Animation Scoop by Jerry Beck | Ofir Lobel

Amidst the perfect storm of fan-con and festival season, Los Angeles-based Neko Productions drops a buzzworthy flood of entertainment business growth updates. Cresting the wave is the studio’s debut, original kid-lit graphic novel series entitled 101 Reasons Why. The broadly humorous tome, created by writer/director/comedian Ofir Lobel (Keshet/Netflix’s BLACKSPACE; Keshet’s TRUST NO ONE and A WONDERFUL COUNTRY), edited by Peyton McDavitt, and with comics art direction from Bobbo Andonova (BOBBO DRAWS), is a high-concept comic that’s ripe for the future animated adaptation. Additionally, Neko founder and executive producer Lirit Rosenzweig Topaz has relocated Neko’s former Burbank headquarters into a souped-up facility in Sherman Oaks, California. With this move comes the engagement of graphic novel development guru John Shableski (Myra and the Drawing Drama, Manga Classics, We Survived the Holocaust: The Bluma and Felix Goldberg Story) and consulting producer Marlene Sharp (Young Captain Nemo, Sonic Boom, Snack World).