How to use this Page

Starting as a local screening event, Sommets du cinéma d’animation has turned into a significant international festival. We review the 2016 edition.

The post Sommets 2016: Montreal Is Totally Ready for Its Own Major Animation Festival appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Discover the art of Pascal Blanché, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day.

The post Artist of the Day: Pascal Blanché appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

One of Dreamworks' most highly regarded animators is heading to Canada to direct his first feature.

The post Dreamworks Vet Rodolphe Guenoden Tapped To Direct ‘The Bravest’ appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

What happened in Montreal in 1967 has never happened before or since.

The post Rediscovered Photos Of The Greatest Animation Cocktail of the 20th Century appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

The studio's first project will be "Klaus" directed by Sergio Pablos.

The post Cinesite’s New Montreal Mega-Animation Studio Will Employ 500 and Produce 9 Features, Including ‘Klaus’ appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Posted by Heather Ryerson

After studying graphic design and illustration, Catherine Lepage worked at an ad agency where she brainstormed quick and clever ideas and developed an efficient process of creating simple design solutions. She went on to co-found Montreal design studio Ping Pong Ping where she weaves illustration throughout her client work. Catherine Lepage continues to work as an editorial illustrator. See more of her work on her website.

Post by Heather Ryerson

Montreal illustrator Janice Nadeau has won three Governor General’s Awards for her poetic, evocative illustration. She uses watercolor and pencil (and sometimes charcoal and ink) to create her sophisticated color palettes and detailed characters and scenes. Nadeau has illustrated three books including Harvey, a long-form graphic picturebook that appeals to both children and adults for its honest portrayal of loss. Nadeau is now working on an animated short.

To see more of her work visit her website and read her blog.

Isabelle Arsenault’s illustrated children’s books Migrant, Spork, and Virginia Wolf have been much praised and received numerous awards, including two Governor General’s Awards. Her children’s graphic novel Jane, the Fox, & Me was published in 2013. She lives and works in Montreal.

See more of her work: Portfolio | Blog

Animation is overtaking the streets of downtown Montreal’s entertainment district, the Quartier des Spectacles, and various cities in Scotland in honor of Norman McLaren's centennial.

Uhm…Kinda a day late, though today is the day government offices, etc. are closed in Quebec. Celebrations were everywhere in the province yesterday. I’m using the occasion as a warm-up drawing, cartoon-style. Have a great Monday!

Frenching (by bravofact)

Joe Ollman, aka one of the nicest guys in comics, stars in this funny animated short about being an anglophone in Montreal. I liked seeing Joe’s style animated, and wish there was more.

Jimmy Mcfarlane lit another cigarette and shivered in the phone booth. His jean jacket wasn’t made for this cold.
The truck stop was busy at 3 am. Rigs parked all over the place, some refeulling, some arriving and some leaving for the border a few miles north.
A big highway ran all the way from Montreal to Florida. Warmth and sunshine.
The phone rang.
Jimmy fumbled the receiver with cold fingers.
“Yeah?”
“Ok. He should be getting there now. He’ll park at the back of the lot, as far away from the buildings as possible. Got everything?”
“Yeah” Jimmy’s eyes fell to the hockey bag at his feet. Dexedrine, plates, cards.
“OK. Call me from Florida”
“Ok ... in a few days”
Jimmy was already looking into the phosphorescent glare. The rigs glistened under the freezing light of the parking lot. Exhaust fumes rose straight up in white clouds.
He picked up his bag, flicked his smoke into the night, walked down the middle of the parked 18 wheelers. He kept walking past the line of idling trucks to the one parked at the other end of the lot. Lots of drivers do it. Park away from the noise to sleep.
He wasn’t supposed to see the other driver.
A shadow moving in the other direction flashed by. The guy only had to drive it from the border. They didn’t trust him to do the checks. Second nature a year ago. But they got him out of the county slam and asked him to drive a truck to Florida so maybe wanting complete trust was a little too much to expect.
He used the key in his jeans pocket to unlock the door to the Tri Star, climbed into the welcome warmth. Country music playing soft in the background, he threw his bag on the passenger seat and looked over the dash in front of him.
The coloured lights were a relief from the bright illumination of the parking lot.
After a minute of enjoying the comfort he jumped out to do a quick circle check on the truck. The other guy wasn’t driving it to Florida. The rig was probably fine but it never hurt to do a quick visual circle check.
He settled into the driver’s seat after he had adjusted it to lean back further than it was. The last driver must have been a hunchback if he sat like that.
Everything seemed to be good according to the gauges in front of him. He smiled, flipped off the brakes, shifted into low and pulled away.
Staying to the outside of the lot, close to the fence, he checked his mirrors and got his first feel for the rig. It had been eight months, six of it in the county jail.
He stopped to adjust each wing mirror carefully. The mirrors were his eyes.
He pulled into the exit and shifted up till he was moving into the freeway, space given to him by two other trucks whose drivers pulled out to let him in.
Steve Earle sang about drivin down the Eastern seabord as he stopped his signal and settled in.
He was singing along, just at the part that went “you think I’m happy, you’re right, six days on the road and...” when he felt the steel of the gun on his neck.
The scariest time came just then as she moved from the bunk to the passenger seat, landed on the hockey bag and threw it on the floor. The gun in her hand waved wildly the whole time and she grunted as she spoke.
“Just keep ‘er steady, man. I know your story. You’re an excon and this load is illegal”
He kept it steady and didn’t show any emotion outwardly but he felt the adrenalin rush which made him sneeze.
A big, clear snot bubble expanded from his nose. It caught them both by surprise.
She pointed the revolver upward as her eyes searched the dash.
Below it she saw a roll of paper towels and some window cleaner in a rack.
She handed him the roll and suppressed a grin.
“Thanks, uh” he wiped his nose and glanced at the revolver which was pointing at him again.

I’ve added a few new prints to my shop.

Also, for Montrealers, these prints and more will be up on display and for sale at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly for the rest of December.

Gabby Schulz reflects on his recent trip to Montreal.

Lost Myths is a growing repository of surreal fantastical graphic and gaming content – or as its two creators put it:

A playful medly of cryptomythological fiction, pantheons, bestiaries, comics, art, games, readings, performances and more by Claude Lalumiere and Rupert Bottenburg.

Also check out their slideshow comic – What to do with the Dead. They have over a year of this kind of stuff already created and will be updating regularly.

Posted by Matt Forsythe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: fantasy, gaming, illustrations, Montreal

We are going to see Joanna tonight- I know that she is not to everyone's taste but we think she is an extraordinary talent. We went to see her perform a few years ago, and it was the best concert we had experienced in a long time. A great way to start the week - can't wait!

So you may have already heard that there’s going to be a Higglety Pigglety Pop! short film as a bonus feature on the Where the Wild Things Are Blu-Ray, which is coming out March 2. Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life is of course the other major chidren’s book by Maurice Sendak. It’s a surreal story about a dog looking for Experience.

The film is semi-animated (there are puppets involved) by the filmmakers of Madame Tutli-Putli and includes the voice-acting of Meryl Streep (Jennie), Forest Whitaker (Lion), Spike Jonze (Plant). The production design – as in Tutli Putli - is rich and stunning. Streep is perfect as usual.

Two more clips after the jump…

(...)
Read the rest of Clips from the new Higglety Pigglety Pop! film

Posted by Matt Forsythe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Animation, clyde henry, film, forest whitaker, higglety pigglety pop, meryl streep, Montreal, movies, puppets, Spike Jonze", Where the Wild Things Are

Amber Albrecht is a Montreal print artist and illustrator, with ornate, fantastical flights of folk and magic. The images on her site are too small. She is the author of a forthcoming Petit Livre from Drawn & Quarterly.

Posted by Matt Forsythe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: amber albrecht, magical realism, Montreal

But is there anything else in early February in Montreal? It’s a big church to warm up. There are large vents on each side of the sanctuary that put out heat. People will congregate there to warm themselves before sitting down. I spent a good part of the service in front of one myself. But when [...]

Another awesome animated music video from Montrealers, Fluorescent Hill (Previously on Drawn). Slick, highly stylized, fun + Tom Waits as a toxic cloud tormenting an urban landscape.

Posted by Matt Forsythe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags:

Again, in a dream last night, my mother.

Hey, how ya gettin on?  This duckie is back, now, from ‘er trip to the fine Canadian province of Newfoundland (watch how ya pronounce that when ’round a Newfoundlander! Hoo-boy)! Six days free of most electronics and internet gadgets and computers (I watched a wee bit of TV here and there; I also had my [...]

Fresh, fun, French-lined gig-posters by LA/Montreal-artist, Christine Hale. Lovely stuff.