Outlaw Animation: Cutting-Edge Cartoons from the Spike and Mike Festivals

The annual Spike & Mike Festival of Animation is the leading venue for the underground animation movement and has helped launch the careers of talents such as Nick Park and Peter Lord of Aardman ("Wallace & Gromit", "Chicken Run"), John Lasseter ("Toy Story", "Monsters, Inc"), Craig McCracken ("Powerpuff Girls") Mike Judge ("Beavis and Butt-head") and many other cutting-edge filmmakers. In this survey of the festival's influential work, animation historian Jerry Beck traces the evolution of the festival from a rock concert "filler" to its own arena-sized event that attracts half a million "toonheads" yearly. This volume is illustrated with frame grabs, rare production stills, original artwork and behind-the-scenes photographs, and features interviews with a number of the top underground animators.