This marks the 15th year since Calvin and Hobbes said goodbye to the comics pages. Creator Bill Watterson, who grew up in Chagrin Falls and still makes Greater Cleveland his home, recently answered some questions via e-mail from Plain Dealer reporter John Campanelli. It’s believed to be the first interview with the reclusive artist since 1989.  You can read the interview by clicking on Bill’s portrait below.

For many newspaper readers, flipping back to what used to be called the funny pages is bittersweet. It’s dependable amusement, yes, with Funky and Garfield and Beetle, but it’s also a daily reminder that someone’s missing.  Read the whole article at The Plain Dealer.

Greg pointed us to this article.

A thread has been open in our forums to share images with one another of our broke-down selves!  You know, bones, noses and such.  Not broken wallets…we can see that anytime!

Roy Disney dies‏

Fighting the Eisner regime at Disney on behalf of traditional animation vs. CGI to the point that he was forced into retirement several years ago, Roy Edward Disney succumbed to stomach cancer on December 16, 2009 at the age of 79.

His dad Roy O. Disney co-founded Disney entertainment business with his uncle Walt Disney in 1920s. Like his famous uncle Walt, Roy worked on the creative side of the business, rather than following his father on the finance side.

Roy E. Disney received two Oscar nominations in 50-plus year career. “Little Mermaid” and “Lion King” were among the successes when Roy E. Disney headed animation.

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Actress Brittany Murphy dies in LA at age 32

Actress and voice of “Luanne Platter” on more than 200 episodes of Fox’s “King of the Hill”, Brittany Murphy collapsed at home and died about 10 a.m. Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Her career started in the early 1990s with small roles in television series, commercials and movies. She is best known for parts in “Girl, Interrupted,” “Clueless” and “8 Mile”.

Also starred in the comic book based film “Sin City”.

With members like Matt, Alex, and DaMarco studying at the Memphis College of Art, you know that the Holiday Bazaar will be full of fantastic art!  Get great art for a minimal price.  Cheese and wine will be catered by Bosco’s, and I know that DaMarco will be participating as one of Santa’s Elves to help you carry your purchases to the cars.  Click the image below to learn more.

CARTOONIST/ANIMATOR BILL PLYMPTON visited the Memphis College of Art this month, and DaMarco Randle has written a re-cap to accompany his photographs:

Bill Plympton is considered one of the more clever and original animators.

As a child born and raised in Portland, OR, his dream was to draw with his fanatacism ‘drawn’ to Walt Disney with whom he felt animation died. During that time (1966), there weren’t any animation classes so any artistic advances had to be self-taught.  “To be an illustrator, you must do two things: think of ideas fast and draw fast.”

As times got hard, he decided to publish his own stories, which included drawing the sketches and scanning them into the computer, then composing them together.

In 1985, he published his first animated film called “Boomtown,” which taught him that to be a good animator “you must have a good sense of humor.”  Since then, Plympton has been the topic of discussion at San Diego Comic Con, even now having been Oscar nominated for his short film in the 2005 Kanye West video Hear ‘em Say. 

You can see clips of his cartoons on his official website by clicking his image below.

Because the world of copyright law is now up in the air, the Copyright Alliance has been set up and will be forwarding a petition to the House of Representatives (or some such, you know I’m not a legalese person–I’m not even politically correct) for review.  Please see this post in our forums to read more!