Painter/designer Tim Biskup is on the cover of JUXTAPOZ magazine this month, and inside of the issue there’s a short but informative interview with him. Tim discusses a lot of familiar names - Blair, Oreb, Benedict, Flora - and recounts an important lesson he learned from John Kricfalusi: “He pointed out that Mary Blair, and all of the really good animation people, could draw really well…Then, when they abstracted the forms into cartoon characters, they were these amazingly balanced, beautifully formed creatures. They were flat, but the character had form.” Also in this same issue, there’s an ad for the Bispop Gallery: The Tim Biskup Store which opens next month inside of Johnson Motors Inc. (36 W. Colorado Blvd. #7, Pasadena, CA 91105). The all-Biskup store will feature original art, toys, apparel, books, ceramics and everything else Tim has ever done. Mark your calenders for the grand opening bash on Saturday, September 18 from 6-9 pm.

Animator Chris Romano has posted his work on a website, Toonlets, and came up with several clever audition pieces - including this one, FRANKENBERRY REDUX a CG remake of a classic 70s-era cereal commercial.

Under the radar - and with no U.S. release planned at all - is a full length CG feature based on the hippie-trippy 1960s British kids show The Magic Roundabout. This is the U.K. series that won a cult following among adults for its perceived drug references. You can catch the trailer here.

Since discovering his site a few weeks ago, Ben Ettinger’s AniPages Daily has become one of my favorite blogs around, which is perhaps notable because the primary focus of his journal is Japanese animation. What makes his writing unique is that he doesn’t approach anime from the conventional fanboy perspective with lots of long plot synopses and the like, but instead focuses on the actual animation and the individual animators who are responsible for the work. Ben writes effortlessly about classic Japanese animation as well as modern films, and recently he posted a comprehensive look at the animated features produced by Toei Doga from 1958-1972, which includes films such as LITTLE NORSE PRINCE, JACK AND THE WITCH and a local favorite among the LA crowd LITTLE PRINCE AND THE 8-HEADED DRAGON. When not writing about anime, he also finds the time to praise the works of great non-Japanese animators like Oskar Fischinger and Yuri Norstein.

One film that Ben has been tirelessly plugging for the past couple months is MIND GAME, which opens this weekend in Japan. I was unsure of what the hype was about until I saw the trailer, and now all I can say is WOW! This film looks to be a pure demented visual trip along the lines of YELLOW SUBMARINE, but many leaps beyond; a perfect melding of art and technology and an incredibly beautiful use of animation. The director is Masaaki Yuasa, whose short film SOUND INSECT NOISEMAN both impressed and confused me when I saw it a few years ago. Despite a limited release in theaters, MIND GAME is generating a lot of buzz in Japan’s animation community, and according to Ben’s latest update, the animation studio Madhouse has even started a cheerleading squad to promote the film in the streets of Tokyo. That’s rather amazing considering that Madhouse had nothing to do with the film’s production; the equivalent would be DreamWorks animators running around the streets of Burbank to promote the latest Disney feature.

Chris Northrop and Mark Tordik have apparently taken a course at the Bill Plympton School of Filmmaking and decided to produce an animated feature completely by themselves. The New Jersey natives, both in their early-twenties, are currently deep into production on a hand-drawn 40-minute animated feature called DAY OF THE PIGMAN. Between the two of them, they are handling every production task, even going so far as to voice the lead characters themselves. The film recounts the tale of mad scientist Dr. Osgood whose research leads to the creation of the first Pigman and ultimately the destruction of humankind. The film was co-written by Northrop and Tordik, with Northrop handling all the animation responsibilities. PIGMAN is expected to be completed by Spring 2005. To keep up with the film’s production, visit the OFFICIAL WEBSITE.

Brew reader and Spumco veteran Katie Rice got a nice write up in her local hometown newspaper, the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, in which we learn she doesn’t enjoy most of the cartoons she sees on television these days. But, she says, “I absolutely love the earliest Betty Boop cartoons from the 30s and Warner Brothers cartoon shorts from the 40s. My ultimate goal is to one day be as good as the people who made those.”You’re our kind of gal, Katie! And she has a great website and on-line portfolio worthy of serious perusal at www.katienice.homestead.com

Leave it to George Lucas to attempt putting an artistic spin on outsourcing. About his newly formed Lucasfilm animation facility in Singapore, here’s what he had to say:

“I’ve been a fan of Asian animation and illustration all my life. Asian cinema has had a particularly big impact on a lot of my work. When we began thinking about developing new ways to explore the craft of animation, it seemed a natural step to combine the two. By having a base in Singapore, we can create a new style of animation that will blend East and West and offer something not seen before.”

Oh, I get it, so the reason Lucas is starting a studio in Singapore is because he wants to incorporate Asian influences into his animation. And of course, whenever I hear the words “Asian animation” the first country that pops to mind is Singapore. Can anybody even name an original animated production or comic from Singapore that’s made it into the West? If this lofty artistic declaration were the true motivating factor behind the new Asian arm of Lucasfilm, then it would have made far more sense to launch the studio in a country like Japan which has both a rich history of producing innovative animation and a large pool of top-notch talent to draw upon. The far more obvious explanation for Lucasfilm’s arrival in Singapore can be found in this sentence from Monday’s VARIETY article: “Singapore facility is backed by a consortium of investors based in the country, including government agencies the Economic Development Board and Creative Technology, which are providing funding and advice.” Nobody’s going to disagree that it makes financial sense for Lucasfilm to launch a studio in Asia, but trying to validate it as some noble-minded creative choice is disingenuous and lessens Lucas’ artistic integrity (or whatever remains of his artistic integrity after RADIOLAND MURDERS and HOWARD THE DUCK).
[Thanks to Gary S. for the article link]

Baby Tattoo is a new company I found out about while down at the San Diego Comic-Con. It’s a publishing company founded by Bob Self with an ambitious goal: to create 99 $9 hardcover illustrated books drawn by today’s best illustrators and cartoonists. The first two books in the series are Ragnar’s GOT YOUR NOSE! and Gris Grimly’s WICKED NURSERY RHYMES. There are plenty of other artists lined up for future books including Michel Gagné and Gary Baseman. [Updated 8/6 - Bob Self wrote in to correct a few things: Gary Baseman still hasn't officially agreed to illustrate a book, and Gris Grimly's WICKED NURSERY RHYMES is not part of the 99 $9 series, but a separate title from Baby Tattoo. My apologies to Bob for the errors.]