For some reason I have a few stories relating to animation in the queue.
A Charlie Brown Christmas at 55
Multiple generations of kids will agree that it doesn’t really begin to look a lot like Christmas until A Charlie Brown Christmas graces the airwaves. Premiering 55 years ago on Dec. 9, 1965, the beloved animated special — written by Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz — not only captured the spirit of the season, it also launched an entire tradition of Peanuts animated specials.
Jean Schulz and Yahoo take us behind the scenes of 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The Comic Book History of Animation
Comic books are very adaptable and are able to tell many different types of story in a wide range of styles. It is for this reason that the format is useful for educational purposes with the image and text relationship better at engaging readers quickly and more memorably. This makes the medium perfect for something like IDW Publishing’s new series The Comic Book History of Animation, part one of which is released on 9 December 2020.
Promising to cover the entire spectrum of animation history, the first issue starts in the roots of illustration and searches for the seeds of animation. Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey have chosen a very informal style of both presentation and narration…
Darryll Robson review the first issue for Robots Fighting Monkeys.
CBR has an exclusive look at The Comic Book History of Animation #2.
In Memory: Marty Strudler
Marty Strudler had worked at Warner Bros. Animation from 1980 to 2002 and was head background designer, known for his work on Wizards (1977), Dungeons & Dragons (1983) and Muppet Babies (1984) among others [Marvel Productions].
Marty is remembered as introspective and thoughtful.
The Artists and Rivalries that Inspired the Golden Age of Amination
What made you decide to write it as a narrative history?
Reading other books of cultural history, I realized that the books that don’t work as well tend to focus on the actual art and on plot synopses. I always come away thinking I’d be better off just watching the actual art. So I knew from the beginning that this was going to be about the people who created cartoons, and how their work reflects their personalities and the times that they were working in.
Publishers Weekly interviews animation historian Reid Mitenbuler about his new book
Dorris Bergstrom – RIP
…led to a job in the Ink and Paint Department of Warner Bros. Classic Animation. There she became an Assistant Animator and her work included Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester and Tweety. Dorris then worked at Walt Disney Studios on movies including Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.
… During this second stage of her career, she worked at Filmation Studios (Archie’s Series); Hanna-Barbera Productions (Heidi’s Song, Charlotte’s Web, The Tom and Jerry Shows, Flintstones, Pink Panther, Star Fairies); Bill Melendez, Inc. (Peanuts, Flash Beagle); Mihahn Inc. (The Chipmunks Adventure); Ruby-Spears Productions (Scooby-Doo); Bakshi Productions (The Lord of the Rings); and Walt Disney Animation Studios (The Little Mermaid).
Dorris Bergstrom has passed away.
Alvy Dorman – RIP
…grew his career as a sound technician and finished his career as the Director of the Sound Department for Hanna Barbera working on cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Smurfs, Yogi Bear, Jetsons, and the Flintstones. He enjoyed working with all of the voice talents who came to his studio for recording.
1990 Style Guide for The Simpsons
Recently, a former writer and producer for The Simpsons revealed just how consistent the show is in adhering to its drawing style. Josh Weinstein, who has been working on the show for some 20 years, shared two excerpts from a 500-page style guide for the animators of The Simpsons, which was released back in 1990.
Josh shared them on Twitter, Bored Panda shares them with us.
Walt and Ub’s Laugh-O-Gram Studio Building to Get Facelift
That story starts nearly 100 years ago, when a young Walt Disney and his partner Ub Iwerks opened the Laugh-O-Gram Cartoon Studio in the building.
“This was their first legitimate, fully funded cartoon studio.”
New plans call for a re-imagining of the building, with a Plexpod coworking space, a Screenland-style theatre, a small Disney museum and a classroom area run by digiSTORY KC. digiSTORY will be focused on bringing animation education to urban core youth in Kanas City.
KMBC Kansas City brings us the story of the updating.
*Mindrot (eventually retitled Animania) was a wonderful comic book-sized (though my faulty memory remembers it as digest-sized) fanzine of some decades ago put out by David Mruz and a great group of animation fans. Neet Stuff has covers and a bare bones description of some issues.