Ryan Woodward, a veteran feature animator who is also responsible for the popular animated short Thought of You, is placing his bets on animated graphic novels. The first issue of his independently produced series Bottom of the Ninth will be released next month for the iPad and iPhone. The trailer above is intriguing as is the comic’s storyline:

The first app, Prologue, will set up the characters and the world of Tao City. Candy Cunningham is an 18 year old girl, born with a phenomenal athletic ability, and a hot head! Her father, Gordy Cunningham is an aged major league player whose athletic abilities have diminished over the years, but his ability to put on a good clown show always draws a crowd and ticket sales. Throughout the story, Candy faces some serious identity issues. The fame and glory of being a Tao City hero conflict with the true meaning of happiness taught to her by her father.

For more details, visit Bottom-of-the-ninth.com.

I’ve been picking up a lot of good books lately and though they’ve been classic comics-related, all have animated cartoon connections. Check these out…

Frazetta Funny Stuff edited by Craig Yoe

It wouldn’t be a book round-up without one or two from Craig Yoe. His latest compilation is this remarkable 256 page hardcover collecting much of Frank Frazetta’s (Fire & Ice) funny animal comic art of the 1940s. These comics, which emulate Hollywood cartoons of the era with characters like “Hucky Duck” and “Bruno Bear”, show that Frazetta was equally skilled at exaggerated cartoon line art as he was with his later realistic fantasy paintings. The book devotes over 70 pages to these rare “animated” stories, over 60 pages to his remarkable text-page header illustrations (for such tales as Percy The Pufferfish and Abbott the Rabbit), and another 70 to humorous stories drawn in Frazetta’s more realistic style. Yoe recounts Frazetta’s earlier years in his lavishly illustrated (with rare art) opening essay, and Ralph Bakshi contributes his memories in a sincere Introduction. All in all, its a lot of fun!

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Cartoon Monarch: Otto Soglow and The Little King edited by Dean Mullaney

If you’ve ever admired the art or illustrations of cartoonist Otto Soglow, this book is a must-have. Over 400 pages filled with Little King Sunday strips, including a sampling of his associated characters The Ambassador and Sentinel Louie. The book includes a thorough biographical introduction by Ohio State University comics historian Jared Gardner accompanied by numerous rare Soglow images, animation art, advertising pieces and commercial illustrations. A beautiful package, a wonderful collection.

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The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics edited by John Benson

If you collect any and all things related to classic E.C.’s original Mad comics – here is the missing link! This 192-page trade paperback is the last word on the bakers dozen of Mad knock-offs produced by Marvel (Atlas), Charlton, St. John, Harvey Comics and others in 1953-54 pre-comics code era. Editor John Benson compiles the best of these humor comics – with art by Jack Kirby, Norman Maurer, Howard Nostrand, Dan DeCarlo and others – and writes an informative and lavishly illustrated essay on the history of these books and their creators. Hilarious fun, The Sincerest Form of Parody is sincerely great.

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Nancy Is Happy: Complete Dailies 1943-1945
by Ernie Bushmiller

Ahhh, the joys of Nancy!
Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy is one of those acquired tastes. Deceptively simple, it’s the comic strip stripped to its bare essentials. The end result may be perfection; there are many who think so. They’ll get no argument from me. This new compilation book is lavishly produced (by Fantagraphics Books), with an introduction by Daniel Clowes, and compiles the daily strip from the wartime years (not that you’d know that; the strip rarely references the war). If you like Bushmiller no explanation is necessary; if you don’t, no explanation is possible. Buy this book and make Nancy happy.

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Popeye Comics by IDW

Finally, I must note IDW’s new Popeye comic book (32 pages, $3.99). It’s cover is a take-off of Action #1 – which is appropriate as some consider Popeye the first comic strip superhero. It’s also available with an “incentive cover” by cartoonist/Popeye screenwriter Jules Feiffer. Craig Yoe, Ted Adams and Clizia Gussoni are editing this four issue series with writer Roger Landridge (The Muppets) and artist Bruce Ozella. Ozella’s art is so authentic you’d think this was a reprint book. If you are going to revive Popeye – this is the way to do it. Five thumbs up, sez I.

The New York Times has a piece about the nasty in-fighting between the two families who own control the Archie Comics universe, which also includes properties like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie the Pussycats. In short, one side—Jonathan Goldwater—wants to bring aboard outside investors and get Hollywood involved, while the other side—Nancy Silberkleit—wants to preserve family ownership of the company. The animosities have led to accusations of sexual harassment, defecating dogs, and punctured car tires. Currently, there’s a restraining order against Ms. Silberkleit, though she was recently fined for violating that order and showing up at the company’s headquarters accompanied by an ex-football player.

As it stands, it’s remarkable that Archie hasn’t already succumbed to corporate media consolidation. Few classic comic and animation properties are owned independently nowadays. Warner Bros. owns DC, Disney owns Marvel, and Classic Media owns Rocky and Bullwinkle, Gumby, Underdog, and the Harvey Comics library, just to name a few.

Archie Comics remains one of the rare holdouts, along with Alvin and the Chipmunks, which is owned by the creator’s son, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., and his wife Janice Karman. In a day and age when few mainstream cartoon creators even have the option of owning their creations, it’s nice to see an independently held company overseeing such a classic group of characters—even if its owners are fighting each other to the bitter end.

(Illustration by Mark Matcho)

I’ve been a huge fan of Scott Shaw’s Oddball Comics presentations at Comic Con since I first saw them over 20 years ago. Scott projects a selected comic book cover on a huge screen and points out (if it isn’t already obvious) how ridiculous it is. Scott’s comics and comments are simply hilarious. If you haven’t been able to catch this in San Diego, Scott’s now performing the presentation (for a limited time only) at a theater in Hollywood – Saturday nights at 8 PM at the Oh My Ribs! Comedy Theater on Santa Monica Boulevard near Cahuenga. I am honored to join Scott this week (4/14) as a special guest, where I will screen several Oddball Comics as Oddball animated cartoons! Yes, Jack Mendelsohn’s Jacky’s Diary and Hal Seeger’s Muggy-Doo Boy Cat, two of the strangest comics creations ever to make it to the screen (as theatrical cartoons, yet!), will be shown. Join us on Saturday night for this once-in-a-lifetime comics/cartoon event!

Animator Mark Kausler blogs about his latest discovery – Bob Clampett’s first published cartoon art. It’s from 1925 and was published in the L.A. Junior Times, a children’s supplement to the popular newspaper that encouraged amateur artists to send in their work. Clampett had several pieces printed during the summer that year and Kausler opines how these foreshadow things to come. Read it here.

Worth a look: Kim Deitch (veteran underground cartoonist and son of animation director Gene Deitch) talks about his comics career and cartoon cat influences. Kim is one of over 75 other top comics creators interviewed in a new book, Leaping Tall Buildings by Christopher Irving and Seth Kushner (both blog at Graphic NYC).

(Thanks, Anne D. Bernstein)

The trailer for Seth MacFarlane’s new movie Ted, went online Monday. Cartoonist Lucas Turnbloom has been drawing the online comic strip Imagine THIS since 2008. Tom Racine of the internet comics podcast Tall Tale Radio, noticed some similarities and made this comparison graphic (click thumbnail at left). Turnbloom is not accusing MacFarlane or his writing team of anything, but many of his fans and his cartooning friends have noticed some incredible similarities.
How does it look to you?

I ran into animator Michel Gagné at the Annie Awards last week (where he picked up an Annie for Best Video Game, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet) and asked him about his next project. Turns out Gagne had been toiling on a labor of love (literally) that has just gone on sale this week. Says Gagné:

“I have a new book that just came out. I’ve always had a very particular vision of how books reprinting old comics should be restored and presented, so a few years ago, I decided to put my own historical collection together covering a subject that had never really been documented before. I worked on the project for many years and last year it was picked up by Fantagraphics. The book was released last week.“

That book, Young Romance: the Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics, is not the usual thing we endorse here at Cartoon Brew – but as a life-long Jack Kirby fan and oddball comic book buff, this project is right up my alley. Gagne writes more about why he wanted to do this project, and how he did the restorations on his website. I’ve ordered my copy and highly recommend it, sight unseen. Thanks, Michel!

Our friends at The Submarine Channel have just launched a brand-new motion comic based on Julian Hanshaw’s graphic novel The Art of Pho (Random House); four of eight webisodes are now online.

“The Art of Pho” website contains additional info, as well as a “Making Of” video and interviews with illustrator/animator Hanshaw and animation director Lois van Baarle. A beautiful, worthwhile project – take a peak:

Steven Spielberg’s new Adventures of Tintin is the most technically ambitious film version of Tintin to date, but it is hardly the first time Hergé’s boy reporter has been brought to life. To help place Spielberg’s efforts into context, we turned to someone far more qualified than us, French writer and artist David Calvo. In this exclusive piece for Cartoon Brew, he takes a look at the highs and lows of prior Tintin screen adaptations and helps us understand where Spielberg’s performance capture film fits into the picture. When he’s not being a Tintinologist, Calvo is a creative consultant and writer at Ankama, where he has played a key role in developing the popular MMORPG Wakfu. He has also written numerous novels, comic books and short stories, and draws the on-line comic Song of Beulah.

The History of Tintin Adaptations: From Misonne to Spielberg
by David Calvo

It’s been a long time coming. We can read everywhere how Steven Spielberg and Hergé missed their rendez-vous, at the dawn of the 1980s, a few weeks before the Belgian comic master passed away. We’re now resigned to the American side having the upper hand. Today, we can feel Spielberg and Peter Jackson oozing in every frame of the new Tintin, childhood memories and artist’s pride perspiring behind the dual banter of the Thomson and Thomson. The star filmmaking duo have managed to bring this hot, harshly defended property to a new media. Without delving into the technical aspects of this production, adapting Hergé’s master comic book is already a daunting task. It has been done before—sometimes for the best, mostly, for the worst.

“The Crab with the Golden Claws”

The crowning jewel of all Tintin adaptations is the “The Crab with the Golden Claws” handkerchief puppet extravaganza by Hergé’s friend Claude Misonne and her husband João B. Michiels. Splendid and boring, so abstracted, this stop motion tour de force managed to be a scrupulous, if non-inventive, duplication of the comic, filled with wonderful voice performances, horrendous stock shots, and plagued by severe budget problems. The movie was shown only once in theaters, in December, 1947, in front of two thousand kids. The film was seized next morning by the justice, because the adaptation fees wee never paid. The movie has now achieved cult status as the first Belgian animated feature, a visionary precursor in stop motion history.

“Tintin et le Mystère de la Toison d’or”

Often cited as the worst thing you can do to Hergé, the two live-action movies of the Sixties, “Tintin et le Mystère de la Toison d’or” (“Tintin and the Golden Fleece”, Jean-Jacques Vierne, 1961) et “Tintin et les Oranges bleues” (“Tintin and the Blue Oranges”, Philippe Condroyer, 1964), deserve to have their reputations rehabilitated today. If “la Toison d’Or” fares better than the “Oranges Bleues,” it’s because of the exoticism, the touristic adventures, and the multiple references to the Tintin canon. Despite their cruel lack of any cinematic values and terrible scripts (both are original stories by André Barret), these playful, lush productions were able to pull the major feat of having perfect main characters: a Tintin superbly played twice by Jean Pierre Talbot, and two Haddock incarnations, Georges Wilson and Jean Bouise—both major French actors bringing uncanny depth to this difficult character.

Belvision’s Tintin series

The Sixties were the apotheosis of the Franco-Belgian comic-book school, and Belgian studios Belvision, founded by Le journal de Tintin editor Raymond Leblanc, had a winning streak of flair. First they adapted Tintin as a cartoon TV show. Produced by Ray Goossens, the seven serials were aired between 1959 and 1964 as five-minute shorts, for a total of 50 episodes (only “The Calculus Affair” was bundled as a feature film). Despite having brought the best animators in Europe to Brussels, the old-fashioned animation and funny characterization perks struggled to overcome the horrid scripts and schematic action. To fit the format, the albums were condensed and chopped, often badly, but the overall thrust of non-stop action and cliffhangers, typical of any serialized mystery, worked perfectly on TV. Curiously, Belvision also produced a stunning fifteen-minute industrial film, “Tintin et la SGM” (1970), to promote a Belgian mining company. (Watch a clip from the industrial film.)

The animated feature “Tintin and the Temple of the Sun”

Next, Belvision seized the big screen with two animated features, which are still a Christmas fixture in France. “Le Temple du Soleil” (“Tintin and the Temple of the Sun,” 1969) was a deeply faithful adaptation of the source material (with thoughtful alteration by comic book artist and journal de Tintin editor Greg). A more technically challenging endeavor, enhanced by a splendid soundtrack featuring a song written by Jacques Brel, the musical alter ego of Hergé. Even if the movie only focused on the second part of the two-album story arc (which will be “adapted” next by Peter Jackson), it retains a large part of the adventurous setting and rhythm. The next feature, “Tintin et le lac aux requins” (Tintin and the Lake of Sharks, 1972) is a funny, original Tintin story pitched by Greg, featured an awesome visit to Syldavia and touching characters, though lacking animation brio and depth.

Opening titles for The Adventures of Tintin

In 1992, The Adventures of Tintin, a new animated TV series aired on FR3, co-produced by France Ellipse studios and Canadian outfit Nelvana (directed by Stephen Bernasconi, assisted by Tintinologist Philippe Goddin). It had a huge success in primetime. The sheer scope forces the admiration: all Hergé’s albums are converted, except for the most controversial (“Tintin in the Congo” and “Tintin in the Land of the Soviets,” while “Tintin in America” was heavily tweaked to erase the Native American problems). Eighteen 45-minutes episodes, and three 24-minute ones, achingly faithful and masterfully executed, were produced. Maybe too faithful. Clean and respectful, lacking any hint of craziness, this adaptation got rid of most of Tintin’s quirky element—guns, politics, alcohol—to provide neutered family entertainment devoid of any risk. One of the key aspects of Hergé’s work was his perfect balance between reality and fantasy. The episodes have been syndicated many times since, cut up and chopped in every possible combination to re-create a serialized experience.

At the dawn of the 21st century, Tintin is back for the masses. Belches and zoophilic jokes aside, it is a clever twist thrusting a quaint, old-school narrative into the future. The movie texture is stunning, everything reflects the overwhelming obsession of Spielberg, including reflection itself, and the fabric gives a sense of depth and place achingly relevant in achieving that “ligne claire” dryness to every overexposed shape. The details are inspiring: the tiny, drunkards eyes of Haddock, his cartoon nose, Tintin’s hands (beautiful), the Thomson’s moustaches and greasy skin. The somewhat jumble of the script, blending two majors storyline with details from all over the oeuvre, manages to remain faithful and utterly sacrilegious at the same time. The whole movie lacks the whimsical, restrained tempo of Hergé, that, despite their short-comings, the previous adaptations managed to pull out.

This over-emphasis on heavy action set pieces, with barely a pause for the characters to breathe, is deeply troubling. Are world mass audiences hungry for more action, more technical bravado, trampling the subtle inheritance of of the most idiosyncratic saga of our time? The shiny, invisible center of Hergé’s mind is still missing from all these adaptations. The endearing success of Tintin is not one of motion, nor emotion. It is tied to the page, to the frame. Subject and Form linked in a perfect, beautiful harmony that cannot translate, giving birth to a singular expression of a universal time frame, frozen forever in a quaint space between conservatism and rebellion. We will have to wait again—this time for Peter Jackson bravado—to see if the Hollywoodization of Tintin’s quirky sensibility can exist in another space.

I love animated GIFs and the seemingly infinite variations on the form. Comic book artist Kerry Callen has come up with a new twist: animating vintage comic book covers and he pulls it off quite well.

(via Mark Evanier)

Animator Mark Kausler has uncovered a rare 1950s “Terrytoons” comic strip, Barker Bill, and has started posting them on his blog. Paul Terry was a comic strip artist well over a hundred years ago, and became an animation pioneer in the early-teens. Apparently as a tie in to selling his old cartoons to television, Terry introduced his Barker Bill as a strip (drawn by animator Bob Kuwahara) in 1954. They appeared in only a few papers and copies of these strips are scarce. Kausler has grabbed them from various sources, including the Google News Archive from the Greensburg Daily Tribune. He’ll be posting them regularly, eight strips at a time, for the time being HERE. For classic cartoon geeks, this is a real find!