OK, haven’t done this in a while…

Yoshi Tamura worked at Disney Paris and was the supervising animator of the Helga Sinclair character in Disney’s ATLANTIS. He has some beautiful drawings on his blog.

Steve Lambe is a Chicago-based artist who is currently designing on HI HI PUFFY AMI YUMI. He kindly sent me a copy of his new color sketchbook, SAMICHES 2, which is available for sale on his blog.

Dean Roberts is a London-based artist who has done boards on THE CORPSE BRIDE and animated on SPACE JAM, among many other things.

Ovi Nedelcu has been listed on our sidebar for a while now, but I’ve never given him a proper mention. He’s currently working in Portland on the Laika feature CORALINE and writes and draws his own comic series PIGTALE.

Saxton Moore does it all: designs, animates, directs. He’s done a lot of work out of Atlanta for studios like Primal Screen and Turner Studios. And just because I know I’ll never have a better reason to post this, below is a caricature of Saxton (right) and myself (center) drawn by the supertalented John Mahoney. It’s from about four years ago, when all three of us happened to be working on an indie animation project.

The m modern gallery in Palm Springs, California is the place to be next Saturday. In addition to the Naylor-Reccardi GALAXIE exhibit previously noted, a companion show BLAST FROM THE PAST also opens there the same day.BLAST features over 40 works by the likes of Tim Biskup, Joe Chiodo and Amanda Visell (her work above and at right). The BLAST FROM THE PAST show is themed around the mid-20th Century views of futurism and space travel. The two art shows run from November 19th through January 2nd.

I’ve been laughing all weekend over a copy of COMIC BOOK GUY’S BOOK OF POP CULTURE, one of the small Harper Collins books in The Simpsons Library of Wisdom series.I happen to think Comic Book Guy is the funniest Simpsons character - ever - partly because I know a few comic book dealers like him - and possibly because I posess some of his more appealing traits myself. The book is loaded with humor based on comic book, sci-fi, animation, movie & TV history minutiae. The more you know pop culture (and comic book dealers), the funnier this tome is. 96 pages, in color - Kudos to Bill Morrision and his team of seven writers (and over 20 artists) for making me laugh out loud on every page.

“I will fully be on record saying I hate CG. I don’t get emotionally invested in video games and likewise I can’t get emotionally invested in something that’s come out of a computer.” That’s what Dax Shepard, one of the stars of the new film ZATHURA, told the METRO NEWS. Granted, he’s promoting a film that uses very little CG and instead relies on old school FX techniques like miniature models, constructed sets and costumed actors, but one wonders if the Jon Favreau-directed film is only the beginning of an anti-CG backlash in Hollywood movies. And what could this mean for animation? Are we going to have a filmmaker come along who decides that animated CG features don’t have enough heart and decides to make a hand-drawn animated film?Joel Schlosberg, who sent in this link, also notes that it’s ironic that Favreau chose to go retro on a film that is based on a Chris van Allsburg book because “earlier adaptations of a story by the same author provided two of the paradigmatic examples of CG excess: Jumanji (one of the earliest) and The Polar Express.”
(Thanks, Joel)

From November 19th through January 2nd, the m modern gallery in Palm Springs, California will be hosting a joint exhibit by Lynne Naylor and Chris Reccardi entitled Galaxie - Art From Outer Space. Opening reception is Saturday Nov. 19th at 7pm. For more info click here.

Check out the opening titles for the live-action film KISS KISS BANG BANG HERE. It was directed by Danny Yount. Reminds me a bit of the titles for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.
(Thanks, Gabe)

It was announced earlier this week that Film Roman will be producing a hand-drawn HELLBOY direct-to-DVD feature and TV series. The show’s supervising director, longtime Disney TV producer/director Tad Stones (DARKWING DUCK, ATLANTIS: MILO’S RETURN, BUZZ LIGHTYEAR OF STAR COMMAND), has started a production diary HERE. If his first couple entries are any indication, it should be a good read for anybody who’s interested in the show.

First photo of Ollie Johnston with his National Medal of Arts, awarded today at the White House. That’s Ollie third from the right, flanked by actor Robert Duvall and musician Wynton Marsalis. The guy in the middle - the one without a medal - is President Bush. The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government.