Ward Kimball and family show you the proper way to do a Christmas card family photo:

The holidays are upon us – but that’s no excuse to stop watching cartoons on the big screen in Los Angeles! Ye olde Brewmaster (Jerry Beck) is involved in two theatrical animation events – one this weekend, the other next weekend – that will be a lot of fun to see and participate in.

Next weekend, the day after Christmas (Monday December 26th) the Alex Film Society will present the 2nd annual Greatest Cartoons Ever. Frank Gladstone and I will host this big screen event that presents some of the most acclaimed, beautifully realized and funniest animated films from Hollywood’s Golden Age on the huge screen of the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale, CA.

All films screened will be 35mm vault prints (several in Technicolor) direct from the studios, and will feature Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Mickey Mouse, Tom & Jerry, Gerald McBoing Boing, Woody Woodpecker and Mighty Mouse among others (I’ll announce the specific titles in my reminder post next week – or you can sneak a peek here). If you love these films or characters you’ll really enjoy this experience. On-line tickets are available now for two shows, at 2pm and 7pm, and will also be available at the door – at the historic Alex Theatre, 216 North Brand Blvd. in Glendale. If you happen to be in Southern California for the holidays, join us there!

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As you know, I run an animation night each month at The Cinefamily (at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax). The Cinefamily is a non-profit organization of extreme film fanatics that run the greatest repertory cinema in Los Angeles. This weekend they are staging what they’re calling “The Craziest Thing We’ve Ever Done!”, Cinefamily’s Fantastic Elastic 24-hour Fundraiser Telethon.

This marathon event – which is FREE to attend and will be live streaming on the internet – will feature film screenings hosted by filmmaker Spike Jonze, actors Michael Cera and Benicio Del Toro, as well as on-stage interviews with actors Elliot Gould and Robert Forster. I will be screening semi-obscure Saturday Morning Cartoons on Sunday Morning sometime between 8am-11am (Pacific Time) on Sunday Dec. 18th, sharing the time with DJ Lance Rock (from Yo Gabba Gabba) and my hero, actor/puppeteer and classic kiddie show host, Chuck McCann! For more information, visit Cinefamily.org – and join me Sunday morning live or online.

This was one of a series of mass produced Bugs Bunny Christmas cards commercially released in the 1940s – this particular one sent by WB cartoon producer Edward Selzer himself. Click to see the interior image (below) at a larger size:

(Courtesy the collection of Tim Walker)

Brew reader Tim Hodge points out that Stuart Ng Books has published a Pres Romanillos sketchbook. Romanillos, who animated at Disney and DreamWorks, passed away in July, 2010 following an extended battle with leukemia.

According to Stuart’s website:

This sketchbook was conceived by his widow Jeannine Romanillos and reproduces artwork from Pres’ sketchpads and sketchbooks: life drawings, horse and animal studies, Disney character drawings, travel sketches, and a sampling of his personal cartoons and drawings. It includes a short biography of the artist written by Charles Solomon and a page of Pres’ notes from a 1993 lecture by Glen Keane.

The 32-page book is limited to 1,000 copies and sells for $15 on Stuart Ng’s website.

This is fun. Studio Ronda has been creating cool TV spots and station IDs in Argentina since 2007. Here’s a neat little new short they made in their off hours:

CREDITS
Directed by Ronda + Sonni
Original Idea / Direction: Sonni
Character Design / Storyboards: Sonni Studios
Animation Director: Ronda
Animation: Fernán Graziano
Sound Design: Dj Fernandez / Ronda
Voice of Bullet: Katie Bel

In addition to the usual mix, there’s a few holiday-themed greeting cards in this edition of Animated Fragments. If you’ve made your own animated greeting card, send it over and we’ll devote the next Fragments to your cards.

Mpora Gear (Intro) by Raoul Paulet (UK)

Suspect Logo Animation by Taili Wu (US)

“Work in Progress: Swimmy Test” by Chris Harding (US)

Happy Holidays by Koji Nakagawa (Japan)

2011 Plymptoons Holiday Card by Bill Plympton (US)

XMas Card 2011 by Jacques Khouri (US)

(Courtesy the collection of Tim Walker)

I occasionally receive emails asking something along the lines of, “Whatever happened to that John Kricfalusi/Spumco coffeetable book you were working on?” Recently, however, I’ve noticed that there have been some unflattering rumors about my involvement. That’s why I feel it’s time to set the record straight about what happened to the project. I should point out that this is a personal story written from my perspective, and you may get different versions from the other key players involved. My story, however, comes from first-hand involvement in the project and direct conversations with all the main players. To the best of my knowledge, it’s an accurate account of what happened.

I was asked in 2008 by PictureBox to work with John Kricfalusi and serve as the editor for a book celebrating his work and that of the studio he co-founded, Spumco. The publisher Dan Nadel assured me that, “You and John will have complete control over how the book is marketed, packaged, and presented. You know the audience and I know you, so that’s good enough for me.”

I worked closely with John throughout 2009 on the manuscript. I didn’t write a single word of the book, but came up with the book structure and molded the manuscript into shape. For those who aren’t aware, John is a terrific writer. I didn’t have to do much other than nudge him in the right direction. We ended up with an entertaining, educational and fun manuscript that I look at with pride, filled with new information even for those who think they already know all there is to know about the history of Spumco and John Kricfalusi.

During the time I worked on the book, PictureBox ran into financial problems. The reason Dan Nadel told me was due to disappointing sales of a huge two-volume coffeetable book about Gary Panter. As a result, Dan sold the John Kricfalusi book to Abrams ComicArts, a fantastic imprint started by the able Charles Kochman, who is now the executive editor of Abrams. PictureBox remained the book packager, and fundamentally, nothing changed in the production process, except that we gained a bigger publisher with deeper resources.

I was heavily involved on the visual side as well, and sequenced some early versions of the book. Unfortunately, the book began to unravel once it was handed off to the designer Norman Hathaway. It was almost immediately clear that he was a poor match for the book and didn’t understand John’s artwork or the presentation it needed. Dan, however, insisted on keeping Norman onboard because they were personal friends.

I was glad to wrap up my editorial duties and get out of there because I could see the whole project going south. On February 27, 2010, I sent an email to Norman where I expressed concerns that he was harming the book. In it, I wrote:

After multiple meetings about design and your phone discussions with John, I was all but certain that we’d arrived at some sort of a consensus of what John wants the book to look like. John admittedly hasn’t been clear about certain aspects of the design, but he’s been adamant about one issue: the use of white space. Your layout seems to purposely defy him on this essential point which, regardless of its importance to you, is a make-or-break issue for him. There is tons of wasted white space and columns that are filled with nothing or with a tiny piece of art. This process will not go smoothly unless you build and improve upon John’s ideas. John is asking for excitement for the eyes, a “visual blowjob” in his terminology. This current approach is tame, respectful, and completely at odds with what he’s has been asking for from the very beginning of the project.

Here are some of his early layouts that made me do a double-take:

Dan Nadel and Norman Hathaway ignored my advice and pushed onward, dragging John along with them into the mess they were creating. The results were, quite predictably, embarrassing and incompetent. I was told later that Abrams was concerned about the layouts they were receiving, but Dan convinced them that John loved the book and approved of everything.

It wasn’t until some time later that Charlie Kochman learned that John hated the book. John, for his part, wasn’t even fully aware of the deal that Dan had cut with Abrams ComicArts. When the details unraveled, Dan and Norman were removed from the project. To Charlie’s great credit, he took full responsibility for the mess and refused to publish the book in its dilapidated state, even though a lot of money had already been invested and it was nearly done.

The whole experience left me with a bitter taste. In my personal interactions with Dan Nadel, I found him to be untrustworthy (I had to threaten legal action to get paid for my work) and petty (he suggested I remove my parents’ names from the acknowledgments because they couldn’t spare an extra ten words to include them). As for his creative and aesthetic sensibilities, those are opinions that I’ll keep to myself.

I’m pissed that he wasted 18 months of my time, but more importantly, I’m angry that he kept an amazing animation art book from being published. This year was the 20th anniversary of Ren & Stimpy. It was a cause for celebration, and nothing would have been more appropriate than this long overdue volume about John’s contributions to the art form.

The last time I spoke to John about the book was in May, and at the time, he wasn’t interested in picking up the pieces and starting over again. I’ve moved on to other things as well and don’t anticipate being involved in any future coffeetable book about Spumco. Dan Nadel, who is now editing The Comics Journal blog, is pleading ignorance about the entire affair instead of being honest about his role in the book’s demise. In a July 7 posting on his PictureBox blog, when someone asked what happened to the John K book, he wrote, “I don’t have any info on that. Try John K. or Amid Amidi.” And if you try me, I’ll be as transparent as I know how.

One thing is clear: Spumco and John Kricfalusi deserve a worthy tribute. I hope we don’t have to wait until Ren & Stimpy’s 40th anniversary to see such a book.