Here it is! At long last the eagerly anticipated second part of……

The History of Animation According to me.

But before I get into it I need to let you guys know right from the get go,  that this episode of the Man vs. Art Podcast is heavy.  I mean really heavy.  It clocks in at over 90 minutes.  I went balls out on this one kiddos.  I started from the 1987 debut of the  Simpsons shorts on FOX’s Tracey Ullman show and went all the way to the present day.  I made a real effort to touch on as many key moments  in cartoon history as I could,  with that bombastic fiery passion you all have come to expect from me.

I gushed over the things I love like some sort of braying seal/James Lipton hybrid and I tore into the stuff  I hate like a drunken Wolverine slashing into a pack of Ninjas.

In other words, I kept it Raul.

This time it was a little different than part one because this time I was actually there and experienced it first hand for myself as an animation artist.  So at times I got a little worked up and perhaps a tad emotional.

FYI, this is a no B.S. zone.  Rest assured that I offer the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me Walt.

In producing this episode I  learned that there is no free lunch in Animation.  Never has been. The first hundred years of modern animation was no picnic!  Especially for the Artists.

Producing animation is tough.   It takes hard work, devotion, and vision.  Even animation that is “phoned in” or “hacked out” requires effort.

Animation has dealt with B.S. and adversity at every turn. But more importantly I learned  that  the greatest achievements in animation no matter the era,  always have the most humble of beginnings.

Do you remember where you were on  April 19, 1987? I do. I was watching Animation history being made.

That night was the very first appearance of The Simpsons in a 1:40 minute short interstitial on the Tracey Ullman Show.   This little Ghettomation ushered in a new era for cartoons and became one of the biggest most successful animation properties in history.

Don Bluth Corner

Don Bluth Single handedly saved 2D Animation in the early eighties with awesome awesomeness!

Don Bluth’s Space Ace

Don Bluth Draws Kimberly from Space Ace

Notice he is using a yellow Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencil.  It’s no secret Minions! You’ve heard me say it before! The magic pencil is the one you happen to have in your hand.

Here is Don’s youtube channel with some cool animation tutorials!

Disney’s The Black Cauldron 1985

80′s cartoons intro mix!

IMHO the Defenders of the Earth intro was EPIC!

Best Animated Feature Prologue EVER!

Awesome Ghettomation Parody of Saturday morning fun!

Slip and Fail by Jim Lujan

Channel Frederator!

Subscribe Here for Best Free Content on ITunes!

Bloat your IPOD with Channel Frederator’s Cartoon Goodness.

Newest Inductee to the Man vs. Art Pantheon of Awesomeness.

art and text by Mike Garvey

I hereby nominate Benjamin Franklin for the Man vs. Art Pantheon of Awesomeness. He has been one of my biggest heroes for as long as I can remember. Heck, I even named my son after him. My reasons, several, but I’ll keep it to a few. I’ll start with the obvious and then move on to what really makes him great in my book.

His discovery of electricity changed the world as we know it. Steve Jobs has nothing on him. From the light bulb to the internet, electricity may be one of the most important elements in any artist’s toolkit.

Social networking: In 1727 he formed the “Leather Apron Club” (later called “Junto”). Called the Leather Apron Club because of the leather apron he and his fellow printers wore, it was a club that met in tea houses and pubs for the purpose of ‘business, friendship, and conversation’. It became so popular over it’s 30 year span that several spin-off clubs were formed.

He was America’s first cartoonist. His political cartoon “JOIN OR DIE!” (drawn in 1754 in response to the Seven Years War) would become a rally cry during the American Revolution. His cartoon was an inspiration for the people of thirteen colonies to come together and stand against, and amongst, the world’s superpowers of the time. Now that’s the power of art!

He founded the first library in 1731. For the first time ever, access to knowledge, information, poetry, etc. was now available to the general public rather than the few wealthy elite who owned private libraries. Thus enabling everyone, not just the aristocracy, to have an educated voice in the world.

Franklin was so disenchanted by elitist societies of higher learning, that in 1781 when solicited by Royal Academy of Science to submit an essay on his scientific experiments, he responded with a letter which became popularly titled: “Fart Proudly”. The letter discusses scientific means of making farts smell pleasant, and ends with: “…[compared to the practical applications of this discussion, other sciences are] scarcely worth a FART-HING.”

And so, for giving artists the power of lightning to create and unite, for making art that made the little guy feel like a big guy, and for recognizing the importance of every individual in a society, I nominate Benjamin Franklin for the Man vs. Art Pantheon of Awesomeness.

John Narcomey The Man, The Myth!

Indy comic creator and friend of the show John Narcomey had a one man art show at Geeks Comics last weekend and MAn vs. Art was there to check out his gallery and books! That Batman John had on display behind is SICK! I love it!

Geo Brawn IV

was there as well! What a stud! Just in case you are wondering, no He’s not Samoan.

The lovely and vivacious Hortencia looked smokin’ (as always)

I'm a lucky guy.

She makes me look good.

Graciella Rodriguez, Melissa and Hortencia the Geeks Chicas!

John and his soon to be wife Melissa sure make a great couple don’t they?

I gotta give John props on his t-shirt.  PURE NARCOMEY!

GEEKS-CON 2010

Everyone is invited!

Javier Hernandez

Tribute gag Promo by

The Che Guevara T-Shirt

click the pic to Jav's Blog!

Last but not least, I am thrilled to announce that the Man vs. Art Podcast  is now a proud member of the Visual Artist Podcast Network at visualartistpodcastnetwork.com

H.R Giger loves the dong!

C'mon people. Admit it.....This sucks!

Oh poor Royo. I feel your pain and agony. Let me help you with that sack of money while you climb into your Ferrari.

I am sick of it.

I’ll tell you what, I think it’s all a big scam and frankly I think it sucks.  There was always a dark corner for pasty faced weirdos to draw and paint a guy hanging from the nuts with fish hooks over a pit of demons.  A few dorks with no personality who read into the Sandman a bit too much had their little corner in the art world staked up.  Guess what?  Now these guys have taken over and the worst part is everyone is buying into it.  All of a sudden heroes couldn’t wear brightly colored costumes when fighting the minions of darkness.  Now the heroes are indistinguishable from the minions they fight.  You see it in movies, comics, video games and TV.

Everything is dark and angst ridden.

Why EVERYTHING?!!  Since when did it become uncool to be a good guy?  In the latest Superman movie he’s a dead beat dad stalker!!!! That’s not the big blue boy scout I recall!  If you ask me the world needs more good guys, both in reality as well as fiction.  Back in the early part of this century America and it’s allies fought the darkest emo douche bag of them all.  Adolf Hitler and his Nazi monsters.  They were bad.  Evil.  Even their friggin’ uniforms looked evil man!  Well our grand parents and great grandparents had a real clear cut view in their minds about Good Vs. Evil.  And what it meant to be one or the other.  Why?  Because their culture taught them that the guys in black are evil. There is a clear distinction between the two.  Look at the literature and pop culture of the time.  Flash Gordon, Tarzan, need I go on? If today’s soft, deluded and self centered   knuckleheads were transported to WWII the Nazis would have won. Go ahead send in the hate mail.  You know I’m right.

Today pop culture teaches that there is no good.  Every hero is just one traumatic experience away  from being a psychopath.  In order to defeat evil, good needs to be bad.  It’s deconstructionism, it’s edgy,  it’s LAZY WRITING.  ” Batman  beats  the derelict senseless in order to get the location of the Joker’s Lair.”  Is so much easier to write than perhaps  “Batman relies on detective skills to track down the Joker”  The writer would actually have to come up with an intricate plot that could possibly be interesting.  Nah, I’d rather read 22 pages of Batman pimp slapping a crackhead….again.

Every good guy has to act and look  evil or at least be dark.

Look at the costumes of super heroes in movies today. The only brightness is the gleam from the smile on the studio execs when they cash their paychecks. Everyone is dressed like the Matrix. It’s retarded.

Why was this made?

Wolverine looks tame!  His hair is combed WTF?!!! What is this?  The black leather fetish  convention?

On the other hand….

Look at this Steranko X-men cover.  Brilliant and powerful.  These guys look like good guys and the book looks fun. Look everyone COLOR!!!

Steranko Rules Period.

You gotta love the skull eyeballs.  Pure friggin’ Steranko my friends!

Or look at this exquisite George Perez mega cover!  Now those are super heroes!  Nothing dark and fruity about this!  These are the colors I want to see in film adaptations.  Why is this not possible?  Is Hollywood blind as well as stupid?  With HDTV and all that other hi tech crap this stuff should be pouring out of the screen and assaulting our senses! Nope.  Black leather and muted colors please.

George Perez Rules! I mean look at this!

There are so many other avenues of the human condition yet to be explored by art.  Why have we collectively stopped at angst?  It’s self serving self indulgent crap.  Let’s grow up and see that there is a bigger world out there than vampires dressed in designer outfits.  I dare you!