Thugs on Film is one of my favorites of the crop of independent Flash animation short series that have come and gone over the past few years.

Distributed by Mondo Mini Shows, Thugs on Film is lamentably no longer being produced. Mondo’s awkward an inelegant distribution and promotion model always confused me, and evidently, other potential viewers as well. They now seem intent on putting most of their efforts into Happy Tree Friends, a series whose appeal is lost on me.

No so with Thugs on Film, a wonderfully snarky setup in which a couple of British thieves, er, independent small businessmen, sit around in a warehouse full of loot merchandise and review movies, awarding the reviewed feature a rating at the end based on the number of pilfered recently acquired Rolexes up their sleeves. Thugs on Film is just up my alley, irreverent, funny and drawn with a style that has a nice springy feeling of rough line work and is designed with the requirements of inexpensive limited animation for Flash in mind.

The designers and animators take advantage of color and simple shapes to create mood and settings, and the limited animation is used to best advantage to compliment the writing. The characters, Stubby and Cecil, are well designed, both visually and conceptually, and play well off of each other.

For a while, you couldn’t even find these animations. Mondo’s misguided attempts to keep them monetized instead kept them out of reach, and confused even devoted fans trying to search out the episodes.

Some of them (though certainly not all) are now available again on the Thugs on Film section of the Mondo Mini Shows site, even if it’s in a less than wonderful interface. Wait for a short eSurance spot and the episode plays. You can choose more from the scrolling menu below the main screen.

The older ones ended with an interactive quiz, with a different short snippet shown in response to your answer, but these seem to be short circuited now into ads for Happy Tree Friends and eSurance.

Some of the older episodes are also better and more elaborate, they apparently got a little tired of the formula after a while.

You can also look through the other Mondo cartoons, though except for an occasional episode of Like, News, none of them has particularly grabbed my attention.

Created by Dan Todd, Thugs on Film was a group effort. I’m not sure how consistent the team was throughout its run, but here are some of the credits from a middle period episode (in which they reviewed The Mummy Returns): Directed by W Kamu Bell, Design by Rhode Montijo, Storyboards by David Donar, Backgrounds by Jenny Hansen and animation by John Cimino, Mark Giambruno and Mark West.

I give Thugs on Film five Rolexes.

Though its title might suggest a more general interest magazine devoted to drawing, Draw! magazine is focused on topics of relevance to comic book art, animation and related varieties of illustration.

Each issue features how-to articles and tutorials from industry professionals, profiles of artists working in those fields and in-depth interviews.

Draw! is edited by Mike Manley, long time comics veteran who has worked on titles like Batman, Shazam, Darkhawk and numerous other titles for DC, Marvel and Dark Horse, as well as being a storyboard artist and background designer for Walt Disney, MTV, Warner Brothers and the Cartoon Network.

Manley, who is an extreme multi-tasker, is currently back in school going for a degree in painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and also teaches drawing and animation related subjects at the Delaware College of Art and Design (where I teach a class in Adobe Flash). I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Mike for a number of years and he’s also an all-around nice guy (but don’t tell him I said so…). I’ll cover more on Mike’s other accomplishments in a future post.

In recent years Manley has been focusing much of his attention on Draw!, working to make it a focal point for those interested in the skills involved in creating comic book art and animation. He has gotten a long list of industry pros to contribute, and has also formed a core group of regular contributors who give the magazine a solid foundation, including Bret Blevins, Paule Rivoche and Alberto Ruiz.

Draw! is an 80 page magazine, mixing black and white and color pages, and sells for $6.95 U.S. Manley packs it tight with how-to insights and artist profiles from cover to cover. Draw! is published by TwoMorrows publishing, which also publishes other comics related titles like Rough Stuff, Write Now!, Alter Ego and The Jack Kirby Collector.

You can often find Draw! in comic book specialty shops, and larger bookstores. (If your local comics shop or bookstore doesn’t carry it, you might be able to convince them to do so.)

You can also order individual issues and subscriptions from the Draw! website. Unfortunately, the official Draw! web site isn’t well designed or maintained, and does a poor job of showcasing the magazine. (I don’t think Manley has control over the site, I think TwoMorrows is responsible for it, as the TwoMorrows site is poorly designed and arranged as well.) You may get more of a picture of the magazine’s contents from other sources, like Manley’s interview with Alex Horley as reprinted on Newsarama.

The most recent issue of Draw! that I have (#15, Spring, 2008), is a bit of a departure from the usual format. It’s called the “Back to School Issue” and features an overview and in-depth look at the major art and specialty schools in the U.S. that are now offering dedicated courses of study in comics and related arts, including The Joe Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Art, The Center for Cartoon Studies, The Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the School of Visual Arts, and the Savannah College of Art and Design.

I think the new issue (#16) is due out soon, but you can still order #15 through the site (even though they mislabel it as “Winter 2008″ instead of “Spring 2008″). You can also order downloadable PDF versions of recent issues for $2.95, several collections of the Best of Draw! and Manley’s How to Create Comics From Script to Print in both trade paperback and DVD versions.

Ever since I first saw Chuck Jones’ wonderfully imaginative and brain-tinglingly loopy Warner Brother’s cartoon Duck Amuck as a kid, I’ve had a weakness for cartoons that break the fourth wall (i.e. the invisible barrier between audience and characters in the entertainment), particularly in the oblique way of having an animated protagonist encounter the animator who is drawing the cartoon in which the character exists.

There’s just something surreal and magical that I find particularly appealing about the whole idea, perhaps the result of my inordinate fondness for Crockett Johnson’s Harold and the Purple Crayon as a child. (As a side note, I understand the Harold and the Purple Crayon books have been made into an animated series for HBO, a situation that only makes me a bit sad, and instills me with no desire whatsoever to see the shows).

I posted in June about a Flash animation by Alan Becker that evokes the same animator/character relationship, and here is another short (one minute) animation that follows that pattern, in this case an ad for V Water.

This one is a bit different, though, in that our animated protagonist is enabled, rather than hindered, by the hands of the animator. Unfortunately I haven’t found creator credits for this one.

[Link via Digg and Drawn!]

If you’re a fan of pop songs, particularly from the 1960’s when the three minute pop song was perhaps at its peak as a musical form, you’re familiar with the concept of a “golden intro”, that delicious first 20 or 30 seconds of instrumental music before the vocals start, that was often a thing of beauty in itself, above an beyond what may or may not have been a great song in total.

For examples, listen to the exquisite first 20 seconds of the Beach Boys’ California Girls or that wonderful descending pattern that forms the intro to the Kinks’ beautiful Waterloo Sunset; ahhhh - fractional moments of musical bliss. (The existence of these little bits of beauty was, of course, accentuated in being defaced by disk jockeys of the time, who made an infuriating, deranged, grafitti-like art form out of talking over entire song intros and ending their blabbering only microseconds before the song’s vocals started, but I digress…).

Similar to the wonderful hidden jewels of song intros, the introductions, or opening credits, of films have long been a repository for gems that often stand out from their surrounding work; which again, may or may not be up to the quality of the intro.

In recent years the opening credits, once considered a form of entertainment in themselves, also prominently in the 1960’s, have been de-emphasized, their place having been taken by the closing credits. In either case, the titles of films are a sort of hidden and underappreciated art form, rarely in the spotlight but as worthy of attention as animated shorts.

In another example of Why I Love the Internet, there is a site out there devoted to just that concept. Forget the film, watch the titles is part of the Submarine Channel, a portal for independent film. When I first wrote about it back in February, the project was just getting off the ground and the selection was small. On checking back, I’ve found the selection expanded, well worth a return visit.

Much to my delight, it now includes the great closing titles to Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (sequence at left), one of my favorite pieces of short animation in recent years (and a prime example of the credits being considerably better than the movie). These were designed and directed by Jamie Caliri, who was the director of the terrific animated ad called “Dragon” for United Airlines last year (see my post on Jamie Caliri).

Like that sequence, the Lemony Snicket titles were done essentially with painted paper cut-outs, artfully drawn, arranged and animated. In the case of the Snicket sequence the lead animators and layout artists were Todd Hemker and Benjamin Goldman. Forget the film is good about not only giving you the credits for the credit sequences, but links to further information.

The collection is not growing rapidly, but you can sign up to receive their newsletter and know when the next title sequence gem has been added to the showcase.

The Bayeux Tapestry is a 20 inch by 230 foot (50cm x 70m) embroidered cloth that shows the story of the Norman invasion of England in 1066, from the “portent” of Halley’s comet to the Battle of Hastings. It may have been completed within a few years of the invasion, but the earliest other record of its existence is in an inventory of the Bayeux Cathederal in 1476.

Like Trajan’s column, some pre-columbian manuscripts and Eqyptian hieroglyphics, it can be thought of as a “graphic story”, a form of storytelling we know today as “comics”; i.e pictures, or words and pictures, arranged in sequence to tell a story (to borrow Scott McCloud’s succinct definition).

In a kind of odd completion of a circle, there is now a computer animated version of the tapestry.

Initiated by a school project when he was 21, in which he merely needed to demonstrate that he had a command of motion graphics software, British designer David Newton took a tracking shot (like a long pan, but along a straight axis) of the tapestry and animated it, added a bit of sound and music and come up with a short movie that probably tells the story better than Hollywood could in a typical over the top blockbuster.

The camera moves along the tapestry and the pictorial elements, kings, princes, soldiers, shipwrights, blacksmiths, ships, horses and a cast of hundreds (well, dozens, anyway) come to life along the story’s path. Delightful.

There is a semi-official site devoted to the actual tapestry, and some info on Wikipedia. The only link I have to the animated version is the YouTube link, which doesn’t have much supporting information.

[Link via Kottke.org]

OK, I have to admit that this is something I find particularly appealing for a number of reasons, and may not appeal to everyone to the same degree, but I can’t help enjoying it as much as I do.

First of all, I’m a sucker for comics stories or animations in which the artist interacts with his or her creation. One of my all-time favorite Warner Brothers cartoons, for example, is Duck Amuck, in which Daffy is tormented by the hand, pencil and eraser of the unseen animator.

Animator vs. Animation, a Flash animation by Alan Becker, is a kind of reversal on that notion, in which the animator’s creation gains a will of it’s own and engages him in a battle for control.

The particularly delightful thing for me is that the battlefield on which this conflict is played out is the Flash application interface itself. As someone who works in Flash, and in fact teaches it, I took great delight in seeing this familiar set of tools, palettes, timeline, and controls deconstructed in a battle between the artist’s stick figure character, initially labeled “victim”, and the artist, cleverly represented by the mouse cursor.

In spite of some of the Flash-specific references and in-jokes, I think anyone can appreciate the general idea and the entertaining way it’s presented.

Apparently, the animation has been successful enough that Becker has revised it, and followed it up with a sequel, Animator vs. Animation II, in which he has given his protagonist (antagonist) more power, in anticipation of a greater challenge, and the battle rages well beyond the Flash interface.

He says in the introductions to the two animations that the first one took him three months to complete; the second one, five months.

Becker doesn’t seem to have a web site, instead posting his animations and other projects to his deviantART space.

One of the other items on his page is this quite nice acrylic painting of his own home-grown watermelon. There are also other drawings. His brief bio indicates that he is only 18 and plans to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design and pursue a career in art. Something tells me we’ll be seeing more from him as time goes on.

[Link courtesy of Janet Kofoed]

Each year in June, the beautiful town of Annecy in the Rhone-Alpes region of eastern France temporarily becomes the animation hub of the world, as it plays host to the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Market.

Annecy is the number one international competitive animation festival. Animators, and animation students, from around the world come to put on a display of their best work.

So each year animation students from the remarkable Paris based Gobelins school of art and animation gather in small teams and create short animations devoted to the upcoming festival; as I reported in my post on last year’s entries from Gobelins animation students.

Like their predecessors, this year’s entries are also wonderfully clever and marvelously realized. The films are short (90 seconds or so) and are largely wordless, so language is not a barrier to enjoyment. The only requirement seems to be that the films are in essence a short introduction to the festival, so the students are free to let their imaginations run wild.

Here is the main Animation page on the Gobelins site, which lists both this year’s entries and those from 2006. (Google Translate version here.)

The 2007 entries are (images at left, top to bottom):

Le grande Arche by Jean-Michel Boesch, Quentin Baillieux, Manuel Tanon-Tchi and Sébastien Vovau;

Keep Walking by Carlo Vogele, Antonin Herveet, Sophia Chevrier, Cécile Francoia and Leah Ordonia;

Anima facta est by Lucie Arnissolle, Maël Gourmelen, Léah F. Ordonia, Célia Riviere and Setpen Vuillemin;

Chronos 1.0 by Wassim Boutales, Yann Boyer, Vincent Mahe and Bruno Mangyoku;

Nano by Stéphane Vlavonou, Sébastien Rouxel, Stéphane Chung, Nicolas Rubio and Nima Azarba; and

Emile et les fabuleux petits monsieurs by Jean-Nicolas Arnoux, Tom Haugomat, Charles-André Lefebvre, and Louis Tardivier.

Though I liked all of the entries, my favorite is Chronos 1.0, a short time travel adventure with a wonderful concept.

My timely reminder for the Gobelins Annecy shorts, as usual, is Michael Hirsh’s Articles and Texticles blog, which has both an initial post and an update on this year’s entries.

I stumbled across this little gem while browsing through painting tutorials on YouTube.

Ode to Summer is a beautiful little animation in which what appears to be a traditional Chinese ink painting comes to life. A dragonfly flits through lotus flowers, koi swim through graceful reeds below the rippled surface of a clear pond and a young woman sits amid calligraphically drawn rocks and reads us a brief poem extolling the beauty of summer.

At first you think one or two objects are being rendered in front of an actual ink painting, then the “camera” rotates and it becomes obvious that everything in the “painting”, including the calligraphy, is composed of 3-D CGI objects.

This is made even clearer at the end of the film when the authors reveal the wire mesh and textureless rendering stages of their objects briefly, and then let them resolve back into the “painting”, as if we’d gotten a brief glimpse under the skin of the Matrix.

The individual who posted the version I found on YouTube (it may be posted by others as well) didn’t include much info, and the film’s own credits are rather small. I had to do a little digging to find out that the person responsible for the film’s direction, story and look is Ron Hui, about whom I haven’t found much else. He is aided by a team whose names are also hard to read in the small screen.

It looks at though this was created or used to promote some rendering or shading software from RenderAid. Unfortunately the RenderAid site is “closed for rennovations” at the moment so I can’t check that out.

None of which affects the fact that this is a delightful little diversion for a Summer’s morning (even if we haven’t quite reached the solstice yet).

Swedish illustrator Gustaf Adolf Tenggren had his roots (and judging from his illustrations, wonderfully gnarled and knotted roots they were) deeply into the rich soil of Scandinavian myth, and the fertile influence of other great illustrators, most notably the terrific and underappreciated John Bauer, who Teggren succeeded as the primary illustrator for Bland Tomtar och Troll (Among Elves and Trolls), a famous fairy tale themed children’s annual in Sweden.

Tenggren also inherited stylistic elements from other great illustrators who influenced, and were influenced by, Bauer, in particular Kay Neilsen, Edmund Dulac and the amazing Arthur Rackham. Teggren moved to America (though he continued to illustrate Bland Tomtar och Troll from here for six years) and worked illustrating books in a lush, Rackhamish style full of dark, art-nouveau forests, marvelously grotesque trolls, stunning princesses, and wonderfully stylized characters of all kinds.

After a stint at Milton Bradley, the game company, he went to work for The Walt Disney Company and was one of the main concept artists on Disney’s groundbreaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and contributed significantly to Pinocchio and Bambi.

The amazing Animation Archive has come through again and has posted high-res images from Tenggren’s beautiful Grimms Fairy Tales. Here are part one and part two. They also have a post of his illustrations for Small Fry and the Winged Horse. Click on the images for larger versions. The American Art Archives has also posted some of his commercial illustrations, some of which show Howard Pyle’s influence.

Teggren was an amazing illustrator, but for reasons I haven’t been able to divine, abandoned his beautiful Bauer/Rackham/Neilsen style after leaving Disney and adopted a more prosaic style (to put it politely) for illustrating children’s books. His new style, though dull and lifeless to me in comparison to his former work, was quite successful commercially and he published a series of books with his name in the title, in addition to working on such famous Little Golden Books at The Poky Little Puppy.

He never returned to his previous style after leaving Disney and reportedly destroyed much of his older work (AKKK!). Perhaps he ran into some real trolls at Disney?

When I first encountered Brian Taylor’s work in 2001 it was in the form of a fascinating project called Rustboy (images above, top row), a web site created to chronicle the progress of his desire to create a CGI animated movie on his own, from concept sketches to final renderings, using only home computer level software.

I have checked back over the years to see little advanced or changed on the site, other than the addition of some spin-off merchandise and a book collecting the concept work for the project, and I was afraid the the movie project itself was, well,… rusting.

It turns out that Brian has turned the notoriety gained from that project (the site was/is beautifully designed and got a fair bit of notice around the web in the early ’00s), along with a fevered imagination, strong design skills and a savvy sense of internet marketing, into a successful line of products and projects; and has handed the Rustboy project off to professionals, giving himself the luxury of overseeing it without having to do the work five people in order to try to bring the character to the screen.

Taylor’s most visible current project is called Candykiller (image above, bottom), and is a series of self-published books offered directly through the Candykiller.com site, and a line of Candykiller figures in the works through Wheaty Wheat Studios. (I can’t give you direct links to the products because the site is in a single Flash file.)

The Candykiller site has a gallery the illustrations from the books, in a style that’s sort of 1930’s animal character cartoons meet Tim Burton by way of Basil Wolverton on a bad acid trip kind of character design that fits into the general area called “Pop Surrealism”. There are other influences, of course. You can see flashes of Rick Griffin, Robert Crumb and other 60’s underground comix artists, and I love his Tales of the Candy Killer mock comic cover homage to the EC Mad comics (see my posts on on Wally Wood and Will Elder), not to mention his hilarious drawing of Godzilla with a Viewmaster for a head. Some of the images are 3D renderings of unreal toys, some are the real figures in production.

There is a nice illustrated interview with Taylor in the new issue of Illo. You can see more of Taylor’s professional work on his XL5 Design site.