It’s not just blogs that offer valuable animation-related content nowadays. Here are three recent audio podcasts with three super artists. I’ve listened to them and they’re all worth a download:

Toon In!, hosted by Tee Bosustow, has many interviews with animation artists. The one that caught my attention was the interview with Sam Clayberger. Clayberger was a designer and background painter at UPA between 1953-1958, produced the artwork for the Rocky & Bullwinkle pilot (along with Roy Morita), and has had a long career as a fine artist and art teacher. It’s a delight to finally hear him speak about his career since one never hears much about him, and the bonus is that he’s fun to listen to. The photo above is from Clayberger’s days at UPA.

The Spline Doctors, and in particular, animator Andrew Gordon, have come through with another solid interview with a fellow co-worker at Pixar. This time, it’s Monsters, Inc. director Pete Docter, who shares much wisdom about story and animation throughout the discussion.

Last but not least, the Sidebar podcast features a lengthy chat with character designer Shane Glines. While the two interviewers are comic fans with a limited knowledge of the animation process, the discussion is lively, and Shane offers good insights into his personal journey and development as an artist.

Our pal, Anne D. Bernstein found this online:

“I came across this animated film while doing some research about F. Scott Fitzgerald. She (the filmmaker, Eleanor Lanahan) is his granddaughter – which is probably not the first thing she wants animators to know about, but it is interesting!”

This film is unrelated to the Naked Moon Man, but I digress.

Today I’m pleased to announce the upcoming publication of the first-ever Cartoon Brew book. Inside UPA is a 64-page volume offering an unprecedented look into the legendary UPA animation studios. Packed with over fifty photos, most of which haven’t been seen in decades, the book offers a rare glimpse into what it was like to work at the mid-century’s greatest design-oriented animation studio.

Like the studio itself, this book is a bit of an experiment. It’s an animation book that treats artists like the stars they are and allows them to be appreciated in a way like never before. Personally I think it’s quite the appropriate companion to my earlier book Cartoon Modern because as that book focused on artwork and animation, this book recognizes the artists who made those groundbreaking films a reality.

Inside UPA captures long forgotten moments from the studio’s history including such images as John Hubley sketching dancer Olga Lunick during the production of Rooty Toot Toot, Aurie Battaglia and Leo Salkin working on the unproduced James Thurber feature The White Deer, architect John Lautner talking to UPA animators about his building plans for the studio, Pete Burness and Mister Magoo voice Jim Backus going through a storyboard, Gene Deitch and Cliff Roberts having an impromptu jam session at a picnic, and a late-night production staff meeting at the Smokehouse Restaurant.

Inside UPA, which measures 7.5″x8.7″, is a softcover with french flaps and b&w interior. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go towards the production of the UPA documentary that Tee Bosustow is working on so every purchase helps to further advance the documentation of the studio’s output. The book also includes a six-page filmography, which is the most complete UPA filmography to ever appear in print. It includes not only the studio’s theatrical shorts, but also its industrial and training films, TV commercials and shows, and other special projects.

The book is available in a numbered edition of 1000 copies. It’s a limited run and certainly not the type of book that will be available forever. The pre-order price (valid through September 15) is $35 (plus S&H). After that date, the price increases to $45. Fifty of these copies will come with a bookplate signed by UPA veterans who are still alive. These are available at $150.

To order your copy today, visit UPApix.com.

A few spreads from the book are below:

Dutch animator and illustrator Fons Schiedon has a lot of impressive work on his website FonzTV.nl, and none more so than the educational piece Teen Facts: Hormones, which employs a beautifully-executed split screen concept and features some really fun and appealing animation. The short is currently screening at the Nemo Science Center in Amsterdam. Also it’s worth noting that Schiedon is currently art directing a new children’s TV series, The Incredible Adventures of Kika and Bob which will air this fall on Discovery Kids in the US.

Below is an interview with Schiedon from designFLUX where he talks about his work and influences.

(via Motion Design blog)

Got a spare fifteen grand? You might be interested in this killer item.

You can’t make stuff like this up. The Japanese Butt Biting Bug is the latest fad from that wacky island in the Pacific.

(Thanks Eric Graf)

This is a must-read article in the New York Times about the new deal that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have struck with Viacom. The deal, which is reportedly worth $75 million to its creators, includes a three-year extension of the series and the creation of SouthParkStudios.com, an incubator for new projects that, I believe, Parker and Stone will have an ownership stake in.

The most attention-grabbing part of the deal, and very likely a first for the creator of an animated TV series, is that Viacom has agreed to give Parker and Stone a 50-50 split of ad revenues on digital platforms, though not on television. The deal was made possible thanks to the duo’s lawyer, Kevin Morris, who in 1997 had the foresight to demand that the creators would share in any revenue not derived from the episode airings on cable. What was then a seemingly minor contract clause has today “created what may be a new model in the balance of power and money between creative artists and companies like Comedy Central,” as so succinctly put in this op-ed in the Times. The precedent-setting contractual victory of the South Park creators is a cause of celebration for all creators, as the antiquated exploitation-based business models of the entertainment industry crumble in this new digital age and artists slowly but surely begin to receive equitable compensation for their creations.

Golden Age comics by animation artists Rod Scribner and Dan Gordon.

Even B-animation studios get love online: “Why we love Famous cartoons.”

Terrytoons animator Carlo Vinci: Artist first, animator second. A valuable lesson if there ever was one.

The greatest Warner Bros. background painter: Paul Julian.
Ample evidence here, here and here.

Lovely pre-production art from Dick Williams’s Raggedy Ann and Andy.

Rubber hosey goodness: The Office Boy, a Flip the Frog short by Ub Iwerks.