A couple of months ago, as I was stumbling around Disney Animation Studio's third floor story department, story artist Paul Briggs showed me an extracurricular work-in-progress. It was a graphic novel powered by the A-list talent at Disney Feature, everybody from directors John Musker and Mike Gabriel, to veteran story artists Tom Ellery, Mark Kennedy and a host of others.
I got to flip through the pages of the book, and was blown away by the stories and art work, all riffing on the age-old question:
Who is Rocket Johnson?
Paul writes:
"Who is Rocket Johnson?" is a 72 page graphic novel anthology being self-published by Walt Disney Animation Studio's Story Artists and Directors. It's an all-ages book in which every artist answers the question: "Who is Rocket Johnson?" It will be sold exclusively at booth 2302 at the San Diego Comic-Con and is a limited edition of 1,000 copies.
Paul has put a copy on Ebay to help support research in finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.
The book is signed by all of the Disney artists in the book and also comes with a set of pins they made special for Comic Con. The proceeds from this book will be donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to fund cutting-edge research, drive change through advocacy, facilitate professional education, and provide programs and services to help people with MS and their families move their lives forward. The auction will end on Jul-10-2008 at 10:30 a.m. pst.
The auction is located here: It is item number: 160256489260 on ebay.com
Please help help the gang at Disney spread the word about the book and the auction.
Cover painted by: Paul Felix
Artists contributing stories: Steve Anderson John Musker Dean Wellins Mike Gabriel Kevin Deters Paul Briggs Tom Ellery Sam Levine Nathan Greno Don Hall Mark Kennedy Aurian Redson Daniel Chong Tron Mai Lawrence Gong Joe Mateo Michael LaBash Chris Ure Bruce Morris Mark Walton
Featuring pin-ups by: Glen Keane ChenYi Chang Byron Howard Arthur Adams
If you have any questions please visit: www.whoisrocketjohnson.com or contact: mail@whoisrocketjohnson.com
Paul Briggs and everybody else thanks you ...
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7 comments:
Oh that is exciting, except not, because not that many of us will be in San Diego, and there are only 1000 copies, so thanks for teasing.
So get there early.
(Like I arrived late at this. Cartoon Brew already had it up. Ah well...)
And cheer up. There will no doubt be multiple printings, yes?
I'm sure there will be as many copies as people want--it's just that the initial run is 1000. If they sell out they are definitely going to have more done, but it's the first 1000 that'll be immediately available.
The guys weren't trying to play hard to get, believe me. They just didn't want to over-order(they're paying for these after all)before they found out if it would be of interest. Of course, I could have told them that they could probably have ordered 5 times that-but it isn't my money! ; )
Anyway-yes, it's an absolute must have, no question at all.
This doesn't have anything to do with The Rocketeer?
"This doesn't have anything to do with The Rocketeer?"
Nope, nothing at all.
Thanks, Steve, for writing about the book and making people aware about the auction.
I don't want people to think that we will definitely be printing more, because that hasn't been discussed. The reason that only 1000 copies were printed is because, frankly, we aren't totally sure that we can even sell that many - Paul arrived at that number after talking to other artists with similar books and trying to find a "magic number" that would allow us to sell all of the copies we printed. To make more copies would have required a larger financial commitment up front from those of us who are making the book and that wouldn't have worked for everybody.
The bottom line is that everyone should buy one because it's that good.
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