HOGAN’S ALLEY #11 had a terrific interview with commercial director J.J. Sedelmaier, who’ll be a special guest in San Diego this week (see Jerry’s post below). The interview has just been posted online HERE and it’s a great read. J.J. makes many thoughtful points throughout the chat, such as the following:

But at any time, there were dreadful things going on with literature, design, everything. If you’re talking about craftsmanship, there are blanket statements you can make about things like this. If you buy a better house, it’s going to be better made. But there are plenty of houses that weren’t so great, too. I will say that today people have a low interest in taking the time to do a good job. We live in a fast-paced society that is obsessed with making money, and there is a level of quality that is sacrificed as a result. The way that decisions are made and corporations are structured doesn’t set a tone for being able to do good work or to have one person who is executing a vision, and this goes into filmmaking, advertising and so forth. Decisions are often made by committee, there’s a lot of testing, and this slowly but surely whittles away at any sort of strong, single vision.

The annual insanity known as San Diego Comic Con starts tonight. I will be down there all weekend where I am scheduled to host three events - all on Friday July 15th:3:00-4:30pm - Disney Coming Attractions: Chicken Little, Sky High, and Pixar’s Toy Story 10th Anniversary and Cars
I’m proud to be the M.C for this preview of CHICKEN LITTLE, PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN II, SKY HIGH and Disney/Pixar’s CARS with Pete Docter, Joe Ranft, Gary Rydstrom, Bruce Campbell, Mark Dindal, Randy Fullmer, Mike Mitchell and Paul Hernandez, who will speak about their respective films and show clips in Hall H.8:30-10:00pm - An Evening with J. J. Sedelmaier
I will be doing a Q & A with J. J. Sedelmaier and screen some of his best cartoons and commercials. Room 6A.10:00-11:00pm - The Worst Cartoons Ever
Super President, Mighty Mr. Titan, Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero, Captain Fathom, Rocket Robin Hood, Spunky & Tadpole and Bucky & Pepito - need I say more?. Room 6AOutside of that I’ll be roaming the dealers room, or checking out as many panels as I can. I most likely won’t be blogging again until next week (I should be back Monday morning) - so if it’s quiet around here the next few days, you now know why.

Several readers including Galen Fott pointed out the Cookie Bowers listing on IMDB. Mark Mayerson found a February 9th, 1940 listing for the Lyric Theatre in Time Square that had our Cookie featured in a live revue with Dick Powell. Cartoon voice expert Keith Scott wrote in to comment: “I knew about voice artist Cookie Bowers - I believe he was a mimic who did animal effects. Hadn’t seen a photo before this!” Ray Pointer concurs and sent us this: “Tom Kneitel informs me that “Cookie” Bowers was a nightclub performer in Manhattan who did funny animal sounds and dialects. He was a personal friend of Max Fleischer, and they were around the same age.”

Leonard Maltin found this publicity photo of a voice actor we’ve never heard of. Studio employee? Related to Charles Bowers? Any clues?

Animation legend Floyd Norman’s new book HOW THE GRINCH STOLE DISNEY debuts in San Diego this week. In this third volume of gag drawings, Floyd aims his sharp, witty pencil directly at Michael Eisner and the irredeemable corporate culture that he has created at Disney. The new book will be available at Scott Shaw!’s table (#I-8) where Floyd will be signing, and also at Stuart Ng Books (booth #5013). Below is one of my favorite Norman drawings in the book: in it, Eisner is trying to wheedle the secret “Pixar formula” for creating successful animated films, while the answer lies so very obviously in the name of the company he’s running. Even with Eisner on his way out, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this scenario continue to play out at the Mouse for many years yet to come.

There’s occasionally some fairly amusing Google ads that get posted on our site. Tonight, I saw one for “Bachelor’s Degree in Animation from a Christian Perspective.” The ad was for Regent University in Virginia, which has recently started its own animation program. From the fact sheet on the website: “Regent Undergrad is one of only a few universities in the nation to offer a bachelor’s degree focused on Animation from a Christian perspective. That means you’ll study animation from a faith-based perspective. It’s a unique atmosphere that applies belief to make believe.” This program should teach those heathens at CalArts a lesson or two.

The July-August issue of RES Magazine (Vol. 8, No. 4) is a comics and animation issue. Subtitled DRAWN FROM LIFE, the magazine contains an interview with Genndy Tartakovsky, new comics by Mark Newgarden, artwork by Seonna Hong, writing by filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowski, articles about cartoonist Joe Sacco and anime master Hayao Miyazaki — and actual animation (on a companion dvd) by animator Matthew Vescovo. All this and more - at the newstand now.

The Ward-O-Matic has an excellent post about Ward Kimball’s classic 1953 Disney short MELODY. The film is filled with incredible graphics, which animator/director Ward Jenkins has thoughtfully documented with dozens of frame grabs. It is even more impressive when one considers that it’s the first film Ward Kimball had ever directed. Most directors would be lucky to achieve a film of this caliber once in their entire career, but Kimball surpassed himself immediately with his follow-up film TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM (also released in 1953). Though MELODY is somewhat disjointed in its story construction, it’s a visual delight the entire way through — one can feel Kimball’s giddiness and newfound freedom as he experiments with all the different graphic styles (greeting card cut-outs, children’s-style drawings, off-register lines over shapes, etc.) that had been off-limits while he had been an animator on the Disney features. Besides Kimball’s designs, the film also features solid graphic contributions from Tom Oreb (uncredited), Eyvind Earle and Victor Haboush. The first two guys have unfortunately passed away, but Vic is still around and doing well. He designed the film’s Calder-esque opening titles, among other styling duties on the film. (And lucky for me, I get to see Vic later this morning.)