Fred Seibert's Blog

The Animation Pimp By Chris Robinson (published by AWN/Thompson, June 2007)

I read an awful that has nothing to do directly with animation and that probably wouldn’t really interest our blog readers. So when I do, like I’ve been lately, I don’t post either, which is kind of dumb. The last few weeks I’ve been catching up with stuff I shouldn’t have been neglecting. Like  The Animation Pimp (disclaimer: I think he says a nice thing about yours truly in the book).

Many of you know about Chris Robinson as the director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, but the sharper among you might have read his five years of columns at AWN called “The Animation Pimp” (or his TAP blog) which were edited and collected last year in this book of the same name. Influenced and inspired by writers wonderful and just awful, Chris is that rare thing in animation, a non-fanboy, serious thinker and writer. There’s a glimpse of that kind of thinking (though sometimes shallow in their narrowness) in Amid Amidi’s Cartoon Brew posts , and in The Animation Journal (great thinking, rarely good writing). Chris tries to inject soberness in his editing of the ASIFA Magazine but, geez, serious is as serious does, and it’s a little too dour for me sometimes.

But I have to say, as often as Chris irritates me with his overly stylized prose, he’s a lot of fun. And strangely enough, “fun” is not really a word one thinks of in animation writing. How dumb is that?

Everyone who gives a damn about animation or cartoons (though Chris doesn’t have that much interest in the cartoon subset it seems) ought to just flip over to his columns or buy the book right away. It’s rare that anyone provokes real thought in my head about what we do (unless it’s my own team, or John K, or Amid) and The Animation Pimp sure does. And in book form it’s way different than monthly columns too. Altogether in one spot, read in a short period of time, Chris’ incitement to dare to think differently, to even dismiss the form he’s writing about, is refreshing, liberating, and ultimately exciting. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my thoughts, or maybe I’ve been doing things with them all along, but I’m thankful to Chris for resurrecting them in me. Maybe he’ll do the same for you.

Some people get their cultural from comics, or movies, or the ponies. Me, it’s work, music, and books. And when my friend and NNN/tumblr investor Bijan Sabet posted about Goodreads, which he said was “sort of like last.fm for books” it reminded me what a reading junkie I am. Interestingly, my years in cartoons have once again proven to me that even the most interesting animators are the most curious, often well read, people. So, while I’m on vacation, aside from reading, I thought it might be useful to review my year’s reading list so far. Since I now read almost everything on my Kindle, my shelves aren’t quite as burdened as the picture above, but, it’s still a heavy load.

(By the way, for those who wonder, like I do, when I get the time, I read in the elevator, the subway, taxis, airplanes, and when I put my kids to bed.)

I’m not going to post about the billions of picture books I’m always getting (like the incredible “Wacky Packages”, a must have,

a five Frederator read ) because this post would go on even longer.

Rhythm and the Blues by Jerry Wexler and David Ritts

(a four Frederator read)

I posted when I started this book last week. It follows the story of an atheist New York Jew who fell in love with the rhythm of Black America and found his love in bringing the story to the world. The great record producer of everyone from Aretha Franklin to Ray Charles to Bob Dylan to Wilson Pickett (and hundreds more) Jerry is one of my prime professional role models and I’m inspired to hear his stories as often as I can. He follows the credo of “Does it have heart? Make it!”

Hit and Run by Lawrence Block

Mystery fiction is the beginning and the end for me. In fact, I can’t remember when the last time I read anything else. I love Lawrence Block because he writes genre books as if they were “serious” fiction, and I read him always ending up feeling more of the human condition when I’m done. Block is an exceptional writer [Read more…]

Scott Nash has been one of my great friends and closest colleagues for over 25 years, though I don’t think we’ve actually done anything together for at least 15. He not only illustrates and writes books, consults on graphic design, teaches, and produces animation and movies, Scott (and Tom Corey) designed the Nickelodeon logo for my agency.

Scott stopped by with Nancy and Dave to catch up and fill us in on his animated project The Uh-Ohs.

Scott’s been hiding his wife from me for 25 years, so I was thrilled to finally meet the talented Nancy Gibson-Nash, a collage artist. She’s quite lovely, so of course Scott kept her out of sight.

Dave Schlafman is an independent filmmaker designing and directing a great project with Scott, The Uh-Ohs, and he dropped in on Eric at Frederator/West a couple of weeks ago. Dave was working at Soup 2 Nuts when he and Scott met.

It was great seeing everyone, especially Nancy. (Oh OK, it was awesome hanging with Scott and Dave too.)

Illustration by Wes Bedrosian
     

I really like Steve Heller. He’s been really nice to me, but much more importantly he’s a true inspiration to thousands of people. World class Pentagram designer Paula Scher says “Steven Heller has been graphic design’s biggest fan,” and as usual Paula’s got it right. Aside from a 40+ year career as an awesome art director himself (he would inaccurately and self deprecatingly tell you that he didn’t have the talent, couldn’t teach gym, so he became an art director), and the co-chair of SVA’s graduate program in graphic design, he’s the author of more books about graphic design than anyone in history, over 100 at last count.

His home away from home, New York’s School of Visual Arts, hosted the opening of his Masters Series Exhibition last night. I was honored to be there.

It’s 11:21pm, Friday, July 20, 39 minutes before the official release of the new Harry Potter. I’m in line at the Maine Coast Book Store in Damariscotta, Maine (”We’re not online yet — someday!). I’m with over 300 fans (including my two boys and my wife)–most of whom are well over 16– waiting for our reserved copies of Harry Potter + the Deathly Hallows. I’d never been in Maine until six hours ago and standing in this small town with all this excitement is a fantastic introduction to the state. I’ve never stood in line for the release of anything and it’s thrilling to see that a book can motivate all these folks as much as a movie star. I can’t believe I left my camera at the hotel.

Jerry Beck was the one who kindly asked me to write an introduction for his upcoming book on great art from Hanna-Barbera and how neat it was in our contemporary culture. And I asked you what I should write and you gave me some great ideas.

I’m really late with this essay and I have no idea whether it’ll even be accepted. But I wanted to say thanks and share it with you all.

The Coolest Job
By Fred Seibert

One of my proudest working days was when I became the President of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1992. The coolest job at the coolest place.

When I first started traveling to LA in the late 70s I’d get a chill going past the Hanna-Barbera Cartoons building, wondering what kind of magic went on behind the imposing concrete screens. Just the studio name in plain black type up top screamed out to me. But my work had nothing to do with cartoons so there was really no reason to stop and go in. “I was a seven year old fan of Huckleberry Hound. Could you show me around your studio?”

Fifteen years later, in June 1990, I was at Universal Studios Florida on its opening day at the first Hanna-Barbera theme park ride. At the end of the ride they had a store, and I bought as much as I could hold, including a great watch. Months later, out to dinner with friend at a fancy restaurant, he asked “What’s that watch?” I said, “This is my Hanna Barbera watch; here’s Yogi, Scooby, Fred and the gang. What’s yours, a rolex?” My friend, Scott Sassa, was President of Turner Broadcasting and, fast-forwarding 18 months, he calls one day and says, “You know we just bought Hanna-Barbera. … You want to run it?” And I looked down and I had the same watch on. (It was 10:35am.)

We worked like hell to revive the magic and produce the greatest cartoons of a (new) generation. We plugged away almost as hard to make the building special. Painting it day-glo colors and putting up giant posters of the classic characters was a great rush. (Of course, that was before the neighborhood association threatened to sue, not to mention the purists in the building who wanted to keep the original post-office-beige color.) And searching the world for vintage toy collections of the company’s characters to decorate the offices was better than toys at Christmas.When Bill Hanna came into my office (originally his) and exclaimed, “Wow! It really looks like a cartoon studio now!” I knew I was in the right place.

If I was compiling a book like this to collect those feelings, Jerry Beck would be my first ten choices to do it. Here’s hoping his publisher will send over a case of them to share with family and friends.

A close friend of ours is writing a short deadline book on the imposing legacy of the Hanna-Barbera studios. It sounds like the fun book I’ve been waiting for for years. He’s been nice enough to ask me to write a preface, and, notwithstanding my halting ability to write, I’ve agreed.

Because how can I miss a chance to publicly acknowledge one of the great honors of my life? The chance to brush against greatness, to spend a little time around two of the men who helped me laugh throughout my life?

I’ve been given a little guidance, but I thought maybe you could help too. Here’s some of what’s been suggested all of which makes sense to me:

1. “When I became president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1992, I was most concerned with revitalizing an amazing heritage and legacy…”

2. How & why you started/purchased the H-B archive (the merchandise)

3. What it was like working with Bill and Joe. What influence they’ve had on your career.

And it’s safe to assume the author, one of our great historians, will cover all the facts on the characters and the series.

But, what would you want to hear from me?

When Ryan Sias came by today to say hello and drop off a copy of his new book he reminded me we hadn’t seen each other since last summer’s Licensing Show. It also reminded me that Ryan was one of the first entries on my blog when he pitched us his cartoon Courageous Critters.