Meta: Over One Million Served

A little over an hour ago, our hit logs registered our one millionth unique visit. By next week, our page view count will reach 2.5 million articles served. We started counting traffic on November 11th, 2005, and our traffic more than doubled in our second year. It's poised to do so again this coming year.

FEEDBACK TIME!

Many thanks to everyone who wrote in with their feedback. Click on "feedback" in the list of labels at the bottom of this post to read all of them. If you would like to send in your message, please respond in the comments to this post or email me at sworth@animationarchive.org...

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your interests

Post a link to your work and/or website

Pick your favorite Animation Archive post from the past two years

Tell us how the Animation Archive has helped or inspired you

Let us know if you have any suggestions

...I'll post some of your comments below so everyone can see them.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

Stumble It!

Feedback: Julian Fumagalli

Hola! My name is Julian Fumagalli and my blog is at julianhoek.blogspot.com. I'm 24 and I'm from Argentina. I'm a cartoonist working my way up to be an animator. Luckily for me we still do production for movies here 'cause it's not as cheap as Korea but it's cheaper that the States; so there are some jobs for inkers, inbetweeners, assistants and animators. I started doing inbetweens and now i'm working as an asistant animator. It's a great way to learn by working close to an experienced animator. That's how they used to do it in the old days, working every step of the chain up. Also, to increase my learning process, I practice the advice that John K gives in his wonderful blog. I also appreciate the great resources you guys put here for everybody- like the first edition of Preston Blair's book. The Carlo Vinci post about his training blew me away and made me want to seek out the best way to improve myself.


Since the beginning of this blog I've been carefully and obsessively watching all the cartoons that were done from the 30s until middle 60s and I think other people are too because of the archive. My suggestion would be to expand the site and try to post most of the archive here. The archive website is very global and for most of the people who read it, it's almost impossible to go to Burbank, CA to check out all that great stuff you guys have there. I know it's hard, but I hope in time you will start to upload all those cookies you have there!

I'm very thankful to the archive for all the knowledge and inspiration that have gave me for the past two years! So thank you, Steve and please keep it going! Best of luck! -Julian

Stumble It!

Feedback: Rogelio E. Toledo

Hello, My name is Rogelio E. Toledo. I am 27 years old and work doing technical jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with art/drawing. I've been fascinated by animation, cartoons, comics and illustration since I was about 5 years old. I enjoy drawing for my own personal amusement.

I've always wanted to improve my drawing skills and I really have tried to but I didn't have any idea where to start. I've never had the opportunity to take any art classes and most of the instruction books I had access to weren't very helpful. I looked around the internet to find some sort of GOOD drawing/cartooning instruction. The only really good thing I found was a couple of pages on drawing backgrounds that John Kricfalusi had put together and somebody had posted on a forum. I found them to be really helpful. I did a google search for John Kricfalusi which led me to his blog, his Preston Blair book advice and finally to the Animation Archive's website.



Fundamentals of Composition is my favorite of the archive's blog posts. It's exactly what I had been looking for. I always knew about stuff like compostion but I never knew enough about it to actually be able to plan, arrange and use it. Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning also had a ton of good information in it too. Seeing each artist's methods of organizing and their techniques for putting everything together really broke the cartooning process down and simplified it for me. I also liked the People on Paper, Makin' 'em Move and A Drawing Lesson From Walter Lantz video posts. It's one thing to read about how these people do their work but actually seeing them at work makes it much nicer.The artist profiles, illustrations and comics posted here are really great too.

The past several months I've been busy re-teaching myself how to draw. I'm doing it correctly this time with the Preston Blair book. There's a lot of things on this blog that I just haven't had the time to get around to practicing and using. I would like to go through the W L Evans Cartooning And Caricaturing Course and actually practice the storyboarding in Chad's Design For Television, I do plan to go through those eventually. -Rogelio E. Toledo

Stumble It!

Feedback: Kali Fontecchio

I'm Kali Fontecchio, 21 year old female American (of Italian decent just like Carlo Vinci and Art Lozzi) cartoonist (character design, animation, and background painting) hopeful. I sure am glad this place exists, seriously. I feel honored that I get to be an example for everyone, considering John Kricfalusi has put up a lot of my stuff on his site in his lessons. A while back there sure was some pretty embarrassing artwork of mine on display (I'll say that down the line of what I am doing right now, no doubt). But being apart of the Mel Crawford painting analysis, Bosko animation studies, Roger Ramjet and Bugs Bunny construction lessons has made me feel I am not only improving myself, but showing others that they can too. And you guys can! It is all here for you! Take it! Go ahead! Don't be shy!


Could this possibly be true? A site dedicated to all things pure in this world? ASIFA is just that, somewhere you can go and stumble across Mary Blair golden books, Milt Gross funnies, Maxfield Parrish illustrations, and get a free education via John K! Not just little dopey scans either, Steve Worth makes sure of that! Well I can't speak for everyone, but I'd like to think I could at least represent my fellow practicing-to-be-a-real-cartoonist demographic. The Animation Archive is a wonderful resource for us, and here is my true example. A while back I needed reference of some Mary Blair furniture for some paintings I was doing, where do I go to get it? The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive of course! How lucky am I? What would I have done without it? I don't even want to think about it! -Kali Fontecchio

Stumble It!

Feedback: Dennis Hyer

My name is Dennis Hyer, and by day I am a laborer for the government. By night, I am a cartoonist and blogmeister at Atlantic County Cartoons. All the rest of my spare time is devoted to high art and fine culture: for music, I turn to Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters, for old movies I turn to James Cagney and Barbara Stanwyck, and for old cartoons and comic strips, I turn to the Animation Archive.


I am always thrilled to see great examples of classic animation, but my main interest lies in comic strips. For me, it was a revelation to see early Sunday pages of Cliff Sterrett's "Polly and her Pals" (which I had never heard of before),Chic Young's "Blondie", George Lichty's "Grin and Bear It", and Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper comics. But the biggest thrill for me was when the Archive posted a stack of Dave's Delicatessen strips by Milt Gross. I read them all, and was instantly desperate for more. It made my day!

This is a short piece of feedback, but I am not much of a writer, so here are my closing comments. I used to think the world of classic comic strips started and stopped with Walt Kelly's "Pogo", but thanks to all the hard work being put into the Archive by Steve and the volunteers and supporters, my horizons have been broadened way beyond any level I could reach on my own. I owe you. A suggestion-- how about a future post dedicated to Owen Fitzgerald, king of cute comic book girls? -Dennis Hyer
.

Stumble It!

Feedback: Daniel Poerira

My name is Daniel Poeira, I am a substitute teacher and doctorate student at the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. I teach character design, special effects and general animation production techniques (storyboarding, scriptwriting, etc) at the Cinema, Photography and Drama department. I am also an independent animator, and am currently working on a 2d short titled "Flashback". Here's my blog, Diario De Flashack and my website danielpoeira.org

My main interests in animation are general design, storytelling, and techniques that I don´t work with, like stop motion and paint on glass. I am decent on 2d and digital 3d, and also cut-outs, but mastering paint on glass and puppet animation are still a long-term process to me.


It´s hard to pick my favorite Animation Archive post, I love everything you guys put out. But if I was to name only one, maybe it would be Basil Wolverton On Cartoon Sounds. He was just too much of a genius, and that rare article was pure gold!

I strongly believe that, the more we advance into the future of animation, the more we must understand its past. The disciplines involved in cartoon drawing, illustration, comic books and animation in the past must never be forgotten- it would be too damn stupid if we just started all over again, rediscovering the wheel in every generation. Understanding the knowledge of the great masters of the past will make our work much better and will let us concentrate on the new stuff we have to think about when dealing with this new technologies we have in hand.

You guys do terrific work and I always learn something new in your website and blog. I hope someday I´ll manage to visit you in person. Thanks for everything! -Daniel Poerira
.

Stumble It!

Feedback: Nicholas Martinez

My name is Nicolas "Nico" Martinez, and I'm 19 years old. I am a budding artist who is not only interested in cartoons, but in drawing, painting, art, old movies, music, and photography. I work and I go through my college classes, and on the side, I draw and paint. I LOVE animation, and I don't know what to do without it. My favorite cartoons include many classic cartoons by Walt Disney, Warner Bros, the Fleischers, Terry-toons, even several obscure cartoons are beginning to grow on me. I like to collect old videotapes or laserdiscs of the cartoons, as well as albums of old comic books.

My favorite posts are the ones with Katie Rice's drawings, Steve's posts on the Fundamentals of Composition, John K.'s posts on the $100k Animation Course, The Original Preston Blair Book. Any posts of old cartoons as movie files, "Swing, You Sinners", "The Bodyguard" and "Bad Luck Blackie", Tex Avery's Kool-Aid Commercials, The Little King in "On the Pan", Ralph Bakshi on 2D vs. 3D, Carlo Vinci: Education of a Golden Age Animator, the Donald Duck model sheets- Gosh! I have a ton of favorites.

During the archive website's run, I have contributed a bit of information to the Cartoon Hall of Fame on several artists such as Richard Williams, John Kricfalusi, Art Babbitt, as well as commenting every now and then, and volunteering once at the archive. Through those experiences, several things dawned on me. To me, it's all about self-discovery. Through many times in my life, I, like most people, start liking the same old artists, just because it was a trend. Seeing what the archive has to offer has completely liberated me, and made me very well aware of what I really like. It has been like an amazing experience learning about artists and styles that are completely new to me.

As a suggestion, can you upload your videos in bigger formats with a faster framerate and a function to step through the frames? The cartoons you've already posted look really great, but I think that would help the learning process a lot.
Iit's cool to have a place with actual UNMANGLED cartoons. Also, you could sell those Thunderbean DVDs if that's possible on this site.

Thanks a lot Steve (the guy who told me to "practice, practice, practice.") People like you and John K. are essential to the advancement of the medium. -Nicolas Martinez

Stumble It!

Feedback: Art Fuentes

My name is Art Fuentes. During the day I work a lousy desk job, but every chance that I get, I draw. This is my blog, Kartoon Biscuit where I post all of my meager attempts at animation and drawing. I've always loved cartoons and decided a long time ago that I wanted to have a hand in making them. Life being what it is, I had to put my animation dream on hold for a while as I became a proud father and attained a "regular" job to provide for my daughter.

I found out about the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive while searching for information on old comic strips. I never realized until then, that there was such a huge repository of great, great, animation art to be seen in one place. I began to volunteer at the archive on Saturdays in 2006 and was so happy and excited to meet Steve Worth. I remembered him from my favorite cartoon studio, Spumco. Steve is very generous and knowledgable about Animation history, and I was astounded at all of the material available at the Archive. It literally blew my mind.


My favorite Archive post is the The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course. It has really changed my drawing skills for the better. It was also through the Archive that I had the best day of my life, when I got to meet my animation hero, the great John K. He has really helped and inspired me to achieve my goal of being an animator. If it wasn't for Steve and the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, I would have never met John and such great people as Eddie Fitgerald, Mike Fontanelli, Jim Smith, Vincent Waller, Marc Deckter, Kali Fontecchio, Katie Rice, and so many other people that I count among friends.

The Animation Archive has opened whole new artistic and inspirational possiblities for me and I'd like to thank Steve for sharing all of these treasures with us lowly, wannabe Cartoonists. Thank you Steve, from the bottom of my heart! -Art F.

Stumble It!

Feedback: Bruce Watkinson

My name is Bruce Watkinson. I’m 19 years of age, and I work at Wal-Mart, unloading trucks and stocking shelves, while continuing to pursue my goal to work in the animation industry. Besides drawing, I enjoy swimming, analyzing world history, and watching the Walter Lantz, Warner Bros, Fleischer, and occasionally Terrytoons cartoons. I also read a lot- comic strips and paperback novels. My blog is Understanding Animation, where I recently posted a tribute to Ub Iwerks, along with the History of Popeye. I listen to music from the 1900’s to late 1960’s- big band music, the rock group Queen, The Coasters, Wilbert Harrison, The Champs, Percy Sledge... I also have a swell taste in jazz music.

I have a host of artistic inspirations, mostly from the golden age of children’s illustration to the Playboy artists of the 50s/60s, as well as John Delaney, Jessica Borutski, Ed Benedict, Carlo Vinci and Will Finn. I study the paintings of Maxfield Parrish, Gustaf Tenggren, Einar Norelius, Kay Nielsen, and my favorite one of them all, John Bauer, whose trolls, compositions, and color values have expanded my horizons. I enjoyed reading most of the posts on the ASIFA site, but the three that I continue to read for study are...


The Famous Artists art lessons, which have assisted to improve my drawing and painting ability, that with hours of practice, no college course has yet to achieve.


Bakshi’s discussion about 2D and 3D animation- He gave some valid points to both camps, all the while giving us artists a kick in the pants for falling prey to repeating the same stuff.


The post that blew my mind the most was Carlo Vinci: The Training of a Golden Age Animator, especially the following quote: “Vinci's job was to animate, but his occupation was ARTIST. The same was true of most of the other great talents in animation- Marc Davis, Milt Kahl, Grim Natwick... The reason they were great animators was because they were great artists.”

Now I’m doing my damn best to be the best, to best the best, and maybe one day to teach what I know to anyone who is interested. I’m planning to go on a two-week vacation to L.A., and besides visiting and donating to the
archive, to meet most of the artists from blogger land. Thank you for making your passion available to us young eggs, and hopefully, we might one day become cocks of the walk. -wannabe artist/cartoonist: Bruce Watkinson

Stumble It!

Feedback: Andy J. Latham

I'm 24 and live in the United Kingdom. I started my professional career as a physicist, spending five years studying the subject at the University of Manchester. However the pull of my childhood longing to be an animator was strong enough to make me give up the physics and move on. I currently work for a corporate video company as an editor and videographer- not quite animation, but it's a start! I have been trying to improve my drawing techniques over the past year or so and am beginning to use what I have learned to start animating. It's hard work putting in hours of drawing as well as a full-time job, but when you see a good result on your page it's worth it! Other than physics and art, my interests lay in the areas of photography, music and movies. I play the guitar and am a keen amateur photographer. My drawings and animations can be seen at www.andysanimation.co.uk where you will also find a link to my animation blog.

I'd say my favourite Animation Archive post would have to be the one about Disney's version of the Uncle Remus Stories book. The illustrations there are beautiful in terms of how the characters are drawn, how the scenes are painted and the general composition of each picture. It's inspirational!

That is the power of the Animation Archive- to inspire. These images are rarely seen, and it's so important that they are presented to those of us wishing to learn. My knowledge of animation has for a long time mainly revolved around Disney and Warner Bros. The archive has helped to broaden my knowledge and let me get to know a little about the animators behind the pencils.

I do have a couple of suggestions. Firstly, it would be good if you could include some video clips of animations you have in the archive, particularly if they are rare ones that we can't see on DVD. Secondly, what would be really great (but I don't know how feasible it is) is if any top animators of the past or present could write posts from time to time. These posts could form a series of drawing/animation lessons from the masters.

Fantastic stuff though, Steve! -Andy J. Latham

Stumble It!

Feedback: Jorge Garrido

My name is Jorge Garrido, I'm 18 years old. I'm a grocery clerk (currently night crew) at the Real Canadian Superstore. I can stock 90 cases in one hour. I'm currently attending Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada for a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration, with which I hope to become a Chartered Accountant. I'm obsessed with OLD cartoons and comics, every since I was a kid. I want to be a cartoonist/animator, which I can hopefully practice and study in my spare time. My other interest is Christian rock and hard music. Here's my pitiful blog where I have a tons of half written posts for waiting to be finished and posted.

My favourite Archive post was Preston Blair's first edition. It's really hard to pick, though!

The Animation Archive has helped me mainly in two ways. One, the images and manuals posted give respectively visual inspiration, ideas, and artistic influence and practical advice on cartooning and composition. I want to be able to draw like Milt Canniff and Milt Gross and Milt Knight and Milt Stein and the other Milts the archive has covered. Not to mention the Walts. The images themselves help me study what these guys do and how tehy did it. The manuals show me how to do so ever better. The second way is more intangible. It's satisfying to know that there's people out there as obsessed with old cartoons and animation as me. It's also great to see that the Arhcive is saving films from being deteriorated by digitzing them, and also saving images in high resolution that owuld otherwise be forgotten to history.

The only suggestions I'd offer are more theories about the images that are presented. Also, you should do fundraisers by selling the films you have copies of on DVD. The Archive, for example, apparently has all the Popeye and colour Clampetts. I'd rather buy from the archive than from WBHV. No DVNR, no colour changing, and I could get the films in chronological order by director. Keep up the good work, Steve! You are as kind as you are wise! -Jorge Garrido

Stumble It!