Forget the F-word. In animation and related fields like comic books, there is only one serious danger word, the one you utter completely at your own risk: the C-bomb…Credit. I won’t take the time to go into the myriad public feuds, even lawsuits, which have resulted from one person’s taking [...]

It seems like only yesterday that those of us who write about animation were giving ink to the fact that The Simpsons was entering its seventh season, which made it the longest-running primetime animated series in history, surpassing the original run of The Flintstones. This week, however, the show begins [...]

When the late, great American artist Iwao Takamoto and his wife Barbara asked me to help write his memoirs in 2005, I was stunned and flattered. Iwao was a legend, and a quiet genius. He and I worked on the project for about two years, and then he tragically died [...]

Like politics, animation sometimes makes strange bedfellows, particularly when creative visions and egos are involved. Back in the late 1990s, when I was regularly meeting with Joe Barbera in the hopes of putting a book together for him (one that would never be completed, alas), I heard a lot about [...]

Not since Richard Nixon was seen leaving on a jet plane in 1974 has one man’s resignation created the kind of hoopla that Steve Jobs’ stepping down as CEO of Apple has generated. What does this have to do with the toon trenches, you ask? Well, in addition to being [...]