Fred Seibert's Blog

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

(a four Frederator read)

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…]

There’s a great interview with Pendleton Ward on ComixTalk, a catch up from when he did a lot of web comics.

A sample:

Are you still creating new comics?

I took down those old comics because they were terrible.

I’ve been in a MAD frame of mind recently because of our friend, producer David Levin, who introduced us all to the magazine’s inner workings on Pulp Secret last year, and brought by a couple of his MADdest friends (editors actually) to talk a few weeks ago. Meeting them put me into the frame of mind to read David Hadju’s The Ten-Cent Plague about the repressive moment in the 1950s when states across America actually tried to censor books (in this case, comic books).

So much of it revolved around the mythology of EC comics’ and MAD’s publisher William Gaines that I started routing around for something to read on the history of MAD. Unfortunately no one’s seen fit to research anything resembling an objective view, so I settled for this 1972 virtually authorized biography. Which made me try and find one of his obituaries that so influenced me on the eve of my joining Hanna-Barbera and the cartoon business full time in June 1992.

Why such an influence? I was new to the cartoon business, never having had anything to do with making anything with characters or stories (I’d produced quite a few animated commercials), and I was scared to death because I had no idea what to do. Then I read one of Gaines’ mythologizing quotes and I started to feel like, even if I couldn’t begin to be the kind of eccentric character he was, maybe I’d have a chance.

“My staff and contributors create the magazine,” Gaines said. “What I create is the atmosphere.”

Leave it to idea man/writer/comedian David Burd to perfectly rewrite Wally Wood’s “Cartoonist’s Credo” for the modern world the same day I posted it.

For reasons I can’t remember, during a conversation the other day with Dan Meth I mentioned a card my old friend idea man/writer/comedian David Burd used to hand out (when he was working on MTV networks IDs for us in the 80s) called “The Cartoonist’s Credo.” I couldn’t remember the exact wording but it seemed applicable to our conversation.

I emailed David and he wanted me to make sure to give credit where credit is due to the originator, Mad’s Wally Wood, and that I should link to www.impko.com. And he sent me a pile of the cards too! Thanks David.

If ever a book title caught its subject well, it’s Artist in Motion, by the incredible Steve Rude. I was lucky enough to spend some time on projects with Steve back in the day (I was trying to develop Mike Baron & Steve’s Nexus as an animated feature film at Hanna-Barbera) and never have I been with an artist more dedicated to the forward trajectory of his art, and all art that he loves and respects. You’ll get a great sense of that enthusisam in this art book, which surveys 20 years of his career in comics and painting. Steve’s one of those rare artists that’s worth listening to as well as looking at, so don’t just skip by the text. You’ll get a chance to learn some of what he taught me.

You’ll be able to catch Steve in person at this year’s major comic cons, including New York in April.

Writer Warren Ellis has more on the Rule of 3 on the Castlevania blog.

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.

One of the great things about this season’s development is opening up the field much wider in New York, where I’m currently based.

For instance, Robert Teer & Damiam DeMartino are a team who come out of playwriting, graphic design, and comics. Today they came in to pitch their cartoon Gloom & Dread.

Thanks to Robert & Damian for kind permission to post one of their pitch drawings.

We like Ryan Sias’ comics. And so we were happy when he came in again to pitch us a new short called Fergison for the new season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

Thanks to Ryan for his kind permission to post some of his storyboard pitch.