NCS - Frank Frazetta tribute

In late August members of the NCS will be sponsoring a tribute to comic book and illustration legend Frank Frazetta, which will include a visit to see Frank at his private museum. The following was forwarded to all chapter chairpersons in regards to the event by Jack Pittman:

Hope your summer is going well.

In preparing for our NCS tribute to Frank Frazetta in late August, we will be presenting him with a scrapbook of original art and well wishes. If you would like to contribute to this endeavor, whether or not you are able to attend, please send your drawing/note to Jack Pittman at (email Tom privately for the address). Art should fit on an 8.5 by 11 sheet. It would be helpful to receive these no later than August 1 to allow for assembling the book.

This will be a memoir the whole Frazetta family will cherish and a wonderful addition from the National Cartoonists Society to the Frazetta Museum.

And, as a reminder, if you do plan to join us for this event, please email me with the total number of people attending, including yourself as soon as possible to help expedite the preparations. The celebration is tentatively planned for a Saturday, most likely August 23 or 30, from 12 to 5 at the Frazetta Museum in East Stroudsburg, PA. Costs per person are not finalized as of this writing, but will be somewhere in the neighborhood of a modest $40-50 per person, which will include a light lunch and admission to the museum. If you plan to spend the weekend in New York City, the drive to East Stroudsburg, PA is about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. There are also accommodations in or near East Stroudsburg--Quality Inn, Hampton Inn, Shannon Inn, Budget Inn & Suites, and Best Western Pocono, to name a few. Further details are coming soon.

Thank you for your generous assistance with this tribute to one of our most esteemed colleagues.

Fraternally,

Jack Pittman

I hope some of our esteemed chapter members will be able to send in some art for the album. I know I will. Please e-mail me privately for the address to send your contribution.

Happy Birthday Bucky Jones!!

Since it just looks to be you and I on this NCC blog, I guess we can post birthday wishes to each other... that's a minimum of 2 posts a year!

Happy Birthday!

Reubens Report

The NCC was well represented at this year's Reubens awards, with new member and first time attendee David Mowder taking home a divisional award for Greeting Cards, and myself batting .500 by winning for Advertising Illustration. Several other NCC members were in attendence and I think we all had a great time... although my sunburn from the Habitat for Humanity project on Friday is still killing me.

See my blog for an overview of the event, with lots of incriminating pictures!

Double Your Fun!

After an exhaustive poll, the verdict is in... NCC members want to stage two meetings a year. One for fun, one for voting on the Reuben Division awards and other chapter business.

Vice Chairman Bucky Jones and I will collaborate on a fall meeting sometime in September/Oct. This will be mainly a social function although we will have at least one speaker and see if we can stage one activity of some kind. No art shows, no plethora of speakers, no expensive dinners or hotels. This is the budget plan for us all to just get together for part of a weekend. We are tentatively planning on Des Moines as our destination. Perhaps every other year we can just meet in Marcelene at Toonfest, thereby reducing the need for a lot of extra planning.

Our next chapter event after this fall will be in March to vote on the division Reuben category we get assigned. This will be a bit more of a real meeting where we will organize a fundraiser (auction?), have some speakers and probably a dinner.

Thanks for the input from everybody.

Fall or Winter Meeting?

For a number of years now the North Central Chapter has been meeting in the fall for our annual chapter get together. I am not sure why this time of year was chosen, but suspect it was because winter is a precarious and ugly travel time for us tundra dwellers.

The odd thing is that March is the only time of year we have any official duty to perform for the NCS... our Reuben divisional voting. Doesn't it make sense to plan a late March meeting to do our divisional jury and also have our annual meeting? Does beer taste better in September or October than it does in March? Do we plan on camping outdoors?

What do you as members think about this? Should we switch to late March for our meeting time?

NEWS- New NCC Vice Chairman

Current North Central Chapter vice-chairman and beloved pal Oliver Christianson has stepped down from his highly paid position due to reasons not pertaining to leaked memos or misappropriated campaign funds. Oliver is in fact stepping away from the NCS and our little chapter due to a busy life and the demands of a daughter in college. We'll miss Oliver greatly.

Our own Bucky Jones has stupidly agreed to step in as vice-chairman for the remainder of Oliver's term at half pay ( zero x .5= zero) and double workload. Thanks for stepping up, sucker... uh..., I mean Bucky!

Plans have not been set for this fall's annual chapter meeting, but there are discussions about moving said meeting to March so we can also use the get together to do our jury voting for whatever divisional Reuben category we are given. Anyone with thoughts on that idea feel free to comment here or e-mail them to myself or Bucky... preferably Bucky.

I miss Oliver Christianson

What ever became of Oliver Christianson? He seemed like such a nice man.
Sigh.....

Disney Legend Ollie Johnston Passes Away

Animation legend Ollie Johnston, the last surviving member of Walt Disney’s famous “Nine Old Men”, passed away yesterday (April 14, 2008). He was 95.

Johnston was a phenomenal artist and widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest animators. In 1935 he was hired to work at the Disney studio alongside his pal Frank Thomas. They rose to become two of Disney’s top animators and remained lifelong best friends. They co-wrote several books on animation including Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (Amazon.com link), which is still considered a classic textbook on animation. In 1995 they were the subject of a wonderful documentary film, Frank and Ollie (which you can buy on DVD). Their love for animation was contagious.

Johnston animated such classic characters as Pinocchio, Bambi, Thumper, Alice in Wonderland, and Winnie the Pooh. He and Frank also animated large portions of The Jungle Book. It's been said that over half the film is Frank and Ollie's work.

Animators are sometimes referred to as actors with pencils. Frank and Ollie didn't just fit this definition, they defined it. They were superb draftsmen and their characters gave Oscar-worthy performances.

Franklin Roosevelt referred to the Supreme Court as his “Nine Old Men”. As a joke, Walt Disney borrowed the term to describe his nine top animators. Though they were young men at the time, the name stuck. All nine went on to become legends at the studio. Frank and Ollie were the last surviving members of the group. Frank passed away in 2004.

It's hard to overstate the influence Frank and Ollie have had on the animation industry. Besides being animation pioneers and writing classic books on the subject, after Walt Disney's death they helped train a new generation of Disney animators. Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles) was a huge fan of their work and gave the pair animated cameos in both of his films.

Here's a few samples of Ollie's work. His passing truly marks the end of an era for animation fans, and he will be dearly missed.







(Artwork copyright © Disney. All rights reserved.)

Win A Free Book On Digital Coloring

I'm currently running a fun little contest over at my blog. I've been posting a lot about character design and mascots lately, so today I posted pics of twelve product mascots. If you can name all twelve products, I'll enter you in a drawing to win a free copy of the new book Hi-Fi Color For Comics: Digital Techniques For Professional Results.

This is not a scheme to get you onto a mailing list or anything. It's purely for fun.

The contest ends at midnight on Friday, April 11. To find out more and to enter, visit my blog.