Looking Backward

I'm writing this as a bit of an addendum to the VANITY FAIR article on the early years of Cal Arts.

I'm pleased and honored to have been included in the list of interviewees, and think that the article is a good snapshot of that time. But like a snapshot, it only shows a few details, while others are fuzzy, and there may be distortions to the image. This post will attempt to bring one issue in particular back into focus.

One attitude that prevailed at that time was that if you weren't going to Disney you weren't going anywhere. After all, the Cal Arts program had been set up to retrain artists for the Disney studio as the older artists retired. We ate, breathed and learned from Disney films (This monolithic attitude began to crack in our second year, thanks to my classmate Darrell van Citters, who arranged visits after hours from artists Michael Maltese, Mike Lah, Maurice Noble and Ed Love as a hint of what else was out there.) Cal Arts sponsored a talk by Chuck Jones and another by Richard Williams.

Frans Vischer "Fuddles" Again

Frans Vischer's self=caricature.

Animator Frans Vischer has a side project that he has nurtured for several years, a comic series called Fuddles. He talked to FLIP about it, as well as his second Fuddles book, A Very Fuddles Christmas, which was released today.

FLIP: You were part of the big Disney animation layoff back in April.  How have things gone since then?
Frans: I’m doing pretty well.  I do miss the studio and the people there, but my immediate reaction was to take this as an opportunity.  My second Fuddles book was long finished and awaiting publication, so here was a chance to focus on kids books.  I’ve been splitting time between my book work and free-lance animation and illustration, whatever pays the bills.  I’ve been working steadily for Renegade Animation, Darrell Van Citters’ company, doing digital illustrations for Scholastic, and I have about a dozen picture book ideas in various states that I’m playing with.

Mr. Future, At Last We Meet

I told you about my new short, Chief Your Butt's on Fire last week, and how it took thirteen years to complete.  My last shorts, The Indescribable Nth and Fractured Fairy Tales: The Phox, the Box and the Lox, were both completed in 1999 - that's right, the 20th century.

Here we are in the second decade of the 21st century, the year to which Marty McFly time travels in Back to the Future, and don't you know - it really IS the future.   When my wife looked into film festival submissions, film was not an option for many of them.  They wanted something called a DCP - Digital Cinema Package.  Why?  BECAUSE IT"S THE FUTURE!

My new "film".