A word to animation artists who like mystery novels — if you have ever wanted to kill someone at your studio, you can read this well-written police procedural instead and save your rep. Written from the perspective of Detectives Rigby and Cameron, who know nothing about the industry, it quickly gets into the lives of animation people from ceos to writers. The people in this book are right out of half the studios you’ve worked for, and you can almost guess who the characters are modeled on — but not quite. The fun is in the guessing.

The animation details are correct throughout, from the description of a drawing’s pegs holes and slugging, to the animator’s bookcase filled with toys. There is a secretary (pardon me, assistant) in a studio that takes up 10 stories, who shrugs off animators with “On the second floor — The work is done overseas mostly so we don’t need many artists.” From the producer in that same building: “There are no bad ideas or good ideas — there are ideas that make money and ideas that don’t.” Joens describes the brightly colored ‘50s furniture of another studio in an old run down building that sounds a great deal like one that used to be in Hollywood. The woman exec there urges her storyboard artists on with “Edgier, guys! Edgier!”

The Author is in Animation
Joens skewers the current attitude of corporate animation bosses while still keeping his obvious admiration for the talent of the artists themselves. Even the ones that are jerks. And, in chapter eight he gives you a pretty good synopsis of what has happened to the industry since the days when artists were in charge. He, or perhaps just his characters, doesn’t like the changes.

The author knows his venue well. Joens heads up his own studio, Stillwater Production Co., where he has done commercials for Hasbro, Milton Bradley, Kenner and Playskool and award-winning videos. He directed My Little Pony for Sunbow. An ex-Marine, he lives with his wife Cathy and family on a horse ranch in Agua Dulce, California. If you’ve got Flash, you can view his Website at michaeljoens.com. Joens, who started out at Hanna-Barbera, has been an animator, storyboard artist, character designer, director and producer. He writes scripts, both animated and live action, and this is his fifth novel. His novel, Triumph of the Soul, was a 2000 Christie Award finalist.