Cartoon Culture

How Garfield Got His Groove Back: The ‘Garfield’ Remix Phenomenon

Poor Garfield. In his heyday, he was amongst the most beloved characters on the funny pages, his plush likenesses fastened to car windows and his sarcastic barbs adorning office walls around the globe. Then, somewhere along the line, he underwent a pop-cultural re-evaluation. Jim Davis’ strip is now something of a pariah: just look at how "The Simpsons" paired it with "Love Is" as the kind of strip that Milhouse reads. What a comedown for a character once hip enough to be quoted in “Two Tribes” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. But yet, the orange cat has been saved from cultural oblivion by a peculiar trend: the remixed "Garfield" strip.

Disney

“Walt”: The Disney Biopic That Never Was

IN THE EARLY 1980S, CARDON WALKER JR. AND I produced the "Disney Family Album" series for The Disney Channel. It was one of the very first series funded by the Channel, and the first to get any kind of critical acclaim thanks to our nomination for a Cable Ace Award for Best Documentary Series. But we had an even bigger ambition, and that was to land the Great White Whale of Disney myths, the life story of Walt himself.

Events

Comic-Con Animation Guide

Less than a week remains until Comic-Con International begins in San Diego, and whether you’re a fan of animation, comics, fantasy …

Books

2012 Animation Book Preview

The future of animation books, like the rest of the publishing industry, isn’t rosy. Page counts and print runs are shrinking, and …

Books

More New Books

Who says print is dead? It’s been about a month since my last batch of book reviews and I’ve come up with four new books worthy of your …

BrewTV

Cartoon Brew TV #21: Together!

We’ve got a new short on Cartoon Brew TV today: Together! (2009) directed by David Sheahan. This was a thesis film created at Pratt …

Ideas/Commentary

My Trip To Korea

I just got back from Seoul, Korea, where I spoke at a conference called DICON 2009, a digital conference that was part of the …

Classic

The King Of Jazz

Walter Lantz animated a short sequence for the Universal feature King Of Jazz (released 3/30/30). The sequence is notable as the first …

Events

Notes from the Comic Con

I’m just back from “Comic Con” aka the San Diego Comic Con (for the record, I refuse to call it Comic Con International) and, all said …

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