Speaking of Fleischer Studios (as I did in the post below), I love these Paramount publicity shots. Here’s a great photo from 1938 featuring Popeye with one of Paramount’s top box office draws at the time, Dorothy Lamour. Click here for full length, larger image.

(Thanks, Mark Sonntag)

Animator, filmmaker, and cartoon historian Ray Pointer will be dispensing his wealth of knowledge for two full hours on Stu’s Show all this week (March 26th through April 2nd) from 7pm to 9pm Eastern, 4pm to 6pm Pacific on Shokus Internet Radio. Ray will discuss his career, including meeting his idol Max Fleischer and eventually becoming a top authority of the Fleischer Studios. Click here and listen!

Super*market LA is a quarterly independent comics event based in Los Angeles. The next one, this Sunday March 30th, will spotlight comic book creators working in the animation industry. The show will also include comic book and indie artists from the local area and as far as New York bringing their books, mini-comics, zines, and original art. Our friend Stuart Ng will have a special booth there showing off comics and sketchbooks by French and European animators.

Publishers/creators wanting to sign up for the event can follow the link above or email exhibitors-at-supermarketla.com. More info about Super*market LA can be found on its website.

Super*market LA: The Animator Special - March 30 - 12 noon to 6pm - at Meltdown Comics, 7522 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, CA.

They say animation warps impressionable minds. Here is a piece of propaganda that was created to scare people from becoming Mormon, produced on the level of a 1970s Filmation cartoon.

Let me apologize in advance. This may be one of the all-time worst things I’ve ever posted on the Brew. It’s not a TV Funhouse parody, it’s for real; it includes some scary, racist propaganda. I do not condone the message or beliefs presented in this film, it is posted as part of my ongoing research for the Worst Cartoons Ever Made.

This nine-minute excerpt from Monster Road, the documentary about the life and times of stop-motion genius Bruce Bickford, really makes me want to see the rest of the film. Also, a dvd of Bickford’s 28-minute tour de force Prometheus’ Garden, complete with a newly produced making-of documentary, is nearing completion, according to this blog.

Sad news from our favorite touring cartoon festival, The Animation Show. Don Hertzfeldt, who co-founded the Show with Mike Judge, announced in his online journal on March 16 that he will no longer be involved with the Show. The reasons for his departure are vague; the text of his online post reads:

last week i decided it was time for me to part ways with the animation show. it’s been five years and three tours and some good memories. they have a new tour rolling through theaters this summer and i don’t know what will be in it but i encourage you to go check it out

The Animation Show is still being run by a competent group of folks and I have no reason to believe that they won’t continue to grow and prosper. Still, Hertzfeldt was a huge part of the Show’s personality and it’s sad to see him leave.

I just found out that my Hanna Barbera Treasury has become a finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards.

Before we get too excited, keep in mind I’m competing against 652 finalists in 61 catagories. The Hanna Barbera Treasury is nominated in the Popular Culture catagory, against some strong competition, including one book on The Beatles and another on Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon).

According to the ForeWord Magazine website, “ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards program was designed to discover distinctive books across a number of genres. The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers, selected from our readership. Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as Editor’s Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced at a special program at BookExpo America at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles on May 30. The ceremony is open to all BEA attendees.”

My thanks to the editors and designers at Palace Press/Insight Editions for creating such an incredibly fun tribute to the legacy of Hanna Barbera. This was a rare case where the finished book turned out exactly as better than I envisioned it.

The NY Times reports that Disney is having returned to them over 250 pieces of original classic artwork, most of it from Sleeping Beauty. These pieces had been lost for decades until four years ago, when they were found in a janitorial closet in Japan’s Chiba University. The fascinating story of their discovery is documented in the Times piece.

After restoration work, the pieces began touring Japanese museums in 2006. The artwork was also printed in this awesome exhibition catalog. Hopefully with the artwork now coming back into Disney’s hands, they’ll take the initiative of publishing an English-language version of the catalog, or better yet, combine it with the Sleeping Beauty artwork already in their archives to create the ultimate “Art of Sleeping Beauty” volume. Now there’s a book I’d love to have on my bookshelf!