Cartoonists on Parade


Hitpig © Aniventure Hitpig Limited

Berkeley Breathed‘s newest project moves closer to production. Animation Magazine:

Aniventure has revealed the voice cast for its new animated feature, HITPIG!, along with a first look at the Berkeley Breathed project’s concept art and details of the porky plot…

Set in a futuristic cyberpunk world, HITPIG! is a riotous journey that proves sometimes what we want isn’t what we need…

Also unveiled today is some of Berkeley Breathed’s concept art for HITPIG! Breathed, who co-wrote the screenplay and is also serving as character designer for the film, is an American cartoonist, children’s book creator, director and screenwriter, best known for creating the classic Bloom County, a 1980s cartoon-comic strip featuring Opus the Penguin. At the height of its popularity, the comic strip was followed by more than 40 million readers in 1,200 newspapers. The characters Hitpig & Pickles are rooted in Berkeley’s New York Times bestselling picture book Pete & Pickles.

 


The Secret To Superhuman Strength © Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel‘s new project also moves closer to completion. The AV Club:

[Alison] returns with a new full-length graphic memoir next year: The Secret To Superhuman Strength, shifting focus away from her family to explore the intersection between exercise and creativity in her personal life…

“I knew I wanted to write a book about my lifelong relationship with exercise,” says Bechdel. “But what I kept finding myself actually writing about was my relationship to my creativity, in particular my struggle to be more spontaneous in my work. Pursuing a bodily discipline like yoga or biking is a way of shutting your yammering mind up, which of course is helpful for one’s creativity.

 


Terminal Lance © Maximilian Uriarte

Maximilian Uriarte and his Terminal Lance makes the Commandant’s Reading List:

Marines’ recommended reads got a big overhaul this week, with a new podcast and titles — including the first-ever graphic novel to make the list, based on the “Terminal Lance” comic strip.

“The White Donkey” by Maximilian Uriarte is the first-ever graphic novel to hit the Commandant’s Reading List. Based on the often-salty “Terminal Lance” comic strip, its inclusion came as a surprise even to the author.

Uriarte said it’s “immensely humbling” to know his famous characters resonate with so many Marines, from junior enlisted to the Corps’ most senior officer. “The White Donkey” shows the more serious side of his comic strip’s characters’ journey as they deploy to Iraq and back.

 


Arlo and Janis © United Feature Syndicate

Jimmy Johnson‘s Arlo and Janis has a new outlet. From The Sun Chronicle:

In an ongoing effort to bring smiles to our readers’ faces each day, we’re adding the long-running comic strip Arlo and Janis to our daily and weekend comics pages starting Saturday, Oct. 24. Written and drawn by Jimmy Johnson, Arlo and Janis is a family comedy strip about a couple of 1960s kids trying to keep a youthful outlook on life as they enter middle age. Give it a read and let us know if you like it as much as we do.

No word on what it replaces.

 


Over The Moon is a A Netflix/Pearl Studio Production

Glen Keane, on the release of Over the Moon, is profiled in Variety:

During his run at Disney, Keane served as supervising animator for Ariel in “The Little Mermaid,” the Beast in “Beauty and the Beast” and the title characters in “Aladdin” and “Tarzan.” Forever drawn to new technology and what it could do for the medium, Keane worked on a computer-animation test with John Lasseter for “Where the Wild Things Are,” and later experimented with pioneering 360-degree tools on his Google Spotlight Stories short “Duet.” He partnered with Kobe Bryant, hand-drawing “Dear Basketball,” the late Lakers legend’s homage to his beloved sport, which earned them both Oscars. And now, the animation icon finally makes his feature directing debut, overseeing CG musical “Over the Moon” for Netflix.

 


Tarzan and John Carter © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

Roy Thomas is honored with Southeast Missouri State University 2020 Merit Award:

[Roy’s] work was primarily for Marvel and DC Comics, for which he co-created characters such as Wolverine, Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), the Vision, Ultron, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders and countless others. Thomas has written thousands of comics including runs on “The Avengers,” “The X-Men,” “Amazing Spider-Man,” “Fantastic Four,” “Dr. Strange,” “Daredevil,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Wonder Woman,” “Shazam!” “Xena: Warrior Princess,” “The X-Files: Season One,” “Batman,” “Superman,” and more.

Today, Thomas edits the award-winning comics-history magazine “Alter Ego” and writes three online adventure comic strips for the Edgar Rice Burroughs website. From 2000 through 2019, he also ghost-wrote the “Spider-Man” newspaper comic strip for his mentor, Stan Lee. In 2014 and 2018, respectively, he authored the books “75 Years of Marvel: From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen” and “The Stan Lee Story.” Thomas has also written and selected material for a number of other volumes related to comics, including for PS Artbooks, Titan Books, Chartwell Books, Abrams and the Folio Society.

 


The Ultimate Cartoon Book series © Bob Eckstein

Bob Eckstein is interviewed at Inkspill on the release of All’s Fair In Love & War:

The third book [in this series], this one about love, marriage and divorce, was a personal request from one of the heads at the publisher who liked the first two books and wanted a gift to give those he knew he wanted to cheer up because they were going through a painful divorce. Ultimately it was decided that we wanted to broaden the subject matter to make it less dreary and more universally enjoyed. Despite that, we added marriage cartoons in the mix.

 

 

Top