December Cartoonist-in-Residence: Alan Groening
Cartoon Art Museum Event: Saturday, December 19th, 2009 1pm to 3pm
Free and Open to the public

The Cartoon Art Museum hosts cartoonist Alan Groening on Saturday, December 19, 2009 from 1pm to 3pm as part of its ongoing Cartoonist-in-Residence program. Museum visitors will be offered the chance to talk to him about cartooning and view Alan’s work.

From 1992 to 1997, Alan Groening was hard at work in the comic industry creating his own brand of cartoon funny books. After a successful 6 year and 13 issue series, he took some time off from professional art and returned to college to learn video editing and 3D model building and in 2003 began working on several short films. In 2007, and after only one semester of Macromedia Flash, he was contacted by a client to create two short animated educational videos teaching kids about the fundamentals of mathematics.

In 2009, Groening created the first in a string of short cartoons for Family Community Church. He is currently freelancing and creating other animated cartoons for his church.

This event is free and open to the public.

The Cartoon Art Museum regularly hosts professional cartoonist in its galleries as part of its Cartoonist-in-Residence program. Museum patrons see cartoonists at work on their latest projects and learn everything you ever wanted to know about cartoonists--but were afraid to ask. Past featured Cartoonists-in-Residence include Paul Madonna (All Over Coffee), Keith Knight (K Chronicles, (th)ink), Paige Braddock (Jane's World), Michael Jantze (The Norm) and Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules) among many others.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Cartoon Art Museum proudly presents original works of art from Twentieth Century Fox’s feature film FANTASTIC MR. FOX, scheduled for nationwide release on November 25, 2009. This exhibit features two sets from the stop motion animated film, “Flint Mine – We Took Everything” and “Farmer Scale Yellow Door,” which include puppets and props used in the film’s production. These works will be displayed in conjunction with the Cartoon Art Museum’s permanent collection of classic animation cels and drawings throughout the holiday season.

About Fantastic Mr. Fox:

FANTASTIC MR. FOX is visionary director Wes Anderson’s first animated film, utilizing classic handmade stop motion techniques to tell the story of the best selling children’s book by Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach). The film features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe and Eric Anderson.

Mr and Mrs Fox (Clooney and Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristopherson (Eric Anderson). But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers - Boggis, Bunce and Bean - who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr Fox at any cost.

Twentieth Century Fox presents, in association with Indian Paintbrush and Regency Enterprises, an American Empirical Picture, FANTASTIC MR. FOX. Directed by Wes Anderson and written for the screen by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, the film is based on the book by Roald Dahl. The film is produced by Allison Abbate, Scott Rudin, Wes Anderson and Jeremy Dawson with Steven Rales and Arnon Milchan as executive producers.

The production team includes animation director Mark Gustafson, director of photography Tristan Oliver, production designer Nelson Lowry, music composed and conducted by Alexandre Desplat, supervising editor Andrew Weisblum, music supervisor Randall Poster and puppets fabricated by MacKinnon and Saunders.

Monsters of Webcomics:
Webcomic-Con 2009

From the Comic Strip to the Animated Short:
Cartoon Art Museum class for adults

For beginning and intermediate level cartoonists, at the Cartoon Art Museum

Monday and Tuesday, December 7 and 8, 2009, 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Cost: $40 for CAM members, $50 for non-members

Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Magic Behind the Making of the First Animated Christmas Special

The Cartoon Art Museum welcomes author Darrell Van Citters on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 from 7:30 to 9:00pm for a special presentation on the creation of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol, the first animated Christmas special. Van Citters will sign copies of his new book following his presentation.

Mr. Magoo and Charles Dickens may have seemed like an odd match at the time but Americans of a certain age will remember that the pairing resulted in bit of pure magic. Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol was the first-ever animated Christmas special, and is now the subject of a splendid new book by Darrell Van Citters.