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If you’re in San Diego today, drop by Tr!ckster at 6pm for a screening of Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival. All ten films from our second annual festival (currently in progress) will be presented. The program is only 45 minutes long, but it packs a real punch. Today’s young animators have incredible breadth and depth, which will become evident when you watch all these films together. Best of all, the screening is completely FREE. And after the screening is done, stick around for the one-night only “Tribute to the Films of Akira Kurosawa” gallery show. It’s going to be a great evening!

If you’re at Tr!ckster, share your thoughts on this first-year event. Have you attended the Symposia or figure drawing sessions? How’s the selection of art books? Have you tried the sushi? We want to know!

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Trickster

Are you an animation artist artist who will be exhibiting your wares at San Diego Comic-Con or TR!CKSTER this week? If so, use the comments section to tell everybody where you’ll be and what you’re selling.

(Note: If you know how to use an HTML image tag, feel free to add images as well. Just keep them below 420px so the site layout doesn’t break.)

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: San Diego Comic-Con, San Diego Comic-Con International, Trickster

I’ll be down in San Diego later this week, splitting my time six ways (and probably pulling my hair out) running all over Comic Con where I’ll be hanging at the ASIFA-Hollywood booth (#1534) when I’m not moderating a panel or a screening (see below), or taking meetings, looking for old comic books or crashing parties (I’ll happily accept any legitimate invites I can get – hint, hint). I’ll also be attending numerous panels – too numerous to list here – if I can get into them.

I’ll also be jumping across the street, to present films on behalf of Cartoon Brew at Tr!ckster, the alternative animation-artist con which we are co-sponsoring at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center (across the street in the Gaslamp District). They got a nice write-up in Sunday’s L.A. Times. Check it out if you are down there.

As I said, there are too many animation industry panels at Comic Con of interest for me to list. Every current primetime, cable and kids animated series, theatrical feature and direct-to-video movie in production has a panel devoted to it. I highly recommend you consult the daily schedules posted online. Here are the ones I’m doing, as well as some I may attend and a couple I want to plug because they feature friends as panelists:

Thursday

10:00 -11:00am Cartoon Brew’s Festival of Student Animation, a celebration of student animated short films, curated by yours truly and Amid Amidi of “the phenomenal animation website Cartoon Brew”. At Tr!ckster (200 Harbor Drive, suite 120)

3:00-4:00pm Classic Warner Bros./Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Going Blu-ray – Yours truly Jerry Beck and Warner Archives’ George Feltenstein lead a panel of renowned animation creators, including directors Spike Brandt (The Looney Tunes Show), Tony Cervone (Duck Dodgers), and Paul Dini (Batman the Animated Series), in presenting and discussing selected vintage cartoons from Warner Home Video’s fall 2011 Blu-ray release of the newly remastered Tom and Jerry Golden Collection and Looney Tunes Platinum Collections. Don’t miss this panel – secrets will be revealed! Room 32AB

6:00-9:00pm – 3rd Annual Comic-Con Beer Bust – ASIFA-Hollywood, One Plus Hub, Technicolor, and The Producer’s Guild of America invite you to the 3rd Annual Beer Bust. Meet, connect, hang out with members of animation community that will come together for this fantastic event. No need to RSVP. Just show up! The first 400 beers are FREE! At The Yard House Keg Room (1023 4th Ave.)

Friday

10:00-11:00am Cartoon Brew’s Festival of Student Animation is a second screening of the same program curated by me and Amid. At Tr!ckster (200 Harbor Drive, suite 120)

12:00-1:00pm ASIFA-Hollywood’s State of the Animation Industry What do pros think of the animation scene today? Will it all go 3D? Is 2D dead? When is a hybrid VFX flick an animated flick? How do I get my first job? Join Tom Sito (Lion King, Hop), Ken Duncan (Tarzan), Allen Batt

Last year, some Bay Area artists began discussing the idea for an alternative to the overcrowded and rudderless San Diego Comic-Con International. They discussed their ideas on a Facebook page called Creator-Con, and threw around suggestions for what they wanted to see in a counter-festival: a dealers room filled with comics and artist-created products that they’d actually want to buy, in-depth classes and how-tos, and a casual and relaxed environment for catching up with old friends and making new ones. Most importantly, they wanted a place that celebrated creating art instead of the Comic-Con’s shift towards consumerism and its many tentacles including Hollywood, fandom and cosplay.

The idea found plenty of grassroots support, and lead to a new event called TR!CKSTER which will debut throughout the week of Comic-Con (July 19-24, 2011) literally across the street from the San Diego Convention Center. Here’s the map:

And here’s the place — the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center:

To understand the philosophy behind the event and the reason for its name, I’d suggest starting here. The lofty and admirable ambitions of TR!CKSTER—spearheaded by creators Scott Morse and Ted Mathot—include promoting a stronger bond between creator and audience, while eliminating barriers like convention booths and tables so that everyone can interact and learn from one another.

The three main components of the festival are:

* Symposia, a series of intensive workshops revolving around the theme of storytelling, with the participation of Mike Mignola, Mike Allred, Steve Niles, Bernie Wrightson, Skottie Young, Jim Mahfood, Scott Morse, Ted Mathot, Derek Thompson, Greg Rucka, Craig Yoe, and others to be announced soon.

* A huge retail area where creators will be selling their wares and doing signings throughout the day. (Unlike Comic-Con, there is no admission fee. The Symposia events cost money, but everything else is FREE.)

* A coffee and cocktail bar, drawing areas with live models, a gallery space, live musical performances and DJs, and film screenings. (Note: Cartoon Brew is a proud sponsor of the inaugural edition and we’re planning some animation screenings. More details to come.)

For more information, visit TricksterTrickster.com or go to Trickster’s Facebook page.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | 3 comments | Post tags: San Diego Comic-Con International, Tr!ckster, Trickster

Trickster: Native American Tales, a Graphic Collection edited by Matt Dembicki

21 trickster tales are given the graphic treatment in this spectacular graphic novel.  With great attention to authenticity, Dembicki paired Native American storytellers with graphic artists to create this collection.  Readers will enjoy the diverse types of art within the book, moving from more painterly to cartoony and everything in between.  The text of each story is also quite individual, reflecting that storyteller’s cadence and style.  The collection as a whole is a celebration of Native American culture but also of tricksters and the great stories that revolve around them. 

Turning pages in this book is rather like an exploration.  One never knows what is behind the next page.  Dembicki has created a book that works as a collection but also allows each story to stand on its own with its own distinct feel.  There is an art at work in the selection, placement and creation of the book itself and of each and every story.  I love the sense one gets of an entire community of people creating this book, this celebration of story.

Use this to introduce children to Native American stories or to the idea of the trickster in folklore.  It is a powerful example of modern media meeting timeless tales that will resonate with children and adults alike.

Highly recommended, this graphic novel should find a place in most public libraries.  I would hesitate to catalog it as folktale, and allow the graphic novel reader to realize the depth of what a graphic novel can truly be.  Appropriate for ages 7-12.

Reviewed from library copy.