MO AT MOMA

HEY!

Have I ever mentioned that 

my work is

in the

Museum of Modern Art?

Okay...

so it's not in the actual 

MUSEUM.

It's in the store:

And 

OKAY...

it's not just 

MY

work.

It's 

really

this

guy's

thing:

But I really

 DID

help make this:

And now they're selling it at 

MOMA

in

NYC!

And to celebrate,

Mr. Willems will be at their 

SOHO store

on February 2nd!

Check it:

To launch the Spring 2013 season of our Soho Children's Events, 

we are excited to be joined by beloved children's author Mo Willems 

who will be presenting an interactive project for children ages 4-8

 based on his new title Don’t let the Pigeon Finish the Activity Book. 

 The event will be held on Saturday, February 2 at 11:00am 

at the lower level MoMA Design Store in Soho 

(81 Spring Street at Crosby Street). 

 We look forward to seeing you and the kids there!

You know I'd love to be there 

to tear up the stage

with Mo 

like we did

back in October,

but don't let that stop you 

from showing up and 

giving Mr. Willems

the love

if you can!

MY ANIMATION DISC

As I've mentioned 

eleventy hundred and five times on this blog,

my first job in animation was at 

Buzzco Associates

back in 1990.

I was only there for less than a year,

but I learned a ton

and met many people who became 

good friends, 

heroes 

and 

mentors.

One of them was a guy named Gordon Bellamy.

He was an assistant animator on the theatrical short

Buzzco was making based on the Rudyard Kipling story,

The Maltese Cat.

Gordon couldn't have been a nicer guy.

He was in his early 50's.

Bright eyed behind little round glasses.

A comforting Southern twang.

Crimson suspenders.

Balding save the anachronistic rat-tail he wore

which gave hint to his musical tastes.

REM

Jesus Jones

Blue Aeroplanes

The English Beat

You know...

the stuff all us college kids 

were listening to at the time.

It was really strange

to have an

'old guy'

introduce me to

Nine Inch Nails.

(and awesome)

Anyway...

one day while we were working,

this conversation went down:

Gordon:  Hey, Tom.

Me:  Yeah?

Gordon:  You got an animation disc?

Me: Um... no.

Gordon:  Want one?

And I was all like--

Whaaaaaaaaaa?!?!

For those of you unfamiliar,

an animation disc is

the round frame for the glass that goes over a lightbox.

It has specified pegs that registered animation paper fits onto

and can turn to help the animator draw at any angle he or she wants.

Here's an example from the 

Beavis and Butthead years

at J.J. Sedelmaier Productions:

In this day of CGI and Cintiqs,

they're pretty much obsolete.

But back then,

owning an animation disc 

was like having your own car.

(Well, maybe a cheap used car)

They were expensive!

And Gordon was going 

to GIVE me one!

But not just any disc...

 Mr. Bellamy was handing 

his own personal disc down to me!

He had been looking for some 

young up-and-coming kid to give it to the same way

it had been given to him.

And to that person before.

On the back was a piece of tape with all

"the folks who this disc owned previously"

The first was legendary Disney animator 

Fred Moore!

Whoa...

How cool is THAT?!

The second owner was...

um...

Well...

See...

that piece of tape?

It eventually dried up and crumbled away.

And I don't remember who the 2nd person was.

It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it.

The third person was Gordon.

But he passed away years ago 

so I can't even ask who gave it to him.

And the fourth was

ME!

Here it is today:

The sliding peg bar was gone long before I got it.

The bottom pegs have also gone missing.

They weren't the standard Acme used in my day,

so I had a plastic peg bar taped on the glass.

I can't find pictures of any of my home desks with the disc

except this one...

taken during some late night JJSP project.

The poor thing gets no love these days.

I can't even remember the last time I 

actually animated anything myself.

Even if I did,

odds are it wouldn't be on paper.

What's worse...

there's no enthusiastic young kid for me to hand it down to,

except maybe for nostalgic reasons.

But that's okay.

I think I'd have a hard time parting with it.

Wanna learn more about animation discs?

Wanna see an old desk I worked at?

Of course, you do!

So head on over to Imprint Magazine

and check out

J.J. Sedelmaier's comprehensive post

on animation discs and peg bars.

It's jam-packed with pics of animation gear 

from ages past!

(and my old desk at JJSP!)

And it's all right

HERE!

TKG's ANIME-STYLE KND!

TKG is amazing.

TKG makes me happy.

TKG rocks

because TKG made these:

Uh huh.

TKG,

a Japanese artist

who does brilliant KND fan art,

has done illustrations depicting a bunch of KND episodes...

ANIME STYLE!!!

Check it:

Um...

Cartoon Network?

We need to talk about doing 

a Japanese version of KND in this style.

LOVE IT!

To see more go 

HERE

and click on the pic to 

scroll through all the images.

SUBARASHII, TKG-SAN!

Utsukushii no e desu yo!

SONIA AND THE PIGEON

Okay...

Take this adorable 3.5 year old...

Give her this...

And that'll keep her busy for

TEN DAYS!

Our child just finished a 10-day long obsession with one of her Christmas presents.... 

During that time, she watched less TV, her scissor skills skyrocketed, 

her ability to write her own name improved, 

and she discovered that she is pretty darn good at drawing pigeons.  

What is this gift I'm raving about?  

An activity book by Mo Willems called 

Don't Let the Pigeon Finish This Activity Book!,

 which is related to a hilarious series of picture books 

about an ornery Pigeon with big dreams.

For 

LOTS

more

say 

hi 

to 

Sonia

over 

HERE!

Thanks for the awesome review!

THANKS FROM THE PRINTLAB!

Wow!

That was a

LONG

holiday season 

for

the mighty 

printlab!

Thanks to everyone who ordered a print

and kept me on my toes 

drawing sooper fun

sketchcards!

Sooper big

congrats go out to 

Madi

for winning the 

KND MICROS

prize we announced 

over

HERE!

And while the free sketchcard offer is over,

printlab is still open

for business!

Why not stop in and 

look around?

IHAVE4CATZ

Actually...

I don't have any catz.

But Fish Hooks 

co-executive producer/director 

William Reiss 

does.

He also has an 

amazing talent for 

caricature 

and uses that sooper power

to make really fun animated gifs

like this:

He posts them on his tumblr page,

the aforementioned

ihave4catz.

Here's some other 

stuff you'll see there:

And there's lots more to love,

ESPECIALLY

if you like

Lady Gaga.

(Bill likes Lady Gaga)

Check out 

ihave4catz

over

HERE!

And if you like his art,

you oughta buy 

something 

at his

 online store

over

HERE!

THE FINAL DAYS OF FREE SKETCHCARDS

THIS IS IT!

The last couple days of the

mighty 

printlab's

EXTENDED

SOOPER BONUS

FREE SKETCHCARD OFFER!!!

Many

many

awesome 

sketchcards

have been drawn

for sooper fans like

you...

you...

and YOU and YOU and YOU!

(but I forgot to take pictures of those)

Thursday, January 16th

is the last day 

you can get your free sketchcard

with any 

printlab

order.

Which is pretty awesome.

But what if it got 

AWESOMER?

What if the

THIRD PERSON 

who orders before the 

January 16th deadline

were to get a 

sooper

double 

free

bonus

prize?

Something

like

this:

Uh huh.

That's a sooper rare

no-longer-in-stores

set of KND MICROS

(Miniature Insanely Cool Realistic Operative Spies)

I'll even sign the box.

So if you're lucky...

and you're the third person

to order a print...

it's all yours!

But remember:

• only one sketchcard per customer

so if you already got one...

that's it.

• only one character per card

• you get what you get and you don't get upset

• and unfortunately, we still can't take international orders.

sorry about that.

CARTOON NETWORK HOLIDAY GIFT

Okay, 

I've got 

TWO

kinds of 

THANKS

to 

Cartoon Network

for this year's sooper cool holiday gift.

The first kind of thanks:

HEARTFELT

Dear Cartoon Network,

Thanks for the 

CN 20th Anniversary Book!

It's BEAUTIFUL

and chock full of 

brilliant interpretations of 

your shows by a face-melting assortment of 

hip, contemporary artists!

Gorgeous

Fun

and

Inspiring!

There was a great gallery show at Comic-Con 

last year where you debuted a bunch of the originals,

but it's great to see ALL the pieces in this art book.

So please accept my heartfelt

THANKS

for such a great gift!

My second kind of thanks?

SARCASTIC:

Dear Cartoon Network,

Thanks 

SO MUCH 

for creating a 

20th anniversary art show

with artist's interpretation of all your series...

AND NOT INCLUDING

CODENAME: KIDS NEXT DOOR.

WTF?

(and no Ed, Edd and Eddy, either?)

Annoying

Upsetting

and 

Insulting.

Ugh.

CHRIS BURDEN'S 2x4 TECHNOLOGY

When I was at the 

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

a couple weeks ago,

I definitely had to go see

Chris Burden's

METROPOLIS II:

No matter how many times I've see it,

I always wanna see it again.

Obviously it's 2x4 Technology at it's finest...

which the museum's description

neglects to mention:

Chris Burden's Metropolis II is an intense kinetic sculpture, 

modeled after a fast paced, frenetic modern city. 

Steel beams form an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate 

system of 18 roadways, including one 6 lane freeway, and HO scale train tracks. 

Miniature cars speed through the city at 240 scale miles per hour; every hour,

 the equivalent of approximately 100,000 cars circulate through the dense network of buildings. 

According to Burden, "The noise, the continuous flow of the trains, 

and the speeding toy cars, produces in the viewer the 

stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21^st Century city."

Numbuh Two would be proud!
And needless to say, kids will sit and watch this forever. For a more detailed look at this awesome sculpture go on over HERE!

FREE SKETCHCARD OFFER SOOPER BONUS EXTENDED

SOOPER GIANT 

WOW!

The response to the annual holiday 

free sketchcard offer 

over at the mighty printlab

has been 

OFF THE CHARTS!

(I'm gonna need bigger charts!)

So you know what?

Since I've got such a good feeling about 2013... 

Let's get wild...

And extend the 

free sketchcard offer

for another 2 weeks!

That's right!

with any printlab order

you'll get a 

hand-drawn 

sooper original

one-of-a-kind 

sketchcard of the character of your choice

for all kinds of 

FREE.

But there are rules, you know:

• One sketchcard per person

• One character per card

and

• You get what you get and don't get upset

You've got until January 16th, 2013.

For more details...

head on down to the 

printlab

over 

HERE!

And if you're looking for a taste 

of what an order kinda looks like...

I just got my print in the mail

aw ye

his handwriting is so funky 

but then there’s more in the envelope!!! what

it’s that keychain!!!!!! wh

trading cards??!! with stick-ahs??

oh my god I knew they existED BUT NO ONE TOLD ME THEY’D COME WITH MY PRINT

oh my god

www thank’s Mr. Warbuton you’re too nice!!!

!!!!!

Oh... and this one, too:

((OOC: Thanks Mr.Warburton! -Best Christmas EVER!))

((OOC: Wow, I know I don’t make completely out of character posts but wow, I just felt the need to flaunt  share these totally and absolutely Delightful presents my parents got for me today as presents from Mr. Warburtons mighty printlab!!!

Seriously, who couldn’t love this absolutely amazing Delightful Children print? :) My parent’s even put it in a fancy frame, haha

And then there’s the awesome sketchcard he did of them! That some of you probably already saw on his tumblr, it is now framed too :D

But wait! There is more!!!

There’s this super neat p.r.o.f.i.l.e pamphlet chock full of neat facts about the show before it even aired! And a cool m.e.s.s.a.g.e b.o.a.r.d that can hide my evil plans  I mean, silly pointless writing! Eheheh

And last but not least, a card pack of KND Trading Cards, and a really awesome keychain of the shows logo, which I would totally put on my backpack if I wasn’t so paranoid that it could fall off ^^;

All in All I consider this Christmas absolutely Delightful~ Seriously people, buy stuff from his printlab, you won’t regret it! :D ))