That’s today’s topic of discussion on the Cartoon Brew Facebook page. We’re planning a refresh of the site and want to hear from Brew readers how you’d improve the site’s design and layout, and which technical features and additions you’d like to see implemented on Cartoon Brew.

Cartoon Brew was launched four years ago this month - and my, how we’ve grown. Below are some thoughts on the anniversary from the Brewmasters:

Jerry Beck
Back in 2003, Amid was updating his Animation Blast website with commentary and news; likewise, I was posting a stream of information and reviews on my Cartoon Research page. I recall a conversation we had at the time, both of us enthused about the potential of the Internet to expand our writing about animation. We were eager to communicate our thoughts, comments and criticism and saw a huge opportunity to expose new talent. This discussion led to our decision to “team up”, and create a new blog to share our ideas on one dedicated site that could lead to something more valuable to us - and our readers. We launched Cartoon Brew on March 15, 2004.

It’s turned out to be the most exciting, fulfilling, pleasurable and yes, time consuming, project we’ve ever taken on. For me, Cartoon Brew is a natural extension of what I’ve always done: communicating with fellow animation buffs and sharing my views, as well as trivia and souvenirs, from a lifetime of cartoon research. I love it.

We’ve watched our humble blog grow from several thousand readers a week to several thousand each day. A little over a year ago we opened our posts to comments from our readers, expanding the conversation to include the entire animation community. I’ve considered all Brew readers to be my friends, as we all share a love for an art form which, despite all its commercial success, is still not completely understood and fully explored by the mainstream public.

And that’s why Cartoon Brew is important to me. If I can enlighten someone to the latest film by Miyazaki, alert you to specific classic animation on DVD, or point even one person towards a Spongebob Squarepants Musical Rectal Thermometer, then I can rest a little easier, knowing I’ve done my job.

Amid Amidi
Wake up, brush teeth, wash face, put on coffee, log onto the Brew. Working on the site has become second-nature to me. I’m always amazed at how many people tell me that Cartoon Brew is one of their essential daily reads, but what I always forget to reply is that it’s exactly the same for me on the other end. The Brew is such an essential part of my daily life. Even on days when I have nothing to say (obviously, those are pretty rare days), I still check into the site to see what Jerry is writing and what readers are discussing.

As we begin our fifth year, we have big plans for the website. We are currently hard at work on a relaunch of CartoonBrewFilms. The idea continues to grow and morph but our goal remains the same: making quality animation available to a wide audience while making filmmakers money for their work. We’re also looking at numerous ways to extend the Cartoon Brew community, both through real world events and through online sites. Along those lines, we recently started a Cartoon Brew Facebook community (for Facebook members only) that allows readers to interact with one another through the discussion boards, and share links to films and articles with one another. Whereas the comments section on the Brew is for specifically responding to items that we post, the Facebook community is an opportunity for any reader to initiate a discussion or post interesting items.

This is also a good time to thank a few of our friends without whom we couldn’t be doing this site: the fine design team at Also Design who redesigned our website and logo, the sales team at Federated Media who help bring us corporate advertisers that we could otherwise never get on our own, and Leslie Cabarga who came up with the original set of Brew logos…remember these?

I just wanted to reassure Cartoon Brew readers that neither Jerry nor I are involved in the following scandolous headline from today’s LA Times: Brewer Apologizes in Sex Case.

We’re going to begin doing a regular roundup that indexes some of the more noteworthy items on Cartoon Brew. Here are some of the news items that created the most buzz and generated the most discussion during the past couple months. Any that we missed?

• The Little Island by Richard Williams
• Superjail
• Hatti Noel as Hyacinth Hippo: Part 1 and Part 2
• 1930s Wartime Japanese cartoon
• The Rocky and Bullwinkle statue: Part 1 and Part 2
• Spongebob Rectal Thermometer and Spongebob Voice-overs
• Kung Fu Panda Trailer
• In by Philipp Hirsch and Heiko Tippelt
• Why Don Hertzfeldt Probably Won’t Win An Annie
• Marcell Jankovics’s Fehérlófia
• Lili Chin and Eddie Mort Abandon Flash Animation
• Diznee’s Aladin and Ratatouille Knock-off
• Studio 4°C’s Genius Party
• The Hard Lessons of Kwicky Koala
• Academy Ignores Animation for Best Foreign Film
• Usavich
• Who Writes Cartoons?

After some record-breaking days of traffic last week, we’ve decided to take the next big step and upgrade Cartoon Brew to its own dedicated server. We hope that this will speed up everybody’s site load times as well as prepare us for future traffic spikes. The transition to a new server has not been especially smooth, hence the downtimes during the past couple days, but everything should be back to normal after this weekend. Thanks to all the Brew readers for your patience and support!

We are happy to announce that Cartoon Brew is now accepting ads from third-party advertisers (in other words, you) in our right-hand column. Many individuals and companies have commented to us throughout the past year that they’d like to advertise on Cartoon Brew but that they can’t afford the prices that our ad partner, Federated Media, charges for the large vertical and horizontal banners. While we’re thrilled to have major advertisers like Adobe, Cartoon Network,Verizon, Toyota and Hewlett-Packard occupying those spots, we also recognize the importance of giving independent companies, studios and individuals the chance to promote their projects in an affordable manner to the Cartoon Brew readership.

So we’ve decided to introduce a new advertising option of 125×125px square boxes in the right-hand column of this site. Previously we have only used these smaller ads to promote our personal projects and to support special causes, but now we will be adding your ads to the mix. We are selling these spots for only $250/month. That buys you an uninterrupted month-long campaign on Cartoon Brew, which receives an average of over 200k unique visitors/month and over 300k page views/month. If you’re interested in purchasing an ad, contact either Jerry or Amid through our bio pages at the top of this site and we’ll set you up. As a bonus, the first two advertisers who sign up will receive $50 off of their first month.

With the new year underway, it seems like a good time to announce that Cartooon Brew now has a bi-coastal presence. As many have surely heard by now, I moved to NYC a couple months ago. My estimable co-editor Jerry Beck continues to take care of business on the West Coast. Our coverage of the animation world will remain largely unchanged, as can be evidenced these past few months. The agenda for the Brew remains the same as always: write about topics that interest us, and that’s what both Jerry and I intend to keep on doing. As an added bonus, perhaps the posts on the Brew begin to reflect an even broader and more diverse tone as a result of my new surroundings.

Personally I’m quite pleased to be in and around the New York animation community. The NY animation scene has appealed to me from afar for a long time. One big reason for that is because artists do things in New York. They make short films, they teach, they cross over into other media, they dip and dabble in everything and don’t pigeonhole themselves as “animation artists.”

Hell, they even make animated features; three local indie animated features are nearing completion — directed by Bill Plympton, Nina Paley and Emily Hubley — and a fourth is starting production by Michael Sporn. I point this out not to suggest that a feature is the highest form of expression, but because a feature is one of the most time-consuming and ambitious things that one can endeavor to do in this art form. To embark on an independent feature with limited resources and budget takes guts, and it’s a testament to the drive and dedication of NY animators that so many have undertaken the challenge. Animation and beyond, I’m looking forward to spending some time in this amazing city and experiencing its rich and vibrant atmosphere…and eating lots of pizza by the slice.

We reached a milestone earlier in October that I think is worth mentioning: 10,000 reader comments on Cartoon Brew. We only launched comments in mid-February of this year, and we reached the 10,000 mark in under 8 months, which averages out to around 42 comments a day.

What has surprised both Jerry and I is not just the sheer number of comments but the consistently high quality of participation that we receive from industry professionals, cartoon buffs, and animation students alike. Sure, online discussion by nature lends itself to some silliness, but there’s also a lot of lively, passionate and informed discussion on the Brew. For this the credit has to go to our readership, which certainly must be one of the most knowledgeable animation communities on the Internet.

Comments moderation is not an easy task for us and takes up a significant amount of time. That includes fixing people’s links and formatting, emailing readers when a comment is inappropriate or off-topic, despamming comments that accidentally end up in the spam filter box (over 25,000 pieces of spam to date), and in general, keeping things in order. However, we believe that the effort has been more than worth it; we’ve learned a lot from the comments and feel it adds a valuable dimension to the Brew. So here’s to the next 10,000 comments and beyond.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what the most commented upon posts were on the Brew. These posts by no means represent the finest comments, but they are revealing in that they highlight what has generated the most reaction amongst our readers. As it turns out, bad animation will do the trick every time.

119 comments: New George of the Jungle in Flash

118 comments: Worst. MoCap. Ever.

116 comments: How Many Licks Does It Take To Make It CG

109 comments: Brew Review: Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie Film

108 comments: Here Comes Trouble

105 comments: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Incompetence

Today I’m pleased to announce the upcoming publication of the first-ever Cartoon Brew book. Inside UPA is a 64-page volume offering an unprecedented look into the legendary UPA animation studios. Packed with over fifty photos, most of which haven’t been seen in decades, the book offers a rare glimpse into what it was like to work at the mid-century’s greatest design-oriented animation studio.

Like the studio itself, this book is a bit of an experiment. It’s an animation book that treats artists like the stars they are and allows them to be appreciated in a way like never before. Personally I think it’s quite the appropriate companion to my earlier book Cartoon Modern because as that book focused on artwork and animation, this book recognizes the artists who made those groundbreaking films a reality.

Inside UPA captures long forgotten moments from the studio’s history including such images as John Hubley sketching dancer Olga Lunick during the production of Rooty Toot Toot, Aurie Battaglia and Leo Salkin working on the unproduced James Thurber feature The White Deer, architect John Lautner talking to UPA animators about his building plans for the studio, Pete Burness and Mister Magoo voice Jim Backus going through a storyboard, Gene Deitch and Cliff Roberts having an impromptu jam session at a picnic, and a late-night production staff meeting at the Smokehouse Restaurant.

Inside UPA, which measures 7.5″x8.7″, is a softcover with french flaps and b&w interior. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go towards the production of the UPA documentary that Tee Bosustow is working on so every purchase helps to further advance the documentation of the studio’s output. The book also includes a six-page filmography, which is the most complete UPA filmography to ever appear in print. It includes not only the studio’s theatrical shorts, but also its industrial and training films, TV commercials and shows, and other special projects.

The book is available in a numbered edition of 1000 copies. It’s a limited run and certainly not the type of book that will be available forever. The pre-order price (valid through September 15) is $35 (plus S&H). After that date, the price increases to $45. Fifty of these copies will come with a bookplate signed by UPA veterans who are still alive. These are available at $150.

To order your copy today, visit UPApix.com.

A few spreads from the book are below:

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