William Joyce, Christina Ellis and friends at Toy Fair for the Numberlys Book Signing

Post by Moonbot Studios.

William Joyce, Peter de Sève, Carlos Nine and Bill Plympton Exhibit Work in "Icons of Animation" Exhibit

June 4th - August 16th, the Society of Illustrators will celebrate the work of four iconic illustrators including William Joyce, Peter de Sève, Carlos Nine and Bill Plympton. The exhibit features one hundred pieces of original works including illustrations and work from each artist's films, including the above image from the upcoming Jack Frost picture book. For more details, visit the Society of Illustrators website.

On June 5th at 7:00PM at the Academy Theater, Bill Plympton and Peter de Seve will present a series of film clips of their work and participate in a panel on the craft of motion picture animation. The panel will be moderated by J.J. Sedelmaier and is presented by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For tickets and more information, visit the Academy's website.

William Joyce Exhibit at the Children’s Art & Literacy Festival - June 12–14

This year, the third annual Children’s Art & Literacy Festival (C.A.L.F.) in downtown Abilene, Texas celebrates William Joyce, June 12–14. C.A.L.F is hosted by the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council and the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature (NCCIL).

Along with Abilene’s Center for Contempoary Arts, NCCIL will host an exhibition entitled “William Joyce: A Guardian of Childhood” featuring original work created for the Guardians of Childhood picture books, Meet the Robinsons and The Mischievians. It’s the first time these 20 new works have ever toured, so it’s an opportunity to not be missed.

Festival events with William Joyce include:

June 12 at 6:30 PM: Artist Talk & Book Signing

Join artist William Joyce at the Paramount Theatre for insights into his work with a book signign to follow. NCCIL’s Camp Reader’s Theatre will perform a theatrical version of the Academy® Award winning film The Fanstastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore starting at 6:00PM. This event is FREE.

June 13 at 6:30 PM: William Joyce Homecoming Dinner.

A special exhibition viewing and dinner in honor of William Joyce at the NCCIL Gallery. Ticket sales available online. Must RSVP not later than June 4th.

Other Book Signings

Friday June 13 @ 10:30 AM and Saturday, June 14 @ 10:30 AM in the NCCIL Gallery

The NCCIL is a nonprofit that relies on donations, memberships and bookstore sales. Only books purchased from the NCCIL will be signed. Avoid long lines: pre-order your books at the NCCIL bookstore today.

Mischievians a SIBA Book Award Finalist

The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has announced that The Mischievians among the children's book finalists for the 2014 SIBA Book Awards, recognizing great southern literature from the last year. There are twenty-two books on the 2014 list, representing booksellers' favorite hand sells of the year in fiction, nonfiction, children's, young adult, poetry and cooking.

Finalists will be judged by a juried panel of SIBA booksellers, and winners will be announced on July 4, "Independents Day." More information about the SIBA Book Awards can be found at sibaweb.com/siba-book-award.

Thanks, SIBA for honoring Moonbot, William Joyce and Dr. Zooper and spreading the word about the mayhem that these Mischievians have been creating around the globe.

William Joyce Chats with the Turner Classic Movies Podcast

One of the first things that visitors to Moonbot Studios see is our lobby television that's usually tuned to Turner Classic Movies. William Joyce recently sat down with TCM's Podcast to talk about classic movies, the Numberlys animated short and how he was first introduced to their programming.

Check out both episodes of the podcast below:

Get a Sneak Preview of The Numberlys Short Film

Our latest short film, The Numberlys, has been screening around the globe at film festivals. Now you can catch an exclusive sneak peek at the Good Morning America blog, which says "when five, charismatic little inhabitants of this 'numberly' world decided to put their heads together ... they ended up creating something extraordinary."

View the clip and read more on the Good Morning America blog.





The full film will be released online soon; but if you can't wait, check out a screening of the Numberlys short film at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 24th during the Family Picture Show.

Don't forget that the Numberlys picture book by William Joyce and Christina Ellis will be available at a local bookstore near you on May 27th.

"The Numberlys" Now Available for Pre-order!

The bots are excited to announce that The Numberlys picture book is now available for pre-order, delivered anywhere, including the moon! 

Once upon a time there was no alphabet, only numbers…

Life was…fine. Orderly. Dull as gray paint. Very…numberly. But our five jaunty heroes weren’t willing to accept that this was all there could be. They knew there had to be more.

So they broke out hard hats and welders, hammers and glue guns, and they started knocking some numbers together. Removing a piece here. Adding a piece there. At first, it was awful. But the five kept at it, and soon it was…artful! One letter after another emerged, until there were twenty-six. Twenty-six letters—and they were beautiful. All colorful, shiny, and new. Exactly what our heroes didn’t even know they were missing.

And when the letters entered the world, something truly wondrous began to happen…Pizza! Jelly beans! Color! Books!

Based on the award-winning app, this is William Joyce and Moonbot’s Metropolis-inspired homage to everyone who knows there is more to life than shades of black and gray.

Add some color and jellybeans to your life and pre-order The Numberlys today! The book will release on May 27.