500 600 700(!) members. In the few months that it’s been up, various folks have used it to post short films, link to job listings, and participate in discussions, but it’d be fun to see even more of that happening. In particular, the Wall portion of the page is underused; it’s an ideal format for posting notes about film screenings as well as other animation-related news and events. We started the Facebook community with the idea that Brew readers could have a place to communicate directly with one another. We hope you give it a try sometime.

Endangered Species by Tony White (Hokusai: An Animated Sketchbook) is so insidery that it’s doubtful it’ll ever find a mainstream audience. But being that it’s a mockumentary about the rise and fall of hand-drawn animation, it’ll make perfect perfect sense to the Brew readership. There’s some nice animation throughout and the twist ending is a delight.

Here are more details from White about the film:

Endangered Species was a film I created exclusively to illustrate my recent book… “Animation from Pencils to Pixels — Classical Techniques for Digital Animators.” The book is conceived to be the ultimate reference book for all contemporary animators, dealing with traditional techniques of movement and production process that can be utilized in the modern digital world. It seemed totally relevant therefore to offer an animated overview of the great classic moments of traditional animation, and then explain how these original pieces were produced and how I replicated them in a digital environment. This is all indicated and explained in the book’s accompanying interactive CD, amongst other things. I worked single-handedly for over 4 years to produce the film, utilizing the assistance of many of my students… as well as the voice of the great Roy E. Disney… along the way!

At last night’s ASIFA-Hollywood board meeting, Steve Worth handed me a can of Boop-Oop-A-Doop Juice, a new energy drink (designed to give you More Pep).

Is there anything that hasn’t been licensed by the caretakers of Betty Boop? What next - barbeque sauce?

Character designer Harald Siepermann has posted a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of his artwork onto this blog entry. These include designs from Disney features like Tarzan, Treasure Planet, Mulan, The Emperor’s New Groove and Brother Bear.

While browsing iTunes yesterday, I noticed that they’ve licensed many of the independent shorts produced by Japanese cartooning legend and Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka. These include some difficult-to-find efforts such as Tales of the Street Corner (1962) and Pictures At an Exhibition (1966, image above), both of which are more notable for their rarity than their quality as shorts, though they do each offer some cool design work. The films can be purchased on the Tezuka Productions page (link goes to iTunes) while more info about the shorts can be found on this website.

Wall•E director Andrew Stanton talks with Christianity Today about some of the Genesis-related themes he incorporated into the film. The interview also offers a good explanation for why all of the film’s humans are depicted as fat babies.

There seem to be some biblical themes in this film. WALL•E is sort of like Adam, the only “guy” on earth, lonely, longing for a companion …

Andrew Stanton: Yes, and that’s certainly why I picked EVE as an appropriate title for the female robot. But “Adam” just didn’t have the underdog ring to it as the main character. WALL•E was a little bit more sad sack—and I could find an acronym that could work for that. But definitely it had that first man, first female theme. But I wasn’t trying to replace man in the bigger story. I just loved the poetic-ness that these two machines held more care for living and loving than humanity had anymore.

There’s also a bit of Noah’s Ark story here, with the humans on the space station, waiting for a chance to repopulate the earth—but having to wait till EVE comes back with plant life to indicate it’s okay.

Stanton: I wasn’t using the Noah’s Ark story as a guide, but through circumstances, I loved the parallels of EVE almost being like this dove, of going down for proof that it’s time to come back. It just worked in that allegory, so I ran with it.

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