The National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire will be presenting a comprehensive exhibit of the work of independent animator Joanna Quinn this fall. The show, which will be held from October 16, 2009 through the end of February 2010, will display works by artists that have influenced Quinn (such as Gillray, Daumier, and Goya), early artwork by Quinn, and plenty of production artwork from her short films (Famous Fred, Dreams and Desires: Family Ties, Britannia, Girls Night Out) and advertising work (most famously, her series of bears-wiping-their-asses commercials for Charmin). Over at Michael Sporn’s blog, there are scanned pages from the exhibit’s catalog with more artwork and details about what will be on display.

Animation director Vincent Davis (above left) passed away on May 6th. An incomplete list of his credits is on IMDB.

His friend and colleague Mark Kausler (above right) just posted a tribute to his friend on his blog. It’s a must-read.

John Kricfalusi has been drawing Hanna Barbera characters all his life. Thankfully, he saved it all. Now he’s collecting his HB art, published or unpublished, finished paintings, notebook doodles - everything - and posting it on a new blog: John’s Funky HB. Check it out now!

Devin Roth and Dave Creek of Scatter Brain Inc. just produced a short trailer for Richard Goldgewicht’s live action/animation documentary on Pablo Ferro. Ferro, a former animator and comic book artist who became a legendary designer behind dozens of renown movie main titles, graphic sequences and commercials, worked with the greatest names in film - everyone from Bill Tytla to Stanley Kubrick.

The forthcoming documentary about his life, which will be narrated by Jeff Bridges, should be quite illuminating. For more information on the progress of the doc, check the movie website. Meanwhile, below is a sample of some of Ferro’s work.

One person who doesn’t need a plug on Cartoon Brew is Mo Willems. Successful animator turned popular children’s book author, Willems now returns to animation with two new short films based on his books.

This Saturday afternoon at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass. Mo will be premiering two new animated shorts based on his books, produced by Weston Woods: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! - animated by Pete List with Willems voicing the Pigeon and Jon Scieszka as the Bus Driver; and Knuffle Bunny Too - animated by Karen Villarreal with the voices of Willems, his wife and daughter as the family. For more info on this Saturday’s film screening and book signing, go to the museum’s website.

This photo comes from davedoo’s Flickr page. The accompanying caption:

Saturday, May 2, 2009: A lovely day as Pepperdine University graduates the class of 2009. I had only one acquaintance that was graduating but childhood friend John Lasseter, who I grew up with at the Whittier Church of Christ, received an honorary doctorate for his work in computer animation as Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation and Walt Disney Imagineering. Congrats John!

Adventure Time creator Pen Ward recently turned me on to the work of Glasgow-based animator David Ferguson, who posts his work at SwatPaz.net. “I don’t know why this guy’s youtube videos aren’t more popular,” says Pen. “I love ‘em.” Personally, I think they’re amusing too. There’s lots of good ideas in Ferguson’s work, and the naive animation and borderline incomprehensible Scottish accent only add to the fun. David has a whole slew of short absurdist pieces on his YouTube page, as well as more random jollities on his website including this page of “cool characters.”

One of my favorite short films of the last few years was Jonathan Nix’s Hello. Nix is currently in the midst of post-production on a new short (approx. 25 min.) called The Missing Key. From the looks of the trailer (below) the new film seems to further ideas from Hello, this time heavily influenced by Hayao Miyazaki. To learn more about Nix check his website.