View source for Fleischer Night for Artifacts Film Night, July, 2008

The Center for Cartoon Studies & Main Street Museum’s ARTifacts Summer Film Series and Left Bank Books presents an evening with animation historian and scholar G. Michael Dobbs in a two-state, two-town event on Tuesday, July 8. 

Dobbs will be signing and reading from his new book “Escape!” at Left Bank Books in Hanover, NH at 6:15 PM, followed at 8 PM by an evening lecture and exhibition of vintage animated cartoons at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction, VT. 

Dobbs, who is currently writing a biography of pioneer animator Max Fleischer, will discuss the Pre-Code Fleischer Brothers animation of the 1930s (Betty Boop, Bimbo, Koko the Clown, Popeye, etc.) and its influence on the cutting edge work of the 1990s that helped re-define the medium for the 21st Century. 

What rescued animation from the kidvid ghetto in the 1990s? What propelled cartoons from something adults barely admitted watching to a form of entertainment that appealed to multiple generations? “Escape! How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s” chronicles the rise of animation with updated articles from “Animato!” and “Animation Planet” magazines as well as new pieces.

G. Michael Dobbs saw the industry change first-hand as editor of those two publications. Interviewing both the rising stars and the vets of the animation industry, Dobbs gave his readers a front row seat to an entertainment revolution.

A writer and former radio talk show host, Dobbs has working Western Massachusetts’ mass media for over 30 years with stints at The Valley Advocate, Holyoke Transcript-Telegram and Westfield Evening News. He's interviewed dozens of personalities as diverse as elected officials such as Michael Dukakis, Eliot Richardson and George MacGovern to best selling authors (Sidney Sheldon, Alan Dershowitz) to film legends (Vincent Price, Lillian Gish) to television personalities (Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Clayton Moore, Elvira).

Dobbs is also a nationally recognized animation authority through his position as editor of Animato! and Animation Planet, two magazines for animation fans. He taught as an adjunct faculty member for 13 years at Western New England College, instructing students in the development of mass communications and the history of film. His freelance writing has appeared national in Video Watchdog, USA Today and Rod Serling Twilight Zone Magazine. He joined Reminder Publications as the editor of the Chicopee Herald and is now the managing editor of the company’s five publications, which reach about 130,000 readers in western Massachusetts.

His second book, a postcard history of Springfield, MA from Arcadia Publishing will be published Aug. 25. He lives in Springfield, MA with his wife Mary, a disobedient Bichon and way too many cats.

Left Bank Books is located at 9 South Main Street in Hanover, NH; for more information on the 6:15 PM signing and reading event, call 603-643-4479. The cartoons and lecture will begin at 8 PM at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction at 58 Bridge Street. The cartoons are all unrated but suitable for all ages; admission for the 8 PM event is $5 per person, free for Museum members and CCS students; for more information, call 802-356-2776. The ARTifacts Summer Film Series will continue through July and August.

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