Tuesday, October 19, 2010

An Evening With Matt Groening-Review

Here is a recap of the Matt Groening talk with Tom Gammill. Tom is also a cartoonist and writer for the Simpsons. I recognized his voice from the Simpsons DVD commentaries.

Tom also does funny films with cartoonists on You Tube called "Learn to Draw". Here is one with Jim Borgman. They showed one with Matt, but I cannot find a link to it.

The talk touched on the creation of the Simpsons, Life in Hell and Futurama. It was interesting but I would have liked more talk about the animation process with maybe some concept sketches and animatics. Unfortunately, I think that part of the creative is not really the phase that Matt is involved with. It is more in the realm of the directors and artists at the studios. Here is a blog entry I found with a good overview of the talk (from freep.com).

Afterward, there was time left open for questions, which took a strangely fannish turn. (Someone asked for a lock of Matt's hair-creepy...)

Overall it was an enjoyable evening. We also saw an exhibit on the campus of Billy Ireland's Columbus Dispatch work. Really facinating stuff-especially the politial battles and issues affecting Ohio in early 20th century.

We were not able to see the George Herriman Krazy Kat exhibit or the R. Crumb Genesis exhibit, but plan to make it up to see them at a later date.

In other animaton lecture news, Chuck went to see Disney artist Mark Henn Talk at Wombat Gallery. He promises a report ;)

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the report! Sounds like a great evening.

    There isn't much to say about the Mark Henn presentation, except that it was a rare occasion to see a legendary Disney animator in a very small venue in the midwest.

    The Mayor of Waynesville made a proclamation —October 17 is Mark Henn day! This was followed by a 40 minute talk, half devoted to Disney animation and the other half to his side-project: creating historical sculptures —mostly Civil War. There were a few young Disney fans in the audience (my girls included), who were very inquisitive about the process of filmmaking, which was neat to see.

    Mark was very generous in answering questions and signing Disney books at the end of the presentation.

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  2. I should add that it's worth making the scenic drive to visit the Wombat Art Works Gallery. There's a great variety of wildlife art and the charming proprietor, Debbie Lentz will answer any questions you have.

    Thanks for getting the word out, Linda —good luck!

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  3. Kristina, it was a lock of Groening's hair from his head, right? Not...eeew. Please, not.

    Krazy Kat exhibit??? HOO-HAH!!

    Dear St. Larriby, I don't ask for much (hah!), but please let me be the second coming of George Herriman.

    Amen.

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  4. One day Brian...

    I like how you spelled my name with a k-Krazy Kristina has a ring to it.

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