Emshwiller Infinity x Two by Luis Ortiz is a new joint-biography of artists Ed and Carol Emshwiller. Carol was a fiction writer, but of interest to animation folk is the life of Ed Emshwiller, a multi-faceted artist who established himself as one of the most well-known sci-fi magazine cover illustrators during the 1950s and early-60s. From there, he turned his attention towards experimental filmmaking, and eventually began to experiment with CGI. One of his pioneering CG experiments, Sunstone (1979), can be viewed online here. In 1979, he became the dean of CalArts’s School of Film/Video and served in that post through his death in 1990. In 1983, he founded the school’s Computer Animation Lab. For more details, see this book review by Fred Patten.

For today’s contest, we’re giving away TWO signed copies of the book Fleet Street Scandal, a 48-page hardcover book collecting the digital artwork of Kevin Dart and Chris Turnham. It’s rare to find an artistic duo wherein both are equally talented, but Kevin and Chris each bring the goods to the table. In a blog post last year, I wondered why they weren’t working more regularly on animation entertainment projects. Well since then, Chris has done freelance work for Laika, and Kevin is currently doing an art internship at Pixar. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more animation contributions from them in the future, but until then, be sure to check out the dazzling collection of illustration work they’ve compiled in Fleet Street Scandal.

For this contest, provide the answer to the following question in the COMMENTS section of this post. Instead of our usual procedure of choosing the first two correct answers, we will instead randomly choose two winners from all your correct answers posted between now and 3:15pm. If you have won anything from the Brew recently, please do not enter again. Here’s the the question:

Kevin and Chris came up with the name Fleet Street Scandal while looking through the London edition of a Czech artist’s series of worldly childrens’ books. What is the artist’s name?

CONTEST IS OVER! WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON. THE CORRECT ANSWER WAS MIROSLAV SASEK. THANKS FOR PLAYING

Went to Meltdown Comics tonight and found out that two weeks from now they will be having a three day exhibit and opening reception for Project Bart. This exhibition features customized versions of Bart Simpson by 20 contemporary pop artists (the exhibit will come to New York’s Toy Tokyo Showroom Gallery in September). The Meltdown reception is on Wednesday August 1st from 7pm to 11pm.

While I was there I noticed the new Casper comics reprint book, assembled by Leslie Cabarga and myself, is now on sale. Not only on sale, but it was displayed as the “Manager’s Pick”. It was supposed to make its world premiere debut at the San Diego Comic Con next week, but it doesn’t quite have an embargo… like Harry Potter. So pick it up now, and enjoy!

“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.

Heads up: University of Massachusetts Press has announced the publication of The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films, by academic Christopher Lehman. The book, an adaptation of Lehman’s doctoral dissertation, features extensive quotes from his personal interviews of Berny Wolf, Bill Littlejohn, and Jack Zander. It will be released in October.

Highly regarded stop motion animator Barry Purves has wrapped up a new book called Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance which is due in December. The book will be available for pre-order in a few weeks on Amazon and the publisher’s site FocalPress.com.

Here is Purves’s description of the book:

Above all, this book is about the very personal experience, not just mine but others, of being an animator, working laboriously with puppets, and why so many of us still get so much from, as the late Paul Berry described it, ‘dolly waggling’. Just what is satisfying about bringing puppets to life that, for all the hard work, the tedium, and the back aches, keeps us doing it and keeps so many people watching it? It’s not the most prolific of jobs. Other directors make many hours of film in the time it takes us to do a short film. Actors perform the same role several hundred times in the months it takes us to perform our role just once, but even so, there is something deeply satisfying about bringing a lump of latex, metal and cloth to life. At every level, it is a performance, and for those who have never delicately held a puppet, squeezing it gently and sensually into life, that can be a strange concept.

The fully illustrated book also offers advice and insights from various stop motion animators including Tom Brierton, Adam Elliot, Mark Hall, Peter Lord, Ken Priebe and David Sproxton, among others.

A new Pixar film usually means another great Chronicle Art Of book and, at the other end of the spectrum, another neat looking Little Golden Book.

It’s easy to overlook the Golden Books - and difficult to find them - even in major bookstores. I just came across the Ratatouille one at my local Ralphs supermarket this morning. It’s a 24 page delight (especially for $2.99), with gorgeous art, credited to Scott Tilley, Jean-Paul Orpinas (illustrators) and Tony Fejeran (designer). As a long time fan of vintage Little Golden Books, the recent Pixar volumes are excellent additions to the collection.

Have you noticed how Pixar’s character merchandising art translates perfectly in two-dimensional and hand drawn versions? That’s due, of course, to the characters basic design and Pixar’s cartooning aesthetic. It’s also due to the calibre of artists assigned to create this ancillary artwork. One particularly cool looking publicity project was a series of images inspired by A.M. Cassandre’s vintage French posters, designed and painted by Stephane Kardos (above) and Eric Tan. It’s this kind of attention to detail, and sense of style, that keeps Pixar ahead of the pack - on screen and off.

Here’s an early heads up on one of the several books I’ve been working on this past few months. It’s just been announced publicly in the latest edition of Diamond Comics Previews, so I see no reason not to mention it here. The Hanna Barbera Treasury is a unique coffee table art book celebrating Hanna Barbera’s legacy (mainly the 50s and 60s TV series) through visuals including original production art, rare merchandising material and obscure comic books. It’s shaping up rather nice, I’m having a lot of fun with it, and it’ll make a nice gift for that cartoon fan on your holiday list. It’s being lavishly produced by Insight Editions, the folks who did the Surf’s Up and Monster House coffee table books. Look for it to go on sale in October.