Fantagraphics' Mickey Mouse up for Pre-Order Now!

Announced by Gary Groth from Fantagraphics Books at last year's SDCC (San Diego Comic-Con), the North American comic publisher twittered Tuesday that the first volume of ' one of the most eagerly awaited projects in comics', their new, exclusive series of Floyd Gottfredson reprints is finally up for pre-order! Make sure to order your copy now!

Fantagraphics Books.

Known for their exclusive selection of multi-nominated (and awarded) compilations of classic comics such as Hal Foster's 'Prince Valiant' and Charles Schultz' 'Peanuts', Fantagraphics has added a vast library of Gottfredson's classic Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strips to their portfolio.

Fantagraphics was founded in 1976 by Gary Groth (left)and Michael Catron, also known for their TCJ magazine ('The Comics Journal') with Kim Thompson (right), who had lived in the Netherlands for several years and translated the work of Dutch artist Joost Swarte. He also edited 'Amazing Heroes' magazine, which Fantagraphics published from 1981 to 1992 .

From 1985 to 1987 'Amazing Heroes' presented The Jack Kirby awards for achievement in comic books. Voted on by comic book professionals and coordinated by Fantagraphics, Alan Moore received awards for'Swamp Thing' and 'Watchmen' while Frank Miller was awarded for his legendary limited series 'Batman: The Dark knight Returns.' (chosen by Time magazine as one of the 10 best best English language graphic novels ever written). In 1987 the Kirby Awards, as managed by Dave Olbrich, continued as the 'Will Eisner Comic Industry Award' (Eisner Award), while Fantagraphics re-imagined their award, since known as the Harvey Award (after cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman).

Floyd Gottfredson.

Starting out as an animator for the Disney studio at the end of 1929, Gottfredson soon continued Mickey's first gags in the newspaper comic strips, set up by Ub Iwerks,promoting their earliest animated Mickey shorts.

After Iwerks left the studio, initially Win Smith landed the job, but Gottfredson soon took over as a 'temporary assignment': Gottfredson would write and draw the comic strips for 45 years, turning him from a mere ghost into the ultimate Mickey comic artist and in the end, a legend of his own.

Gottfredson was first identified as Mickey's 'auctor itellectualis'  by Malcolm Willits, who also revealed Carl Barks as Disney's main artist on Dell comic's Donald Duck. Gottfredson retired in 1975 and died at the age of 81 in 1986.

Fantagraphics' Mickey Mouse collection.

Fantagraphics stated their Gottfredson library will be remastered straight from Disney proof sheets and prized private collections, and will also contain exclusive supplementary features, edited by David Gerstein and Gary Groth.
Check out a first look through their promotional PDF (preliminary version, cover was changed).

Originally based on Mickey's animated shorts, Gottfredson turned the comic stories into lenghty newspaper strips. The first volume will contain Gottfredson's debut story, the classic 'Mickey Mouse in Death Valley' (149 pages) which he created with Jack King and Hardie Gramatky (with Win Smith).
The second volume (cover left) is to be released in October and will contain the 155 page 'Mickey Mouse sails for Treasure Island' (1932) . A Collector's box set containing the first two volumes will be released the same month.


The first volume will be released July 5, so we'll have to wait it out for a little bit. Meanwhile, check out some classic shorts beneath. Now that's animation!

Tecmo shows first glimpse of new Ninja Gaiden III

During the GDC 2011 (Game Developers Conference) in San Francisco, Tecmo showed their first preview of Ninja Gaiden III. Ninja Gaiden is still conceived as the hardest next-gen game. It was released for the X-Box in 2004 and designed by Tomonobu Itagaki and his Team Ninja. The Sequel 'Ninja Gaiden II' was released in 2008 for the X-box 360.

Since then, Itagaki has left Tecmo with several of his team members to start a new company 'Valhalla Games' to complete his next project called 'Devil's Third' (to be released in 2012).

I'm a huge fan of Tomonobu, and I like my games as tough as possible, so the original title is still my favorite game. However, all the signs seem to predict the next installment in the Ninja Gaiden franchise will still kick ass, so I'm looking forward to chopping some fresh heads with Ryu! Producer Yosuke Hayashi says big changes are coming to the third game. NG III is slated for 2012. Check out the teaser from Tecmo, it's hot!

Autodesk introduces Maya 2012 !

Autodesk Maya 2012 was introduced just in time for the latest GDC conference (Game Developers Conference) in San Francisco, February 28-March 4. Autodesk Maya 3D computer animation software is the industry standard used by all the major game studio's and 3D animators, bringing the best 3D graphics, visual effects and animations. Check out their latest vids introducing all the new feats (scroll down) and read up on some Maya history.

Maya History.

Autodesk was founded in 1981 by John Walker and Dan Drake who created the Marinchip Systems 9900 computer to run Mike Riddle's program called 'Interact' which was the first CAD system running on mainstream computer hardwear, used a.o. by the ARCO oil company to plan deep dives for offshore drilling rigs. Riddle started writing it in 1977. In 1981 he rewrote the program with Drake and Walker to run on the first IBM PC and created AutoCAD. Their company, known as the 'Marinchip software partners' turned into 'Autodesk'. Want to know the skinny? Read John Walker's 'The Autodesk File' (PDF)

Silicon Graphics, Alias research and Wavefront.

In the 1990's,several companies rivaled to bring the best visual effects and computer generated Imagery (CGI) for big budget Hollywood movies.There was Alias research and Wavefront Technnologies. There was also the French TDI (Thompson Digital Image), which was founded in 1986 from the French Ina d3D and Thomson CSF. TDI had innovated in the area of NURBS modeling (Non-uniform rational B-spline) and created their main software package called 'TDI Explore'. While Wavefront bought TDI in 1993, both Alias and Wavefront were acquired by Silicon Graphics (SGI) in 1995, creating the Alias/Wavefront company. Maya 1.0 for Windows was introduced in June 1998 as a result and collected the best of the three companies' products in one package.

Alias Research.

Alias research, founded in 1983, had their 'PowerAnimator' software. It was used to create several famous effects for James Cameron's movies. The water creature in 'The Abyss' (1989) and the T2 model in 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day'. (1990) Steven Spielberg's 'Jurassic Park' (1993) is also an excellent example.

Wavefront Technologies.

Founded in 1984by Bill Kovacs, former employee of 'Robert Abel and Associates'. RA&A pioneered in computer graphics and created some of the earliest digital FX, on 'The Andromeda Strain' (1971) and the powerfull 'Tron' (1982), which won Ken Perlin an 'Academy Award for Technical Achievement' 15 years later, in 1997.

Wavefront first created graphics for television with their 'Preview' software, used a.o. by ABC on their television series 'Knight Rider'. between 1988 and 1992 Wavefront developed several new powerfull programs: the 'Personal Visualiser' rendering software, followed by the 'Data Visualiser' and 'Composer'. In the 1990's they introduced 'Kinemation' (one of the first Inverse Kinematics packages) and 'Dynamation' (creating particle systems). Wavefront's Dynamation technology was used in many movies, like 'Twister' (1996), 'Starship Troopers' (1997) and also on 'Star Trek: Voyager' (1995). 

Academy Awards.

In 1998 Bill Kovacs reveived a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Science for his work on the advanced visualiser. Jim Hourihan also received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement for the creation of 'Dynamation' (which he had based on a program called 'Willy'). In 2003 the Alias/Wavefront company received an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement for their Maya software.

In 2005, Maya was bought by Autodesk for $ 197 million Dollars. Two year later, it also acquired Skymatter Inc., developers of Mudbox. Autodesk continued it's acquisition of high-end 3D developers in 2008 when it bought Avid's Softimage, co. for $ 35 million Dollars. Beside AutoCAD, Maya, Mudbox and Softimage, autodesk also develops 3D modeling and animating package 3ds Max.



Autodesk Maya 2012

Beside Maya, Autodesk has announced new versions (2012) for Mudbox, Softimage, Motion builder and 3ds Max/3ds max design. Maya 2012 will be available in English in April, while other languages will follow later this year. Check out all the cool new gadgets at the Autodesk site or hang out and watch Maya 2012's ´What´s new´ introductory videos right here:

Visit from Jennifer Paige of Rice Fergus Miller

Jennifer Page (WSU 05) shared her design experience with first and second year interior design students.
http://ricefergusmiller.blogspot.com/