“Shady Characters” is an art show that opens Friday, July 28th, at the ‘Live with Animals’ Gallery (210 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211; entrance to the gallery on Metropolitan). Opening reception is from 6-9pm. The show, curated by Jared Deal, is “simply a tribute to all of the creepers and tweakers, outcasts and outlaws, and freaks and geeks, we encounter daily.” Participating artists include Deanna Marsigliese, Clio Chiang, Steve Lambe, Gabe Swarr, Rex Hackelberg, Anna Chambers, Mark Ackland, Todd Kauffman, Joel Trussell, Bobby Chiu, Martin Wittig, Aaron Augenblick, Phil Rynda, Peter Browngardt, Danny Kimanyen, Randy Ramos, Garnet Syberg-Olsen, Jamie Mason, Chris George, Eric Nocella, Dino Alberto, Jason Levesque, Tim Shankweiler, Eric Brown, Mark Pecoraro, Pat Pakula, Kevin Schmid, Kaori Hamura, Richard Mather, Rod Filbrandt, and Deal himself. Stay tuned to Jared’s blog for additional details.

(Top: A painting from the show by Clio Chiang)

A bit of a followup to last week’s post “Cartoons, Copyright and YouTube”. Emru Townsend at fps magazine linked to this excellent article in the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER that discusses the various copyright issues surrounding material being posted on YouTube. The article, penned by Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Fred von Lohmann, has this fascinating bit in it:

(Note to content owners: If you use takedown notices to remove noninfringing content, you can be sued by YouTube or its users for abusing the system!)

Of course, nobody knows how Warner Bros. phrased their takedown notices and whether they asked for the removal of specific films, but the fact remains that dozens of public domain titles have been removed from YouTube in recent weeks, including the WB shorts EATIN’ ON THE CUFF, PORKY’S MIDNIGHT MATINEE and A DAY AT THE ZOO, as well as the Fleischer SUPERMAN shorts. Now it turns out there is some legal recourse for the removal of these films.

Here’s an amazing site. In honor of their 65th anniversary, the National Film Board of Canada has posted on-line fifty of their most well known animated shorts. Quality versions of the films can be seen for free HERE. The films serve as a great primer to the NFB’s output and reflect the wide range of techniques and storytelling styles used by NFB artists over the years. Included are Norman McLaren classics like A CHAIRY TALE, BLINKITY BLANK and NEIGHBORS, Peter Foldes’ HUNGER, Caroline Leaf’s THE STREET, Richard Condie’s THE BIG SNIT, Cordell Barker’s THE CAT CAME BACK and Michèle Cournoyer’s THE HAT. Surprisingly, many of the NFB’s most well known artists are excluded from the line-up, including George Dunning, Kaj Pindal and Gerald Potterton, so it’s not a comprehensive overview, but still, if you’re looking for a good intro to the NFB’s work, I can’t think of a better place to start.

(Thanks, Warren Leonhardt)

I’m a happy camper today. That’s because animation director Ward Jenkins just posted an amazing piece on his blog about Jim Flora’s 1957 children’s book THE DAY THE COW SNEEZED. Not only does the post include lots of images from the book and Ward’s thoughtful writing about the artwork, but it also has Flora’s mock-ups for the book, which have never before been published. For more about Flora’s art and life, look no further than Irwin Chusid’s excellent biography THE MISCHIEVOUS ART OF JIM FLORA.

Stephen Silver’s new sketchbook, cleverly titled Stephen Silver’s Sketchbook, is hot off the press and will be debuting at the San Diego Comic-Con. (It is also available online at www.silvertoons.com). Silver will be at the Con with a booth (#H6) where he’ll be signing books, answering questions and examining portfolios. On Friday from 12-1:30pm, in Room 3, Silver will be on a panel Designing Appealing Characters alongside animator (and Playboy cartoonist) Dean Yeagle and ILM animation director Glen McIntosh.

There’s going to be a Gumby exhibit opening Aug. 4th at the Center for Puppetry Arts museum in Atlanta. Several original props and models from the series history will be on exhibit. On opening night, Friday, Aug. 4 from 8-9:30 pm, there will be a showing of rare Gumby films along with a Q&A session with members of Art Clokey’s family. You can find more official info by going to www.puppet.org or calling (404) 873-3391.

A very random post. Here’s a couple interesting commercials I recently saw on YouTube. The first is a beautifully animated spot for the orange drink Kia-Ora. It reminds me a lot of Oscar Grillo’s SEASIDE WOMAN and I’m guessing it’s by Mr. Grillo himself, but he’ll have to correct me if I’m wrong.

This next one is really goofy and stupidly simple. It was pointed out to me by Marc Crisafulli. It’s hard to tell who it’s by but I think the responsible individual is Len Glasser. If not, then it’s probably by Ernie Pintoff. I’ll try to find out.

Amid and I will be plugging Comic-Con International: San Diego several times during the next week as we slowly figure out what panels are worth attending.I’m interested in meeting as many Brew readers as I can. I’ll be running around the con handing out buttons to promote my Frederator cartoon short Hornswiggle. One way to get these rare collectibles is to attend the two events I’m moderating:

RANDOM CARTOONS SNEAK PREVIEW - Clips, interviews and production art from the new Nickelodeon Frederator series called Random Cartoons. Meet the creators, and get cool stuff! Sneak preview clips from various cartoons including MIND THE KITTY, ADVENTURE TIME, MOOBEARD, THE COW PIRATE and HORNSWIGGLE. Thursday July 20, 2:30pm in Room 2WORST CARTOONS EVER 2006 - My all-new annual screening of the rock bottom cartoon crap-ola, includes different episodes of SUPER PRESIDENT, MIGHTY MR. TITAN, JOHNNY CYPHER IN DIMENSION ZERO, as well as new discoveries like Sam Singer’s PADDY THE PELICAN and Harman-Ising’s SIR GEE WHIZ. Friday July 21, 9pm in Room CDEF

I’ll also be appearing at the ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD booth (#5434) on Saturday July 22 at 11am to hand out buttons there. So come up and say hello!