Ziggy Artist, Other Cartoonists, Gather For Tribute at Disney Birthplace

Marceline, MO – (Sept. 12, 2005) – TOONFEST 2005, a free public festival featuring a gathering of some of the world’s best-known cartoonists, will be held on Sept. 16-17 in Marceline, Missouri, the childhood hometown of Walt Disney.

The event, open to the general public, will feature several cartoonists, including Cincinnati resident Tom Wilson, artist for the nationally syndicated comic, ZIGGY, and president of Cleveland based Ziggy & Friends, Inc. Walt Disney has particular significance for Wilson and ZIGGY this year, as ZIGGY will make his animated debut in Ziggy’s Gift, a holiday special DVD to be released by BFS Multimedia Entertainment this Fall. Ziggy’s Gift, a hand-drawn animated feature, shows Disney’s multimedia influence as Ziggy arrives on screen 68 years after Walt Disney’s first feature length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which was released to the public in 1937.

Wilson will be on hand for meet and greet autographs, drawing demonstrations and speaking engagements. He will speak at the Marceline Uptown Theater on Fri., Sept. 16 at 12:30PM to a student (high school, college) audience and on Sat., Sept. 17 at 3:20 to the general public audience about his personal accounts of the influence Disney and the town of Marceline has had on the life and times of ZIGGY.

Joining Wilson for the Toonfest tribute is a multitude of talented cartoonists, who will gather at Marceline’s vintage Uptown Theater for a feature panel to interact with audiences. Guests will include Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Jim Borgman (co-creator of the comic strip “Zits”), Glenn and Gary McCoy (“Flying McCoys” and “The Duplex”), Tony Baxter (Senior Vice President of Creative Development at Walt Disney Imagineering), Tom Richmond (Mad Magazine cartoonist), and Charles Solomon, an internationally recognized animation critic.

All Toonfest headliners will be Grand Marshals in a gala parade up and down Main Street USA beginning Saturday morning at 10. Other Saturday events include a cartoon exhibit sponsored by the National Cartoonists Society North Central Chapter at the Masonic Hall. Included will be works by Toonfest headliners and the opportunity to meet them in person. All professional cartoonists are invited to submit their work for exhibition to the Toonfest Office, for arrival by Sept. 14. Cartoons will be returned to creators postage paid.

More activities available for Toonfest attendees include original cartoons and cartoonists' autographed books auction; the Walt Disney Museum, featuring a collection of Walt Disney life in Marceline memorabilia; live entertainment, food, an apple pie eating contest, craft booths, Barnyard Olympics, and a bait casting competition at Ripley Pond. All programs are free to the public.

The town of Marceline is 120 miles northeast of Kansas City. The Toonfest is sponsored in part by Andrews McMeel Universal, a Kansas City, Mo.-based media company, providing the world with books, calendars, newspaper features, film/TV, online and wireless content and much more.

For more Toonfest information, including events, schedule, how to get there and where to stay; and about submitting cartoons to the Toonfest exhibition, contact a Toonfest Ambassador at toonfest@sbcglobal.net, 660-376-9258, or Walt Disney's Hometown Toonfest, 207 N. Main St. USA, Marceline, MO 64658. Visit www.toonfest.net.