TVSquad

Here's some cool animation stuff I found over the past week or so:

Cartoon Brew has a lot of cool stuff, so I'll start there first. First of all, Jerry Beck has a new book, The Hanna Barbera Treasury. The book will focus mostly on the Hanna Barbera series created in the '50s and '60s. It comes out in October.

Also via the Brew comes this documentary about the life and work of animator Tex Avery, the man who was arguably the one most responsible for putting the "looney" in "Looney Tunes," and later brought that same magic to MGM. The doc is from 1988 and is split into several parts.

Damn, I wish I made more money. Animation historian Jerry Beck recently became the possessor of several pieces of original animation art from Terrytoons, the studio that brought us such cartoons as the original Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle, among many others. The artwork doesn't feature any recognizable characters, but as Beck points out in this post, despite what art dealers might tell you, this art is worthwhile to anyone with an appreciation for classic animation. These pieces were originally thrown away when Terrytoons closed down in the 1960s, but an employee salvaged them and kept them for over forty years, unable to convince any art house to purchase them. Check out Beck's Art Sales page here, which also features a handful of other animation-related pieces, many of which are reasonably priced.

During an introductory speech for Robert Smigel given by cartoon historian Jerry Beck at the San Diego Comic Con, the world's only insult comic dog, Triumph, popped up and went on a hilarious tirade about Beck's boring speech and the innumerable nerds who were in attendance. This is footage shot by someone who was actually there, so there's a lot of swearing and you also get to see Robert Smigel actually doing the voice and manipulating the puppet. Of course, they don't try very hard to hide that when he does his shtick on Conan, but Smigel is in the middle of a crowd and really has nowhere to hide. Beck actually posted the video on his Cartoon Brew site, but I stuck it after the jump for your viewing pleasure. My favorite part is when he tells a rather rotund attendee he must love the "Fantastic Four food groups." Click on and enjoy.

UPDATE: The video is no longer available, apparently.

According to Jerry Beck over at Cartoon Brew, Frederator Studios, the company behind shows like Oh Yeah! Cartoons and The Fairly OddParents have gathered thirty-nine different animators to create some short form cartoons for Nickelodeon. The shorts will be part of a new series that will air either this year or in early 2007. You can track the progress of Jerry's contribution, called "Hornswiggle" here, as well as the progress of other animators and their individual projects. Why would you care about this? Well, unless you're an animation nut you probably don't. I, however, love to see how these things evolve and eventual come together.