Please forgive the infrequent posts… I’m almost moved in - but it’ll take all week to unpack the boxes.A note to my personal friends reading the blog: My phone number, the one I’ve had for over ten years, is history. It’s been disconnected, and my new number won’t be connected until next Friday. As I do not have a cell phone, I will be a bit hard to reach this week. I’m working on a solution and should have a temporary phone number on Monday. Till then best way to reach me is by email. Tonight I move my computer to my new home and tomorrow morning Comcast is set to come over and hook me up… I hope!Wish me luck!

Enrico Casarosa, creator of MIA and SketchCrawl, not to mention a board artist at Pixar, made a-little-over-24-hour-comic and it’s a charming read. Expressive drawing, terrific visual humor, and funny self-deprecating humor throughout. Read the comic HERE (or a “making of” the comic HERE).

Margaret Loesch will speak on June 18, 2005, at 12 noon at The Smoke House restaurant when Women In Animation Los Angeles hosts a lunch in her honor.

Margaret has known nearly every one in the business and has so many tales to tell! She was five years at Hanna Barbera, and six at Marvel Productions. She has worked at Fox Kids Network, Jim Henson Television Group, Crown Media United States, the U. S. cable channel Odyssey, and launched the Hallmark Channel. She is currently the CCEO of The Hatchery LLC, a family entertainment company she launched in 2003 and serves on the Board of Trustees of Sesame Workshop, producers of Sesame Street.The Smoke House restaurant is located at 4420 Lakeside Dr., Burbank (across from Warner Bros.) Cost of the lunch is $20 per person, with a No Host Bar. Seating is limited. You may prepay (recommended) by sending a check to:WIA/Loesch lunch, PO Box 251, Topanga, CA 90290

As if those TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM frame grabs from a few days back weren’t inspiring enough, here’s some frame grabs of Ralph Bakshi’s best feature COONSKIN (1975), courtesy of Lili Chin at the fwak! blog.

I am moving from my apartment this week and into a new one. Thus my posts through next week will be even less frequent than usual.As anyone who’s ever had to pack up their life and move it to a new location knows - it’s hell! And in an effort to share the pain - I direct you to Albert Walker’s website The Agony Booth where he has just posted several lengthy (and humorous) reviews of Ruby Spears awful 1983 Saturday morning series Mt. T.Now you know how I feel about moving.

The official obituary of Joe Grant from the Walt Disney Company.

Most people who appreciate animation also enjoy the ancient art of hand lettering and vintage advertising graphics. Thus, I bring your attention to the website of Charles Bruss and his obsession with Wisconsin Drive In Theatres. In particular I point out his page devoted to old newspaper ads advertising Drive-In movie attractions. It’s great to see Baby Huey, Katnip and Donald Duck used as illustrations in the 1950s clippings - one ad actually mentions a cartoon by name, “Chew Chew Baby” (1958), a particularly notorious Paramount Noveltoon.This ad pictured above, from 1944, boasts six shorts (instead of a second feature, I guess) including The Three Stooges, a Pete Smith specialty, a L’il Abner and Screwball Squirrel! Now, that’s entertainment!

The talented Zach Trenholm writes in with a fascinating note about Joe Grant’s early pre-Disney career. He says:

Many people aren’t aware that before Disney (as long ago as that was!) Joe made his way professionally as a caricaturist, specifically for the long-defunct Los Angeles Record newspaper. Even fewer know that he was the old Lindy’s as well as Sardi’s West resident or house caricaturist. Here’s a few promo postcards from those restaurants that utilized his caricatures: