Cartoon Brew

Even Mr. Bill Knew the Levees Wouldn't Hold

A couple days ago on GOOD MORNING, AMERICA, President Bush said, "I don't think anyone could have anticipated the breach of the levees." Not true. Even animated cartoon characters knew the levees were vulnerable. The disaster currently unfolding in New Orleans was the subject of a 2004 public service announcement starring the perennially imperiled clay-character Mr. Bill (of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE fame). The transcript of the PSA can be read HERE and the eerily prophetic spot can be viewed HERE. (via The Rude Pundit, which also has an interesting piece titled "Totally Black" in New Orleans).

Donate to hurricane relief at Mercy Corps or Operation USA.

Gabe Swarr's Value Meal

Animation director-designer Gabe Swarr has launched the first designs in his new T-shirt line called Value Meal. "I like food," says Gabe when asked about his inspiration for the series of shirts. And I really like these new shirts: simple yet bold and a delightfully "cheesy" sense of humor. I proudly wear Gabe's earlier Big Pants Mouse shirts, but next time you see me around town, I just may be sporting a Beefy shirt. Additional details and ordering info at Value-Meal.com.

Animation Blog Season

The summer of 2005 will go down as the animation artist's blog renaissance. Artist blogs have been cropping up at an unbelievable rate this summer, and frankly, it's exciting as hell. The animation industry may be incapable of recognizing and properly utilizing all the amazing talent at its disposal, but now the world can see for themselves just how incredibly talented today's animation artists are. These blogs shouldn't be confused as simply a second-generation incarnation of the traditional artist portfolio website. Portfolio sites have a tendency to be stagnant, an all-too prim and proper selection of artwork pieces that offer limited insight into both the artist and their work. Blogs, on the other hand, are a far more flexible and expressive form of communication, not to mention a more casual and inviting affair.

The effectiveness of blogs is evident in the wide variety of ways that animation artists have been using them so far: as a place for sharing quick sketches and gag drawings; production journals for their personal films (such as Tennessee Reid Norton's blog); to offer personal reminisces about their animation experiences (see this great story by Uli Meyer about his time on WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT); discuss techniques and approaches to the art form (look no further than Seward Street); show artwork by other artists who have influenced them; and perhaps most importantly, create a dialogue with other artists and fans through the comments sections of their blogs. As the animation blogging community expands exponentially, what new ways will artists find to use blogs? I can't wait to find out.

There's a lot of new blogs that I'd like to mention, but I'm going to list only a handful so as to not overwhelm readers. I don't know how often I'll do this, but I'll try to do a roundup of interesting animation blogs every once in a while. Here we go:

Uli Meyer - feature animator/owner of London-based Uli Meyer Animation
Hans Bacher - art director of MULAN
Stephanie Choi - character designer on FOSTER'S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS
Marco Allard - animator on Disney's TARZAN and LORENZO
John Nevarez - TV storyboard artist at Disney and elsewhere

(Thanks, Thorsten)

Ryan Larkin on the comeback trail

Ryan Larkin, the celebrated wunderkind of 1960s Canadian animation whose downfall was the subject of Chris Landreth's Oscar-winnning short RYAN (2004), is attempting to make a comeback. He is currently working on a new film, SPARE CHANGE, which will be his first animated film in many decades. To help raise funds for the film, Larkin recently created a silk-screen poster (pictured at right) celebrating the 100th anniversary of Saint-Laurent Boulevard, a famous street in Montreal; Larkin has long been the street's most celebrated panhandler. For details on the film and info on how to support its production, visit RyanBango.com. (Thanks, Heather Harkins)

CINECON & JANET KLEIN

This'll be slightly off-topic. I'm plugging my whereabouts the next five days. Tomorrow night I will be in two places at once. First I'll be showing 16mm films, as I do each month, at the Steve Allen Theatre (at 4773 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Feliz) at 8pm, preceeding a concert by Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys.

Then I'll scoot over to the Egyptian Theatre (on Hollywood Blvd. near Highland) to catch the start of CINECON 41. As you may know, CINECON is the polar opposite of the San Diego Comic Con. This movie convention actually seems to get less attendence each year! The convention is based in the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel (located at 1755 North Highland Avenue) and runs through Monday September 5th. Cinecon is the oldest of the movie related fan festivals and Cinecon 41 offers an outstanding program of unusual classic movies, archive prints, recent film restorations and celebrity guests. Chapters from THE IRON CLAW (1941), Universal B-musicals with Shemp (this year, 1944's "Moonlight and Cactus"), rare shorts and cartoons (Scrappy's THE BEER PARADE will be screened Saturday morning at 10:15am) - and much, much more - are run all weekend from 9am to midnight, each day at the Egyptian. Here's the complete schedule.

For more information, please check their web site at www.cinecon.org

HOOTERS HIRES BETTY BOOP

Just when you thought King Features couldn't sink any lower - they do this.

(Link to Mark Evanier's News From ME)

EMPRESS CHUNG

Who says traditional animation is dead?

Not Nelson Shin - the Walt Disney of Korea. His epic labor-of-love, EMPRESS CHUNG, has finally opened in North & South Korea. Nice article on Shin and Korean animation in today's New York Times.

The film will be screened at the Ottawa festival next month.

(Thanks Michael Sporn)

Marcelo Braga's blog

Brazilian cartoonist Marcelo Braga (of the Macacolandia Studio) has started a blog, which is loaded with his, and some of his friends, artwork. Damn they're good.

THE NEW GUMBY

The current owners of National Lampoon have partnered with Art Clokey Productions to recraft the original Gumby TV series into an "edgy, irreverent" reinvention, called Gumby: The Lost Tapes. Lampoon will create and produce all-new dialog (and in some cases music) tracks. The "new" versions will appear on the National Lampoon Network, the largest college dorm television network reaching nearly 5 million college students on 600 campuses nationwide. National Lampoon will also be issuing the "new" episodes for sale on DVD. Full press release here.

OTTAWA CONTEST WINNERS!

It was a very tough decision - but the Brewmasters have spoken!

The winning entries came from Rex Hackelberg (above - click on image to see his full comic strip entry) - and Lars Edwards, whose spot-on rendition of "The Animation Pimp" won us over. These two boys will be waltzing around the Ottawa festival like big shots because they will get in free. Congratulations, Winners!

And a sincere Thank you to all our readers for entering our little contest. See you at the Ottawa International Animation Festival from September 21-25!

Harald Siepermann Blog

Our friend Harald Siepermann, a mighty talented character designer who lives in Germany, has started his own blog HERE. Just a few of the films that Siepermann has contributed character designs to: WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, BALTO, MULAN, TARZAN, THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE and BROTHER BEAR. Harald does a lot more than design feature animation though; he's also one of the individuals responsible for creating Alfred J. Kwak, a popular European cartoon character who has appeared in comic books, an animated TV series and was named the UNICEF ambassador for children's rights in 2003. Besides posting his own work, Harald also promises to show "sketches and things that inspire me and that I admire."

Ruben Apodaca, RIP

I was saddened to hear that Ruben Apodaca passed away last month at age 73. I didn't know him well, but met him a few times to work on a short article about his personal photos (published in ANIMATION BLAST #6). He always struck me as being a very friendly individual, with a lot of enthusiasm for animation. Ruben started in animation at Disney in 1956, and went on to work at all the major studios during the '60s and '70s including UPA, Format, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera and Filmation. He also spent many years as an animation instructor at numerous Los Angeles area colleges. His full obituary can be read HERE.

ENTERTAINMENT ART ACADEMY

Mike Mattesi is opening a new art school in Pasadena, ENTERTAINMENT ART ACADEMY.

Stephen Silver will be there doing a lecture on Charater Design (Sept. 25), Tony Bancroft will discuss Animated Performance (Nov. 20th), Glen Murakami will be Interpreting Superheroes, and my ol' buddy Jim Wheelock will look at Architecture as Narrative (Oct. 9th). Rik Maki (of Digital or Not) will teaching a 13 week class on Character Design. For more information visit www.enterartacad.com

COMIC CON 2006

I don't know about you, but I just booked a hotel room for July 20-23 in downtown San Diego. Eleven months in advance.
• San Diego Comic Con