The legendary Oscar Grillo has started his own blog HERE. It features a terrific drawing everyday and links to classic jazz tunes. Most of the text is in Spanish, but the drawings and music can be appreciated by all.

FPS (Frames Per Second), a great print animation magazine edited by Emru Townsend in the Nineties, is being published again — only this time sans paper. The first issue is available for FREE as a downloadable PDF at fpsMagazine.com. There’s a cover story on the “animated documentary” and other thought-provoking pieces.

April 30th has been declared International Scrappy Day by Asifa-Hollywood. That’s when an officially sanctioned Scrappy-Con – dubbed (with permission) SCRAPPY-LAND – will take place at the American Film Institute campus in Hollywood, California.From 1pm till 5pm, participants will gorge themselves with various Scrappy related events – a screening of several brand new 35mm restored prints of Dick Huemer (Mintz, Screen Gems) Scrappy cartoons (Courtesy of Columbia Pictures), preceeded by a panel discussion, exhibits of Scrappy memoribilia, and a live performance by the Scrappy Puppet Theatre Players!More details will be announced next month, as we get closer to the date. In the meantime visit Scrappy-Land online or Asifa-Hollywood for more information.

Once again, our friend and colleague Fred Patten is back in the hospital.Fred, who just recovered from a bout with pneumonia, suffered a stroke early Saturday morning (around 12 midnight). Fred is in stable condition, in the Intensive Care Unit, at Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital in Marina Del Rey, CA.Amid and I wish him a speedy recovery.

If you are as big a BATMAN fan as I am – or you like the 1966 camp Batman, the 1989 Burton Batman, the 1992 animated Batman, are a fan of Mark Hamill, Dick Van Dyke and Adam West – or Lego toys – you really should watch this: Batman – New Times

There are two great Birds in the world of art. One is, of course, the Brad Bird of animation. The other is the Bird of jazz – Charlie “Bird” Parker. Today marks the 50th anniversary of his death (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), and in commemoration, here’s a drawing by Oscar Grillo.

Daisy C. reports in on the Lisa Marie/Tim Burton garage sale (previously HERE and HERE):

Just wanted to mention that my friend and I went and checked out the Tim Burton garage sale thing today – and it’s really a bit of a bust. Actually, just plain disappointing. The only movie prop was that chair from Ed Wood (still there for a mere $20,000), and other than a smattering of used furniture and pricey used designer footwear and clothes (average going price for used shoes – $100-$400, dresses and skirts $400+), it was this odd collection of junky old yard sale stuff – salad spinner, old mugs, fabric, assorted boxes of electric cables and whatnot. But, all my friends back east are jealous that we even got to check it out, so hey.

Friday is the day I usually walk over to Golden Apple and see what’s new. I’ve noticed that I’ve become very picky in recent years. I usually only buy fanzines like Alter Ego and Comic Book Marketplace and the occasional alternative comic that catches my eye. This week I noticed for the first time the incredible 9 inch tall Fleischer-style limited edition, hand-painted cold-cast porcelain maquette of LOIS LANE. This has been out for a while, and I’d known about it – but I hadn’t seen it until now. It’s fantastic. (click on image above to see the full figurine). I wish I could afford it.More affordable was an excellent new anthology (right) from Chris Pitzer’s Ad House Books. Pitzer has commisioned over 3 dozen indy cartoonists and alternative artists to create a superhero image or comic strip and filled 288 pages in color with the coolest comics I’ve read in a long time (well at least since a few weeks ago when I bought BIZARRO WORLD). PROJECT: SUPERIOR features story and art by Brew favorites Ronnie Del Carmen, Tim Biskup, Seonna Hong, Scott Morse, and Brandon Ragnar Johnson – and many many others. Much fun, much eye candy. I don’t buy many of these anthologies, but this is one of the best I’ve seen.
It was a good week.

Here’s a good one for the New York area Cartoon Brew readers.The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria (Queens) Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 7:00 PM presents Looney Tunes and Silly Symphonies, a special presentation by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. There will be a shorts screening and panel discussion with author & animator John Canemaker, cartoonist Ben Katchor and Raymond Scott Archivist Irwin Chusid. Additionally, Six members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will perform, live, selections of the music of Raymond Scott.Looney Tunes and Silly Symphonies will explore the relationship between cartoons and the concert hall, comedians and composers. John Schaefer of WNYC Soundcheck is the moderator/curator of the event.Riklis Theatre
Museum of the Moving Image
35 Avenue at 36 Street
Astoria, N.Y. 11106
To reserve a seat please call 718/784-4520

Sander Schwartz can kick back and relax. Somebody has already done the work for him and animated the new LOONATICS cartoon, starring that one and only “Buzzed Bunny.” Actually, it’s a Flash parody of what the show might be like and it’s absolutely hilarious. WARNING: CONTAINS VERY STRONG LANGUAGE, but come on, WB deserves it. Click here to watch A NEW BUNNY. (Thanks, Daikun)

Chris Padilla has posted a terrific interview at AnimationTrip.com between TRON director Steven Lisberger and ROBOTS director Chris Wedge, who also worked on TRON. It’s a lot of fun to read and feels more like a conversation between two friends rather than the typically tedious q-&-a interview format. Check it out HERE.

Tomorrow’s HOLLYWOOD REPORTER has a story that Fox/Blue Sky’s next feature following ICE AGE 2 will be an adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ HORTON HEARS A WHO! The film is scheduled for release in late-’07 or early-’08. No director is attached to the project yet, but the screenplay is being written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, whose prior writing credits include THE SANTA CLAUSE 2 and BUBBLE BOY. Those writers are the only part of the announcement that raises a red flag for me, but otherwise I’m confident that Blue Sky will do a fine job with this project. Full details at THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER website. The REPORTER piece neglected to mention that HORTON HEARS A WHO! was previously adapted to animation by Chuck Jones in 1970. For my money though, the most entertaining animated adaptation of Seuss’ Horton character is Bob Clampett’s HORTON HATCHES THE EGG (1942).

Animation designer Alex Kirwan (My Life As A Teenage Robot) sends us this link to a new animation production blog:

“This one belongs to my friend Elizabeth Ito, novel in that it’s one of the first female production blogs I’ve seen. Adventures on the Animation Rollercoaster shows Elizabeth documenting (among other things) the development of television projects and the recent excitement over her student film “Welcome to my Life” – which won producer’s pick in the Nicktoons film festival, and can be viewed here.”

Tonight – Voice actress June Foray signs her book PERVERSE, ADVERSE AND ROTTEN VERSE at the Barnes and Noble, in The Grove at the Farmer’s Market at 7:30pm – 189 Grove Dr. (Suite K30).March 19th – Voice actor Trustin Howard (Philbert) signs his new book My Life with Regis and Joey, 2:00pm at Borders Books, 14651 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, CA.

Barely a week old, but quickly becoming a favorite: DRAWN!, a new multi-author blog devoted to illustration, art, cartooning and drawing. Eight super-star contributors, including Ward Jenkins, Jared Chapman, Jay Stephens, John Martz, Patricia Storms and Claire Robertson… Enough talk!
Go there! Now!