selling

Damn, I wish I made more money. Animation historian Jerry Beck recently became the possessor of several pieces of original animation art from Terrytoons, the studio that brought us such cartoons as the original Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle, among many others. The artwork doesn't feature any recognizable characters, but as Beck points out in this post, despite what art dealers might tell you, this art is worthwhile to anyone with an appreciation for classic animation. These pieces were originally thrown away when Terrytoons closed down in the 1960s, but an employee salvaged them and kept them for over forty years, unable to convince any art house to purchase them. Check out Beck's Art Sales page here, which also features a handful of other animation-related pieces, many of which are reasonably priced.

I've been spending an insane amount of time over on John Kricfalusi's blog, and the other day I saw this post which I thought some of you might find interesting. It seems John has been hooked up with a gallery and plans to sell some original pieces through his blog. My excitement over this was instantly dilluted by the notion that I'll probably never be able to come up with the kind of money these drawings will most likely take in. John K, to get the unenlightened up to speed, was the creator of Ren and Stimpy, and has worked alongside such animation legends as Ralph Bakshi. The man is an icon in the world of animation (and a very opinionated one at that). Seeing him embrace the whole blog concept and interact so freely with his fans is quite refreshing, and his genuine enthusiasm for animation, style, and design, not to mention his expertise, makes his blog worth checking out.

Here's an interesting fact: founder, chairman and CEO of Univision, A. Jerrold Perenchio, does not speak Spanish. Now, he's also the central figure in the recent decision to put the popular Spanish language channel up for sale. Some speculate the channel could draw in as much as $12 billion from possible buyers, and people like CBS' Leslie Moonves, Rupert Murdoch, Time Warner, and Televisa, one of Univision's content providers, have all expressed varying degrees of interest. Univision hasn't been failing in the ratings. On the contrary, it's actually been doing exceptionally well. The decision to sell the company appears to be based on the 75-year old CEO's desire to finally leave the network he began.