Cartoon Brew

SIMPSONS Voice Actors Swimming in D'oh

The LA WEEKLY's Nikki Finke writes a fascinating account of the childish behind-the-scenes maneuvering that went on during the recently concluded SIMPSONS voice actor negotiations. The six voice actors didn't get the $360,00 per episode that they were asking for, but did get a raise from $135,000 to $250,000 per episode. They also received a signing bonus. Bart's voice Nancy Cartwright sent an email to her fellow voice actors: "Although we didn't get everything we were going for, we certainly made HUGE strides, not only for ourselves personally, but for the entire voice-acting facet of the industry." Another interesting bit is that during the course of negotiations, the agents for SIMPSONS producer James L. Brooks demanded the actors send Brooks a letter of apology for putting their interests ahead of the SIMPSONS "community," which meant the writers and animators.

Also I recently had a chance to speak with one of the artists on the show, and indeed the voice actor's contract dispute has forced the Film Roman artists to take an extended and unpaid "vacation." They were scheduled to receive a one-month hiatus in March/April, their typical break period in between seasons, but they've now been out of work for two months and counting as the show slowly finds its way back into production. On the bright side, Fox can use the money they saved from not paying the artists to make up for the increased salaries of the voice actors. As always, the only losers in this case are the artists working in the trenches.

WonderCon Report

Pixar artist Ronnie del Carmen has a report and photos from the San Francisco comic convention WonderCon which took place last week (see Ronnie's May 3rd update). Apparently the convention isn't as festive or fun as the San Diego Comic-Con.

Animator Volus Jones, RIP

Animator Volus Jones passed away on May 3 at the age of 90. He worked in animation from 1934 through 1982 at studios including Harman-Ising, Disney, Columbia, Format, TV Spots, Warner Bros., Fred Calvert Productions, Bakshi, UPA and Hanna-Barbera. Animation veteran Floyd Norman offered this remembrance of Jones on Animation Nation:

The old guys called him "The Duck Man." Volus Jones spent a good deal of his time at the Disney studio animating Donald. And, he did it pretty darn good.

When this young kid picked up his first Donald Duck scene to inbetween back in the Fifties, it was a Volus Jones scene. I was proud to just be doing inbetweens for a real Disney animator. The guys who animated the Disney shorts never had the fame of "The Nine Old Men," but you better believe me, they were darn good animators.

Volus Jones was always a charming gentleman. Casual, relaxed, yet classy all the way. I'll sure miss him.

ON THE FRONT LINES

What can I say? It's amazing!

I never thought I'd live to see the day they'd release restored, perfect copies of DER FUEHRER'S FACE, EDUCATION FOR DEATH and VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER on home video. These were "Holy Grail" films in my lifetime - and here they are, as fresh as the day they were made - in a collection that everyone must own (heck, buy two... before Disney comes to their senses!).

WALT DISNEY ON THE FRONT LINES is the animation dvd event of the year - whether you are an animation fan, a history or miltary buff or a Disney completist. These wartime shorts are some of the best animated films the studio ever made - all have been rarely seen since their original release - and they are surprisingly relevant to current world events.

The highlight of the dvd is the magnificently restored film prints - crystal clarity, vivid colors and sharp sound. I'd forgotten how good THE OLD ARMY GAME and COMMANDO DUCK are, and I'd never seen HOW TO BE A SAILOR. What great cartoons!
I'd seen shorts like THE WINGED SCOURGE and SPIRIT OF '43 before - but never from 35mm in brand-new condition like this! Amazing!
Then there are the bonus materials - it'll take you hours to go through: The trailer, behind the scenes footage, production art from VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER; production art from most of the shorts... in fact, I finally saw something I always wanted to see: a Hitler model sheet! It's included in the EDUCATION FOR DEATH production art gallery. I knew Disney, Warners, Lantz and others had to have made such a chart - they used the "character" so often - but I've never seen one reprinted anywhere.
The galleries include pages from DISPATCH FROM DISNEY (a rare wartime publication), Disney insignias, and Disney propaganda posters. Leonard Maltin introduces various sections and specific shorts, as well as conducting some wonderful, conversational interviews with Joe Grant, John Hench and Roy Disney.

There is much here to rave about. Special mention, and our thanks, must go to Roy Disney, Dave Bossert and Leonard Maltin for making this incredible dvd compilation a reality. ON THE FRONT LINES goes on sale May 18th.

JOHN SEELY 1923-2004

John Seely recieved music credit on six Warner Bros. cartoons released in 1958 - when Milt Franklin and the Warner studio musicians went on strike. Seely's stock music cues were used to ruin several Jones' Road Runner films and made a lackluster Tweety & Sylvester entry (A BIRD IN A BONNET) even worse than it really was. McKimson's PRE-HYSTERICAL HARE (the one with "Elmer Fuddstone" voiced by Dave Barry) was possibly the worst Bugs Bunny cartoon ever made, and Seely's score certainly helped sour the proceedings.

John Seely's music was used to better effect on several sitcoms (Dennis The Menace, My Three Sons, Donna Reed) and numerous Marx Toys commercials. Seely passed away at age 80 on April 23rd. It was announced in this obituary in the Oakland Tribune.

APPLESEED TRAILER

Have you seen this trailer for the CG/2-D anime feature APPLESEED?

Not sure what I think of it myself - but it's a good trailer.

The TV Animation Business Part 3

What If You’re Not a Multinational?

The multinational corporations are not the only companies making animated TV series. But if you’re not a multinational and don’t own your own channels, you have to work hard to get a broadcaster interested.

One way to do it is with a marketing hook. You’ve got to show broadcasters something that they believe will pull in an audience that they can sell to advertisers. In children’s television, one approach is to adapt a well-known children’s book. Some companies, like Nelvana and Cinar, built their studios on this approach. The success of the books also provides a safety net for the broadcast executive in charge of buying programs. If a show based on a well-known book fails, it’s easier to defend the decision to buy the show than it would be to defend buying something untested in the marketplace.

The marketing angle doesn’t have to come from a book. While DreamWorks is a large, successful company, they don’t own a broadcaster and as a result, their success in TV has been limited. Father of the Pride, their forthcoming computer animated prime time series, has several marketing hooks. It uses computer animation (though that didn’t seem to help Game Over) but more importantly, it features Siegfried and Roy, performers who are known from their TV appearances and their Las Vegas act. It also doesn’t hurt that the animal characters are lions. I’m sure that NBC is hoping that Jeffrey Katzenberg’s previous success with animated lions will continue.

Independent companies often rely heavily on merchandising revenues. HIT is a British company that owns Bob the Builder. They spent a limited amount of money producing the animation and then merchandised the property as heavily as they could. They made more from the merchandising than they did from the show. Using their profits from Bob, they bought Barney the Dinosaur and also bought a Canadian company, Gullane, just so they could get ownership of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Some companies have resorted to giving their shows away for free in the U.S, just so that the shows can stimulate the sale of merchandise. Barney, even before it was bought by HIT, was provided to PBS for free, as was the show The Big Comfy Couch. The producers felt that if they could get the show to an audience, they could sell enough merchandise to pay for the production of the show and still show a profit.

I’ve heard of instances where producers offered to pay to put their shows on the air in order to find an audience for their merchandising efforts.

This is how companies sometimes get broadcasters interested. Another necessity for companies that don’t own channels is keeping their costs down, and they do this through outsourcing and co-productions. I’ll talk about these next time.

LORENZO

I had a bittersweet experience yesterday, during a screening at the Disney studios.
I saw Mike Gabriel's new five minute animated short, LORENZO (which will be released May 26th with the feature "Raising Helen") and it's a real gem. I truly think it'll be the Oscar winner in next years animated short competition.

Like DESTINO, it is artistically brilliant, innovative and dare-I-say-it, "cutting edge". Unlike DESTINO, it has a clever story, funny gags and sharp comic timing. And did I mention it was animated traditionally?

That's the sad part. I sat there enthralled by this delightful cartoon knowing that the studio had dismissed a majority of it's traditional animation staff - and here on the screen was a clue to where Disney 2-D could go; here was a possible future direction for feature animation. A brilliant way traditional and CG can blend together beautifully.
The film does indeed use computers - a new computer program, 'Sable, which allows characters to retain the crude but lush brushstroke appearence of Gabriel's original inspriational art: acrylic paints on black construction paper.

The finished product is a delight. That elusive "magic" that Disney once had is here in spades. Joe Grant came up with the story - about a cat whose tail comes to life and he can't get away from it. Gabriel set the story to an Argentine tango (the film was started as a possible segent for Fantasia 2000). Roy Disney, Don Hahn and Baker Bloodworth produced. Kudos to all - for reminding us all how great animation is, and can continue to be.

The TV Animation Business Part 2

How Multinational Corporations Thrive

As I mentioned in the last installment, the paradox of the TV business is that the increasing number of channels leads to a decrease in viewers for any one channel. Fewer viewers mean less income. There are strategies for getting around this problem and this installment will talk about how the multinationals – companies like Disney, Time-Warner, Viacom, etc. - deal with it.

One way large companies increase the amount of money they make is by vertical integration. A single company owns production, distribution and exhibition. Disney has the ability to create a show, distribute it and air it on TV. By buying from itself, Disney makes sure that money that it spends stays inside the company. Any profit generated by a show also stays within the company.

But how do Disney, Time-Warner or Viacom compensate for the shrinking size of their audience? They do it by putting their shows on more channels. All of these companies own more than one channel in North America. In addition, these multinationals own channels in other countries as well. There are Disney channels in Europe. There’s a Cartoon Network in South America. There are versions of Nickelodeon in several countries. If you can place your show on enough channels that you own, you can find an audience big enough to make a profit.

Animation travels better than live action. TV regularly takes shows from other countries and remakes them. All in the Family was based on a British TV series. Survivor now has different versions running in several countries. That’s not the case for Spongebob Squarepants. While he’s dubbed, the same episodes are shown all over the planet.

Economically, this model works great. From a creator’s or a viewer’s standpoint, it doesn’t work as well.

Large companies want to own things outright. If you pitch a show to a Disney or a Viacom and they’re interested, they’ll end up owning it. You’re free to try and negotiate your best financial deal, but the copyright will go to them. I don’t know Genndy Tartakovsky’s deal on Samurai Jack, but if Time-Warner decides that they want to team Samurai Jack up with Yogi Bear, there’s nothing that Tartakovsky can do about it. In the worst case scenario, a creator can be fired from his own show. This is what Nickelodeon did to John Kricfalusi on Ren and Stimpy.

The fact that shows appear on more than one channel effectively reduces the variety that the 500 channel universe was supposed to provide. What good are more channels if the bulk of them are running shows you can see elsewhere?

Another problem is that companies prefer to make shows from properties they already own. It’s easier to sell the audience something they’re familiar with than something new. I’m losing count of how many animated versions of Batman there are. I don’t doubt that as long as Time-Warner owns Batman, there will be new Batman cartoons. As good as they might be, the airtime taken up by Batman is airtime that won’t be available for something new. That limits the opportunities available to creators and limits the variety available to viewers.

But the multinationals aren’t the only ones producing TV animation. Next time, I’ll look at how smaller companies deal with the economics of TV.

DISNEY TREASURES

Oh boy! I'm excited!
They go public on May 18th, but I just recieved an advance set of the long-delayed Disney Treasures: On The Front Lines, Tomorrowland, Mickey Mouse In Living Color Vol. 2 and The Chronological Donald.

I'll post a review of the wartime set as soon as I can, followed by my thoughts on the others - but I can tell you right now that they are amazing, and were well worth the wait.

Oh, and Roy Disney's signature is still on the packaging!

Fractured Fairy Tales

Anybody who thinks their life is pathetic will feel a lot better after reading this. Micah Ian Wright, a former writer for Nickelodeon's ANGRY BEAVERS among other things, has been claiming for years that he was an Army Ranger-turned-peacenik, and has been writing politically-charged books and comics under this guise. On April 25, after years of masquerading as a military veteran, he revealed that he never served in the Army... and he only made this revelation because the WASHINGTON POST was planning to run an article exposing him as a fake and liar. I once met with him to talk about his Nickelodeon pilot, CONSTANT PAYNE, but we never discussed his miltary career so I can't say I've ever been duped in person by this despicable character. But I do remember hearing him on local radio a while back discussing the Iraq war as if he were an Army veteran and it never occured to me that he might be making the whole thing up. Here are some links to catch up on the story: the Comic Book Resources article, the WASHINGTON POST story, Micah's personal "apology", and comments from other folks HERE, HERE and HERE. If this turns out anything like the NEW YORK TIMES/Jayson Blair scandal, Micah will probably score a generous book deal to write about how he managed to keep up this charade for so many years.

EAST COAST SCREENINGS

Hair High

We plug a lot of Los Angeles screenings here, but we have a lot of east coast friends too - and I'll do my best to post significant animation events in New York (and surrounding areas) when I hear about them.

The folks at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY are continuing their animation programming with a Tribute To BETTY BOOP next week (May 12th) and an evening with BILL PLYMPTON (June 23rd), which will include a preview showing of his latest feature HAIR HIGH.

I also hear that the Disney Wartime Cartoon Screening (next Tuesday in Glendale, CA at the Alex Theatre) will be happening in Washington DC later this month (more details to come). I'll keep you posted.

The TV Animation Business Part 1

Three Ways to Make Money

I’ve worked in different kinds of television animation for my entire career. As a result, I’ve become something of a student of the television business. This is especially true since I’ve tried selling shows.

This is the first part of a series explaining how the TV business works. The economics affect what shows get on the air. For those of us who work in the business, it affects the jobs that are available.

Companies have to sell a product or service to make money. What does a TV channel sell? If the channel has any advertising on it, what it’s selling is the viewer: you. By tuning in, you are adding yourself to the crowd watching that channel and the channel turns around and sells the crowd to advertisers. This used to be a channel’s sole income.

This is nothing more than a high tech version of the travelling medicine show. In the 19th century, a horse drawn wagon would move from town to town. A singer or banjo player would stand on the back of the wagon and draw a crowd. Once the crowd was large enough, it was time for old Doc Potter to come out and sell his snake oil. Only one dollar a bottle; good for what ails you. In modern terms, TV programming is the banjo player. The crowd never pays for the banjo player directly; it pays indirectly when it buys snake oil.

Since the start of cable television, there are subscription fees. Some channels receive a portion of their money from your cable bill and still run commercials for additional income. Other channels exist solely by subscription. That’s the only case where TV programs are actually the products, as the customers are paying for them directly.

The final money stream is merchandising. It might be as basic as selling the show on DVD or it might mean creating completely new merchandise around a show: toys, lunchboxes, comic books, etc. Animation is a natural fit for merchandising.

No matter what the money stream, the object is to draw the biggest crowd possible. More people lead to more sales. Here, we’re faced with an important paradox. The number of channels has grown proportionally faster than the number of people watching. While we all have greater choice as to what we watch, each individual channel actually has fewer viewers. Every new channel that shows up on your TV makes the problem worse.

Next: Multinationals and how they deal with the paradox.

More on Indian Outsourcing

Harvey Deneroff, who runs the invaluable industry news site Deneroff.com, points out another recent article on Indian outsourcing from THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS. It's a different studio, but essentially the same story as yesterday's news item: Color Chips India Limited has signed production deals with BKN Kids (Germany) and Benj Production (France), and they're looking to add 800 animators to their staff within the next 12 months.

These major hiring binges by Indian studios beg the question: Is the overseas animation industry truly experiencing such rapid growth or are these simply animation jobs being transferred from South Korea to the cheaper Indian studios? Are studios in other Asian countries in a slump because of this rise in Indian animation? I'm not familiar enough with the overseas animation industry to offer any valuable insights into the situation, but it strikes me as noteworthy that Indian studios are hiring animators by the hundreds.

The other issue is, of course, the quality of the animation. The vast majority of Indian animation I've seen over the past few years has been cringe-worthy, and it'll be quite a few more years before their industry matures to the quality of some of the more animation-experienced Asian countries. Of course, by that time, shameless Western producers will have found other countries who will produce animation even cheaper than India, thus ensuring that TV animation will always look (for the most part) like sh*t. One other interesting bit worth noting is that Indian studios are now doing Flash animation as well. Eddie Mort and Lili Chin, creators of MUCHA LUCHA!, recently posted a PHOTO of their Indian animation crew at Jadoo.

An Abbreviated Legacy

“Our goal is to create quality animated films with compelling stories and strong characters and to continue Walt Disney’s legacy of hand drawn animation.” That was the business plan of Orlando-based Legacy Animation, a studio started by ex-Disney Feature (Florida) animators in January 2004. Now just a few months later, Legacy has shut down permanently. This was confirmed yesterday by one of the studio's co-founders, Eddie Pittman, on the Animation Nation boards: "Legacy is in fact finished. I wish I could tell everyone more, but, for obvious reasons, I'm just not able to at this time."

POPEYE ON DVD - PART 2

As long as I'm on a rant about POPEYE on DVD, allow me to shamelessly plug a brand new release from the friendly folks at VCI Entertainment. This is the same company that brought you the Fleischer Color Classics collection, Somewhere In Dreamland.

The POPEYE ANNIVERSARY COLLECTORS EDITION dvd VCI is releasing on May 25th contains all 34 public domain Fleischer & Famous Paramount Popeye cartoons, with prints taken from 35mm elements - and re-instated original titles. This is the best Popeye collection on dvd we will see until Warner Bros. releases restored versions some day in the far off future. It's $19.00 retail from VCI or $16.99 from Amazon.com

JONES MURAL

My friend John Tebbel has been volunteering at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (moccany.org) in New York City. He wrote into the BREW for some advice:

"Recently a person called the museum office representing people whose office has a Chuck Jones mural drawn on the conference room wall, two murals actually. It'll be torn down by May 15 if we don't somehow find a buyer/adoptor. The museum has no bucks for such a thing, but we're publicizing it some to see if we can locate someone. Here's an ofoto link so you can have a look at my photos of them. At the moment, no institution or big auction house is interested. The Jones people on your coast didn't express an interest. Estimate to take it off the wall is 3 to 4 thousand, at that point it has to be trucked or whatever by lucky owner. I figured you might know someone, or one of your readers would, who might be interested. If more than one suitor is identified, then they're off to the races, I guess, but that's another story. At the moment MoCCA would get small publicity for having helped to save a nice piece of art (very on model for Jones of the period, esp Daffy and Bugs). Anyway, if it does go down the memory hole at least you'll have gotten a look at it. I suppose I'd try to get better pictures taken as a last resort.

If you are interested in preserving this Jones piece, contact John at jonesmural@aol.com.

A new twist in outsourcing

IndianTelevision.com has posted a fascinating piece on the Indian animation studio Padmalaya Telefilms which recently signed a number of lucrative co-production deals with European and American TV animation companies. The only problem is that Padmalaya is a little short on the production personnel needed to actually produce these shows. By a little short, I mean about 400 people. Among the crew needed are 60 2D animators, 70 3D animators, 120 inbetweeners and clean-up artists, and 12 layout and background artists. Padmalaya Telefilms executive director V Narsimha Rao says, "A major concern for us is the lack of animators in the country. We have bagged all these contracts, but the implementation is a big apprehension for us. The dearth of animators in the industry is going to prove fatal if we don't pull up our socks." One could argue that this is simply the case of a studio that needs to staff up, but finding 400 qualified animation professionals in a country as inexperienced in cartoon production as India is simply asking for trouble. You can read the complete article HERE and then ponder to yourself just how much further mindless execs can drive this art form into the ground in the name of saving a few bucks.

The Generosity of HELLBOY Fans

Here's a feel-good story about artists helping a colleague in need. First, the bad news: after recent medical problems and no health insurance, artist Rick Cortes is having to deal with huge medical bills. Now the good news: members of the HELLBOY comic message boards have stepped up to the plate and are holding an original art auction to help Rick pay off his medical bills. A stunning piece by HELLBOY creator Mike Mignola has already brought in over $5000. Hats off to Mike Mignola, Drew Struzan, Ronnie del Carmen, David Petersen, Cameron Stewart and everybody else who has generously donated their artwork to this cause and also to Ron Boyd who came up with the idea for the auction. And here's wishing a speedy recovery to Rick. He's a fine artist as well as a longtime supporter of the BLAST, and it's heartwarming to see the online community helping him out. You can bid on the artwork benefitting Rick HERE and also read an article about the auction at Comic Book Resources.

Around the Web

> It's not often that a musician will animate his own music video, but Bob Schneider created this cut-out piece for his new song "Come With Me Tonight." A little crude technically, but quite enjoyable. If you dig around his site, you'll run across more music videos he's done. (Link via Fous d'Anim)

> James-Swinnerton.com. What the 'Net was made for: classy websites devoted to obscure comic strip artists like Jimmy Swinnerton. His comic creation THE CANYON KIDDIES was the basis for the WB animated short THE MIGHTY HUNTERS directed by Chuck Jones, and his earlier strip LITTLE JIMMY was adapted into silent animated shorts produced by Hearst. This website offers examples of both strips and info about his career. Now if only folks would create websites like this devoted to the works of Golden Age animators.

> Following up on Mark Mayerson's review of the short film RYAN, here's a fine piece by Chris Robinson from a few years back that examines the life and career of NFB animator Ryan Larkin.

> Harvey Deneroff has a REPORT from the Italian animation festival Cartoons on the Bay, the only festival devoted to TV animation.

PINTO COLVIG

The late Pinto Colvig (1892-1967) has never been honored for being the first person to portray "Bozo the Clown." As of May 28, 2004, that will no longer be true, as Colvig will be inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Colvig is, of course, best known as the original voice of Disney's Goofy, as well as Grumpy, Sleepy, Warner's Conrad Cat and Fleischer's Gabby. Pinto Colvig's induction ceremony will take place on Friday night, May 28 at Tripoli Shrine Temple, 3000 West Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee.

POPEYE ON DVD?

Fleischer POPEYE

No, not yet.
King Features has released a dvd boxed set of 1960s Popeye cartoons - some of the worst cartoons ever made. It's parent company, Hearst, refuses to allow the release of the classic 1930s Fleischer cartoons and color 1940s & 50s Famous cartoons.

The Boston Globe printed this article today about the dvd debate. If you want to see the remastered, restored Fleischer Popeye on dvd please write to King Features public relations, Ms. Claudia Smith, and ask her why her company is deliberately ruining their greatest asset.

Ryan

I saw a screening of Chris Landreth's latest computer animated film, Ryan, last week. The film is an animated documentary, somewhat in the vein of Paul Fierlinger's And Then I'll Stop, where unscripted conversations by real people form the soundtrack of the film. In this case, the subject is Ryan Larkin, an animator who worked for the National Film Board of Canada in the late '60's and early '70's. Probably his two best known works are Walking (1969) and Street Musique (1971). After the latter film, Larkin had something of a personal meltdown, due at least in part to substance abuse.

Landreth met Larkin when they were both on the selection committee of the Ottawa Animation Festival and Landreth became so interested in Larkin that Larkin became the subject of this film.

Visually, Landreth described the film as "psycho-realism." Aspects of the visuals are photo-real. Skin textures, in particular, are photographic and reveal pores and blemishes. However Landreth's goal isn't realism. He freely distorts characters, props and sets to express the inner states of the characters or to comment on them. In this way, the film is a descendent of German Expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) or The Last Laugh (1924). Because Landreth is creating everything on screen with software, he has the advantage of a visual continuity and flexibility that directors Wiene and Murnau couldn't take advantage of.

The film will be screening at the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto later this month and also at Cannes and Siggraph. No doubt it will turn up at other festivals. Personally, I prefer it to Landreth's earlier films The End and Bingo. It's definitely worth seeing.

You can read more about the film and view a clip here.

Hello from Toronto

Hi folks. This is my first entry as a guest "brewer" here. I mention it so that if you suddenly find yourself wondering why some entries seem different or out of place, it's probably my doing. Don't assume that Jerry or Amid have lost their bearings; check the byline so you know who to blame. We'll see if I'll be the first of a long line of guests or if Jerry and Amid will rue the day they ever decided to let others into their playground.

Amid has thoughtfully placed a short bio of me on the right for those of you who are curious. More entries will follow.

HOGAN'S ALLEY

It's that time of the year again!
Another fantastic issue of HOGAN'S ALLEY has hit the stands - and it's another treat for those of us who love animated cartoons.

HOGAN'S ALLEY is billed as "the magazine of the cartoon arts" and though its primary focus is comic strips, there is always a healthy dose of animation information within it's 152 pages. Here's just a few reasons why you should buy the latest issue (#12): Jim Korkis writes two separate in-depth articles on STEAMBOAT WILLIE and DUCK DODGERS, Mark Arnold recounts the career of JOHN SUTHERLAND, an interview with DAVID SILVERMAN ("The Simpsons"), a look at PAUL MURRY'S non-Disney cartooning and a piece on MYRON WALDMAN and his short lived comic strip "Happy The Humbug".

This issue marks the ten year anniversary of HOGAN'S ALLEY. It's a wonderful magazine that has added much to our collective knowledge of cartoon art. Buy it!