"Daffy's Rhapsody" talkback
"The Snow Queen" trailer
"Arrietty" Will Be Ghibli's Biggest US Release Yet
Ricky Garduno, RIP
(aka SPHDZ) written by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita. Haven’t seen it yet but the book is out this week. 
. All the reviews I’ve read so far indicate a well researched book, and there appears to be plenty of animation-related company history as well. Here is a 
(2004). I needed the book for research purposes, and didn’t have any expectations beyond that, but once I started reading it, it was hard to put down. 
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TAG FOR “Books”Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
June 28, 2010 5:00 pm
I’m posting this more because I like the message, not for its artistic merits. Not that it doesn’t have that too… Animator Chris Roth animated this spot for Lane Smith’s new book, a children’s story about a donkey and a monkey so engrossed with technology that they can’t quite grasp the concept of a “book.” Both the book and the spot deliver an important message to kids that sometimes its good to “unplug.” Roth animated, based on Smith’s illustrations, and also provided the voices for Z Animation. It’s A Book hits the stores on August 8th. 12 Comments » posted in Advertising, Books 
June 21, 2010 1:32 pm
Shane Prigmore, whose character design talents have graced Coraline and How to Train Your Dragon, has illustrated his first book Spaceheadz Here’s a trailer for the book, the first in a series, that explains the concept: 4 Comments » posted in Books, Illustration
June 7, 2010 12:05 am
If you’ve been following recent trends in animation you’ve noticed that stop-motion is alive and well, in fact in better shape today than it’s ever been. And if you are a fan or practitioner of the art, I’ve just received two new releases—a DVD and a book—that are absolute must-haves. Stop Motion Marvels is the latest release from Steve Stanchfield and his Thunderbean Animation Company—and this may be his most important release yet. I cannot over-state how amazing this DVD compilation is. It contains over forty stop-mo puppet films ranging from 1909 through 1972, short subjects, commercials, home movies, and work prints; mostly stuff you (or I) never heard of, rescued from obscurity by Stanchfield and his team of animation archivists. The highlight of the set is the collected works of the Kinex studio, a forgotten creator of direct-to-home movie films featuring the strangely appealing antics of Snap the Gingerbread Man, Chip the Wooden Man and Daffy Doings in Doodlebugville. There are examples from animation notables (Willis O’Brien, J. Stuart Blackton, George Pal, Lou Bunin, and the most bizarre Len Lye experiment you’ve ever seen), but the real surprise are the John Burton (future Looney Tunes producer) shorts of the 1930s (including one in color) which pre-date all others in trying to incorporate a cartoonists’ sensibility into puppet animation. There’s audio commentary by stop motion experts and animators, a still gallery of rare photos (including a George Pal Puppetoon exposure sheet – Wow!) and a twelve-page information booklet (written by cover illustrator Stewart McKissick) round out this remarkable DVD set—an achievement in documenting a long-neglected segment of animation history. Bravo, Steve! This may well be the best video release of the year. Buy it now- you will not be disappointed. If you are interested in stop motion character animation – past, present or future – then Barry Purves’ Basics Animation: Stop Motion is for you. Who better to guide us through the history of the medium, the techniques and the process of filmmaking than master animator Purves (Screen Play) himself. He concentrates on explaining the technique through examples by Jiri Trinka, Ray Harryhausen, Norman McLaren, The Brothers Quay, Mackinnon and Saunders, Adam Elliot, Aardman, and a dozen other leading lights. A good basic text book for any student of the art form, and a great read for those of us who simply enjoy watching it. Everyone should order it ($19.77) from Amazon.com. (Embed below is one of the few films – a 1960s Chocks Vitamin commercial featuring the voices of Dick Beals and Paul Winchell – on Thunderbean’s Stop Motion Marvels that could be found on You Tube). 21 Comments » posted in Books, DVD, Stop Motion, Barry Purves, Len Lye
June 6, 2010 7:51 am
I can’t wait to get my hands on this book: The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks
Buy the book on Amazon.com for $18.50. 26 Comments » posted in Books, Business
June 2, 2010 12:12 pm
One of my recent book purchases is Studio Cards: Funny Greeting Cards and People Who Created Them The writer, Dean Norman, spent most of his career making “studio cards,” which is the name ascribed to a particular type of tall and funny greeting card that was popular from the Fifties through the Eighties. Dean worked both in Hallmark’s Contemporary department and American Greetings’ Hi-Brows, which were the “studio card” divisions of these two major greeting card companies. (He also worked in animation briefly at studios like DePatie-Freleng and Filmation.) Hallmark was based in Kansas City and American Greetings was in Cleveland—these were traditional midwestern companies that didn’t try to challenge middle American values as media companies on the coasts did. They were happy to put out products that served a simple and honest purpose, and get rich ten to fifteen cents at a time. As a result, the greeting card industry had little glamour (even less than animation) and few of the artists believed they were making anything more than functional commercial art. Within those boundaries though, they created some funny and memorable work. Some of the writers and artists discussed in the book will be undoubtedly familiar names—Robert Crumb, Tom Wilson of Ziggy and MAD’s Paul Coker, Jr.—while others are anonymous talents like Don Branham, Larry Raybourne, John Gibbons, Bob Harr, Teresa Satow, and Jimmie Fitzgerald, the latter two artists being women. The book compares favorably to Jack Kinney’s Walt Disney and Assorted Other Characters by managing to give the reader a sense of a time and place by focusing on individual artists. Norman’s stories (and he has a lot of them) made me smile and chuckle throughout, and by the end of the book, one walks away with a good sense of what it was like to work in the trenches of the greeting card biz. Animation artists will be able to commiserate with many of Norman’s stories, especially when he discusses editors and art directors: “A good editor or good art director is perhaps the most rare creature on this planet,” he writes. “But companies large and small have these positions to fill, and the people who fill them do great damage to creativity. Often the position of editor or art director is a reward that is offered to a good writer or a good artist…If you are good, you can stop writing or drawing and become a manager who harasses other writers and artists.” Norman tells maddening stories about management’s constant search for formulas, like how when a series of cards with short characters starting selling well, Hallmark art directors demanded every artist draw only squat characters. The book is illustrated with lots of greeting card examples and other ephemera that Norman collected over the years. It’s print-on-demand, so sadly it’s in black-and-white and the image quality is far from perfect. Also, as with most self-published projects, the book could have really used an editor to tighten up passages and help smooth out a lot of the chronological leapfrog. Having said that, I unequivocally recommend the book. It’s a valuable piece of history about a woefully neglected and undocumented area of commercial illustration and cartooning. Norman’s writing is heartfelt and his stories are delightful. If anything, this book helped convince me that Hallmark and American Greetings are sitting on some great archival material and that they should consider releasing compilations of all the funny cards they created. 4 Comments » posted in Books, Illustration
June 1, 2010 12:05 am
Come celebrate the publication of my latest book tonight at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Ave. We are having a screening of Technicolor Looney Tunes in 35mm, and a special first-day-of-publication book signing (be the first to obtain a copy – autographed no less). On top of that, PBS’ History Detectives will be there filming a segment tonight and will be taping the audience reaction to Buddy’s Day Out (the first “Buddy” cartoon – and NO, not one of The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes. Far from it, in fact). Join us tonight night (6/1) at 8pm, in Hollywood, at the CineFamily/Silent Movie Theatre. (And if you can’t make it tonight, the book should ship today via Amazon and be in a bookstore near you in a few days.) 17 Comments » posted in Books, Events
May 25, 2010 4:00 pm
I just received a copy of my latest book, The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes, directly from the printer and snapped the photo above for you to see (also a few sample spreads below, click thumbnails to enlarge. Forgive the blurriness of my cel phone camera). The pictures make the book look larger than it is. It’s actually a compact 7 inches tall and 9 1/2 inches wide, loaded with 216 pages of information and color images. It retails for $24.95, but amazon.com has it for $16.47. Next Tuesday, June 1st at 8pm, I’m hosting a screening and book signing party at my usual monthly event at the CineFamily – Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Ave. in Hollywood, CA. I’ll be screening ten 35mm classic Looney Tunes (some in IB Technicolor) and clips from most (if not all) of the other 90 selected for the book. A limited number of books will be flown in from the printer, making this the first place on Earth you can purchase the book and get it with my autograph. It will start appearing in bookstores and comics shops in the U.S. and Canada sometime during in June. I hope you like it. Buy two – it makes a great gift!
43 Comments » posted in Books, Classic, Events
May 19, 2010 9:00 am
Here’s an animated trailer for The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe , a new book by Andrew O’Hagan. The book is being published this month by UK’s Faber and Faber, and they commissioned this stylish promotional spot. Set in 60s era New York and featuring Marilyn Monroe, the animation design follows the 50s/60s illustration tradition. Designed and animated by the super-talented Robin Davey. |
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