I’ve attended my fair share of foreign animation festivals over the years, and have always bemoaned the lack of Los Angeles industry artists at these gatherings. In Annecy artists from throughout Europe’s animation industry show up, in Ottawa a sizable lot from the New York and Toronto industry attend, but artists from Los Angeles have been conspicuously absent at every animation festival I’ve ever attended. There might be a few stragglers, but undoubtedly they’ll be outnumbered by the LA-based development and creative execs, who pounce on any opportunity for a free “business” trip.

The apathy of LA industry artists is historical. During the legendary 1967 Montreal animation expo, which was one of the great all-time gatherings of animation talent, only one Disney animator who had worked on Dumbo and was still employed at the company, took the time to attend the screening of that film. It was, of course, the studio’s most creatively curious artist, Ward Kimball.

This all leads up to some positively encouraging news. Browsing through the schedule for the upcoming Ottawa International Animation Festival, I noticed that not only are Adventure Time and Flapjack being shown in competition screenings , the creators of both shows—Pen Ward (top photo, left) and Thurop Van Orman (r.)—will attend and participate in a discussion about their work. This interaction between Los Angeles animators and the much larger world of animation beyond the San Fernando Valley doesn’t happen nearly often enough. Considering how relatively inexpensive it is to attend one of these festivals versus the mind-expanding benefits of meeting like-minded artists and seeing innovative new animation, I’m surprised that more studios don’t encourage and finance these trips for their employees. It would certainly be a wiser investment than shipping a cartload of executives to each festival.

The appearance of Ward and Van Orman isn’t the only TV-centric event at Ottawa either. Aaron Augenblick (top photo, center) who runs Brooklyn-based Augenblick Studios (Superjail!, Wonder Showzen, Ugly Americans) will be presenting a retrospective of his work. The program isn’t exclusively TV-related, but Augenblick is best known nowadays for his studio’s consistently high quality TV output, which is no small accomplishment.

[Start of Plug]
What: Comedy! Songs! Puppets! Magic! And God-awful cartoons from the wasteland of 50s and 60s Saturday morning television! Every 4th Monday in Hollywood!

Who: Frank Conniff, Erica Doering, J. Elvis Weinstein, Kristin Arrigo, Jerry Beck and special guest star comedian Michael Rayner.

Where: The Steve Allen Theatre, Monday August 22nd at 8pm. Advanced tickets click here.
[End of Plug]

The craft of hand-drawn animation, virtually absent from American bigscreens (Winnie the Pooh and The Illusionist being the notable exceptions), has a far stronger presence in TV series work, advertising, and especially amongst independent filmmakers. This Sunday in Brooklyn, animators Bill Plympton and Pat Smith catalog some of the recent hand-drawn achievements in the latter area with their first-ever Scribble Junkies Festival of Drawn Animation, which they aim to turn into an annual event. Depending on the reaction to this premier edition, Pat tells me that they want to expand to multiple screenings next year, as well as accept submissions.

The screening, which takes place at the Nitehawk Cinema (136 Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn), will present recent independent work by filmmakers Ryan Woodward, David Chai, Caleb Wood, Colleen Cox, Rebecca Sugar, Don Hertzfeldt, Brothers McLeod, and Fran Krause, as well as the two festival organizers. There’s a reception at 7:30pm, screening at 8:30pm, and an after-party and awards ceremony. Tickets are $11. Regular event updates can be found on Bill and Pat’s blog Scribble Junkies.

Animation legend Walt Peregoy (background painter on Sleeping Beauty and Paul Bunyan, color stylist of 101 Dalmatians, and background stylist on Scooby Doo, Where Are You!), who gained some notoriety earlier this year with this unfiltered interview, is having a show of his fine art this Friday, August 5. The reception for “The Little Man in My Head” will take place between 7 and 10pm at the Gallery 839 at the Animation Guild (1105 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, CA 91505).

Walt has been a prolific painter for his entire lifetime and it’s nice to see him finally receiving some recognition for it. If you’re in LA on Friday, this is a great opportunity to meet a genuine animation legend. There aren’t many of them still with us nowadays.

Animation Block Party, the most significant US animation festival on the East Coast, returns tonight for its eighth year in a row. The festival will take place over the next three days in Brooklyn with six programs of animated shorts and three after-parties. The festival is also exploring some new directions this year, in the form of a trade show and gallery exhibition:

On Saturday, July 30, 2011 – ABP will hold its first ever animation trade show and art gallery exhibition at BAMcinématek from 12pm-8pm. Trade show attendees will include Animation Mentor, NY Bike Jumble, L-Magazine, DaVinci Artist Supply, Green Mountain Energy, The Community Bookstore and many more.

The ABP gallery exhibition will feature content from animation talents such as Doug Crane, Howard Beckerman, Deborah Ross, Maori Stanton, Jeff Scher, Mike Lapinski, Caroline Foley, Michael Langan and London Squared alongside festival photos from Jazzmine Beaulieu. The Saturday ABP trade show and art gallery is free and open to the public.

For a list of all the films in competition, screening times and ticket info, visit the Animation Block website.

It’s that time of year again. This month the gang at Cartoon Dump invites you to help celebrate their 4th anniversary. Join Jerry Beck and Frank Conniff (“TV’s Frank” from Mystery Science Theatre 3000) with Erica Doering as “Compost Brite” and J. Elvis Weinstein as “Dumpster Diver Dan” for Cartoon Dump – for another depraved offering of sketches, songs, puppets, stand-up comedy, and the most God-awful Saturday Morning Cartoons from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Is there any better way to wind down from Comic Con? Special anniversary guests include Emo Phillips, Blain Capatch and other surprises. It’s tonight, Monday July 25th, at 8pm at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. Advanced tickets can be ordered here. Also join the Facebook Page.

If you’re in San Diego today, drop by Tr!ckster at 6pm for a screening of Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival. All ten films from our second annual festival (currently in progress) will be presented. The program is only 45 minutes long, but it packs a real punch. Today’s young animators have incredible breadth and depth, which will become evident when you watch all these films together. Best of all, the screening is completely FREE. And after the screening is done, stick around for the one-night only “Tribute to the Films of Akira Kurosawa” gallery show. It’s going to be a great evening!

If you’re at Tr!ckster, share your thoughts on this first-year event. Have you attended the Symposia or figure drawing sessions? How’s the selection of art books? Have you tried the sushi? We want to know!

The doors just opened at Comic Con, and I’m not exactly in a position to “live blog” the event – but perhaps you are. If you are reading this while on line or waiting for a panel to begin, send us your thoughts on how its going, what you’ve seen or any or if you found anything cool in the exhibit hall (like this limited “Con exclusive” Comic Book Guy ornament (above) being sold at the Hallmark booth).

If you are you an animation artist artist who is exhibiting your wares at Comic Con or Tr!ckster, please post that info on our Open Thread. And don’t miss Tr!ckster, across the street in the San Diego Wine and Culinary Gallery. It’s a must see – and I’ll be screening Cartoon Brew’s Student Film Festival Thursday and Friday mornings at 10am!