Just for fun, here’s title cards for a few shorts which will be included in my forthcoming Chronicle book on 1950s animation design. It’s a shame that industrial and educational films from that period are so difficult to see nowadays because many of those films feature terrific design and animation. Luckily, one of the films below - STOP DRIVING US CRAZY (1959) - is readily available for online viewing at Archive.org. Also, I should mention that the reason you’ll be seeing images from these films in the book is because of film collectors like Mark Kausler and Mark Newgarden who generously allowed me to scan in their prints. Thanks guys!
[Earlier posts related to my 50s animation design book HERE and HERE.]

Jaime Weinman continues his analysis of Great Warner Bros. Animators on his Something Old, Nothing New blog. This time Emery Hawkins (pictured above) and Gerry Chiniquy. [related post: Great WB Animators, Part I]

Those wacky cartoonists at Meathaus.com have created a 218 page sketchbook featuring 31 artists - including several pages by animators Ralph Bakshi, John Kricfalusi and Katie Rice. Intriguing doodles, sketches and scribbles for $12.95, this book, entitled Go For The Gold, is not available in stores. It’s printed-on-demand through lulu.com. I really appreciate that they sent me a review copy.

Throughout next week, I’ll be doing some plugs for animation-related products and events at the upcoming Comic-Con International San Diego (July 14-17). And what better place to start than Mark Kausler’s fantastic hand-drawn animated short IT’S THE CAT (2004). On Thursday, July 14, Mark will screen his film and discuss its making in Room 3 of the Convention Center from 1:30-2:30pm. During the presentation, he’ll also screen some classic cartoons which inspired his film. Immediately following the screening, Mark will be selling original cel set-ups from IT’S THE CAT at the ASIFA-Hollywood booth (#5473). Buy a couple cels and support Mark in his quest to keep classic cartoon animation alive. He’s already hard at work on his next short film, and with support from fans, he’ll hopefully be able to make many more hand-drawn shorts in the future.

Norm Prescott, co-founder of FILMATION (pictured above at left with Hal Sutherland in the middle and Lou Scheimer at right), passed away on July 2nd according to close friend and business associate Fred Ladd.Prescott was a popular Boston radio personality in the 1950s. He got involved in animation as a writer/producer (with Ladd) on two feature length projects, PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE and JOURNEY BACK TO OZ. When Fred Silverman (at CBS) was looking for a low budget studio to produce SUPERMAN for Saturday morning in 1966, Prescott teamed with Lou Scheimer to form Filmation - and convinced Silverman to give their studio a shot. The rest is history.Prescott appeared (as himself) in the movie DISC JOCKEY (Allied Artists, 1951) and later did occasional voices on his various cartoon series - such as the animated STAR TREK and SHAZAM!

If you are in Hollywood tonight and are looking for things to do - I highly recommend you spend an evening with Janet Klein And Her Parlor Boys. I’ll be there again with my “opening act”: several 1930s musical shorts and cartoons projected in glorious 16mm, preceeding a wonderful evening of live 1920s/early 1930s jazz, rag-time, blues and novelty songs. The fun starts at 8pm tonight, Thursday night July 7th, at the Steve Allen Theatre, 4773 Hollywood Blvd., (two blocks west of Vermont, across from Barnsdall Park, in the Los Feliz area). We do this the first Thursday of every month. Please check Janet’s website (under “Showtime”) for more details.

Louis O. Hertz, ASIFA-Atlanta president and a fixture of Atlanta’s animation scene, passed away from cancer on Monday, July 4. Hertz’s career stretched back to a stint at UPA in the 1950s. Read his obituary at the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION and a nice personal remembrance by animator Ward Jenkins at the Ward-O-Matic.

JamesBaxterAnimation.com is up and running. The company’s mission statement: “James Baxter Animation is a new studio where the focus is on great hand-drawn animation, storytelling and artistic freedom.” Can’t argue with that. Baxter also indicates on his site that he’ll soon launch a lecture series teaching the finer points of hand-drawn animation.