Next week, on Wednesday January 10th, if you are in L.A. and are a member of ASIFA, you can join me at Nickelodeon Studios in Burbank where I will host a preview screening of several new cartoon shorts. We will be running six Random Cartoons (Frederator’s new series for Nick) including Doug TenNapel’s Solomon Fix, Nikki Yang’s Two Witch Sisters, Pen Ward’s Adventure Time, Hiroshi Chida’s Boneheads, Melissa Wolfe and Anne Walker’s Sparkles and Gloom… and, oh yeah, my Hornswiggle. It’s gonna be fun.Tonight I’m doing a Q&A with producer John Williams at an Asifa-Hollywood members screening of HAPPILY N’EVER AFTER (I’m also showing cartoons at my monthly Janet Klein gig - don’t ask how I’m doing both at the same time, but I am!). Next month is the Annie Awards ceremony in Glendale. In advance of voting, ASIFA-Hollywood members received DVD screeners of HAPPY FEET, CARS, MONSTER HOUSE, FLUSHED AWAY and OVER THE HEDGE. The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is growing and has become an Internet hit. In case you can’t tell, this is a plug for ASIFA-Hollywood. If you live in L.A. you really should be a member. ASIFA-Hollywood isn’t a closed clique of animation elites - it’s for everyone who cares about the artform - whether your interest is anime, games, stop-mo, cg or traditional; or if your interests are in classic theatrical shorts, current TV animation or the latest feature film; or if you just like cartoons - ASIFA is your resource, an invaluable resource.The group was founded in the 1960s by the likes of Bill Scott, Ward Kimball, Chuck Jones and June Foray. Be part of that tradition. Now is the pefect time to join, we’ve got a lot of great events planned for this year. For more information go here.

The title of this post is the headline from a 1943 newspaper article that Hans Perk recently posted on his blog. It’s about Bee Selck, whom the article claims was the first woman assistant director in the animation industry while working on Disney’s VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER. This reminds me of a few months back when I was at a random non-animation event and was introduced to a woman who had been an assistant animator at Warner Bros. during the mid-40s, until she left to raise a family. As a matter of convenience, animation histories routinely tell us that during the Golden Age, with few exceptions, the men held all the creative artistic positions and women were ink-and-paint artists. But if one digs a little, they’ll discover that there were far more women working in creative positions at that time than traditional animation histories let on. For example, while researching my book CARTOON MODERN, I discovered that at UPA alone, women in creative positions included background painters Michi Kataoka and Rosemary O’Connor, assistant animators Joyce Weir and Tissa David, character designer/layout artist Sterling Sturtevant, and various other designers including Shirley Silvey, Dolores Cannata and Charleen Peterson.

On a related note, Ben Ettinger at AniPages Daily recently wrote a fascinating profile of two pioneering woman animators in Japan during the late-1950s - Kazuko Nakamura and Reiko Okuyama.

SAMURAI, a slickly produced and visually striking mini-film created for GE’s “Imagination at Work” campaign, tells “a tale of a pint-sized samurai faced with a seemingly impossible challenge as proposed by a behemoth Emperor and his wicked minions.” The short can be seen in its entirety HERE. It’s produced by Three Legged Legs, the LA-based animation collective comprised of Greg Gunn, Casey Hunt and Reza Rasoli. Three Legged is also responsible for such quality pieces as “Los Angeles Lets Be Friends” and “Humans!” SAMURAI is currently airing on various cable providers’ trailers-on-demand programs and will debut in a few weeks on GE’s website.

(Thanks, Reza)

This one is only for our Francophone friends: Brew reader Olivier Ladeuix lets us know that last month Radio France broadcast a 20-part series about the history of animation. Each episode is a half-hour and the entire series can be heard at the Radio France website.

Animator/director Uli Meyer has posted this fantastic YouTube video of himself drawing a character. Wouldn’t it be a terrific resource to have more of these drawing vids from other prominent animators? By the way, on his blog, Uli suggests to kids that smoking won’t make you a better draftsman. But it’ll definitely make you look cooler.

Our first contest of the New Year, for the terrific limited edition CD set Tom and Jerry, and Tex Avery Too! was held this morning. The first two respondents to answer this question correctly won a free copy. The question:

What Walt Disney Silly Symphony cartoon did Scott Bradley compose the score for?

The correct answer was MERBABIES. Our winners were Andrea Ippoliti of Italy and Adam Koford of Orlando, Florida. Thank you to all who entered!

Only 3000 were produced. We’ve raved about it. Mike Barrier raved about it. You still have time to get one before they all sell out. Tom and Jerry, and Tex Avery Too!, a two-disc CD compiling the best Scott Bradley scores from MGM animated shorts of the 1950s is an absolute must-have. What better way to ring in the new year than to have the crisp clear fast-paced soundtracks to Dixieland Droopy, Barbeque Brawl and Little Johnny Jet blasting out of your car stereo? Additionally, co-producer Daniel Goldmark’s detailed program notes (in the color booklet included) is the final word on Bradley’s work and career (image above, from the booklet, is of Bradley and Bill Hanna). A second set, examining Bradley’s earlier work, is being considered, but it’s dependent on sales of this first volume. So do your part and buy this CD today.For those of you who need a little coaxing: tomorrow morning (Wednesday) at 9AM Pacific (12 noon Eastern) I will post a simple trivia question and the first two Brew readers to answer correctly will win a free copy of the Scott Bradley limited edition CD set. Be here tomorrow and try your luck.

Amanda Visell will be opening her first solo painting show, “Switcheroo,” this Thursday, January 4, from 7-10pm, at Gallery 1988 (7020 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038). Her fun and light-hearted painting style has a distinct animation sensibility, which shouldn’t be a surprise since she’s worked plenty in animation, mostly as a fabricator and sculptor on stop-motion projects. She’s also one-half of the creative group The Girls Productions which develops everything from merchandise to animation projects. Here’s a recent video interview with Visell where she discusses her work.