7 Year Itch

I was digging through my files here at CN the other day and came across a bunch of interesting junk, both old and new, that cover the last 7 years of production. Here are a few oldies and... newies.

As it says above, these were some early pencil drawings that Cliff Voorhees did for Billy's and Mandy's houses when we switched from "Grim and Evil" to "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" and "Evil Con Carne".

Our opening title was done over the course of three days. Because that's how much people in TV animation care about quality. Thankfully, I had the help of editor Bobby Gibis and Flash mastermind Spencer Laudiero to help me through. The images above are marker comps and paintings by art director Rae McCarson.

When we were doing the title, I knew I wanted a "dirty" look, but the film grain wiped out most of the detail. Here you can actually read the headstone gags...
This is part of the rough storyboard I did for the titles.
And here are some development drawings from Billy and Mandy's "final" episode. Make what you will of the quotes. The drawings above were done by Phil Rynda, Serapio Calm, and myself. The BG was painted by Don Watson.
Without giving much away, we learn a lot more about Grim's past. And we get to see some other characters from the show in a younger form. Above is Lord Pain. When we first saw him, he was obsessed with Grim. After that, he decided Mandy was his true Master. And who would Lord Pain be into before either of them?

32 things I learned being 32

This has been a crazy year for me. It’s been a year of change, certainly. I broke up with my girlfriend of three years, becoming single and living alone for the first time. That, in turn, forced me to socialize with all manner of Homo Sapiens, engaging in a strange, silly, sexy, occasionally vile anthropology experiment. The freaky thing is, I’ve realized that I’m more like you guys than I thought. I also learned that I’m a lot weirder than even I thought I was. And I’m still too nice.

I tackled a DVD movie and two specials on top of my normal workload, fought for logic and for Less Sucking in the workplace. I’ve seen the end of the great boon and burden that was “Billy and Mandy”. I accepted my role as the Rodney Dangerfield of Animation, and am looking forward to the Bathrobe Stage.

I learned that I can make a pretty mean filet mignon with goat cheese and balsamic reduction, and found that I can step into any number of churches without bursting into flame (which pretty much proves that I don’t need to be stepping into them in the first place).

I’ve learned that most Americans think I’m from Canada, most Europeans think I’m from England, and the English think I’m from Australia. I’ve been on a train with a bomb on it that didn’t explode due to human error, and missed out on a plane flight that crashed for the same reason.

I’ve honed my “Kermit the Frog” impression to near-perfection, drank my way through Europe on foot with nothing but a stand-up comedian and a case of acute viral nasopharyngitis at my side, discovered my Grandma assumes I’m gay, and found that my Spirit Animal is the spider.

Best of all, I did it all without throwing up.

And all along the way, I’ve been backed by the best friends I could ask for. We just closed out my 32nd year on this turbulent little rock* with our fourth Las Vegas Mancation, which I would describe as a “hideous success”. I can’t thank those guys (and absentee gals) enough for assisting me while I played Jane Goodall this last year. Now I get to run around and beat my chest and fling my poo. It’s gonna be good.

Below are 32 things I learned in my 32nd year. Some are things that happened to me, some come from the experiences of others, and some are just bits of good advice I picked up along the way. I’m finally starting to see that life isn’t a Fairy Tale, but it is an Adventure.

I am the spoon.

Welcome to my year, bitches!

32:

1. If you pretend you know what you’re doing you can get away with almost anything.
2. Humans are much more frightening than sharks.**
3. Jeans are not the enemy.
4. Always slice your car registration sticker with a razor blade so the idiot who tries to steal it won’t get the whole thing.
5. If you get one parking ticket, parking somewhere else and leaving the original ticket up won’t fool the cop into not giving you a second ticket.
6. A little bit of hot sauce in a beer can be a good thing.
7. Never date a stripper.
8. Lieberkase is a tasty German meat loaf with a fried egg on top. It looks like Spam, but it’s tastier, more exotic, and will probably kill you much quicker.
9. I don’t know if the thirties are the new twenties, but the new thirties are certainly more enjoyable than the old twenties.
10. Expensive luggage still breaks. Sometimes quicker than the Hefty bag you’ve been using.
11. It really is better to die on your feet than live on your knees. Apply it as a metaphor for everything.
12. Twelve to fifteen dead gophers can really stink up the joint.
13. It seems that you can now copyright anything, including names of foods and animals. Someone better grab “banana” and “naked mole rat” before I do.
14. When traveling (or in dry weather) put some chapstick in your nose. Not only does it make everything feel better, but it reduces your chances of catching a cold.
15. One bottle of Jack Daniels can force one hour of good TV writing.
16. Absynthe. (Too bad it’s illegal here.)
17. Alienware’s customer service department is full of idiots, liars, layabouts, lollygaggers, and assholes. Don’t even bother. (Sorry Alienware, I told you I’d do it.***)
18. It is important for men to know that women understand their thought processes. Women don't care.
19. Creative collaborations are fraught with peril.
20. Writing is the best therapy there is.
21. A crude common gross-out joke is a waste of everyone’s time, but a crude brilliant gross-out joke is forever.
22. When it comes to alcohol, steak, and shoes, you really do get what you pay for.
23. Belgians hate fun, but they love trash and fruit-flavored beer.
24. X3 didn’t count.
25. Trust is earned slowly but lost instantly.
26. Arguing is not the same thing as fighting.
27. In a pinch, you can lay down on your back and prop your feet up for a 20 minute power nap. It’ll let you keep going for another 12-15 hours.
28. Just because a relationship fails doesn’t mean it was a failure.
29. It takes a brilliant person to understand another person’s brilliant idea. That’s why all we’ve got is reality TV.
30. If you don’t care about Televised sports, you can make them more palatable by keeping track of the off-the-court drama. Betting also helps.
31. Sometimes you have to let Baby touch the oven so he can learn how hot it is. This does negate your right to make fun of how stupid Baby was afterward.
32. Good friends, good food, good drink, good art, and good times far outweigh all of the evils of the world. Except vampires.

* I am no longer accepting Birthday wishes, thank you. Spankings are good through October.

** The word “Shark” is a registered trademark of Sparagmos Industries Limited.

*** Just kidding. I'm really not sorry.

How To Get A Job In TV Animation Without Hardly Trying - Part 2

PART II: Presenting Your Work

I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists.
-Marcel Duchamp

If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
-Vincent Van Gogh

Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.
-C. Montgomery Burns

This is the one I know you’ve all been waiting for. How do you put together a portfolio that will get you a job and where do you take it?

I’ve put together many a portfolio in my day, and more recently I’ve looked at dozens and dozens more. Your portfolio is probably the single most important asset you have when trying to get a job in TV animation. All of the good contacts you’ve made by raiding the Nickelodeon lunches and the good word from Uncle Pappy at Cartoon Network won’t mean squat if you don’t have a great portfolio to back it up. You’ll be competing with a huge number of other people, many of whom have a lot more experience than you do.

Two years ago while “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy” was looking for a new character designer, Cartoon Network was swamped with portfolios from out-of-work Disney feature animators who’d been let go when Disney erroneously suspected that their crappy films were crappy because they weren’t CG. I sifted through a baker’s dozen large, leather-bound portfolios full of gorgeous life drawings that certainly surpassed anything I could do. These people had page after page of solid, well-crafted characters from some really great, classic Disney films that stretched back for decades. It turned out that I didn’t pick a single one of these amazing artists to fill the position, however. Instead, the job went to a 22 year old from New Jersey who happened to be out visiting friends and also happened to have a photocopy packet of his favorite drawings.

What Phil did through an accident of good timing you can do by design, which is tailoring your portfolio to the studio and show you’re applying for. The Disney animators may have had loads of gorgeous animation drawings and life drawings, but "Billy and Mandy" is a weird, rubbery, surreal cartoon and we don’t actually animate anything here. That’s not to say that life drawing and animation aren’t vital skills to have in the TV animation industry. Far from it. But the person who’s looking at your portfolio isn’t going to care if you can render out a photorealistic elephant if you’re applying on “Dora the Explorer”.

This doesn’t mean that if you’re planning to apply for a job on “Chowder” that you should obsessively fill pages of your portfolio with drawing after drawing in “Chowder” style. A few drawings or pages of drawings will do. Just prove that you can draw the way that the show will require you to. And never use the actually characters from the show you’re applying for either. The contents of the portfolio should be your work, and until you’ve actually been paid to work on a particular series then you can’t claim that you’ve worked on it.

Basically, your portfolio says, “Hey, this is what I’ve done and it shows what I’m capable of.” If you put characters from “Dexter’s Lab” in your portfolio and you’ve never worked on “Dexter’s Lab”, several things will happen. And none of them are good. First, other studios around town will assume you have worked on “Dexter’s Lab”. While this could get you a job somewhere, eventually someone will out you and you’ll get a bad reputation. Second, if the creator of “Dexter’s Lab” were to get a hold of your portfolio, he could be very upset that you’re trying to pass yourself off as someone who’s worked on his show. At best, he’ll probably be super nit-picky with your drawings and tear them up worse than he would’ve if you’d just done other characters in the style of “Dexter’s Lab”. So feel free to draw characters in the style of a show, but never use the actual characters from the show and never claim that you’ve worked on something you haven’t. Don’t pad the resume’. The resume’ doesn’t matter. What’s inside the portfolio is the only thing that counts.

So you’ve got a few pages of drawings that resemble the style of the show you’re applying for. What goes in the rest of the portfolio? What I look for is variety. I want to see that people are adaptable and can learn to draw in different ways. You don't have to be all over the map, just show a range. Maybe you do want a single page of life drawing in there. Just draw like you like to draw and fill a few pages with that. Then try to draw like you work for Klasky-Csupo. Then try something completely different. If I can see that a person can take the time to learn to draw in different ways, I believe that they can learn to draw like me and that makes me want to hire them.

You should not only have examples of different drawing styles, but also drawings of different things. If you like drawing bikini-clad ninjas or axe-murdering hermit crabs you should definitely have some of that in your portfolio to represent your interests. But have some other stuff in there to. Have backgrounds and landscapes and characters and props and animals and vehicles. When you drop off a portfolio, you’re often doing it blind to the jobs the company might have to offer. If you want the character design job but you’re willing to get a foot in the door doing prop design, that should be reflected in your portfolio.

Physically, your portfolio should be easily accessible. That means that a stapled pack of photocopies is preferable to a huge leather case full of gorgeous original drawings that I can’t get to because the zipper doesn’t work. I think it’s easy to have too many things in a portfolio. I can’t say what too long is, really, but I’ll say that you should keep the portfolio to just your very best work. Five pages or ten drawings is too small. Tease, but prove that you can put out. The portfolio is usually just a prelude to a test, so you’ll get a chance to really show them your stuff later.

Aesthetically, there’s always something to be said for an eye-catching cover. Don’t have everything in your portfolio totally cleaned-up and glossy. Have some rough stuff and quick sketches in there too. It’s good to see how people construct their drawings. If you’re a freak like C.H. Greenblatt and drawings somehow just form from the tip of your pen… well, then you’re screwed.

Should you include your showreel or student film? If you’re planning to be a timer, director, or animator then a reel a few minutes long is vital. If you’re applying for anything else, it’s totally optional.

Don’t forget that humor is always a good thing. Have a gag drawing or a one panel funny cartoon. It’ll help your work be remembered later, even if you’re applying on an action show.

So, in short, have drawings in the style of the show you’re applying for, have drawings in a variety of other styles, draw many different kinds of things, have drawings representing other shows or projects you’ve worked on as well as things from your own imagination, and have something funny. Make sure your portfolio is easy to flip through, and eye-catching enough to invite the flipping to start. One thing my father taught me is that you should always put your best piece of work and your second best piece last. I find that works out for me pretty well.

There’s more TV animation now than ever, but nobody will call it an “animation boom” like they were when I moved out here. That’s because with layoffs in other areas of animation and the huge new crop of young animators coming in there are more people than there are jobs. When I’m looking at portfolios, it’s almost overwhelming. They don’t come in one at a time. They come in batches of five or seven every few days. Your portfolio is your foot in the door, so don’t underestimate the importance of making it a really pretty foot. After submitting your portfolio, let it sit for a week before calling to check on its whereabouts. Always have copies. I submitted a portfolio to a studio that lost it for two years. They found it and called me, but by the time I got over to the studio they’d lost it again.

If you get passed on, just take it in stride. Rework your portfolio and try again in a few months. There's a lot of competition for TV animation jobs right now, but the jobs by their nature are short-lived. It's not uncommon for a series to go on hiatus every nine months or so. Invariably, people leave and new people need to be hired.

Below is a list of studios and how to contact them. I’ll expand on it as I get the information on other studios. If you know any, feel free to chime in.

Cartoon Network Studios
300 North 3rd Street
Burbank, CA 91502
(818)729-4000

Portfolios at Cartoon Network are often passed through every show in the studio, insuring that you get some good exposure. And zealous Linda Barry makes sure that every portfolio gets seen. Adult Swim is based in Atlanta, and not part of Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank.

The Comic Book That Never Was

As I've posted elsewhere, I do a lot of drawing but very little of what I actually draw is ever seen by the public. Almost everything I draw for Billy and Mandy is redrawn by the animators in Korea, so it's a special treat for me to be able to do something finished that people can actually see. That's why I was so excited when I got an offer from the lovely and talented Voltaire to do some pages for his new Deady comic. Those of you unfamiliar with Voltaire might know him as the singer/songwriter/musician who brought you "Brains" from the Billy and Mandy episode "Little Rock of Horror". Voltaire's also done a new song for the opening titles of the upcoming DVD.

After finishing the two pages for Deady, I got bit by the comic bug and decided to do my own. I'm always happiest when I'm working (at least mentally) on two or three different projects, and I've had a story I wanted to tell in comic form so I started screwing around on my then new Wacom screen.

I knew if I was going to do a comic in my "spare time", it would have to be something I could do relatively quickly. The images below were tests I did completely on the tablet just to see if I could crank things out fast enough to actually get it done.

The images above and below were roughed out freehand with the pencil tool in Photoshop, then cleaned-up and filled with the polygonal lasso tool. The above image came out pretty good, all things considered. The one below feels too jaggy to me. Eventually I abandoned the method.

The image below is a variation on the female character up top. This one I sketched out with the pencil tool and then colored over top as though I were using markers. It came out okay. Of course, finally, I dropped the entire comic because Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure dropped in my lap like a ton of spiked cinderblocks.

Big Boogey Sneak Peek

Here are some images from the upcoming DVD movie. These are all super-secret. Tell no one. Not even mom and dad. Well, maybe dad. But not mom. You know how she feels about secret Big Boogey stuff...

Can you say... "Gratuitous Puppets"?

Mandy in action.

Who is this mysterious Gatekeeper? And does whatever he's cooking need more oregano?

A super-secret still from the actual DVD. Shhhh!

Your Future Looks Grim

This year the Billy and Mandy crew went to Comicon. Too bad for you chumps who wouldn't fork out the dough to fly in from Vancouver or Dehli or wherever you were that you thought that was an acceptable excuse. If you had gone, you would've seen myself, storyboard artists C.H. Greenblatt, Alex Almaguer, Mike Diederich, and Ian Wasseluk, as well as Grey Delisle (voice of Mandy) and Vanessa Marshall (voice of Irwin). But wait! There's more! You also would have received a free tarot card from the batch below...




Here's an actual-size view of the Death card. With all of the cards I tried to keep the symbolism intact. It wasn't always possible, and I did occasionally take some artistic license. If you can call turning a horse into a farting monster artistic license.

At the last minute I added a "Hermit" card featuring General Skarr. That one isn't shown here, but you can imagine it. Here, try it with me...

Cartoon Network Mystery Project

Earlier this year I was cursed terribly for my indulgence in sin by having to complete two storyboards. I'd just finished the DVD cover on my Wacom Cintiq, so I decided to give storyboarding a go in Photoshop. I know there are dedicated storyboarding programs, but I've used Photoshop for twelve years or so and I just can't bear to be without it.
Above are a few panels and drawings from the boards.

I can't tell you anything about the story, unfortunately. It's part of a big secret Cartoon Network thing. They've implanted a chip in my brain that prevents me from giving away too much information. It's Sour Cream and Onion. It hurts like hell.

While you wait for this secret project, check out an upcoming Adult Swim secret project from my good friend Craig Lewis. He's a vegan and he made this. He's also responsible for writing outlines on a bunch of the early Billy and Mandy episodes.

Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey DVD Cover

I know I've been away too long. I've missed you too.

I'd like to think it's worth it. After all, I've been cracking my whip on the backs of my minions (and myself) for almost a year to bring you the best dadgum DVD I can. I have a feeling you'll like it. And I don't usually even bother having feelings.

Here is the DVD cover I did for Atlanta. In the end, they changed a few things. They like everything big. The good news is, I got my wish of flourescent ink. Yessss!

Here were a few sketches that I did before I started on the final.



And here's the final. The coffee stain was added as a joke before I sent the jpeg for approval. On the back... yep. It's the Kracken. We had him in the script before we knew Pirates 2 was coming out. It worried me at first, because I thought that people might think we were ripping off the movie. Then I remembered that we always rip off movies, and we were indeed ripping off a movie in this case. It was just a movie with a Ray Harryhausen Kracken instead of a CG one.

And here's how it might look on the shelves. If Atlanta's done screwin' with it. I don't think they liked that you could see most of Grim's body or the robots in the crow's nest.

For me, a lot of the fun of making cartoons is that you get to revisit the things you loved about your childhood. When I was a wee lad, I used to love movies like Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans, so it was fun to be able to do a big pirate adventure story with lots of crazy monsters. I love me some monsters. Mmm-hmm.

So check out Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure this Spring. There's a Billy moment that still blows my mind. I'd tell you the air date, but I'm not a numbers man.

How To Get A Job In TV Animation Without Hardly Trying - Part 1

PART I: Tools of the Trade

Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, giving them limit, symmetry, proportion. Beauty halts and freezes the melting flux of nature.
-Camille Paglia

If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad.
-Lord Byron

Cartoons are stupid.
-Mandy

First off, working in TV animation is a loveless, thankless job. Like trying to take a dump after eating nothing but nachos for three days, it isn't as easy as it looks and it's probably way more stressful than it needs to be. TV animation work is seasonal, so you'll never have any real job security. And since cartoons are the red-headed-stepchild of TV and we've got an impotent union, you'll never make a dime in residuals for anything you do. Ever. Early last year I moved up to Genndy Tartakovsky's old office, where someone had taped this fortune to the outer cubicle wall:

That just about sums it up.

So you're not in it for the money. Or the fame, because there's really no fame. Or the chicks. Because 90% of the people in TV animation are dudes (good news for you artsy ladies!) So what's left? Well, you've got to love to draw and love to be creative. You have to be passionate about what you do. If you love to draw, keep drawing. Keep studying and learning and being creative and having fun. Strive to be the best you can be and hold yourself to a higher standard. Believe me, there are plenty of people in TV animation who are useless lazy bums. And some of them do very well for themselves. But being a useless lazy bum is a different skill set from the one we're talking about here, so if you'd like to be lazy and fall upward to the top of the entertainment industry you'll have to wait for my "How To Get a Job as a Useless Asshole" guide coming out later this year.

So you've got the tools, you've got the talent. You're the veritable Keymaster of the animation world, and all you've got to do now is get in the door. How do you do that? First, you'll move to California. Or, if you're a masochist, New York. Most TV animation (and film animation) is done in California, with a small amount in New York. Los Angeles is a great town, and I plan on living here for a long time. This city has a great "anything can happen" vibe that helps drive me. But since anything can happen, you've got to be ready for anything. Plan on being able to live for six months to a year in a crummy, roach-infested studio apartment that costs more per-month than your parent's mortgage. Because you're going to try and you're going to fail. Many times.

Most people in my animation class who moved out here didn't last six months. Granted, most of those people didn't have the staying power to finish school properly either. But if this is what you really want, be prepared to do what it takes to get it. Get that job at Fry's or become a stripper to supplement your income while you're drawing and dragging portfolios around town in your off-hours. Better yet, strip at Fry's. That place needs some love.

When you're bringing your portfolios around town, you'll meet all sorts of people who work in TV animation already. Some of these people won't be dicks. Get to know those people as best you can.

It's not in the nature of artists to be terribly social, but with any job you're going to have to work with people. And the more people who know and like you who work in your field, the more opportunities you'll have to find work. Just make sure you're not one of those goons who're only social when they need a job or a favor. Nobody likes those kinds of people. Not even me, and I'm very forgiving. Also, don't overdo it. Don't call every three days to get an update on your portfolio or ask for drawing tips. Just make your mark and let them come to you. It's sort of like dating. Being a little bit mysterious and elusive always beats stalking.

Until fairly recently, I was a hideously poor communicator. All baggage from childhood, and let me tell you that banishing that stuff improved not only my work life but all other aspects of my life as well. You don't have to be the life of the party, but if you brush-up on your communication skills, aren't afraid to tell some jokes, have some fun, and don't hide in your cubicle nine out of the eight hours you work during the day you'll be much happier and more people will remember you. Basically, just have fun and meet people. Remember that most of your coworkers are nerds too, and that TV animation is the Nerd Playground. Play.

So you're not in this for the glamour or the bling. You're a dedicated, passionate artist and you love what you do. You are stubborn. You will try and fail a dozen times and still laugh in the face of another rejected portfolio. You're financially secure enough to make laughing an option… at least for a little while. You're personable and friendly and nobody who interviews you is picturing you walking into work toting a sniper rifle. If you're all of the above, then you're ready to submit your first portfolio. Honor and fear will be heaped upon your name and, in time, you will become a TV cartoonist by your own hand... And this story shall also be told.

Cruel and Unusual

This poster was created for an in-studio promotion. Why we need to promote so much within Cartoon Network itself I'll never know. I mean, they always say, "promote from within," but I don't think they meant it that way.

I thought this'd make a fun blacklight poster. The good news is that the cover of "Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure" should be blacklight-friendly.

Spittin' Game

Here are some images I did for promotion on the Billy and Mandy game that came out in 2006. The game was a lot of fun for me because I love video games and, in fact, I got my start in animation working on a few video games in college. And one day I'll return to the video game world with a burning vengeance!

I was very lucky that Cartoon Network, Midway, and High Voltage let me be as involved as I was, and even luckier that the gang at High Voltage turned out to be so zealous and fun. I knew from the start that I didn't want to do "just another adventure game", but we had to keep the scale of the game sort of small since it was a licensed game and that's just the way the world works when it comes to licensed games.

Eventually we decided to go with a fighting game. The characters in Billy and Mandy are always arguing and fighting, so it seemed only natural that the characters in the game should be able to pick up a club and start pounding each other even if they were supposed to be working toward a common goal.

Here's an earlier version of the game cover that was nixed by Midway because of the fire. It's always interesting seeing how different mediums handle censorship. For instance, we'd never be able to have Billy, Mandy, and Grim ascending to Asgard with little angel wings on the TV show, but having a giant dog breathing fire on a house wouldn't cause the Standards people in Atlanta to bat an eyelash. Billy was also losing a tooth in an earlier version which was removed to "tone down the violence".



Below is the final version, which looks a lot better anyway.



These were the first real pieces of artwork that I created on my Wacom tablet. I've since learned to love the beast. I've always used Photoshop, but being able to use a pseudopencil has totally changed my art life. Now I just need a computer that can more easily handle fifty layers of 600 dpi goodness...

Freak Out in a Moonage Daydream

Blarf! Here's me blarfing up a bunch of old drawings for you to love or hate at your leisure. Maybe you've seen 'em before. Maybe you ain't.

This first one is an original "cel" from my college version of Billy and Mandy. Billy and Mandy first appeared in a black and white film I did when I was attending University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The film was called "Billy and Mandy in Trepanation of the Skull and You", and it involved an uncharacteristically giddy Mandy convincing a typically stupid Billy to drill a hole in his own head. The cel here was a test to see if it would be worth it to paint cels for the project. It wasn't. Unfortunately, nor was it worth coloring every character in marker, then cutting them out and pasting them on a cel, which is what I ended up doing.

Is that a blog in your pocket?

Welcome to the new Sparagmos industries blog. This will be the place where you can find the scoop and the poop on "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy", "Evil Con Carne", and whatever it is that Maxwell Atoms and the usual gang of idiots are coming up with next.

I'm still figuring this thing out, so I'm going to start by posting a bunch of the artwork from the old blog... and we'll see where it goes from there.

Oh, and please remove your shoes before entering the blog. I know, I know. Do I really want it to be that kind of blog? Probably not. But c'mon... it's brand new. Just let me enjoy it while I can.