“Oscar Winning” is a title that can now be added to John Canemaker’s many other accolades. Heartiest congrats, John! He won last night the Animated Short category for his film The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (see image above) and in his acceptance speech said that this proves hand drawn animation can still pack an emotional wallop. Hopefully that didn’t fall on ears that are deaf. John did the self-portrait below for me back in 1991, and as you can see in addition to being an animator he has authored many books. There’s a great one on Felix and there’s John’s classic on Winsor McCay that has just been revised and re-issued.

(click for a closer look)

One more thing that John did which I’m personally very grateful for is telling me that I must send samples of my art to MTV. He was sure they would have me do a station I.D. I never would have thought of it or done it without John’s insistence.

John was right, they called me the day they got the samples and assigned me my first animation which I did with the super J.J. Sedelmaier studio. The I.D. debuted on the MTV award show, became one of their longest and most frequently run I.D.s and won numerous awards. But it sure didn’t win a fucking Oscar—that honor goes to John Canemaker who certainly is one of the most talented and nicest guys I know.

Click the image to watch the cartoon.