New Skwigly book ‘Intimate Animation’ released this month
Skwigly
Skwigly are excited to announce the official release date of the latest Skwigly book – Intimate Animation!
Built upon the long-running podcast of the same name, Intimate Animation sees Skwigly Editor in Chief Ben Mitchell and Features Writer Dr. Laura-Beth Cowley explore the sensitive, sensual – and sometimes saucy – side of animation.
Intimate Animation (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press)
In recent years, there has been a surge in animated projects that have pushed boundaries, broken taboos, prompted discussions and wowed festival and online audiences alike through compelling storytelling and unmatched artistry.
Join Ben Mitchell and Laura-Beth Cowley of Skwigly Online Animation Magazine and the Intimate Animation podcast as they take you on a tour of the landscape of contemporary animated films that deal with themes of love, intimacy, relationships, anatomy and sexuality – and the incredible artists behind them. Through research and firsthand interviews with trailblazers such as Signe Baumane, Andreas Hykade, Ruth Lingford, Michaela Pavlátová, Bill Plympton and Joanna Quinn, as well as newer voices including Sawako Kabuki, Renata Gąsiorowska, Will Anderson, Sara Gunnarsdottir, Michaela Mihalyi, David Stumpf, Levi Stoops, Lori Malépart-Traversy, Anna Ginsburg, Veljko Popović, Joseph Wallace, Renee Zhan and more, Intimate Animation looks deeply at how animation has been used to present elaborate and complex concepts relating to love and sexuality.
Exploring the role animation has played in sex education, self-discovery, the body, lust and love, as well as how the medium can be used to visually represent emotions, feelings and concepts not easily described in words nor depicted through live-action filmmaking, Intimate Animation is the ideal book for professional animators, filmmakers, enthusiasts, researchers, academic and students of animation and film studies interested in the themes of love and sexuality.
Published by CRC Press (Taylor & Francis), the book will be released March 27th and is available to pre-order now (Skwigly readers can get a whopping 20% off using code LP96LCNPH at checkout through this month)
Overview & Chapter Abstracts
ISBN 9781032541501
232 Pages
96 Color & 4 B/W Illustrations
Introduction: A (Very) Potted History of Erotica in Animation
The introduction of the book serves to lay a historical context against which the bulk of its later case studies, largely produced from the mid-2000s onward, can be presented against. Going back to the earliest interpretable definitions of animation and historical examples such as Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure (1928), we examine the lewder aspects of cartoon history through the classic works of directors including Dave Fleischer, Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, moving through the subsequent decades in consideration of each era’s more noteworthy purveyors of sex-themed animation, including Eiichi Yamamoto, Bob Godfrey, Ralph Bakshi, Picha, Suzan Pitt, Gerald Potterton, Michèle Cournoyer, Barry Purves and Satoshi Kon as well as introducing key artists Signe Baumane, Andreas Hykade, Ruth Lingford, Michaela Pavlátová, Bill Plympton, Joanna Quinn, whose work will be explored in more detail later in the book. As well as the shorts and feature film landscape, the rise of adult animation in television series from the 90s onward will be discussed, as well as its subsequent reception and legacy.
Chapter 1: Sex Education
Here we investigate the role animation has played from the early/mid-20th century up to now in sex education, from a medical and social perspective, noting how shifts in tone and presentation have been reflective of cultural and social sensibilities when considering early, more clinical examples such as Disney’s Story of Menstruation (1946) and VD Attack Plan (1972). Also explored are the ways in which animation as a medium has been alternately deflective (making subject matter more ‘palatable’ to potential conservative audiences) and how this approach has inverted over time, drawing on animation as an approachable, ‘cartooney’ medium, evidenced in films such as Where Did I Come From (1985) and What’s Happening To Me (1986). These historical examples are presented in contrast to today’s stark and frank depictions that serve to destigmatize the information presented with contemporary wit and design sensibilities, exemplified in films such as Lori Malepart-Traversy’s Le clitoris (2016). We also discuss how different international territories have approached the use of animation in sex education over the years, and the prevalence of online resources in more recent times.
Chapter 2: Self-Discovery
This chapter explores films and series that deal with the subject of developing sexuality. Case studies centered around men include Andreas Hykade’s memoir Altötting, in which his burgeoning sexuality becomes embroiled with religion through his romanticizing of the Virgin Mary; Ivan’s Need (Dir. Veronica L. Montaño, Manuela Leuenberger and Lukas Suter) in which a boy is guided by unbridled adolescent lust toward an experience of greater substance; Tor Fruergaard’s Growing Pains that sees male libido manifest as animalistic transformation; The Wrong End of the Stick (Dir. Terri Matthews) in which a middle-aged man’s identity crisis has potential ramifications for the stability of his marriage; and Mind My Mind (Dir. Floor Adams), a story of a neurodivergent young man struggling to navigate the behavioral cues that come with a first relationship.
Films that depict the experiences of women include the work of filmmakers Diane Obomsawin, Chloé Alliez and Violette Delvoye that explore early emergences of same-sex attraction and relationships; Signe Baumane, whose Teat Beat of Sex series offers up a uniquely personal insight into sexuality and womanhood; and Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon’s My Year of Dicks, a memoir of Ribon’s quest to lose her virginity as a teenager.
Chapter 3: The Body
Here we explore how society looks at bodies and the cultural shifts that occur over time to determine what aesthetic qualities determine beauty and the social expectations therein. Through early examples from the dawn of animation to the contemporary work of today’s directors, we will explore how directors present the human form, sexualisation of the body and the nature of spectatorship; how audiences engage, interpret and ultimately understand what is being shown, as represented by form and animated language.
Primary case studies include the work of Bill Plympton (How to Kiss, How to Make Love to a Woman, I Married a Strange Person), Joanna Quinn (Girls Night Out, Body Beautiful, Elles, Wife of Bath), Veljko Popović (Cyclists), Frédéric Doazan (Supervenus), Anna Ginsburg (Private Parts, What Is Beauty?, A Love Hate Relationship) and Marie Valade (Lolos). Also examined will be how genre and gender informs design and narrative construction, contrasting broad comedy with pathos through series such as Big Mouth and Tuca and Bertie.
Chapter 4: Lust
Lust examines sex as an act of libido that is based on personal carnal desire; through sub-themes and cases studies we will look at how contemporary animated filmmaking has explored the roots of arousal and sensual exploration, spanning sexual play, fetishism, masturbation and sexual liberation, in increasingly sophisticated and thought-provoking ways. Primary case studies include the anarchic work of Sawako Kabuki (Don’t Tell Mom, Takoyaki Story, Master Blaster) as well as Ruth Lingford (What She Wants, Little Deaths), Renee Zhan (Soft Animals) and Michaela Pavlátová’s (Tram) animated visualizations of fantasy and desire.
Also discussed will be the variety of ways in which fetishism can play a role in animated storytelling through the work of Delphine Hermans (Poils), Matt Oxborrow (The Banjo String), Tobias Rud (I’ll Be Your Kettle) and Shoko Hara (Just A Guy) as well as the subject of masturbation through Renata Gąsiorowska’s Cipka and Lori Malépart-Traversy’s series of animated testimonials Caresses magiques.
Chapter 5: Love
In the final and most expansive chapter of the book, we move further into the emotional realm of the subject, looking at how the complex nature of love and relationships have been explored through animated film – from infatuations of early crushes to the intimacy of long lasting, established relationships, and delving into the complexities and surrounding issues brought about by love such as sexual/romantic competition, the intangibility of romantic ambivalence, the pain of heartbreak and the journey of working through it and crossing the line from healthy romantic appreciation to obsession.
Different phases of relationships are explored through the work of Efa Blosse-Mason (Cwch Deilen) and Levi Stoops (Drijf). The depiction of love rivalries, sexual competition and their inevitable ramifications are discussed via films by Andreas Hykade (Ring of Fire), Michaela Mihalyi and David Stumpf (SH_T HAPPENS), Veronica L. Montaño, Manuela Leuenberger and Joel Hofmann (Lachsmänner), Veljko Popović (Cyclists), and Panna Horvath-Molnar and Virág Zomborácz (Dipendenza). Signe Baumane’s Rocks in My Pockets, Nadja Andrasev’s Symbiosis and Ross Butter’s I Love You So Hard explore the nature of obsession and its potential to be alternately destructive, constructive or anarchically comedic. The films of Chintis Lundgren, Draško Ivezić, Tor Fruergaard and Signe Baumane are examined for the ways in which they tell stories of personal and inter-relationship growth, while breakups and heartache are explored in Joseph Wallace’s Natural Disaster and Will Anderson’s Betty.
Appendix A: Intimate Animation Podcast Episode List (2016–2022)
Appendix B: Suggested Further Viewing and Resources
Appendix C: Suggested Further Reading
Intimate Animation is released March 27, 2025 by CRC Press. Pre-order here