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.

The Cartoon Art Museum Presents:

Cartooning Classes for Adults
Summer 2009 Sessions
Saturday, June 14; Sunday June 15, 1:00 - 4:00pm
Saturday, July 11; Sunday July 12, 1:00 - 4:00pm
Saturday, August 8; Sunday August 9, 1:00 - 4:00pm

Cost per class:  $100 per two-day session, $50 per one-day session, with discounted tuition for CAM members
Register for The Cartoon Art Museum's Adult Classes - Summer 2009
Classes will focus on cartooning, character design, and comics.
Each 2-day session is a new course, so you may register for all three sessions. Classes are designed as 2-day workshops but you may also attend single days as well.
Classes are Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 pm.

June 13 and 14
July 11 and 12
August 8 and 9

$100 per 2-day session or $50 for a single day ($90/$40 for members) To register call 415-227-8666 x303 or email: education@cartoonart.org

Defining the Project
Instructor: Brian Kolm
Level: Beginning/Intermediate - Adult
Days: June 13-14, 2009

Are you thinking about working on a personal comic or cartoon project? Do you need some motivation to get the ball rolling? Come to this hands-on workshop where like-minded creators can work on their projects together. We will go through exercises that will help you explore ideas for stories, settings, and characters for your projects. We will then learn how to take our projects to the next level. We will learn how to outline our stories, as well as design the characters and settings that will help bring the story and character ideas to life.

Characters, Storyboards, and Layout
Instructor: Daniel Salcido
Level: Beginning/Intermediate - Adult
Days: July 11-12, 2009

Do you have a great idea for a comic strip, comic book, web-comic or cartoon? In this class we will go over the basic breakdown of the human form as well as basic design methods and a "things to consider" check list for designing characters. Once we have our characters, we will go over the basics of story boarding, and creating thumbnails and page layouts, which are a crucial part of story development and pre-production. By the end of this class, not only will you have a character for your concept, but you will also be well on your way to starting final production on it.

From Comic Strips to Animation
Instructor: James Hummel
Level: Beginning/Intermediate - Adult
Days: August 8-9, 2009

This class will talk about the transition from comic strips to the animated cartoon. We will discuss how the animation industry began and how it grew to where it is today. Then we will go through some of the basic principles of animation and talk about how animated movies, television shows and commercials are produced. Exercises will include creating flipbooks to illustrate storyboarding, key poses and in-betweening. We will also do exercises in gesture and proportion and incorporate our character(s) into a scene.

Small Press Spotlight on Andy Hartzell

Cartoon Art Museum Exhibition: May 10 – August 10, 2008



Beginning on May 10, 2008, the Cartoon Art Museum's ongoing Small Press Spotlight will feature the art of Andy Hartzell.

Andy Hartzell has been spinning stories in a variety of media for all his life.  Some of his earliest memories involve turning empty stamp-books into little comics.  In third grade, he commandeered the school ditto machine to churn out sheaves of single-panel gags for the benefit of his classmates.  But it wasn’t until his college years, when he discovered the work of comics pioneers like George Herriman and Robert Crumb, that he was turned on to the real potential of the medium.

Hartzell is a partisan of cartoony cartoons.  He likes characters that can only function as squiggles on paper.  He likes stories that openly revel in symbols and stereotypes, setting up expectations and knocking them down.  He likes the way cartoon icons can penetrate through layers of rational consciousness to connect with our most basic fears and desires.  And it’s a plus if they’re funny.

Hartzell’s first completed graphic novel was published by Top Shelf Productions in 2007. Fox Bunny Funny is a twisty little wordless fable that pits social violence against secret desire.  It was praised as “a jewel of design and comedy” by the New York Times Book Review and went on to win last year’s Maisie Kukoc Award (along with his mini-comic The Rise and Fall of Yip the Wonder Dog).

Monday, a Garden-of-Eden fantasia, plays out the eternal struggle between Creativity and Control through a brand new adventure starring the world’s oldest characters.  Issue #2 of this ongoing story was nominated for an Ignatz Award.

Hartzell’s work has been featured in a number of anthologies, including Boy Trouble and the most recent issue of Papercutter.  His weekly strip Fool’s Paradise ran in several alternative weeklies during the second half of the 1990s, and his self-published comic Bread & Circuses was a 1995 Xeric winner. 

When he’s not cartooning, Hartzell writes and designs episodic adventure games for Telltale Games, Inc. 

Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Modern Love

Cartoon Art Museum Exhibition runs February 9 - June 8, 2008




The Cartoon Art Museum's latest exhibition showcases work by ten of the funniest cartoonists in America, eight of whom regularly publish in The New Yorker, along with two Pulitzer Prize winning editorial artists. Opening February 9, 2008, Sex and Sensibility comments on the many humorous aspects of sex, love and everything else that's amusing about relationships today. The exhibition features 50 cartoons from Liza Donnelly's upcoming book Sex and Sensibility: Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Love in 200 Cartoons. The book will be published in April 2008 by Twelve Books, an imprint of Grand Central Books.

Beyond the laughs, the creators of this collection of cartoons and essays offer a perceptive portrait of how gender roles and attitudes are changing with the times, whether the subject is sex through texting, lesbian erotica, the new rules of dating, sexual politics, or procreation (for example, Barbara Smaller's cartoon: "I plan on having a baby one day but I'm waiting for the right technology to come along") .

This exhibition runs through June 8, 2008, and features cartoons by Roz Chast, Liza Donnelly, Carolita Johnson, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Victoria Roberts, Barbara Smaller, Julia Suits, Ann Telnaes, Kim Warp, and Signe Wilkinson.

Information regarding author appearances and booksignings will be announced shortly.

An Evening with Dennis Rosa,
Director of the original Broadway production of Dracula

Cartoon Art Museum Event: Thursday, January 31, 2008 from 7pm to 9pm

$5 General Public, Free for Cartoon Art Museum Members





Please join the Cartoon Art Museum for the final event coinciding with our exhibition Edward Gorey's Dracula on Thursday, January 31st at 7pm. Our special guest for this presentation is Dennis Rosa, the original Director of the 1970s Nantucket, Broadway and London production of Dracula, featuring Frank Langella and Sir Lawrence Olivier. Rosa will discuss the stage production and provide insight into Gorey's work.

General admission to this event is $5, and the event is free to Cartoon Art Museum members.

About the exhibition:

The Cartoon Art Museum presents Edward Gorey’s Dracula, August 11, 2007 - February 3, 2008, an exhibition of the master illustrator and artist's original set and costume designs, rare production photographs and memorabilia from the Tony Award-winning Broadway production. Museum visitors will have a unique behind-the-scenes look at the creative process, from Gorey’s initial notes and sketches through his completed concept artwork.

About Edward Gorey

A truly prodigious and original artist, Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000), gave to the world over one hundred works, including The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Doubtful Guest and The Wuggly Ump; prize-winning set and costume designs for innumerable theater productions from Cape Cod to Broadway; a remarkable number of illustrations in publications such as The New Yorker and The New York Times, and in books by a wide array of authors from Charles Dickens to Edward Lear, Samuel Beckett, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, H.G. Wells, Florence Heide and many others. His well known animated credits for the PBS Mystery! series have introduced him to millions of television viewers. Gorey's masterful pen and ink illustrations and his ironic, offbeat humor have brought him critical acclaim and an avid following throughout the world.

Edward Gorey’s Dracula comes to the Cartoon Art Museum courtesy of the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts and The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust. For further information, please call (508) 362-3909 or visit edwardgoreyhouse.org.

Cartooning Basics for Grown-Ups

with Brian Kolm,
Cartoonist, Teacher and Graphic Designer
Saturday, February 9, 2008

1:00-3:30pm

Cost per individual class: $40; $30 for CAM members


Due to popular demand, the Cartoon Art Museum is offering another installment in its ongoing series of workshops for aspiring comic artists, writers and fans of all ages. Each class is taught by a professional cartoonist focusing on an area of his or her expertise, ranging from character creation and story development to writing and drawing comic books and strips.

Brian Kolm, creator of the comic book series Beyond the Great Chimney, will be teaching the next workshop, "I Can't Draw!" Cartooning Basics for Grown-Ups.

It’s never too late to learn how to draw. “I Can’t Draw” is a cartooning class aimed at adults who would like to learn more about Cartooning but feel they can’t even draw a straight line. Join Cartoonist Brian Kolm in a fun two-and-a-half hour class on the basics of cartooning. Kolm's class covers all the FUN-damentals of drawing cartoon characters, including shape and structure, poses and attitude.

Brian Kolm is a cartoonist and graphic designer who has been teaching at the Cartoon Art Museum since 2002. He has also taught classes at ZEUM and the Charles Schulz Museum and Research Center, and has worked as a private cartooning instructor since 2004. His comics and illustration can be seen at his blog at atomicbearpress.com.

Class size is limited, and each class is filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Basic drawing materials will be provided, but students are encouraged to purchase sketchbooks and their own drawing implements. For more information about the workshop, please contact Andrew Farago at (415) CAR-TOON, ext. 314, or via e-mail at gallery@cartoonart.org.

featuring Creig Flessel

February 2 - June 8, 2008



The Cartoon Art Museum is honored to celebrate the life and work of cartoonist Creig Flessel with a special exhibition opening on Flessel's 96th birthday, February 2, 2008. The exhibition will include over 30 examples from Flessel’s long creative career, including original comic book artwork from the 1930s, newspaper advertisements from the 1950s, comic strips from the 1960s, Playboy cartoons from the 1980s and recent commissioned artwork from the 1990s onward.

A panel discussion honoring Flessel will take place at the upcoming WonderCon comic and popular culture convention which will be held February 22-24, 2008 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. For more information on this event, please visit Comic-Con International's official website, Comic-con.org.

About Creig Flessel:

Creig Flessel (born February 2, 1912, in Huntington, Long Island, New York) began his cartooning career with DC Comics in 1935, and was a prolific cover artist in the earliest days of the medium, including work on the seminal titles Detective Comics and More Fun Comics. After his tenure at DC Comics, he spent many years illustrating ads for the Johnstone and Cushing Advertising Company. In the following decades, Flessel's work appeared in such diverse publications as Boys' Life, Clues Detective Stories and Playboy, as well as the syndicated comic strip feature David Crane.

In 2000, Flessel and his wife Marie moved from the East Coast to Mill Valley, California, where he continues to create art for local events and talent shows. Among his many achievements, Flessel received a Comic-Con International Inkpot Award in 1991, and was honored with the National Cartoonists Society Silver T-Square Award for Extraordinary Service in 1992. In October 2007, Flessel received the Sparky Award from the Cartoon Art Museum and the Charles M. Schulz Museum.

Small Press Spotlight
featuring Joey Sayers

January 26 - May 4, 2008




Starting on January 26, 2008, the Cartoon Art Museum's ongoing Small Press Spotlight will feature the art of Joey Sayers.

Joey Sayers is a cartoonist living in Oakland, California. She has been drawing comics since she was very young. Her first strip, P.O.W. (Play on Words), drawn at age 7 was considered hilarious by herself and her co-author/father.

Joey's weekly comic strip, Thingpart, runs in a handful of alternative newsweeklies around the country as well as the music website Daytrotter. Her other strip, The Machine That Travels Through Time is a regular feature in MAD Magazine. She's self-published more than twenty-five mini-comics, including three anthologies.

Joey has successfully battled appendicitis.

Her first book, Teen Power, was published in May 2007 by Little Otsu publishing. The book collects the two previously self-published mini-comics Passing Periods and Absolute Power. Passing Periods was also excerpted in the 2005 Best American Nonrequired Reading anthology published by Houghton Mifflin, in which editor Dave Eggers refers to her comics as "one of the funniest things we'd ever seen." Her comic Your New Religion was listed as "Notable Nonrequired Reading" in 2007's Best American Nonrequired Reading.

Joey Sayers played the clarinet in the symphonic band all through secondary school. She quit when it became mandatory to play in the marching band as she thought it unfair to support the well-funded football team while simultaneously selling candy bars to finance the band.

Joey's second book, Le Ciel, will be published in Switzerland by Castagnieee in May and collects the first three issues of her comic The Sky translated into French.

About the Small Press Spotlight:

San Francisco has been a hotbed of innovative, groundbreaking comic art since the late 1800s with the advent of the modern comic strip. In the1960s, the Bay Area gained further notoriety when the underground comix movement launched from San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. Today, some of the biggest names in alternative and small-press comics hail from the Bay Area, and the Cartoon Art Museum's Small Press Spotlight focuses on the works of these talented individuals.

Cartoonist in Residence: Justin Hall
Saturday, December 8th, 2007 from 1pm to 3pm

Free and open to the public



The Cartoon Art Museum hosts experimental artist Justin Hall as part of its ongoing Cartoonist-in-Residence program. Visit the museum between 1pm and 3pm on Saturday, December 8, 2007 to meet Justin and talk with him about his artwork.

San Francisco-based Justin Hall is the creator of True Travel Tales, Hard To Swallow and the Xeric Award-winning A Sacred Text. His work has also appeared in various anthologies and publications such as the Houghton Miflin Best American Comics 2006 and the S.F. Bay Guardian. Hall's comics and fine art have been shown in galleries and museums in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and he served as curator for the Cartoon Art Museum exhibition No Straight Lines, the world's first museum show devoted to queer cartoonists. Examples of his work can be seen at his website http://www.allthumbspress.com.


This event is free and open to the public.

About the Cartoonist-in-Residence Program:

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 Grady Klein (The Lost Colony) among many others.

Manga Conquers America: The Whole Story

A Presentation by Jason Thompson

A Talk with the Author of Manga: The Complete Guide
and WIRED Magazine's How Manga Conquered America

Thursday, December 6, 2007 7:00pm to 9:00pm

7:00 pm Presentation by Jason Thompson
8:15 pm Book-signing
Both Events Free and Open to the Public



For some people, the manga boom in American bookstores may seem like it came out of nowhere—but actually, manga has been in the U.S. long enough for the first generation of fans to be grandparents. In the November 2007 issue of WIRED magazine, manga critic Jason Thompson took us back to 1963, when Astro Boy first appeared on U.S. television, and 1987, when the first manga made it to U.S. comic stores, to 2002, when the boom really took off. But did you know about the very first manga-influenced comics in America were published all the way back in the 1970s? Do you know the tragic tale of Raijin Comics, America's first attempt at a weekly manga magazine? Or the unsung dreamers who produced the first translated manga? And you haven't lived until you've experienced the Sailor Moon-meets-hip-hop stylings of MixxZine!

The Cartoon Art Museum proudly presents an evening with Jason Thompson, manga editor and author. In October, Del Rey released Thompson's Manga: The Complete Guide, an encyclopedia of 1200+ Japanese comics available in English, most of them reviewed by Thompson himself. Thompson will present an all-new, illustrated presentation on the history of manga in America, with material never before seen in English, followed by a Q&A about the manga market in America, how manga is licensed and edited, and his own experiences in the industry. Thompson will be signing Manga: The Complete Guide. Other Manga: The Complete Guide contributors will also be present. Whether you're a manga newbie or a diehard fujoshi or otaku, it'll be a manga-studded evening which will expand your mind like you've been punched by Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star!

About Jason Thompson

Jason Thompson has over ten years' experience as a manga editor, producing the English editions of titles such as The Drifting Classroom, Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball Z, Hana-Kimi, One Piece, Shaman King, YuYu Hakusho and Uzumaki. As the first editor of VIZ Media's SHONEN JUMP magazine, he helped launch Japan's #1 bestselling manga magazine in America. His writings on manga appear regularly in Otaku USA magazine, and have also appeared in The Comics Journal, PULP and Animerica. His webcomic The Stiff is available at http://www.girlamatic.com.

The Art and Flair of Mary Blair

Opening Reception: Tuesday, December 4, 2007
7:00-9:00pm

Free and open to the public



Join the Cartoon Art Museum for a reception celebrating The Art and Flair of Mary Blair on Tuesday, December 4, 2007, from 7:00 to 9:00pm. Special guests will include Kevin Blair, son of artist Mary Blair, and Blair aficionado Pete Docter, Director of Pixar Studios' Monsters, Inc.

This event is free and open to the public.

To preview additional images from this exhibition, please visit exhibition curator Andrew Farago's blog.

About the exhibition:

The Cartoon Art Museum is proud to present The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, a retrospective exhibition of the work of famed animation designer Mary Blair (1911-1978). One of the first women to work as a concept artist for Disney, Blair was responsible for the look of some of the key Disney films of the 1940s and 1950s including Cinderella and Peter Pan. Her colorful, charming geometric designs, synonymous with 1950s style, appeared in advertisements and children’s books. Perhaps her most famous creation, however, is the Disneyland attraction “It’s A Small World,” which Blair originally designed for the 1964 World’s Fair. She was posthumously recognized as a Disney Legend in 1991 and was honored with a Winsor McCay animation award in 1996.

This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition includes more than 50 pieces of original artwork, with an array of Blair’s groundbreaking concept art for classic Disney feature films including Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Peter Pan, Disney shorts such as The Little House, Johnny Appleseed, and Susie, The Little Blue Coupe, and Disney theme parks and attractions, including “It’s A Small World.”

The Art and Flair of Mary Blair showcases the full scope of Blair’s career as an artist and illustrator, including early watercolor paintings, commercial illustrations for such clients as Hanes, Pall Mall, and Baker’s Chocolate, a selection of Blair’s fine art, unpublished family photographs, and children’s book illustrations, including pages from the classic Little Golden Book I Can Fly.

November Cartoonist-in-Residence
Keith Knight

Saturday, November 17th, 2007 from 1:00 to 3:00pm
Free and open to the public




The Cartoon Art Museum hosts 2007 Harvey Award-winning cartoonist Keith Knight, creator of the self-syndicated comics The K Chronicles and (th)ink, seen locally in the S.F. Chronicle's 96 Hours, on Saturday, November 17th from 1pm to 3pm as part of its ongoing Cartoonist-in-Residence program. Museum visitors will be offered the chance to watch Knight at work and chat with him about cartooning.

Knight will be selling and autographing copies of the 2008 Little Vics/Mega-mix Cartoon Calendar and the latest (th)ink collection, "Are We Feeling Safer Yet?" as well as other merchandise, including book collections of The K Chronicles, canvas tote bags and calendars.

About the Author

Keith Knight is an award-winning cartoonist whose two self-syndicated comic strips, the K Chronicles and (th)ink, can be found in over 35 alternative weekly, college, and daily newspapers and websites nationwide. He’s also a frequent contributor to Mad Magazine and ESPN the Magazine. For more information about the artist, please visit his website at http://www.kchronicles.com, or send an email to keef@kchronicles.com. Review copies of Knight's books are available to the media upon request.



This event is free and open to the public.

About the Cartoonist-in-Residence Program:

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), Paige Braddock (Jane's World), Michael Jantze (The Norm) and Grady Klein (The Lost Colony) among many others.

Cartoonist in Residence: Isis Rodriguez
Saturday, November 10th, 2007 from 1pm to 3pm

Free and open to the public



The Cartoon Art Museum hosts experimental artist Isis Rodriguez as part of its ongoing Cartoonist-in-Residence program. Visit the museum between 1pm and 3pm on Saturday, November 10, 2007 to meet Isis and talk with her about her artwork.

Isis Rodriguez is an experimental cartoon artist known for using a variety of artistic media and formats, including murals, paintings, silk screens, graffiti, flyers and posters. She is a second-generation Mid-Western Latina who grew up in Topeka, Kansas. After receiving her BFA in Painting in 1988, she moved to San Francisco. Isis worked on murals for the Clarion Alley Mural Project in San Francisco from 1993 to 2002 and as a result, she emerged as one of the artists from an ad hoc artistic movement known as "The Mission School.” She is the creator of the “glyphtoon," a cartoon that is fused with letters, numbers, and objects.

Since then she has had numerous art exhibits both nationally and internationally, from Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to the Museum Timoteo Navarro in Tucumán, Argentina. Her artwork has been critiqued and published in several books and magazines. Isis is currently working on a new series of cartoons for a solo show at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara entitled “Cartoons from the Indigenous I.”

This event is free and open to the public.

About the Cartoonist-in-Residence Program:

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 Grady Klein (The Lost Colony) among many others.

The Art and Flair of Mary Blair

October 27, 2007 - March 18, 2008

Reception December 4, 2007





"Mention the name Mary Blair, and few will recognize it. But say she designed 'Alice In Wonderland,' the 'It's A Small World' ride at Disneyland, and painted many of the most popular Little Golden Books, and people will 'Oh yeah!' in recognition. Few others working in animation in the '40s and '50s were as innovative, interesting, and accessible as Mary Blair. Through her unique color styling and graphically strong shape language, her work pushed animation design in a different direction towards a more evocative, suggested feeling of the subject matter.

"Blair's work is decidedly not realistic, but it evokes powerful emotions in the audience. Her sense of color defies logical explanation, yet somehow feels emotionally perfect. No wonder Walt Disney loved her work. Like animation itself, her paintings were a caricature of real life; more intensely evocative of the thing than the thing itself."

--Pete Docter, Director of "Monsters, Inc.," Pixar Animation Studios

*******

The Cartoon Art Museum is proud to present The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, a retrospective exhibition of the work of famed animation designer Mary Blair (1911-1978). One of the first women to work as a concept artist for Disney, Blair was responsible for the look of some of the key Disney films of the 1940s and 1950s including Cinderella and Peter Pan. Her colorful, charming geometric designs, synonymous with 1950s style, appeared in advertisements and children’s books. Perhaps her most famous creation, however, is the Disneyland attraction “It’s A Small World,” which Blair originally designed for the 1964 World’s Fair. She was posthumously recognized as a Disney Legend in 1991 and was honored with a Winsor McCay animation award in 1996.

This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition includes more than 50 pieces of original artwork, with an array of Blair’s groundbreaking concept art for classic Disney feature films including Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Peter Pan, Disney shorts such as The Little House, Johnny Appleseed, and Susie, The Little Blue Coupe, and Disney theme parks and attractions, including “It’s A Small World.”

The Art and Flair of Mary Blair showcases the full scope of Blair’s career as an artist and illustrator, including early watercolor paintings, commercial illustrations for such clients as Hanes, Pall Mall, and Baker’s Chocolate, a selection of Blair’s fine art, unpublished family photographs, and children’s book illustrations, including pages from the classic Little Golden Book I Can Fly.

Information regarding the December 4 opening reception and additional programming will be announced as details are confirmed.

Small Press Spotlight
featuring Hellen Jo

September 22, 2007 - January 6, 2008



Hellen Jo is a cartoonist and musician living in San Francisco. She is a Bay Area native who, like countless others, abandoned San Jose after high school for more northern climes. In college, she was introduced to the miracle of zines and graphic novels, as well as the warm Bay Area comics community. Properly inspired, she self-published three issues of an autobiographical comic zine, komisches buch, and regularly contributed comics to the Asian-American student publication hardboiled. One semester after declaring her major (German), she dropped out of college. Afterwards she created Paralysis, a teenage horror story and her first full-length comic zine, followed by Blister No.1, an uncompleted coming-of-age serial comic.

Hellen has contributed to several anthologies, including Broad Appeal, The Girls' Guide to Guys' Stuff, and Exactly, an 826 Valencia publication. Her comics and illustrations have been printed in Giant Robot magazine, Hyphen magazine, the East Bay Express, San Francisco magazine, and publications produced by Kearny Street Workshop's APAture and the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. She has also provided illustrations for Bay Area bands including the Clarendon Hills, the Skyflakes, Knulla Roofs, the Mothballs, the Makes Nice and Dreamdate.

Currently, Hellen is a 2D animation student at the Academy of Art University and part-time film festival box office cashier. She recently completed a residency at the Asian Art Museum and continues to work on a new graphic novel. Hellen also plays cello in the beloved pop band Scrabbel and the much-maligned noise junta Thundershevitz.

About the Small Press Spotlight:

San Francisco has been a hotbed of innovative, groundbreaking comic art since the late 1800s with the advent of the modern comic strip. In the1960s, the Bay Area gained further notoriety when the underground comix movement launched from San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. Today, some of the biggest names in alternative and small-press comics hail from the Bay Area, and the Cartoon Art Museum's Small Press Spotlight focuses on the works of these talented individuals.

The opening reception for this exhibition takes place on Thursday, October 4, from 5pm to 8pm, as part of the Cartoon Art Museum's "First Thursday" programming. Visitors will be able to view Hellen Jo's artwork and hear Hellen Jo's music as she performs with her band Thundershevitz.

This reception is free and open to the public.

Longtime Cartoon Art Museum friend and supporter Phil Frank has passed away at the age of 64.

Please visit http://www.sfgate.com/philfrank/ for more information about this wonderful artist and human being.

For Immediate Release: August 27, 2007
Contact: Summerlea Kashar, 415-227-8666 ext. 300


The Cartoon Art Museum proudly presents two very special programs at Pixar Animation Studios on Saturday, September 15, 2007:

The Cartoon Art Museum presents
Fourth Annual Benefit
At Pixar Animation Studios

Saturday, September 15, 2007
6:00-9:30 PM

Get an insiders’ perspective on the mastery behind Pixar's computer animated creations. This special evening takes place at Pixar's Emeryville campus.

6pm to 7pm: Wine, hors d'oeuvres and access to a stunning gallery exhibition featuring the pre-production artwork from Ratatouille, as well as other fine artwork by Pixar employees.

7pm to 8:45pm: Guests will be escorted into Pixar's state-of-the-art theater for a presentation hosted by Dr. Michael B. Johnson, lead, Moving Pictures Group at Pixar Featured guest speakers will include:

Sharon Calahan (Director of Photography: Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life),
Dylan Brown (Supervising Animator: Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2)
Mark Andrews (Story Supervisor: Ratatouille, The Incredibles)
Plus a premiere screening of “Our Friend the Rat” with commentary by director Jim Capobianco

8:45 pm to 9:30pm: Coffee and desserts while guests have an opportunity to converse with the speakers and other Pixar employees.

This event is expected to sell out quickly and there are only a limited number of seats available.

Tickets: $200 ($150 for Cartoon Art Museum members) Save money and become a member of the Cartoon Art Museum today!

Reserved tables for ten are available for $2,500. Treat your friends or employees to an evening of animated fun.

Call 415-227-8666, ext. 300 to purchase tickets. Tickets will not be sold at the door.

All proceeds from this benefit are tax-deductible and benefit the Cartoon Art Museum.

*****

The Cartoon Art Museum presents
First Annual Family Fun Day
at Pixar Animation Studios

Saturday, September 15, 2007
1:00 – 3:30pm


The Cartoon Art Museum announces its first annual Family Fun Day and benefit at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, CA.

Get a glimpse of what a day as a new Pixar artist feels like. Experience for yourself how Pixar artists think dimensionally. Learn how to make cartoons by getting creative in all dimensions; from two dimensional drawing to moving objects through time and space. Participate in exclusive workshops led by Pixar professionals featuring acting, drawing, and storytelling.

You will be able to go behind the scenes at Pixar's private studio facility to view in-house only exhibitions, including original pre-production artwork from Ratatouille.

Finally, finish the day by going to Pixar's state-of-the-art theater for a hand picked selection of Pixar shorts.

Tickets: $125/person, ($90 - CAM Members)
Family Ticket for 4 people: $450, ($300 - CAM Members)

This event is intended for attentive, curious minds, ages 5 and up. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Treat your friends and family to an afternoon of animated fun. Call 415-227-8666, ext. 300 to purchase tickets. Tickets will not be sold at the door.

All proceeds from the Family Fun Day benefit are tax-deductible and benefit youth programming at the Cartoon Art Museum.

About the Cartoon Art Museum

Founded in 1984, the Cartoon Art Museum is the only museum in the western United States dedicated to all forms of cartoons and comics. The Cartoon Art Museum was started by a group of cartoonists and collectors who wanted to share their appreciation of this unique art form with the rest of the world. The Museum is dedicated to the collection, preservation, study and exhibition of original cartoon art in all forms to benefit historians, cartoonists, journalists, artists, collectors and the general public. Children's programming includes on-site classes, school and camp tours and a collaboration with 826 Valencia.

About Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar Animation Studios combines creative and technical artistry to create original stories in the medium of computer animation. Pixar has created seven of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time: </i>Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars</i> and now Ratatouille. Pixar has won 20 Academy Awards® and its six films have grossed more than $3.2 billion at the worldwide box office to date.

August Cartoonist-in-Residence: Paige Braddock
Creator of Jane's World

Saturday, August 18, 2007 from 2pm to 4pm

Free and open to the public




The Cartoon Art Museum hosts cartoonist Paige Braddock on Saturday, August 18 from 2pm to 4pm as part of its ongoing Cartoonist-in-Residence program. Museum visitors will have the chance to watch Braddock at work and chat with her about cartooning.

About the Cartoonist:

Paige Braddock is the Creative Director at Charles M. Schulz’s studio in California and creator of the Eisner-nominated comic book Jane’s World. Braddock graduated with a degree in fine art from the University of Tennessee and, after graduation, worked as an illustrator for The Chicago Tribune, The Atlanta Constitution and The Orlando Sentinel. Currently, Braddock has teamed up with local SF comic writer Jason McNamara to create a sci-fi comedy comic set on Mars. The Martian Confederacy is due to release spring 2008.

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), Erik Kriek (Gutsman Comics), Michael Jantze (The Norm) and Grady Klein (The Lost Colony), among many others.

The Making Comics 50 State Tour:
An Evening with Scott McCloud

Thursday, August 23rd
7:00 - 9:00pm

$5 General Admission, FREE for Cartoon Art Museum Members
Please call (415) CAR-TOON, ext. 314 for reservations



To celebrate the HarperCollins release of Making Comics, author and comics scholar Scott McCloud and his family are visiting all 50 states (plus a country or three) from September 2006 to September 2007. The Cartoon Art Museum is proud to host the award-winning cartoonist for a special appearance on Thursday, August 23, 2007. McCloud will take part in an informal Question-and-Answer session beginning at 7:00pm with a booksigning to follow.

Admission to this event is $5 for the general public and free for members of the Cartoon Art Museum. Seating is limited. Please call (415) CAR-TOON, ext. 314 for reservations.

About Scott McCloud:

Scott McCloud is the award-winning creator of Zot!, Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics. His books are available in sixteen languages. Sin City creator Frank Miller called him "just about the smartest guy in comics." Please visit http://www.scottmccloud.com for more information.