I was saddened to hear that Ruben Apodaca passed away last month at age 73. I didn’t know him well, but met him a few times to work on a short article about his personal photos (published in ANIMATION BLAST #6). He always struck me as being a very friendly individual, with a lot of enthusiasm for animation. Ruben started in animation at Disney in 1956, and went on to work at all the major studios during the ’60s and ’70s including UPA, Format, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera and Filmation. He also spent many years as an animation instructor at numerous Los Angeles area colleges. His full obituary can be read HERE.

Mike Mattesi is opening a new art school in Pasadena, ENTERTAINMENT ART ACADEMY.Stephen Silver will be there doing a lecture on Charater Design (Sept. 25), Tony Bancroft will discuss Animated Performance (Nov. 20th), Glen Murakami will be Interpreting Superheroes, and my ol’ buddy Jim Wheelock will look at Architecture as Narrative (Oct. 9th). Rik Maki (of Digital or Not) will teaching a 13 week class on Character Design. For more information visit www.enterartacad.com

I don’t know about you, but I just booked a hotel room for July 20-23 in downtown San Diego. Eleven months in advance.
• San Diego Comic Con

A couple days ago, I mentioned a couple new bloggers who work in the London animation scene: Gerben Steenks and Stephane Kardos. Now, two more cartoonists from London have started blogs: Matt Jones and Matt Cruickshank. All four of these guys produce excellent work and I’ll be checking them out regularly. Here’s the links:

Crookie’s Blog by Matt Cruickshank
MattJonezAnimation by Matt Jones
Gur-B by Gerben Steenks
Stef’s Sketches by Stephane Kardos

We will be having a contest the week of September 12th relating to Tim Burton’s CORPSE BRIDE. Warner Bros. will be giving us prizes and we will hand them out to the first readers who answer our simple trivia questions that week.In the meantime, Ron Barbagallo has, on his website, posted a great behind the scenes interview with Graham G. Maiden (Mars Attacks and Chicken Run), Head of the Puppet Department at the London studio set up exclusively to produce Corpse Bride. The interview includes art and images from the film’s production that illustrate the process behind the craft of puppet making. Click here to read it.

My expectations were so low for VALIANT, that I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the film at an Asifa-Hollywood screening last night. I also noted the audience laughed often throughout the film.I was expecting a disaster, but the story was solid (cliched, but solid), the animation was well done and the characters were funny. It played like a B-Film - a 1940s B-film, and that’s not a bad thing.It’s worth seeing.

John Canemaker’s Winsor McCay - His Life and Art, his 1987 biography of the great newspaper cartoonist and pioneer animator, will be published again in October by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in a revised and expanded edition. The original tome, long out-of-print, is one of the most valuable - and entertaining - animation histories on my bookshelf. This new edition has me salivating.The revised edition is now 272 pages - 48 more pages than the old edition - and filled with never-before published photos, artwork and research. New material includes:

• Never-before published pages from McCay’s private animation production notebook revealing the filmmaker’s ideas for timing and visualizations in “Gertie the Dinosaur” (1914), “Lusitania,” and “Flip’s Circus” (c. 1921).•Rare concept art by McCay for a second film starring Gertie the Dinosaur.•New documentation of McCay’s early career, including the Wonderland and Eden Musee in Detroit, where he sold his first cartoons.• McCay’s professional relationship and longtime personal friendship with cartoonist Apthorp “Ap” Adams, one of his two assistants on the monumental animated epic “The Sinking of the Lusitania” (1918).• Full-page reproduction of a 1907 New York Herald showcasing eight top comic strip cartoonists and illustratorm including McCay, and their art.• A complete Winsor McCay Chronology, and extensive additions to the Notes and Bibliography sections.• Many rarely seen photos and drawings from private collections.• A new cover, book design and page layout.

The book retails for $40.00, but I recommend you pre-order it on Amazon.com for $29.70.

Wanna see what Renegade Animation does when it isn’t working on PUFFY AMI YUMI?This spot for Cocoa Puffs combines cel animation and flash. Darrell Van Citters directs, Mike Giamo and Frank Montagna designed it and Scott O’Brien, Bert Klein and Will Finn, animated. Beautifully done. Now if only General Mills would rehire Chuck McCann to voice Sonny and Gramps, I’d be really happy.