QUOTE It’s all personal OF THE MONTH

Editing Animation Magazine is a job that offers plenty of surprises, and this issue is full of interesting and often personal connections. Take this issue’s feature story on the new GKIDS release, My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea. It’s directed by Dash Shaw, a noted comic-book artist I recall interviewing about a decade ago about his innovative online comics work. I was relating this during a class I’m taking on creating comic books, only to have the instructor say that in his editor days he gave Shaw some of his first comics work. Conversation then turned to the new Teen Titans: The Judas Contract original animated movie (head to www.animationmagazine.net to read a chat about that one with director Sam Liu), adapting one of the all-time great comics stories of the 1980s. My very positive evaluation of it got everyone in the room as excited to see that movie as they are to check out Shaw’s indie delight.

Then there’s our feature on the Nick Jr. series, Digby Dragon, made by the fine folks at Blue-Zoo in London. It’s a series my 5-year-old daughter turned me on to, and I found the animation to be so compelling, the stories so fun and the characters so charming that I had to commission a feature on it. U.K.-based writer Karen Yossman — who recently became a mom — was eager to tackle the story and, I think, did a bang-up job.

Another writer, my longtime colleague and friend Karen Idelson, was just as eager to delve into the visual effects of The Fate of the Furious, being a huge fan who’s seen every movie in the series multiple times. She also delved into the visual effects on Logan, a movie I found tremendously entertaining and thought-provoking.

And then there’s our cover story on Ghost in the Shell. Putting this movie on the cover was a no-brainer for me. Not only is it adapting a classic, much-loved and thoroughly excellent anime, it’s doing so with all the panache modern visual effects can bring to it. Seeing an animated icon adapted in this fashion shows how much anime (and all animation) is becoming an essential part of the global culture. Plus, it’s a real kick to see a new take on something as classic as Ghost in the Shell.

That passion extends beyond the creative, as we look at animation’s growing presence at Cannes by profiling the three shorts selected for the world’s most prestigious film competition, and the excellent guerrilla efforts to promote animation at the festival by the organizers of Animation Day in Cannes. On the business end, we get into global strategy with Pierre Sissmann of Cyber Group Studios — his insights are worth reading for anyone working in the field.

On the anniversary front, next issue is our 30th anniversary issue — and it’s going to be big. Plus, we’ve got the World Animation Celebration returning in the fall at Sony Pictures Animation, our sixth annual World Animation and VFX Summit, and plenty more surprises in store. In all, it’s a bright, bright future and I can’t wait to see what it brings. Until next issue,