'FurBabies'.
Nancy Beiman is an American animator, caricaturist and illustrator. During her career of nearly 40 years in animation, she worked for several of the major studios, most notably on several feature films for the Walt Disney Company. She has also been a teacher in animation and storyboarding at three different institutions, and wrote two academic books on her profession. Beiman's work as a comic artist included the 1986 comic adaptation of 'Howard the Duck: The Menace from Outer Space' (based on Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik's comic series) and contributions to titles related to Jim Henson's 'Muppet Show'. After her retirement, she has released the graphic novel 'How I Finally Got to Live a Cat's Life' (2022) and launched her webcomic 'FurBabies' (2023- ) on the GoComics website.
Early life
Nancy Beiman was born in New Jersey. Her father Melvyn Beiman was Principal English Horn player in the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and taught music in high school and college levels. He loved comics and animation. Her mother was an art librarian with the Newark Public Library. Both her parents fully supported her artistic career choice. In 1975, Beiman was accepted into the Character Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts. This was its first class and by year three, she was the only female student. She received a BFA in Film (Character Animation) in 1979. Later in life, in 2007, she also received her MFA in Design (Computer Graphics) at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Having a fondness for silent comedy, comics, cartoons, and comic writing, she ranks among her main graphic influences Charles M. Schulz, Chuck Jones, Walt Kelly, Robert Osborn, Johnny Hart and Harvey Kurtzman.
Dancing cat sequence for the cover of the book 'Animated Performance'.
Animation career
Between 1978 and 2017, Beiman was a professional animator, and has worked in six countries. In 1978, she began her career as assistant animator for Bakshi Productions, where she participated in the 'Wargs' sequence on Ralph Bakshi's 'Lord of the Rings' adaptation. Between 1979 and 1982, she was employed by Jack Zander's Animation Parlour, where she was animator, storyboard artist and character designer on short commercials and the 1980 television special 'Gnomes', based on the characters created by Dutch illustrator Rien Poortvliet. She then freelanced for Rick Reinert Productions, where she did her first Disney-related work on 'Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore', bumpers for The Disney Channel and educational films for Epcot Florida. In 1986, she starting Caged Beagle Productions with business partner Dean Yeagle and stayed with this company for two years, working on Warner Brothers projects and commercials. She also worked on various Peanuts specials, including 'Snoopy: The Musical' (all based on Charles M. Schulz' 'Peanuts').
After stints as supervising animator for Steven Spielberg's Amblimation UK in London ('An American Tail II: Fievel Goes West') and as director and storyboarder for Warner Bros. Classic Animation ('Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes'), Beiman began her enduring assocation with the Walt Disney Company. First with the Walt Disney Animation Studios in France (1993), then with Walt Disney Feature Animation in the USA (1993-2000). At Disney, she designed and animated characters for 'Hercules' and 'Treasure Planet', was lead animator on 'A Goofy Movie' and did storyboards and character design for numerous projects at Features and Television. In the 21st century, she has been a storyboard artist and director for TFC Trickcompany and Hahn Film in Germany, as well as Walt Disney Toon Studios.
In addition to her commercial work, Beiman also created personal films, such as the 1983 short 'Your Feet's Too Big', which won the 1985 Reuben Animation Award. In 2017, she produced, directed and animated a five-minute short film based on Thomas King's short story 'A Short History of Indians in Canada', which featured music by her father, Melvyn Beiman.
'Prepare to Board!' and 'Animated Performance'.
Tutor
In addition to her own work in animation, Beiman has also contributed to specialized publications. Between 1982 and 1995, her interviews with animation artists appeared in Cartoonist Profiles magazine. She has published two academic books on her profession, 'Prepare To Board!' (Focal Press, 2007) was a standard text on storyboarding, and 'Animated Performance' (Bloomsbury Academic, 2010), the first book on animated acting written by an animator. In later years, both books have been reprinted in revised and expanded editions. During the 21st century, Nancy Beiman has spent 20 years teaching animation and animation storyboarding at three different institutions, first at the Savannah College of Art and Design (2000-2002) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (2004-2008), and finally at Sheridan College's Animation department in Canada (2008-2018).
'The Perils of Piggy' (The Muppet Show on Tour: 2nd Edition, 1985).
Comic artist
During her career in animation, Beiman occasionally worked in print media, notably on comics. In the mid-1980s, she collaborated on several 'Muppets' books, for instance creating the coloring story 'The Perils of Piggy' for the 1985 'The Muppet Show on Tour: 2nd Edition' program book. For issue #11 of Muppet Magazine, she drew the comic story 'Punknocchio' (1985). For Marvel Books in 1986, she drew the coloring book adaptation of the film 'Howard the Duck: The Menace from Outer Space'. As an illustrator, Beiman's art has been featured in books related to various 'Sherlock Holmes' societies and pastiches.
Since her retirement from the animation industry and her teaching career, Beiman switched to comics. In 2022, she self-published her debut graphic novel 'How I Finally Got to Live a Cat's Life: A Cartoon Diary 2020-2021' under her own Little Red Hen Editions imprint. Described as "the ultimate staycation with cats", the book was a collection of autobiographical comics she made about her life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Diary comic of 25 January 2021.
FurBabies
In 2022, Beiman began drawing her own 'FurBabies' comic strip. It was accepted by Andrews McMeel and has appeared daily on the GoComics website starting on 5 June 2023. The comic is about a blended-species family of dogs who live in a big city apartment. They have a puppy son and cat daughter. Their human, 9-year old Kate Buffet, can speak with all animals. The strip is seen entirely from the point of view of the animals. A recurring theme is the conflict between the natural world and modern technology.
'FurBabies' (6 September 2025).
Recognition
In 1985, Beiman received the NCS Division Award in the field of Feature Animation for her short film 'Your Feet's Too Big'. In 2000, she was nominated for the Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production. In 2007, Beiman was awarded a Golden Pencil for outstanding teaching at the 2D Or Not 2D Animation Festival in 2007.
Self-portrait (2022).