Please forgive all these Popeye and Woody Woodpecker posts, but here’s a YouTube find I had to share: a 1980s British Carling Black Label Beer commercial featuring Popeye and “Brutus”. Nice to know Popeye was considered adult enough as late as this period to be in an ad for alcohol.

(Thanks, Ryan Maxwell)

I was organizing some dvds tonight and stumbled upon this rare color footage from the 1941 Disney strike. If I recall correctly, it’s from the collection of Tee Bosustow, who I’m currently collaborating with on a very cool project. His father, UPA co-founder Steve Bosustow, can be seen clapping his hands in the video at about 1:22. The footage also includes strike leaders like the recently departed David Hilberman (above photo, right) and Art Babbitt (above, left). The Fats Domino song isn’t part of the original footage obviously, just something I added to break the silence.

Went to Meltdown Comics tonight and found out that two weeks from now they will be having a three day exhibit and opening reception for Project Bart. This exhibition features customized versions of Bart Simpson by 20 contemporary pop artists (the exhibit will come to New York’s Toy Tokyo Showroom Gallery in September). The Meltdown reception is on Wednesday August 1st from 7pm to 11pm.

While I was there I noticed the new Casper comics reprint book, assembled by Leslie Cabarga and myself, is now on sale. Not only on sale, but it was displayed as the “Manager’s Pick”. It was supposed to make its world premiere debut at the San Diego Comic Con next week, but it doesn’t quite have an embargo… like Harry Potter. So pick it up now, and enjoy!

The co-creator of Superman, Jerry Siegel (left), and Warner Bros. cartoon legend, Bob Clampett (at right), at the 1976 San Diego Comic Con. Photo by Alan Light.

Alan Light has posted a bunch of his comics fandom photos on Flickr. These include snapshots of Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Stan Lee, Chuck Jones and others. My, how times have changed. Here’s Light at his dealers table at the ‘76 con… where are the crowds?

Light was a comics fan who created and published (out of his basement) two important fanzines in the 1970s, The Buyers Guide For Comics Fandom and Film Collectors World (both are still published today, as Comics Buyers Guide and Movie Collectors World, by other publishers). Light’s photos are quite nostalgic to anyone (like me) who remembers going to the conventions, or getting his publications, back in the day.

Looking for something to do today?
Try watching 43 Road Runner cartoons on YouTube.
Or if you prefer a more painless way of committing suicide, just hang yourself.

(via Metafilter)

Art director Hans Bacher (Mulan) has started up an incredible new blog called Animation Treasures. He’s painstakingly recreating pan backgrounds from classic animated films currently on dvd (mostly Disney ones) to offer a sense of what the original backgrounds looked like before the characters were composited on top. There’s lots of insightful notes to go along with each image. Truly a terrific educational resource that everybody should take advantage of. Thanks Hans!

This article by Chuck Salter in the new issue of Fast Company is a fascinating indepth read about the transformation of Will Vinton Studios into Laika. The story includes the first joint-interview with Laika owner Phil Knight (who also founded Nike) and his son Travis “Chilly Tee” Knight, who is an animator, director and board member at Laika. The article is slanted very much towards their side of the story, but it doesn’t pull any punches and addresses the studio’s historical baggage in the form of ousted founder Will Vinton.

When I wrote briefly about Laika a couple months ago, I described my feelings about the studio as “cautiously optimistic” and that opinion still hasn’t changed. They’re clearly an outfit with a vision (albeit not quite fully developed) and they’re run by a creative entrepreneur with a proven track record (which is more than can be said for most execs working in feature animation). And most commendable, they’re attempting to stake their claim as being an original producer of animated features instead of positioning themselves as yet another Pixar/DreamWorks clone. Now it just remains to be seen if the Knights’ big gamble will pay off; it’s definitely a story worth following.

(Thanks, Joel Brinkerhoff, for letting me know about the article)

At the San Diego Comic Con, Slave Labor Graphics is premiering a new comic book called Jellyfist, wriiten by Jhonen Vasquez (Invader Zim) and illustrated by J.R. Goldberg (Eric Goldberg’s daughter Jenny). I have no idea what it’s about, but the press release is hilarious. Both of them will be at the Con signing the book, all four days (Thursday through Sunday).