🔸 THE FINAL CUT 🔸

INDUSTRY NEWS FOR VISUAL STORYTELLERS

Jun 05, 2026

The Final Cut · June 05, 2026

Storyboarding · Animation · Comics · Pre-Production · Tools & Pipeline

Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Final Cut — your weekly roundup of what’s moving in the world of visual storytelling.

This week started with an ending. Marjane Satrapi — creator of Persepolis, the first woman ever nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar, and one of the most influential cartoonists of the past 30 years — died in Paris yesterday at 56. Her family said she “died of sadness” a little over a year after losing her husband. On a lighter note: the team behind Scavengers Reign just landed another Netflix order, which tells you everything about what that streamer will still greenlight when the work is genuinely singular. Plus, The Amazing Digital Circus hits theaters today for its actual series finale — real audiences, real cinema, for a show born entirely on YouTube. That still kind of blows my mind every time I think about it.

Grab a coffee. Let’s get into it.

Comics & Illustration

Marjane Satrapi, ‘Persepolis’ Creator and Co-Director, Dies at 56

Marjane Satrapi — the Iranian-French cartoonist, filmmaker, and co-director of the Oscar-nominated animated feature Persepolis — died in Paris on June 4, 2026. Her family confirmed she “died of sadness” a little over a year after the death of her husband, Swedish producer Mattias Ripa. She was 56.

Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel and its 2007 animated adaptation redrew the boundaries of what animation could do — the film shared the Jury Prize at Cannes, earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature (making her the first woman ever nominated in that category), and became one of this century’s most enduring works of personal filmmaking. For a generation of readers and animators, Persepolis was a first proof of concept: that a single life, rendered honestly in ink, could carry the weight of history.

Source: Cartoon Brew

Animation — Industry

Netflix Orders ‘Dealies’ — Another Swing From the Team Behind ‘Scavengers Reign’ and ‘Common Side Effects’

Netflix has ordered Dealies, a new adult animated workplace comedy from Joe Bennett and Ted Travelstead, produced through Green Street Pictures — the same studio behind the critically lauded Scavengers Reign and the recent Common Side Effects. The series follows the staff of DEALIES, a big-box retail store staffed by, among others, a savant salesman, a gentle gladiator, and a summoner of the divine.

The greenlight is a meaningful signal: Netflix is still willing to bet on bold, distinct adult animation when the creative team has earned the trust. Dealies is currently scheduled to premiere in 2027.

Source: Variety

Pre-Production

‘Warrior Cats’ Animated Series Lands A.C. Bradley as Showrunner and Rodrigo Blaas as Director

The long-gestating animated adaptation of the Warrior Cats fantasy novels has officially entered production, with Emmy-winning writer A.C. Bradley (What If…?, Ms. Marvel) as showrunner and Pixar veteran Rodrigo Blaas (Star Wars: Visions, animator on Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up) as director. The series is a co-production between Coolabi Group and Tencent Video, with animation handled by Original Force — the studio behind Ne Zha 2.

The first series adapts Warrior Cats: The Prophecies Begin and is targeting a 2028 debut. Blaas’ involvement is the headline here: a director who cut his teeth on Pixar’s golden run stepping into a franchise beloved by millions is exactly the kind of pedigree-meets-IP appointment that tends to produce something worth watching.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Animation — Industry

The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act Opens in Theaters Today — $7.5M in Presales, Episodes 8 and 9 Combined

The series finale of The Amazing Digital Circus is in theaters as of today (June 4–18), combining Episodes 8 and 9 into a feature-length theatrical event via Fathom Entertainment. The run surpassed $7.5M in U.S. presales across more than 2,000 screens, making it one of the largest theatrical events ever for a fully independent, YouTube-native animated series. Audiences will see Episode 9 fifteen days before it drops on YouTube and Netflix on June 19.

The show, created by Gooseworx and produced by Glitch Productions, has now crossed one billion online views since its 2023 debut. The theatrical run is a meaningful marker for where independent animation can go when it builds a real audience before asking for a distributor’s permission.

Source: Fathom Entertainment

Tools & Pipeline

Psyop Launches Independent Media Group, Connecting 20 Studios Across Visual Storytelling and IP Development

New York-based creative studio Psyop has launched Psyop Independent Media Group, a new collective connecting 20 independent studios across visual storytelling, entertainment, design, and IP development into a shared infrastructure for end-to-end productions. The network spans disciplines from live action and mixed media to animation, artist-authored AI pipelines, and autonomous character agents, with studios operating across New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, Berlin, London, Paris, São Paulo, and Melbourne.

Member studios include Sun Creature, CRCR, Le Cube, Meat Dept., Studio Showoff, and others. The model is designed to give independent studios a collective point of contact for larger productions while preserving their individual creative identities — which is an interesting structural answer to a problem a lot of mid-sized studios have been navigating since the post-pandemic commissioning slowdown.

Source: Animation World Network

Animation — Short Film

Anna Mantzaris Returns to Stop-Motion With ‘Please,’ Featuring Stellan Skarsgård — Premieres at Zagreb June 8

Anna Mantzaris, the stop-motion director behind Good Intentions, Enough, and the Emmy-winning Apple short Fuzzy Feelings, is back with a new short — Please, a comedy about love, neediness, and the desire to be wanted, co-produced by Passion Paris, Apparat Filmproduktion, and Miyu. The film features a starring voice performance from Stellan Skarsgård as Winston and will world-premiere at Animafest Zagreb in the Grand Competition on June 8.

Mantzaris is one of the sharpest voices in stop-motion short filmmaking, and a new film from her is always worth paying attention to. Please is also in this year’s Annecy lineup.

Source: Skwigly Animation Magazine | Cartoon Brew

From the Community — Worth a Restack

Three recent posts from visual storytelling Substackers that are worth your time this week.

Animation Obsessive · 72,000 subscribers

Three Follow-Ups

A Thursday deep-dive continuing research from three earlier 2026 pieces — going further on Miyazaki’s Sherlock Hound, the Xerox workflow that shaped 101 Dalmatians, and the character design of Mulan. The kind of animation history writing that only gets better when the team has had extra time to sit with the source material.

Published May 28, 2026 (paid post — free trial available)

Creating Comics · K. Woodman-Maynard

Nobody Said You Have to Draw People

A practical, liberating short piece for anyone who lets “I can’t draw people” stop them from making comics — Woodman-Maynard makes the case that you can stand in for yourself with inanimate objects and still tell a completely honest story. It’s a workshop insight that works whether you’re making diary comics or pitching a series.

Published June 1, 2026 · 79 likes, 9 restacks

The Habit of Art · Kelcey Ervick

Nature Journals for People Who Get Attacked by Geese, Can’t Draw Trees, and Generally Prefer to Be Indoors

Ervick makes the case for nature journaling in comic form — accessible, funny, and full of actual examples from someone who clearly has a complicated relationship with local wildlife. A good nudge toward getting off the screen and making something observational.

Published May 25, 2026 · 140 likes, 23 restacks

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