29 Comments »   posted in Events

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“Holy Sh-t!” I gotta have this book.

That was my reaction when I first saw it – and now I have it. I’d heard about the book, but had no idea about how all-encompassing this project was. To say that Ulrich Merkl’s The Complete Dream Of The Rarebit Fiend is exhaustive is an understatement.

I don’t know if you are familiar with Valley of the Cliffhangers, an insanely large, limited edition oversized book on Republic movie serials, but this Winsor McCay collection is its comic strip equivilent.

First off, it’s huge (12″ x 17″), heavy (it weighs almost ten pounds) and 464 pages. It costs $114.00 (U.S.$) and it’s worth every penny. It reprints, on fine glossy stock, all 369 Rarebit Fiend strips (annotated) from 1904-1913. But there is much, much more here. Combined with John Canemaker’s McCay bio (which the author highly recommends) one is left with a thoroughly complete picture of McCay’s life’s work.

This book contains numerous examples of McCay’s other work – sheet music, newspaper clippings (including a long review of his vaudeville act, and his obituary from the New York Times), and extensive illustrated section on recurring themes in McCay’s artwork, and examples of how McCay’s work influenced motion pictures like King Kong, Dumbo and Mary Poppins. An eye-opening section of comics precursors and imitators (comics and animated films) and several large quotes and articles written by McCay explaining his inspirations. There is so much more, including a DVD/CD-ROM version to enjoy on your computer.

It’s lavish, and has to be seen to be believed. This book is a must have for anyone interested in McCay, or comic strip and animation history. An important book, and a valuable companion to Canemaker’s essential McCay biography. I’ll sum up with three words of wisdom: Buy it now.

6 Comments »   posted in Books

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TONIGHT: Aural Disneyland Delights

July 16, 2007 1:45 pm

Got a few hours tonight? Tune into the online broadcast of Luxuria Music from 7-10pm PST where the guest on the “Kitsch Niche with Strike” will be animation artist and director Jordan Reichek (Ren & Stimpy, Invader Zim). Jordan also happens to be a primo collector of Disneylandia (trust me, I’ve seen the collection) and he’s sharing some of the aural parts of the collection on air tonight including rare recording session outtakes, Disneyland commercials, weird “sing-along” records made at the park and theme park cover songs. Rare photos of the park will also be displayed on the Luxuria webcam. It’s all for free at LuxuriaMusic.com.

(via Don Brockway’s Isn’t Life Terrible)

1 Comment »   posted in Disney

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Woody and Popeye

July 16, 2007 12:10 pm

Next week the Woody Woodpecker DVD comes out, the following week the Popeye collection goes on sale.

While we wait, here are two recent vintage commercials that didn’t quite make it as bonus material (courtesy of Larry Tremblay).

Woody at Swiss Chalet:

Popeye goes cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs:

14 Comments »   posted in Advertising, Classic

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Frenopatic Parade by Santiago Agustí

July 16, 2007 3:09 am

Here’s a very short but eye-catchingly ambitious piece of Flash animation: Frenopatic Parade by Santiago Agustí. Agustí tells me that until recently he was working at the Spanish animation studio Keytoon, but he’s taking time off to raise his new child and managed to complete this piece in his spare time. Check out more of his work at Saponia.com or his blog.

4 Comments »   posted in Shorts

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Jack Zander Interview

July 16, 2007 1:17 am

Animation World Magazine has an interview with 99-year-old animation veteran Jack Zander whose career includes stints at studios like Romer Grey, Van Beuren, MGM and Terrytoons, as well as running his own commercial studios Pelican Films and Zander’s Animation Parlour. I saw Zander speak in LA about five years ago and his memory was impressively sharp. In fact, he seems quite sharp in this interview as well, though it would have been a more interesting chat if the interviewer had been more familiar with Zander’s history. As it is, it’s still worth a read.

Last year on the Cartoon Modern blog, I highlighted a couple advertising productions by Zander which have been lost to time. I thought I’d share a few more Zander artifacts. At the top of this post is a late-’50s magazine advertisement for his studio Pelican. Below is a 1962 Pelican-produced ad for Jax Beer designed by Chris Ishii and animated by Emery Hawkins. Click on the image to see a set of stills from the spot. And below that is another one of the Jax commercials. The comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May provided the tracks for the Jax spots.

10 Comments »   posted in Advertising, Animators

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