George Herriman’s Stumble Inn Dec 23 1922

Although he’s most famous for his animal characters (Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse and Offisa Pupp), George Herriman’s cartooning magic worked just as well when he’s working with a “hoomin” cast of Characters. Here’s a giant daily strip from his series “Stumble Inn.”


…and here’s the whole strip in mega-resolution below…

To find out more about “Stumble Inn,” check out this post:
http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.com/2011/10/stumble-inn-by-george-herriman.html

The REAL Story Behind the SpongeBob Phenomenon

Cartoon historian Tom Heintjes is sharing the results of his wonderful new project; a comprehensive oral history of the SpongeBob SquarePants show. Tom interviewed many many key players who were with the show from the very beginning. The best part of this HUGE article is that the discussions dig down into the nitty gritty of the way the show was put together.

Interviewees include Tom Kenny (voice of SpongeBob), Creative Director Derek Drymon, Supervising Director Alan Smart, Storyboard Artist/Writers Paul Tibbitt, Erik Wiese, Jay Lender, Mark O'Hare, Kent Osbourne, Sam Henderson, Kaz, myself, background designer Kenny Pittinger, and many other talented people where were part of the creative process that turned a silly little sponge into a timeless cartoon series and unexpected pop-culture phenomenon.

There are a bunch of rare visuals scattered throughout, including rare pre-production sketches and pics of in-the-trenches day-to-day life on the SpongeBob crew. Check it all out at:

http://cartoonician.com/2012/09/the-oral-history-of-spongebob-squarepants/

The Year of Bill Plympton

The things I like most about Bill Plympton are his DIY work ethos and the very personal nature of his animation. I mean, his cartoons look like real drawings (because every frame of his films is made of his own real hand-drawn drawings) instead of a slick image that's been homogenized as it passed through dozens of hands.

It's been a huge year for Bill Plympton fans, with the release of two beautiful new books and brand new bio-pic documentary movie, "Adventures in Plymptoons."

The movie is mostly a collection of on-camera interviews with Plympton's colleagues and friends; Many of the interviews are "jokey" rather than informative (for example, we get to watch David Silverman playing a tuba, adult-film-star Ron Jeremy engaging in his favorite pastime, and Ed Begley Jr. feebly pretending be suffering from a case of mistaken identity.)
Unfortunately there's very little time devoted to watching Bill Plympton actually drawing or animating, so if you're interested in getting some new insight into Bill Plympton's working methods, you won't find it here. Short clips from his animated films are sprinkled throughout, giving the viewer a nice small taste of the Plympton filmography.

A much better find is his huge art-o-biography, "Independently Animated: Bill Plympton: The Life and Art of the King of Indie Animation," wherein Bill tells the story of his life and work among tons of beautiful images from his long career.

The stories he tells are extremely entertaining -- usually the text is the least compelling feature in a big art book like this, but Bill proves to be a natural storyteller in words as well as pictures. The selection od drawings, paintings, cartoons and illustrations in this book really presents a grand epic story of an unstaoppable talent!

Bill Plympton's newest book is a much more detailed look at the details surrounding the actual production and distribution of his independent animated films. In "Make Toons That Sell Without Selling Out," Bill Plympton gives away his secrets of animation creation and the less glamorous, but even more demanding work of publicity and distribution.

It's not a pretty process, but it sure is eye-opening…and most of all, it's very inspiring for anyone that wants to make a living through their own artistic creations.