Let's see, what bad things have happened in animation recently?

Well, DreamWorks is reportedly laying off 20 - 25% of their employees.

Rhythm & Hues is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

And the website Cartoon Brew is dead.

Where did I read about all of these? Why, Cartoon Brew, of course!

Cartoon Brew has been, for better or worse, a central source of animation-related news and opinion for the last nine years.

Co-founded by animation historian and author Jerry Beck and some other guy name Amid Amidi, the animation industry has had a love-hate relationship with "The Brew" for years.

Mainly, people loved Jerry, and hated Amid. Jerry is the quintessential nice guy, respected author, and his love for animation shows through his every writing.

Amid, by comparison, is the very definition of an internet troll. I have yet to meet anyone in the animation world who likes or respects him. How he ever got work writing animation books is beyond my comprehension. If his typical self-aggrandizing, inflammatory blog posts are any indication of his writing "skills", why on earth would I ever want to buy an entire book written by him?

Now Amid is the sole owner of Cartoon Brew. For whatever reasons, Jerry has left. Bought out by Amid. There is no reason left to read Cartoon Brew anymore, because the voice of reason of Cartoon Brew has left.

And in typical fashion, comments for the posts announcing the buyout and Jerry's farewell have been disabled.

Such a shame. The flame wars would have been most entertaining.

Oh well - one less website to check. Saves five minutes out of my week.