The cover of the book "East Meets West: The Animation of Manick Sorcar" by Wendy Luna.
Foreword by John W. Hickenlooper, the Honorable Mayor of Denver, Colorado
(ISBN: 978-0578054049, Library of Congress CN: 2010924333, Galaxylight Books, 8" x 10", 110 pages, 184 color plates)

In 2005, “Manick Sorcar: Animations that Teach Indian Cultures” was the topic of the research paper of Wendy Luna (then Wendy Jensen), a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. She was pursuing a Bachelor in Fine Arts with a double major in 3-D Animation and Special Visual Effects. Her paper, which included a thorough research on Sorcar's work, went deep inside his animation films – all of which are based on children’s fables from India. Sorcar’s non-Western, distinctive style received a quick recognition in her research, where she wrote : “His unique and personal creative ideas exceed some of the large companies’ consistent styles which tend to be overly standard to the animation business. They are unique because his intentions are not to compete with commercial cartoons but to give Americans the insight to the folklore and culture of rural India.“ The unusual tribute to Sorcar was picked up by the media and distributed internationally (news49.php).

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Wendy Luna (left), with her husband, Ken, and their son, Justin, and Manick and Shikha at the
Sorcar residence in Colorado

After graduation and few years later her fascination with Sorcar's work on Indian animation reached a new height when she took her research work to the Sorcar residence in Colorado where she met him for the first time. She interviewed him, went through his library and discovered a wealth of unpublished hand-drawn sketches, storyboards, model sheets, scripts, etc., which were the raw ingredients for the preparations of each of Sorcar's award-winning animations - ultimately resulting in this book. In her Preface for the book, she wrote:

"...I feel blessed to have worked with Manick Sorcar on my research paper and now on this book....I am immensely grateful to him for giving his time for the interview, allowing me access to his invaluable library, and providing a variety of resources that were never published before. I have been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from a passionate artist, a remarkable individual, and an inspiring teacher. This book is just a brief glimpse into the vast collection of Sorcar's artwork, all of which touch the human spirit and spread the cultural history of India".

Wendy Luna is an avid enthusiast when it comes to visual arts. After graduating from the Savannah College of Art & Design in Savannah, Georgia she taught 3-D animation courses at Thomas Nelson Community College of Hampton, Virginia. This helped fuel a passion for education, specifically across cultural barriers. She is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership at Argosy University. She resides in Texas with her husband, Naval Officer Ken Luna, and their son, Justin.

About the Foreword of the book and its writer:

The Foreword of the book is written by John W. Hickenlooper, the Honorable Mayor of Denver, Colorado, who is thoroughly familiar with Sorcar for his lighting design, animation, and stage shows.

...
Mayor John W. Hickenlooper (left), at the Denver Center for Performing Arts during
Manick's show Enlightenment of Buddha, which combined live action with animation (right)

Excerpts from the Foreword of the book:

"It is an honor and a pleasure for me to write the Foreword of this valuable book. I have known Manick Sorcar for several years now because of his breathtaking lighting designs for many of the Mile High City's iconic structures...But this is only a fraction of the contribution actually made by this multifaceted man. Sorcar is a true modern day renaissance man...What makes each of Sorcar's animations a masterpiece is the depth of passion that goes into their making. Each is a labor of love that helps introduce the culture of India to our children; paving a way to understand the other side of the globe and offering friendship at a grassroots level. They teach that diversity is an asset and what bonds each of us together, regardless of where we grow up, is the common thread of humanity. This book is indeed a treasure in the multicultural wealth of our great nation. It is a tribute to Manick Sorcar, whose animation for the last two decades has both entertained and educated us about India, her culture, her people - all together, a true cultural bridge between East and West, which has made Denver, the United States and India proud".

The book had international release through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. in June, 2010.