SHEEP IN THE BIG CITY creator Mo Willems, who recently picked up his second Caldecott Honor for KNUFFLE BUNNY,writes in to let me know about another foreign “Mary Blair”. Mo writes:

You mention the “French Mary Blair”… Do you know the “Dutch Mary Blair”, Fiep Westendorp? Perhaps Holland’s greatest illustrator, her quirky, vibrant drawings spent half a century in the center of mainstream Dutch cultural life. She started out as a newspaper illustrator, but made her name drawing and painting a series of homespun books for young people (somewhere between picture books and chapter books) by Annie M.G. Schmidt. Schmidt’s writing is sweet and folksy, but Fiep’s illustrations make the stories come alive.

Jip and Janneke, two of her silhouetted characters who live in a full color world are national treasures and as ubiquitous in Holland as Tintin is in Belgium. Check out one of many sites devoted to her stuff HERE.

I grew up with Fiep’s work. I had stacks of her books written in indecipherable Dutch but filled with immediately recognizable, emotive drawings that made me want to draw, and to draw as I do. Fiep died a few years back just as Amsterdam mounted a series of retrospective exhibits. Americans will be able to see some cool originals this winter when the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art mounts a show on Dutch Picture Book Illustrators this winter (the show, I’m told, is going to travel to NYC in December as well). Her stuff is well worth checking out, and if you ever go to Holland you should be sure to check out her retrospective book collection “Getekend: Fiep Westendorp (Drawn: Fiep Westendorp)”.

France’s equivalent of Mary Blair is not one, but two artists. Lefor Openo is the pseudonym of French illustrators Marie-Claire Lefort and Marie-Francine Oppeneau. They produced lots of great posters and advertising art during the 1950s and 1960s, and THIS SITE is packed with examples of their work. (via PCL LinkDump)

Here’s a fascinating piece on legendary Disney animator Ward Kimball’s toy train collection and the recent auctions of the trains which grossed around $5 million. For those prices, I’d want real trains…

Andrew Young’s PuppetVision Blog has pointed out this website listing dozens of vintage cartoon character hand puppets. Making three dimensional figures out of flat cartoon characters was not as refined an art back then as it is today - thus we mainly ended up with deformed versions of our favorite animated pals as puppets and dolls. This website provides a good overview. The two pictured above (TV’s Koko the Clown and Katnip) are better than average - go to the website to see a very depressing Droopy, Little Roquefort and Mr. Jinks.

Last Saturday’s “The Film Programme” on the BBC was a half-hour show devoted to anime, and includes interviews with a half-dozen people who either work in or write about anime. Listen to the show HERE. (link via Stone Bridge Press blog)

On Tuesday June 28th, cartoonist Rowland B. Wilson passed away.Lucky SevenWilson is best known for hundreds of cartoons he wrote and drew for national magazines such as TV Guide, Playboy and The New Yorker, among others. He worked in animation for a number of years at Walt Disney Feature Animation (on The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan and Hercules), Don Bluth (Thumbelina), and for the Richard Williams studio. He was awarded a daytime Emmy for Educational Animation on ABC television (Schoolhouse Rock), as well as Playboy Magazine’s Cartoonist of the Year Award.A service will be held at Mission San Luis Rey, 4050 Mission Avenue, Oceanside, California, on Wednesday July 6th at 11:30 am.

In a little less than two weeks, the San Diego Comic Con will commence with an expected attendance of over 100,000 fans and industry professionals. I will be down there among the masses, trying my best to attend all the Asifa-Hollywood events and Mark Evanier’s panels - and maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll get a chance to explore the dealers room. This year I am scheduled to host three events - all on Friday July 15th - so if you are looking for me, here’s a handy guide to the three places I’ll be for sure.3:00-4:30pm - Disney Coming Attractions: Chicken Little, Sky High, and Pixar’s Toy Story 10th Anniversary and Cars
Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios celebrate the 10th anniversary of the groundbreaking release of Toy Story with a special panel featuring Pixar veterans Pete Docter, Joe Ranft, and Academy Award winner Gary Rydstrom. We’ll be discussing the film along with a preview of clips from the upcoming special-edition DVD release - and an exclusive peek at Pixar’s next film, Cars. Disney Feature Animation will also present an exclusive look at Chicken Little, with director Mark Dindal and producer Randy Fullmer. Also, from Disney’s live-action adventure comedy Sky High, I’ll introduce actor Bruce Campell, director Mike Mitchell, and screenwriter Paul Hernandez. So join me as I host this must-see event in Hall H.8:30-10:00pm - An Evening with J. J. Sedelmaier
I will be hosting a panel and screening with Comic-Con special guest J. J. Sedelmaier showcasing some of his best cartoons and commercials. Room 6A.10:00-11:00pm - The Worst Cartoons Ever
If Ed Wood were an animator, these are the cartoons he would have made. I’ll be presenting an all-new selection of some of the worst animated films ever made, including our regular favorites Super President (that one-man weapon of mass destruction), Mighty Mr. Titan (the limited animation physical fitness propaganda cartoon), Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero (the lamest space cadet ever created), and Clutch Cargo (he with the live-action lips) along with (new this year) Rocket Robin Hood (and his band of “Merry Men”), Rankin-Bass’s King Kong (move over Peter Jackson!), Spunky & Tadpole (a clueless kid and his retarded bear pal), and Bucky & Pepito (hands down, the worst cartoon series ever made), among many many other hilarious stinkers. Room 6A

Today’s ADAM@HOME by Brian Basset (via UComics.com)