ANIMATORS AND CARTOONISTS DRAW on their talents every day, bringing colorful characters to life in a world where anything is possible. If you really love drawing, have a vivid imagination, a continuous flow of ideas, a tireless creative streak, and a willingness to work hard, you just might want to pencil yourself in for a career in animation and cartooning. Interestingly, a great deal of animation and cartooning is steeped in reality. Artists who create the best cartoon characters are those who can draw lifelike people and animals that seem to jump off a page or out of a movie screen. The characters appear ready to walk right into a viewer's life. How does an artist accomplish this? By having an eye for detail. These insightful cartoonists study the shape, size, and structure of the human body, as well as the bodies of animals, birds, and all living creatures that they might one day want to capture on the drawing board. In their minds, top animators and cartoonists have recorded thousands of human gestures, reactions, and expressions. They are keenly aware of the way people and animals move. Add to that, meticulous observations about the forms of endless objects around us, and you have the makings of magical creations of a surreal world where animals talk, plants cry, trees move, candlesticks give advice, and people fall off cliffs, get run over by steamrollers, and fall out of airplanes - only to live to tell the tale. This ability to draw reality precisely allows an artist to start distorting that drawing, contributing twists and turns, and blends of fantasy that seem perfectly plausible to the viewer. Elongated heads, stubby legs, pronounced wide-rimmed glasses, strange walks, and peculiar postures - all spring from the imagination of inventive animators and cartoonists as they give their characters distinctive physical attributes that will make them stand out and become memorable. They add movements, actions, and voices done by experienced actors who express the personalities of characters just as the artists envisioned them when these drawings started out as simple circles, triangles, and lines on a sketchpad. The test of an animator is to be able to draw a character that conveys feeling and emotion to an audience. A challenging career with limitless possibilities, the field of animation art requires you to be willing to start at the bottom and work your way up. This could mean years of developing someone else's ideas and concepts before you get a chance to show what you can do on your own. On the other hand, this field is growing so rapidly that there is a chance you can get your breakout assignment sooner rather than later, as artists with a fresh view are sought to create innovative work for multiple media, from magazines to computer games, comic books to commercials, animated television shows to major motion pictures. This new Careers Ebook contains a wealth of unbiased information about an occupational field, based on the latest national surveys. Careers Ebooks cover attractive and unattractive sides, opportunities, education necessary, personal qualifications required, earnings, descriptions of different job specialties, first person accounts by those in the field, and how to get started; including practical advice on what to do now. There are live links to schools and colleges, associations, periodicals and other sources of reliable information.

Young artists around the world dream of being the next Bill Watterson, Charles M. Schulz, or Mort Walker. Now, in Your Career in Comics, they'll learn how cartoon syndication really words--from the artists and professionals themselves. Nordling, a cartoonist, children's book, and comic-book writer, has interviewed dozens of artists and syndicate executives for Your Career in the Comics, and provides readers with both a broad-based view of the art form and the nitty-gritty on fashioning a funny, salable comic strip or panel. Detailed information on the business of being a professional cartoonist, tips on what beginners should avoid, and how a newspaper chooses a comic strip are all explored in this fact-filled book. Firsthand insights from Charles M. Schulz, Bill Watterson, Mort Walker, Lynn Johnston, Bil Keane, Cathy Guisewite, Mell Lazarus, Jeff MacNelly, and others make Your Career in the Comics a must-have for all admirerers of the medium. It's an invaluable tool for anyone who is interested in working in comic strips--or who simply wants to know more about how cartooning works.

When artist Natalie Nourigat left her life in Portland to move to Los Angeles and pursue a job in animation, she realized that despite her research, nothing truly prepared her for the wild world that awaited in the studios of Southern California. This autobiographical how-to graphic novel explores the highest highs and lowest lows of pursuing a dream in animation. Brushed with a dose of humor and illustrated advice about salaries, studio culture, and everything in between, I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation is the unique insider experience you won’t find anywhere else.

From Benjamin Franklin's drawing of the first American political cartoon in 1754 to contemporary cartoonists' blistering attacks on George W. Bush and initial love-affair with Barack Obama, editorial cartoons have been a part of American journalism and politics. American Political Cartoons chronicles the nation's highs and lows in an extensive collection of cartoons that span the entire history of American political cartooning."Good cartoons hit you primitively and emotionally," said cartoonist Doug Marlette. "A cartoon is a frontal attack, a slam dunk, a cluster bomb." Most cartoonists pride themselves on attacking honestly, if ruthlessly. American Political Cartoons recounts many direct hits, recalling the discomfort of the cartoons' targets?and the delight of their readers.Through skillful combination of pictures and words, cartoonists galvanize public opinion for or against their subjects. In the process they have revealed truths about us and our democratic system that have been both embarrassing and ennobling. Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrop note that not all cartoonists have worn white hats. Many have perpetuated demeaning ethnic stereotypes, slandered honest politicians, and oversimplified complex issues.