Animator Mark Christiansen has a serious thing for vintage Hanna Barbera.

I found a copy of his self-published children’s book, Sid Sirloin and his Friends, at House of Secrets this afternoon. It isn’t just a loving homage to early 60s HB, it’s so perfectly realized its practically from an alternate Saturday morning universe. The 32 page full color soft cover book was “printed in the U.S.A. at the Warner Bros. Copy Center” (so it says in the small print in the front of the book). I found it highly enjoyable. I’d love to tell you where you can buy it (other than at House of Secrets) or send you to Mark’s website — unfortunately the URL listed on the back cover doesn’t go anywhere.
UPDATE: Mark’s blog is now up and features a list of stores selling the book - or how you can order it directly from him.

Artist, illustrator and animator Joe Murray is also one of the most successful cartoon show creators working today. Joe has just produced an e-book entitled Crafting A Cartoon, loaded with tips on how to pitch, sell and produce a series in the current marketplace. Says Joe, the book contains:

“…behind the scenes stories, photos and art from the making of Rocko’s Modern Life and Camp Lazlo. Realistic approaches to creating cutting edge, memorable characters for several mediums as well as a guide for fresh storytelling. Inside tips on how to put together pitch materials, contract tips on selling a show, and how to produce the series once it has been picked up. Plus sanity-saving advice on creating win-win relationships with networks - and alternative methods to getting your series out there without the network.”

You can browse the first 14 pages here. To order the whole book, visit Joe Murray’s website.

No particular reason that I’m posting this photo other than I’ve never seen it before and figured it’d be fun to share with everybody. Walt, of course, is instantly recognizable, but the other guy is somebody who I often refer to as the greatest cartoonist of the 20th century, Ronald Searle. The pic is from July 1957. I’m not entirely sure but it appears that they’re on the Zorro set. Click on it for bigger version.

Ben Balistreri, currently a storyboard artist at Dreamworks on How to Train Your Dragon, and a character designer and board artist for Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Danny Phantom and many others, recently self published his first graphic novel: Seaweed and the Cure for Mildew.

Man, this guy is good! I saw the book at Comic-Con and couldn’t put it down. The project took six years to complete as Balistreri could only work on it on nights and weekends. Each panel and drawing is exquisite. The book itself is a must-see: it’s a handsome hardcover volume, in full color and printed at a huge 12 by 15 inches! It’s 64 pages, of which 24 are dedicated to roughs, designs, and making-of drawings printed on a different paper than the comic.

The story is crammed with great characters, funny dialogue and gorgeous, dynamic artwork - and it’s an epic of high adventure that cries out to be an animated film (by traditional hand-drawn animation). It’s $29.95 and each order comes with an original sketch. I highly recommend this - it’s a bargain. Order it here.

This Saturday, Eric Goldberg will be signing his new book Character Animation Crash Course! at Stuart Ng Books in Torrance, CA. He’ll be there from 2-4pm. For directions to Stuart’s showroom, visit their website.

Beware when visiting Stuart Ng’s though because your wallet will be empty when you leave. His collection of comic, cartoon, animation and illustration books is any animator’s wet dream. Stuart is also one of two exclusive distributors for my magazine Animation Blast, which is currently on a publishing hiatus. The other location is House of Secrets in Burbank. If you need copies of Blast #7, 8 or 9, Stuart has plenty of copies available at his store or through mail order.

It always delights me when animators do their own thing, like publishing sketchbooks, comics, and creating their own characters outside the studio system. Supervising animator Michael Surrey, who has played major roles on such Disney films as Home on the Range, Atlantis, Tarzan, Hunchback, The Lion King (supervising Timon), Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin (animating on the title character), is presently doing just that. Currently working on both Rapunzel Unbraided and The Princess and the Frog for the studio, he’s also teamed up with screenwriter Ron Harner outside the Mouse House to create a series of children’s books that gently impart valuable life lessons to kids. The first one, Suck it Up, Tate!, was inspired by a Thanksgiving dinner discussion between Harner and his three sisters:

“They all have kids, and they told me I needed to write a different type of children’s story – one that wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops – a story where a kid screws up and has to deal with it.”

Suck It Up Tate! is available for sale at www.ronharnerbooks.com. Harner and Surrey are currently working on two additional books featuring Tate and his pals, which are scheduled for release later in 2008.

Head’s up on Don Hahn’s new book The Alchemy of Animation, which will be available on October 7th. Hahn is, of course, the producer of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, and is currently developing a stop-motion animated feature of Frankenweenie with Tim Burton.

In his new book Hahn details the process Disney uses to make animated films from traditional animation, to CG to stop-motion. Says Hahn:

It’s been almost seven years since I wrote my first animation book, Animation Magic, and what I really wanted to do this time, was write a book about the making of animated films in the modern age, for a slightly older audience. We were fortunate to be able to pack it with amazing, never-before-seen art from Disney and Pixar films through the ages, including a few sneak peeks at art from upcoming projects such as Bolt and The Princess and the Frog.

I haven’t seen the book myself, but Hahn clearly knows his stuff. Such a book coming from a Disney insider is certainly a positive indicator of the studio’s interest in all three techniques - and that, in of itself, is a very good thing.

Pixar storyboard artist and Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher co-creator Bill Presing will debut his new “cute cartoon girl” book Bookplate Betties at the Red Window booth (#4800). A preview of the book can be found on Bill’s blog. He’ll be sharing the booth with a couple other talented artists down from Emeryville: Scott Morse and Jeff Pidgeon. Click Pidgeon’s link to find a crazily detailed diary of his San Diego experience. If Jeff figures out how to add some funky-smelling odors to his blog, it’d be just like the real thing.