Sparagmos Industries

Fish Hooks 4-Eva!

2010-09-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hey y'alls. I'm working on getting this blog sorted out. Every day I get dozens of comments and I can't possibly respond to them all. Of course, they're not from you. They're all ads for Bingo and Chinese hair creme and pharmaceuticals. But I'll deal with that later.

Today is all about Fish Hooks! The show doesn't premiere officially until the end of the month, but tonight there's a sneak preview of the show on Disney Channel after the conclusion of Camp Rock II. Somewhere between 9:30 and 10, I'm guessing.

So come check out what Noah Z. Jones, Bill Reiss, C.H. Greenblatt, yours truly, and a whole bunch of other awesome folks have been working on for the past year! It's like nothing else on Disney Channel, but I think you'll find that it fits right in. Hope you like it!

I'm not on Twitter

2010-02-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

So if you're getting tweets or twits or whatever from me... it ain't me.

My Big Fat Stinky Wedding

2009-09-03T13:42:00.001-07:00

Well, not mine. But tonight on "Chowder", everyone's favoirite animated fart cloud is getting married. It's the second and final board I did for the show, and is the last thing anyone will ever see that I did for Cartoon Network. Hope you enjoy it!

Billy and Mandy and Chowder stuff on Ebay

2009-05-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

I'm totally delinquent putting this up, but there are some original drawings by myself and C.H. Greenblatt on Ebay.

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/just_a_paddy

It's all for charity, so the question is, can you afford NOT to own these babies? Plus, who draws on paper anymore? In five years we'll project cartoons psychically into the minds of others and antique works of art like these will be worth billions!

Old School

2009-03-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

I remembered this curious device the other night while I was trying to go to sleep. I used to sit in the back of the car on long trips and make animations on this thing. It couldn't really replace the Flip-Book Madness that killed the majority of the paper pads that found their way into my parent's house, but it was pretty fun. It got me thinking about how I ended up in this crazy business and why I do things the way I do now.

I think I started painting on the computer in, well... certainly the early '80's. We used to have an Atari computer. No, that's not an Atari 2600.

It was frickin' Atari Computer.

Yeah, so, that was the life of a young nerd. I used to program my own games in Basic. Most were Zork-style text games, but I remember doing some reeeealy crude graphics on a Road Warrior-style car shooter. The cars were big green cubes. So were their bullets.

A few years later I graduated to Deluxe Paint where I spent a week trying to reproduce a tiger photograph down to the pixel. I'm sure today it would probably hilarious and make an excellent T-shirt.

Deluxe Paint (Or "Dpaint" as the people on the BBS used to call it. See how old I am?) was responsible for my very first paying art gig for a little (or it was back then) studio called Epic. I remember painstakingly placing individual pixels until deciding that finally someone might decide that what I'd made sort-of resembled a hulking mutant in a test tube.

Before college ended, I worked on a game being produced for Epic that never saw the light of day due to some silly squabbling between the producers and unfinished sound code. The game was to be the first full-screen animated game on the PC. Meaning cinematic-style animation, though still composed of too-few pixels to be really believable. Vector-based. Sort of a proto-Flash. For two years I dragged pixellated lines around until they formed shapes that I prayed would be interpreted as a cartoony superhero. And it actually came out pretty good, as I recall.

Photoshop didn't enter the picture until after I moved to L.A., and I remember being really resistant to it at first. I'm not even sure when that changed.

I'm not sure where I was going with this trip down Memory Lane, but... hey look! I posted in my own blog!

Hello--oh-oh-oh...

2009-02-04T08:11:00.000-08:00

Echo-oh-oh-oh...

The Annies went well (as well as could be expected-- we didn't win) and Kung-Fu Panda destroyed everything in its path. Not many surprises, but good to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while.

I've been busy since New Year's dressing up my pitches all sexy-like and teaching them how to go out and earn some bread, and now I'm gonna send 'em out on the streets for the first time. Let's just hope they know what they're doing, the stupid pitches.

In the mean time, I've done something I swore I'd never do again-- cohabitating! There goes the dream of being George Clooney Jr. Still, I've never been so happy. Well, except for being unemployed and having to build tons of Ikea furniture. I'm starting to hate the name "Billy".

So pretty much I'm in another spot where I've got nothing to show you guys for a while. So here's a cheesy picture from the Annies of Jay Bastian (CN executive), James Silverman (producer of Underfist), some goon, and Greg Eagles (Grim). Damn, what a bunch of handsome livestock.

It takes a loong while for anything to get going in TV, but if you don't hear from me in a few months you can assume I've either won the lottery, given up and moved to Canada where people get paid to make cartoons, or am crying myself to sleep at night. Or all three.

When the stuff starts coming back up here it'll be coming up fast and furious, like a breasfast burrito. I'm starting to work on my vinyl toys again and once I get some sketches done I'll share 'em here since I've really got nothing to lose (or gain, really) on those babies.

Stay sharp. Trust no one!

Underfist Nomination

2008-12-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

I wish I could keep coming up with new ways to say "thank you", but "どうもありがとう。" will have to do.

Underfist has gotten an Annie nomination for Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children this year! For those who don't know, the Annies are sort of like the Emmys for cartoons. It's the first "big" category we've ever been nominated for, so thanks again to the crew and the viewers for sticking with it!

Looks like some tough competition, but I'm honestly just happy that Underfist gets to crawl back out of the grave and show off its exquisite corpse one last time...

ASIFA Auction

2008-11-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

If my blog wasn't already such a sloppy mess, I'd already have a link to Mr. Warburton on the right over there. I'll have to figure out how to do that again. Anyway, the
big ASIFA Animation Auction is happening tonight in New York. SO if you like animation and you live in or near New York and have nothing to do on a Thursday night you should probably check out Warburton's blog here. Lots and lots of cool art from the best artists in animation today! Mmm-hmm!

Mindwarp

2008-11-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

Since I'm trying to save money this X-mas, I've decided to go the "crafty" route for gifts. This probably means that I'll be making my mom something really nice out of a paper plate and some macaroni.

I'm also infusing some vodka to give to some friends, and my girlfriend and I decided we should paint labels with watercolors. I haven't painted in a looong time, and I'd forgotten how fun paints can be. I wet the whole paper first and put down some green, then tried to see what shapes I could find. Sort of like finding faces in the clouds. This is what came out...

I'm not sure if it's a commentary on my mental state, but it was sort of liberating. Now it's back to the grind. I need to get 25 pages of storyboard done per day if I'm going to make my self-imposed pitch date for the new show (sorry, can't show anything yet). If I'm going to be honest with myself, I'd say I'm so close to the Holidays now that I've already missed it. But what kind of stubborn jackass would I be if I didn't try?

What Beginnings Look Like

2008-11-10T10:45:00.000-08:00

As requested!

Now you too can stare at this blank storyboard paper for hours, wondering how to begin telling your story! Marvel at the small frames that seem like they should be easy to fill! Wonder at the mysteries of how to compose a shot for standard TV and HD at the same time! Thrill as your muscles atrophy while you waste away in a chair!

You can print this out or use it digitally. I normally start with a "template" when I work in Photoshop on my Cintiq. This is my bottom layer, and it has two blank "drawing" layers on top of it. I never draw directly on the board paper layer itself because I might need to cut or move the frames later. Ideally my first blank layer is for my rough drawing and the one on top of that is used for cleanup, but it's not uncommon for me to add a few more layers as needed.

On top of that in my template, I add a layer for page number, a layer for scene numbers, layers for left and right dialog, and layers for left and right action. Most people I work with say I'm crazy for typing my dialog and action notes, but I type quickly and much more neatly than I write. The only people who don't say I'm crazy for typing are the directors, who I think appreciate having something legible to work from.

When I've added all these layers on top of the board paper, I save a layered .PSD file as "BoardPaper" and a copy as "BoardPaper_BK" in case I screw one of them up. Now every time I want to start a page I open my BoardPaper.PSD, draw what I need to draw, then save it as "Chowder_001", "Chowder_002", and so on. The numbers at the end of the file are what keep the board sequentially organized, so be careful not to name the pages "Chowder1", "Chowder2", and go from there, because eventually you'll end up with page 2 right next to page 200 and everything will be a mess.

I'm sort of unusual in that I prefer to board in Photoshop. The standard at CN right now is to board in "Toon Boom", which feels to me like a simpler version of Photoshop wth a few shortcuts for boarding. Until recently Mirage was also popular.

You could also do it the "old school" way, and print out or copy hundreds of these and then just drop them on top of a light box and go to town.

A lot of people in animation aren't very organized (and I can be one of them). We're artists, after all, not accountants. Still, it's part of your job to make the next guy's job easier. If you're doing models they'll be passed on to a cleanup artist. If you're doing boards, directors and overseas animators have to interpret what you've done, so try and make sure that everything reads well.

Good luck!

Leftovers - Skarr Fights Candy

2008-11-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's the Skarr fight Kirk H. wanted to see.

Also, it seems that Underfist and Big Boogey are both being shown in their entirety on CN Video:

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/video/

So now's your chance to get a look at 'em if you missed 'em the first time around.

Thanks to everyone who sent me the ratings and the positive press. I've even gotten a rumor that another network is looking for something "like Underfist". I hope they remember that I'm a free agent now...

I've been pretty busy lately, but while I'm on "down time" I'm hoping to revamp my "How to get into Animation" articles and put up the final one I never finished. Maybe those will come along soon.

Zbrush

2008-11-04T13:09:00.001-08:00

I've been doing a lot of cleaning lately. Some of it's been digital, moving all my old files onto my portable HD just to clear up space. Today I came across some of my old Zbrush 2 stuff. I bought Zbrush 2 during one of Billy & Mandy's cancellations with the intention of teaching to myself. These pictures were taken from some of the tutorials. "Make a human head" and "Make some armor" were about as far as I got before Billy & Mandy ate my life again. It was a really fun program; more like sculpting clay or painting than the point-pulling madness I'd come to expect from other 3D programs.

Maybe I'll get back into it someday, but first I think I need to learn Illustrator. Not having the luxury of a dedicated cleanup artist has sort of sucked of late...

And yeah, I guess there's a bit of Skarr in this guy, but mostly I just didn't know how to make decent looking hair. ;)

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

I'm mostly done with the Chowder board. Man it's been a long time since I've had to handle someone else's characters. I'd forgotten how hard that is. Not that Chowder's "hard", just that I'm out of practice.

Anyway, with that done I can finally clean my house and enjoy all the nothing that's going on this Halloween. The silverfish aren't gonna be happy.

Here's the last of the Underfist for a while (though I'll try and hit up the requests after the weekend - like blank board paper and the Skarr fight sequence). Thanks again to everyone on the crew who helped make Underfist great, and for everyone at CN who fought to keep this thing alive and get it on TV. And, of course, to the people who watched it!

Here are some color panels I did from the board that I used as a guide for the show's palette. Most of the subtle beauty in the actual BGs comes from Joe Binggeli's gorgeous, colorful work and his "mysterious shadows".

Wiggidy-WHAT!?

2008-10-24T17:01:00.001-07:00

Looks like Underfist earned another showing. If you missed it the first time around (or feel up to a gut-reeling Round Two), you can catch it Saturday, October 25.

1:00PM The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
1:30PM The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy - "Billy & Mandy's Jacked Up Halloween"
2:00PM Ed, Edd 'n Eddy - "Boo-Haw Haw"
2:30PM Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular
3:30PM Scary Godmother 2: The Revenge of Jimmy
4:30PM Underfist: Halloween Bash

More Underfist Stuff...

2008-10-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

...'cause you asked.

I dug up another of my "mini sales pitch pages" that I was putting at the end of each board section. This one was part of Act II, and it shows off some of the Underfist gadgetry that Billy and Grim could've outfitted the team with. You might recognize a few bits from the title sequence. That's where I tried t stick as much cool stuff as I could from the other Underfist ideas I had, since I was pretty sure that there'd never be a second go-round for the team. Heck, at that point I wasn't even sure they'd air the first one. That was back a few months ago when CN was switching to younger kids rather than teen boys. Oh what a tangled web...

Here's the Jack O' Lantern panel a few of you asked for. As you can see, it's not as exciting as you though it'd be. Probably why I didn't even notice that he didn't end up in the background in the finished film. But... yeah. What Mindy said.

Billy & Mandy on CN Video

2008-10-17T09:41:00.001-07:00

The news from CN is coming fast, if not furious. Seems that The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy will be the first series put out entirely on CN video, in all its terror and glory. The good news is that you can watch them "on demand" whenever you want. The bad news is that you'll have to put up with low-res images. The good news is that you get the entire series. The bad news is that you'll still have to sit through commercials. And let's leave it on a high note...

Check out a link to the videos here. Look for "Billy & Mandy" under "Shows". Seasons 3-6 should go up next week.

Under-Ratings

2008-10-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks again and again!

Here are the ratings for the premiere. Not sure how much they really mean since ratings need to "build" in order for anyone to take them seriously, and with only three airings over the cours e of two days there ain't gonna be a lot of that going on. Still, we beat everything Nick and Disney had to offer, as well as topped Clone Wars' recent premieres (which get a lot more ad time).

Highlights for Sunday, October 12, 2008

* Cartoon Network’s Sunday included a Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Marathon from 12n-8:30p, the block earned a 3.0 total average rating with kids 6-11 and a 4.3 with boys 6-11. The marathon included the premiere of the original movie Underfist Halloween Bash at 7p, which earned a 5.3 rating with kids and delivered 1,115,000 viewers. With boys 6-11, the 7p movie earned a 7.6 rating and delivered 814,000 male viewers.
* Versus the competition from 7-8:30p, Underfist Halloween Bash, including a 10min Billy & Mandy fill, outperformed Nickelodeon’s programming for that 1 ∏ hour time-slot with kids and boys 6-11, earnings a +9% higher kids’ rating and a +95% higher boys’ rating. The movie premiere was the top rated telecast of our network’s day with both kids 6-11, while with boys 6-11 the movie was #1 for the day against all ad-supported cable.

So, technically, for that day, Underfist beat-up everybody and sent them home cryin' to momma.

Here's that link to CN's feedback page if you want to praise (or condemn) the show.

And I'll see if I can find out where that Jack O' Lantern panel is.

In the mean time, here are a few mock-up frames I sent with our shipments overseas so that eMation would know what I was going for. eMation has been a really good company to work with over the years and they've got a lot of talented people working for them. As you can see, the show looks pretty close to what we sent over...

P.S. - Anyone else used to get those candy skeletons when you Trick-or-Treated? The ones in the colored coffins? You'd open the plastic coffin and there'd be a bunch of pieces inside which you could put together (if you were lucky) into a full skeleton and then eat? That's what the skeletons fighting Skarr were supposed to be, but most of the people I worked with thought I was a raving lunatic when I talked about them.

Thanx, yo!

2008-10-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

Wow! Thanks for all the positive feedback, guys. I felt good about Underfist, and it's nice to know you guys agree. It lets me know that I haven't gone totally crazy.

I don't know how I'll ever be able to address all the questions, but I'll do my best.

It's true that I no longer work for Cartoon Network. My contract expired about a month ago. Am I upset that I'm not there anymore? Yes and no. I'll miss my old crew and my friends, but I've been doing the same show for almost a decade. That's a long time to be doing anything, especially for someone with Ultimate A.D.D. like me. It's time to move on.

That being said, I'd consider doing another Underfist special or a series with CN if they wanted it. I have no hard feelings toward CN and I believe in the spirit of the direction they're taking, at least. I'm glad they're finally differentiating themselves from Nick and Disney. They're really embracing TV-PG, and I think I could make a killer show for that demographic.

But for now none of that's on the table so why dwell on it? I'm young, dumb, and full of cartoons, so let's get this party started yo!

I'm getting a pitch together for a brand new kid's show as we speak. I'm not sure I've ever felt this good about series pitch. It updates Cartoon Sci-Fi for this century, it's weird, it's fun, and it's an action/comedy. But if Underfist was a step in a different direction than Billy & Mandy, then this is two more steps, slightly to the left.

No, the other left.

I'm also working on a second freelance board for C.H. Greenblatt's Chowder, and simmering on the back-burner is a possible pitch for prime-time. On top of that, I've been meeting with a lot of really cool people at some exciting places, so who knows where I'll end up?

Doing something like Homestar Runner would indeed be awesome, as far as freedom is concerned. I don't think it would help me buy more vodka, though. And I'm almost out.

I was bothered by the spoilers in the Toonzone review, but I wasn't bothered that it was a negative review. For one thing, it is a kid's show. I try to make the appeal broader than 6-11, but I don't even try to make something that'll "appeal to everyone". You can't please everyone. And if you try, you just end up making something really weak, soft, and generic. Plus, I've had people whose job it was to support me tell me I suck. Everyone's got an opinion, and I don't listen to any of 'em. As Jeff said, "My dad doesn't listen to nobody, and neither will I!"

Back to Underfist-- Yes, I changed the visuals on purpose. Partially because over time you find better or cleaner ways of doing things, but mostly to differentiate it from Billy & Mandy.

I did over 1,000 storyboard pages for Underfist over the course of three months. That's about twenty-four panels a day. And even then I needed some help getting it all done. Underfist required almost double the number of drawings as a straight comedy board because I really wanted to pose things out for the animators, and because the action scenes were so packed with characters, explosions, and mayhem.

Here are around twenty pages of the board from the first Hoss fight, if you're into that kind of thing.

Thanks again for all the kudos! Smell ya' later!

Octoberfist

2008-10-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

This drawing was done by Phil Rynda based on a joke board panel I made that ended up in the title sequence for the show. Even though he doesn't use this energy sword or ride a unicorn in the show proper, I felt like it'd be a mistake not to include the image somewhere since I think we can all agree that this is The American Dream in cartoon form.

Hold this image in your mind when you go to the polls next month.

Here's an update:

Steve Fritz from Newsarama.com has posted an interview with me about Underfist. You can find it here:

http://www.newsarama.com/tv/100809-Ani-Shorts-Underfist.html

There's also a "review" up at Toonzone. It's a negative review (they always are at Toonzone), but the reason I'd suggest that you skip it is because it literally spoils two or three of Underfist's surprises in the first fewparagraphs. Read it on Monday if you must.

Underfist, YO!

2008-10-06T11:38:00.001-07:00

Perhaps even more spoilertastic than the other videos, this one's an interview with quiet ol' me and C.H. Greenblatt about Underfist. No new info, really, but some fun clips. Haven't seen any on-air ads on CN yet but I'm hoping they're out there since we're less than a week away...

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/video/dlink/index.html?episodeID=8a25c3921cc1f24d011cc466be1c0027

Sneak Peek

2008-09-30T18:09:00.000-07:00

CN Video put out a few preview videos of Underfist. Here's one of them. The other two I would consider "minorly spoilerish", so if you care about that sort of thing you shouldn't go poking around for them.

Whatever limiter Warner Brothers (or someone) runs our stuff through ends up washing out the yellows, which was a problem for years with Mandy's hair. Never did figure it out. Good to see the tradition is still alive...

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/video/dlink/index.html?episodeID=8a25c3921cad5f85011cae66c60c002b
(guess I'm too dumb to link the video directly)

Fred Fredburger drawn by Andy Suriano

Talk to the Fist.

2008-09-20T14:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a treat (or trick) for the coming month; I can finally talk about Underfist's premiere date. I've been told it'll be airing this one time widescreen, so the first showing does have a little something extra, even though it'll probably repeat several times up through Halloween.

Sunday, October 12th

Billy & Mandy Marathon:

2pm "Hoss Delgado: Spectral Exterminator/Educating Grim/The Crawling Niceness"

2:30pm "Skarred For Life/Bearded Billy"

3pm "Spider's Little Daddy/That's My Mummy"

3:30pm "My Fair Mandy"

4pm "Irwin Gets a Clue/Spider Mandy"

4:30pm "Keeper of the Reaper"

5pm "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?/Herbicidal Maniac"

5:30pm "Be a-Fred, Be Very A-Fred/King Tooten Pooten"

6pm "The Most Greatest Love Story Ever Told Ever/Dracula Must Die"

6:30pm "Billy & Mandy's Jacked Up Halloween

7pm "Underfist"

If you like Irwin, Hoss, Jeff, Skarr, Fred, and Dracula, you won't want to miss this one. And even if you hate all those guys it's still got Billy, Mandy, & Grim. And even if you hate them too it's got some crazy monsters and a different take on "action" than you're likely to see in a TV cartoon for a long while. And even if you hate all those characters and comedy and action and funny songs... well, I guess that's all I got. What're you doing on my blog, anyway!?

I make it a point never to ask favors from people, but I'm going to ask you for one right now; and that's watch it. The numbers on this one will decide whether or not anyone will get to see the fabulous sequels or a series in the future (such as Underfist -vs- the Dinosaurs above).

Hope you like what you see!

Instant Gratification

2008-08-20T17:28:00.000-07:00

I've always loved Legos. As a kid, I'd always want some toy or other and I never felt like I had enough (even though I'm sure I did). The solution was always Legos. The same little blocks were my Transformers and the Ghostbusters and warring factions of animal-people, and whatever else I needed them to be.

Since I started being creative for a living, Legos have fallen by the wayside. They're expensive as hell, for one thing. And it just doesn't look sane to have a desk covered in tiny plastic bricks. But I still love the D.I.Y. philosophy behind the whole thing.

I recently discovered the Spore Creature Creator. I'm sure I don't need to advertise the game, since anyone with a computer's probably heard of it by now. Well, I can only hope that the game itself is as well structured and as fun as the Creature Creator. It's the best thing, in my opinion, since the invention of the Lego.

Work has been work lately, and the Creature Creator has been a sort of saving grace as far as my sanity's been concerned. There's just something so satisfying about being able to make something awesome without having to ask permission to do so. Plus, each of these bad boys only took a few minutes to put together.

It's a free download for the basic version. Definitely worth a peek if you're into building stuff or gaming.

**Update:
The ditors are still awesome. Well worth it for those alone, if you liked the Creature Creator. As a game... "meh". I have no doubt it'll get better with time, so I'd give it some before I'd buy this expecting decent gameplay. It's also mad buggy right now. I've gone and lost several dozen hours of unemployment time to the winds already due to a corrupt savegame.

Skeletons in the closet. And other junk.

2008-08-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when the world is spinning violently out of control, you've got to create your own little piece of chaos. Something you've got control over. I think that's why, on top of everything else going on, I finally decided to have my master bathroom redone. I've been saving for it for years, but I've always been too busy or too lazy or too wrapped up in something else. But it's happening as we speak!

A lot of people have asked me for details about myself, especially on MySpace (yeah, I bumped off my MySpace account. What'cha gonna do about it? Write me here, I hope). I've always felt like you can tell a lot about people from their possessions. Mostly their clutter. So, since I'm normally pretty reserved with personal info, I thought I'd let you have a peek at a random assortment of crud from my bedroom that's been moved into another room in the house. Can you find evidence that I once stood 6'5"? Hints of a budding romance with Sgt. Frog? Artifacts from Billy & Mandy? Waldo?

Let's see the junk in your trunks, yo!

*P.S. - To anyone who's read the full Dark Tower series... what do I do!? I haven't read the last book yet and I'm a bit afraid to. I feel like it peaked with Wizard and Glass, which I think might be one of King's best stories ever. Mostly for the flashback story, and not so much the weird postmodern Wizard of Oz bits. Do I stop where King says I might want to? Or do I read through to the bitter end?

Who watches the watchers of Underfist?

2008-07-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

I remember a day in Fifth Grade: a day like any other day, really. I'd walked through "the ditch", a convenient but semi-forbidden shortcut that got you to school a few minutes faster. In my lunchbox I had my lunch, of course, but I also had a few Star Wars figures. It was tradition by this point to play Star Wars during recess, and I'd come prepared as usual. Unfortunately for me, though, I'd somehow missed the memo. Today when I pulled out my Boba Fett I wasn't greeted with Battle Action, but with laughter. Somehow everyone had come to the conclusion that we were all too old to play with toys and this was the day.

I think there was a mild play resurgence when those battery-operated 4X4 trucks came out the next year, but things were never the same.

Or so I was just thinking as I stuck my new Boba Fett USB drive into my port here at work. Coming full-circle is great because things are usually better the second time around. The nice thing about being a man in your early 30's is that you can play with whatever you damn well please and ain't nobody gonna stop you. I'm not saying they won't laugh; just that they won't stop you.

Comic con is always a mixed bag for me. It's inspiring to see what other people are doing with their art. It's a blast crashing industry parties. It's exciting to know that somewhere in all of that square-footage and sweat that there are a few unique treasures that you know you have to have. It's just a matter of finding them. It's a time to reunite with old friends and colleagues; to drink too much vodka and eat hot dogs on a rooftop at two in the morning.

On the other hand, it's a reminder that it's been five years since I said I'd start my comic book and I haven't done it. It's also a cruel reminder that I'm only as good as my next project. Then there's the fact that you have to plow your way through all that square-footage and sweat just to get whatever it is you're looking for. It's a time when you're buried under hundreds or thousands of other projects and properties with better promotion and merchandise and all the things you know you can't have. I think by Saturday I realized that I wasn't going to get anything I wanted this year.

Sorry that the Underfist part of the panel was so short, but frankly I was happy that we got any time at all. I think this means that CN is actually going to air it, and up until recently I would've bet against that. Not because it's bad or has any questionable content, but just because there's an attitude that everything has to be new. Not that Underfist isn't new. It's a completely different show than Billy & Mandy, but it's got recognizable characters in it so it's totally off the radar. So the answer to the most-asked question of the 'Con for me ("Will CN do Underfist as a series?") is almost certainly "no".

So to any of you who saw the clip and liked it, or to any of you who liked Billy & Mandy, I encourage you to look for Underfist in October. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Break into your neighbor's house and turn on the TV(Only if they're a Nielson family). I will deny any knowledge of that last setnece. The previous paragraph will self-destruct in 16 seconds.

Above you'll see some pictures of some of the characters in their new uniforms. I was hoping to put up something more exciting, but I forgot that they wiped the drives here after we shipped. There are definitely a lot of surprises in Underfist and a lot of things that are "secret" (just like Flapjack!), so I couldn't put up some of the prettiest artwork I managed to dig up. You'll just have to wait and see!

Hopefully soon I'll be able to share some of what I've been doing over the last year and a half. I'm at CN until September 7th, as it stands. Then I'll have a lot more flexibility as to what I can put up here.

I remember how excited McCracken was when he saw his first bootleg Powerpuff skateboard, and I've been waiting for the day when I finally get to have the thrill of knowing that enough people recognize something you've done that they'll try and make money off of it. Score! I wanted to find out how much the guy was charging, but he was trying to hook up with two girls and I got bored and left. At least B&M is helping out somebody's gangsta' lifestyle.

Chowder's C.H. Greenblatt and I being interviewed. I guess we'll be on "CN Video". If you liked watching me shame myself on the Season One DVD, you'll... uh... love this. I guess.

So another Comic con passes... I think I've done enough griping and hinting on here that you all know that it's been a rough year. I don't like purging my personal life digitally, so sometimes I just get quiet and I don't post much. I'm waiting for that to change.

Actually, I did come away with something I wanted (besides my Boba Fett USB drive) this year. Maybe I needed it more than I wanted it. It's the reminder of why I do this in the first place.

I mean, I do it because it's a sick obsession or a compulsion or some sort of recurring synaptic misfire. But I can be obsessed and compulsed and misfired at home with a sketchbook.

The real reason I do it is for you guys. Because you seem to like it. Maybe because it's nice to know that there are other people out there who are like-minded and can laugh at the same things I laugh at. People who aren't afraid to stop playing in the face of laughter and derision, whether they be eight years old or fifty-five.

So thanks to all of you who've supported Billy & Mandy over the years. I'm coming around full-circle again. Get ready for it, because the stuff that's coming next is gonna blow your minds!

P.S. - Right as I was about to post this we were hit by a 5.5 earthquake and CN shook for a good 20 or 30 seconds. Aye caramba!

One week 'til Comicon!

2008-07-20T09:37:00.001-07:00

It's back again. And, yes, I'll be there. I mean, assuming that the people setting this mess up for CN actually call me and confirm whether or not I've got somewhere to stay...

I'll be doing a signing at the CN booth at 11:30 on Saturday, so find me there and tell me you like my hair. I don't really care about Billy & Mandy or Underfist. This year's all about the hair.

There's a panel on Sunday before noon for Chowder and Flapjack. Smack in the middle is a "sneak preview" of Underfist. I don't know how long I've got in the panel yet so I can't say exactly what you'll be seeing. My hope is to give you a taste of what the Underfist experience is, and it's very different from Billy & Mandy.

I know someone, if there's time, will ask what I'm doing next, and I'll tell you now what I'll say to anyone that asks. I'm doing the best work of my life right now and I mean to somehow get it in front of you guys in a year's time. This has been a sobering few years for me, and it's forced me to really take stock of what I want out of life and decide where I need to put my energies to get it. My hope is that you'll be pleased with Underfist. It's the first step in a new direction for me, and I'm already well on that path.

Here's a peek at "The Underfist That Never Was". I was pitching it as a series while we were making the special, and at the end of each board section I'd tag on a page or two of extra goodies to supplement the bible. This is a page of villains. You might recognize a few...

Old Crud

2008-06-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

Just some more old stuff I found while cleaning out the CN files...

Back to the grind...

2008-05-30T16:02:00.000-07:00

In addition to several things too hurtful to speak of just yet, my last 48 hours have included credit card theft and a separate incidence of mailbox theft. Awesome. Hope you enjoyed my wadded-up Penny Savers, whoever you are.

And, no, I'm not here to brag about Japan. I will say that if you haven't been that you're totally not cool and should have rotten fruits and/or meats thrown at you. But I'll leave it at that.

Beautiful, beautiful place. They even have warning labels telling you how your heated toilet seat could burn you.

Here are a few pictures of the journey:

I guess if you want more info, you'll have to go check it out yourself. ;)

More drawings coming someday soon. I swear!

Also!

Look out for some ComiCon news coming soon!

See you sucka's in two weeks!

2008-04-30T15:06:00.001-07:00

Dead Ends

2008-04-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

Oh, I'm working on something new. CN doesn't get the Dungeonhood, and it's been put on the back burner until the new new thing is underway. Unfortunately I can't show you the new new thing. I can show you this page of dead ends, though. I was working on a little boy character, and this is one of dozens of pages of sketches I puked out before realizing that the character shouldn't even be human, much less a boy.

My favorite part is the bulldog. He showed up in a dream a few nights later and bit the back of some guy's head off. No joke, yo.

In other news, I'm seriously considering wiping out my MySpace account. I can't seem to keep up. So just... be ready.

Playing Rough

2008-04-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some rough sketches I did for the girl "Cricket" in the last post. She's from one of several projects I've pitched over the last few years that slipped through the cracks during the executive coup. "The Dungeonhood" is about teenage monsters who live in a dungeon neighborhood beneath a large Medieval kingdom. Cricket here is the daughter in a goblin family, and the implication is that she might not be a goblin herself. Maybe, just maybe, since all this garbage floats down into the sewers from the kingdom above, she did too.

The "Sailor Moon" outfit was just a joke on my part, since I'd started off making her look so Anime. I haven't decided whether she'll keep it or not.

My plan is to keep refining the designs and eventually to make toys out of them. I know a lot of you have done similar things, so if you know any great sculptors or anything about manufacturing, I'd be willing to listen.

Here's another character, "Francis", from the same project.

And the title design I whipped up for the pitch bible.

I don't know if I'll show any more from The Dungeonhood just yet. Most of my time now is going to working on yet another new pitch. Remeber, those of you who want to pitch shows, that you have to be willing to see most of your ideas swirling down the toilet bowl. Some people will say, "Don't get too attached to your ideas," but I think that's a stupid thing to say. If you don't care about what you're pitching, you sure as hell ain't gonna be able to make anyone else care. So, yeah, it's gonna be Sophie's Choice every single frickin' time.

In other news, Underfist is done! Thanks again to all of you who worked on it. You should be damn proud!

She's Just Bashful

2008-03-25T09:15:00.001-07:00

Messier Than It Looks

2008-03-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Don't try to infer anything about Underfist from this. Everything you see here was cut from the film, which is one of the reasons I put it up here. I also did it because I always think it's cool to see how other people work.

I do a lot of cutting and pasting and opening files to take color swatches from, so I usually end up with a big pile of useless files mucking up the background, but that doesn't put a dent in my love for working with Photoshop on the Cintiq. Everything here was drawn on the Cintiq in Photoshop, cleaned up by Frank Homiski (Billy & Mandy's cleanup O.G.), and then colored in Photoshop.

iTunes keeps me sane, while Google lets me reference almost anything I need in an instant. Or distracts me with nerd forums, video games, and scandalous photos. Ah, technology...

Proof of Life

2008-03-05T05:18:00.000-08:00

So I'm alive. And I've been Doing Stuff. Really! See?

Thanks for the birthday wishes. Guess I haven't been on much if I'm just getting them now, eh? That whole "Occasional Monster of the Day" thing turned out to be real occasional... Most of my year so far has been taken up pitching shows and working on Underfist. I'm also totally disgustingly, grossly, hideously in love. That eats up some time, it seems. Yeah, I didn't know I had it in me either. Needless to say, she's one lucky gal.

I can't tell you about any of the pitches because I have no idea what's going on with that yet. What I can say is that Underfist is awesome. I know there are a lot of skeptics. And I love skeptics, because I'm a skeptic. Well, more of a curmudgeon. A CN executive friend of mine said that Underfist is better than Big Boogey Adventure. The scary part is that I think I agree with him. So that either means that I've learned something or I got lucky. Either way, this coming Halloween you get something fun to watch!

The next few months will involve more pitching, a few surprises, a wedding (no, not mine), and jury duty, but hopefully I'll check back once or twice. Maybe there'll even come a point when I can share some of the artwork I've done!

Rats.

2008-02-07T00:27:00.000-08:00

Sorry. I just deleted a whole bunch of comments from people. In a very stupid way. But these things happen. Thanks, anyway, for the well-wishes and questions and stuff.

From what I remember:

No, there's no planned Evil Con Carne DVD. However, there are a few on the Billy & Mandy Season One DVD, and if CN puts out the rest of the BM seasons, we'd parceled out a few half-hours of ECC for each! My favorites were the last four half hours. Those I felt really in control over. And everybody knew their character and were really able to make the show better. The highlights, I think, are C.H. Greenblatt's traffic epic "Gridlocked and Loaded", Brett Varon's "H.C.C.B.D.D." and Alex Almaguer's "Mother of All Evils". Ah, good times.

Somebody asked something else, but I forgot it while writing the first reply. To the kid with the birthday: Right-on. Keep on aging. And to the pastor from Manchester who'd started to question his faith: Start playing more video games. It'll distract you from the cruel truths of agnosticism. And finally, to Jimmy Strattonshire of Manchester, England, who turned eight this week: Please stop trying to read my mind. I know it's you.

Something real coming soon...

The Occasional Monster of the Day: Rhonda

2008-01-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

Occasional Monster of the Day: Nick Thurgrobulous

2008-01-05T10:08:00.000-08:00

The Occasional Monster of the Day: Cyril

2008-01-04T08:30:00.001-08:00

How I Learned to Honk

2008-01-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back after a week with my family and several more weeks of trying to gather my strength for whatever it is I'm doing next. The nice thing is that there are options in my future, which is something I don't feel like I've had for a while. The not-so-nice thing is that I can't really show you what I'm working on just yet…

...so instead I'm going to comment on the WGA strike. This, I’m sure, is exactly what you’ve been waiting for all this time while I’ve been delinquent.

Every day on the way to work for the last few months I've passed scores of striking writers wandering back and forth in front of NBC. I agree that the people who help create entertainment should make residuals. On DVD, on the internet, or wherever. I hope they don't budge an inch, I’d think as I passed. But I couldn’t bring myself to actually honk. Because, while I support the WGA in theory, I have really hard time getting into the spirit of supporting them. Because I'm jealous as hell.

I'm not jealous that they're wandering around in the wind and cold holding signs all day and not making any money. Heck no. I'm still drawing. I'm still writing. I'm still working. I'm still getting a paycheck. Nope, I'm jealous because eventually, even if the WGA collapses like a wet paper sack and backs away from the negotiating table, the people who are out striking will still go back to making something for all of the entertainment they've had a hand in creating.

I've had a hard time getting into the spirit of supporting the WGA, because I knew they wouldn't be supporting me if the tables were turned. And then, just a few days ago, I read the following in "an open letter to the entertainment industry" written by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers:

Animation

The WGA seeks to obtain, once again by top-down organizing tactics, jurisdiction over animation writers who traditionally fall under IATSE's jurisdiction, and to deprive those writers of their free choice to elect union coverage under the voting system administered by the National Labor Relations Board. The AMPTP has asked the WGA to withdraw this demand.

Well, I'll be damned. My favorite part is that the AMPTP has written the WGA as the heavy, twisting animation writers' arms and forcing them to give up their rights to elect union coverage. Well, what about the fact that animation writers never make any residuals at all whatsoever? Ever? Does that seem right? Aside from a few lucky Groenings and MacFarlanes out there, people who create cartoon shows never see a penny beyond their weekly paychecks that doesn’t come from luck or merchandising. And if you run short on those babies then you’re looking at a lonely existence drawing Donald Duck in a dark room until you die. I’d imagine that most animation writers would gladly relinquish the right to help guide their impotent leadership’s direction in exchange for, oh, I don’t know… being able to retire someday.

I’ve said before that I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I’m not an idiot either. I know that I’ve created something successful, even if it’s only been a moderate success. I know that Billy & Mandy will run for many years, and will eventually rake in a ton of money for someone. And I know that someone isn’t me.

So, yeah, I’m off onto new projects. New options. More new ideas that I will pour myself into out of love or obsession or... whatever it is that eats at my soul and makes me do these things. But these new projects, as much as they thrill me, also leave a bitter taste in the back of my mouth because I know that they’re going to make someone a lot of money. And I know that someone isn’t me.

Working in animation has led me to join a number of unions and guilds, including (obviously) the Animation Guild. Aside from asking an additional five hundred bucks above SAG for guild membership, I’m not sure what the Animation Guild has done for its members in the ten years I’ve been a member myself. Well, I did get a compass one year for Christmas. Here is Local 839’s position on the WGA strike:

OPEN LETTER TO ALL IATSE MEMBERS AND LOCALS ENGAGED IN
MOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION.

As you are aware, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is currently in negotiations for a successor contract to the current agreement that expires on October 31, 2007. While the IATSE remains hopeful that a new agreement can be reached between the WGA and the Employers, there is a potential for a work stoppage.

The IATSE has over 50,000 members in two countries engaged in motion picture and television production. Any work stoppage may have a profound and long-lasting impact on you and your families.

The IATSE contracts contain provisions that require us to continue to honor our contracts. These "no strike" provisions require the IATSE to notify our members of their obligation to honor these contracts and continue working. Any individual member who chooses to honor any picket line is subject to permanent replacement (our emphasis).

In the area of animated films and television, the WGA strike affects writers employed on four series: The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy and American Dad. WGA members writing on these shows, or WGA members writing for companies not signed to any union contract, may be subject to WGA discipline if they refuse the WGA's rules or orders not to work.

Apart from the three shows listed above, all union animation writing is under the jurisdiction of the Animation Guild. It is the position of the Animation Guild, and the IATSE, that writers cannot be legally disciplined by the WGA for working under the Animation Guild's jurisdiction.

“Cartoons are not important. That’s why they’re called cartoons. If people who wrote cartoons got residuals, studios would simply stop making cartoons.” Those are my quotes, and they’re what I used to think. I think that Local 839 thinks that too. “Don’t rock the boat”. Most of Local 839’s employees are artists.Even without "no strike provisions", how would artists feel about striking and being put out of work in sympathy with the WGA, only to return to work and find out that the writer in the next cubicle is now making twice their salary? Probably not so hot. So the best solution is to keep making sure that everyone is underpaid and nobody gets any royalties?

Well, guess what? It’s already happened. With both Nick and Cartoon Network venturing further and further into live action, I’ve heard plenty of stories of “the guy in the next cubicle” who’s suddenly doing pretty well thanks to the WGA. So if the plan is to try and keep that on the down-low, the plan ain’t working. Something has to change.

I’m sure there are mounds of political B.S. surrounding this strike, the WGA, Local 839, and the AMPTP so deep you’d need a snorkel just to navigate them. I’m not really interested in inter-union politics or running for office or spending my life trying to change a dysfunctional union from within. I’m more of a “facts” man. The facts are, as I see them, that the cream will rise to the top. The people who are good at what they do will do it well, and should be compensated accordingly.

If this business –the entertainment business—has taught me anything, it’s that I am a mercenary. Cartoon Network reminds me of it occasionally. I am work for hire. I am only as good as what I can produce today and tomorrow. I don’t mind that anymore. I understand it. I know my place. But the WGA reminds me that there are still things worth fighting for, and that the place I’m in won’t be my place forever.

This year I will not make any resolutions. This is Yoda’s year of do-or-not-do. This year I will create a new cartoon series. I will also create something for myself that I have ownership of. One or both of these paths will lead me to make a lot of money for a lot of people. One of those people will be me.

And in the mean time, I’ll be honking my horn as I pass the NBC building.

I've included the links to the letters below, for those who like clicking on things...

http://weblogs.variety.com/wga_strike_blog/2007/12/an-amptp-open-l.html

http://www.animationguild.org/WGAstrike.htm

P.S. - Sorry if I haven't responded to your message(s) yet. I've been away for a while and it's a mess in there...

In the Future DVDs Will Fly

2007-10-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling a bit melancholy today. I think it's partially the weather. The sky is slate grey, but it's still in the 90's. I can taste the ashes of Malibu in the air, and everything smells like burnt plastic. I learned a few days ago that Disney really is making a movie out of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "A Princess of Mars", which has always been on my mental back-burner as something I'd like to work on someday when I had enough clout. I can only hope Disney doesn't butcher it, but it's weird to think that it's totally off the menu. Stranger still, today I got my copy of the Billy & Mandy Season 1 DVD and that made me really realize that Billy & Mandy is over.

I know the DVD's been out a while, but I hadn't seen the finished product until now. Despite the fact that I was blocked from working on any of the packaging and someone misspelled the name of Big Boogey Adventure on the insert ad, the whole thing came out pretty well.

I can actually see when the show got cancelled, but the wavering art quality of the early years doesn't bother me as much as it used to. And some of the stories I used to hate aren't quite as hate-able as I remember. And, of course, some still are. But all-in-all, it's the real deal. Even with all the rough edges it's still a really weird, funny show that beat the odds, got made, and stayed alive for 78 half hours and a DVD movie. They're not all gems, but there's some great stuff in there and I'm pretty proud of it.

If any of you have watched the extras... yeah, I really am that much of a dork. It's true. I still really dig the Virtual Mr. Snuggles. If only we could've gotten him to sit still so we could put a little party hat on him.

I can't say I'll miss the cancellations or the inexplicable dramas or the late nights working on two or three massive projects at one time, but I will miss the crew. Billy & Mandy was a very collaborative show, and a lot of great people cut their teeth on it. I can only hope they go on to make something of their own that they can be proud of. Hopefully I will too, though I have no idea what it might be. That's actually sort of exciting. And hopefully whenever I do do whatever it is i'm going to do, you'll be there to join me for a few laughs.

Now for the answers to some questions I've been getting:

There is no such episode as "Billy & Mandy Ends". In fact, CN gave me explicit instructions not to "end" the series. Which also doesn't mean it'll be coming back.

I have no idea if CN plans to release Season 2 or beyond. Buying Season 1 and/or writing letters might increase the chances.

Underfist does indeed air next Halloween. It's coming out even better than I'd hoped. you will like it. YOU WILL.

Finally, here is a photo of a stairwell at CN Atlanta:

Trick-or-Treat!

2007-10-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody!

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Atlanta where I got to hang with some of the finest Southern folk in the cartoon biz'. I was there to show off something brand new (Shh! It's a secret!) and Underfist as well. And now that Atlanta's had a taste of Underfist, I thought I'd pass the savings on to you.

It's nothing you haven't seen before, but it's at least a little bit prettier. This'll probably be the last Underfist you get until next Halloween when it premiers, so eat it up!

Don't forget to check out Chowder on November 2nd! It's yummy!

Semptemberfist

2007-09-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

It's a busy month, but here are a few Underfist test comps I put together this weekend.

The backgrounds were designed by Bill Flores, cleaned up by Eva Wu, and painted by Joe Binggeli. The character designs (excluding Jeff) were done by Andy Suriano, cleaned up by Frank Homiski, and colored by me.

Do not ingest before swimming.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Comic Cons!

2007-08-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

Comic Con was busy this year. A sweaty, humid, stinky kind of busy. Like ten thousand stormtroopers cried out that they wanted to bathe, but were suddenly silenced. I think at one point it took me almost an hour just to find the people I was supposedly with. Of course, during that time I got to see Star Trek's "Q", had a cute girl in red shorts flirt with me (and mysteriously vanish), bought a really cool print of an elephant with fire coming out of his trunk (which mysteriously vanished), ate a really tasty pretzel dog, and found the print again.

CN's booth was a little bigger than last year, and I think we had a much better location. That being right across from the one-legged pinup girl from the "Planet Terror" booth. The kids waiting in line to get their picture taken with the Eds couldn't take their eyes off her. Remember: There's no better babysitter than a hot amputee.

I have to thank all the fans who came and overfilled our auditorium for the panel. Even though it's been a rough year (and in some ways it was a rough Comic Con), it's nice to be reminded why I'm doing this in the first place. Everyone had great questions and everyone I got to meet in person seemed pretty nice. I mean I'm sure some of you were jerks, but thanks for suppressing your natural urges for a few moments during our encounter.

It was great to meet Nick from MySpace after all this time, and great to see Tara again, if only for a moment!

A special thanks goes out to Kristin for making this for me on her birthday. Way to think outside the box!

And another special shout-out to Major Doctor Ghastly, seen here with CN Executive Jay Bastian. And look! She even brought the Chief along for the ride. Ghastly... come home baby. I miss you.

So here are a few moments of what you missed if you weren't able to come. And if you were able to come... let this be a sobering reminder of what a nerd you are.

Comic Con Fun!

The infamous Elvis Trooper hangs with my pal Jabba.

Geeks. Why did it have to be geeks?

It seems none shall pass without receiving a thorough
tongue lashing from James...

For those of you wondering what Comic Con is really all about,
it is this:

A bunch of people on the phone. All the time.
What, are they looking for something bigger and better?
Why not talk to me? I'm right here.
Am I not good enough? Is that it?

Oh wait. I'm doing it too.

"Batman drinks because his parents are dead."

-Curtis Lelash, 2007

Hangin' with the Beastmasters.

The 2007 Creator's Dinner

Danny Antonucci and I express our primal cartoon rage.

Once he sobered up with the help if his Boy Wonder, Batman was
able to apprehend The Nerd, once again rescuing Gotham
from an evil plot to corrupt children with crude fart jokes.

Signing bags with the voice talent!

Greg Eagles (The Grim Reaper), Vanessa Marshall (Irwin),
and Richard Horvitz (Billy) were all there, yo! Where were you!?

I still can't believe he really did it!

Curtis and I killed Superman. Again.

See you next year...

...?

Trick-or-Treating in August

2007-08-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

I do apologize for the seemingly needless drama of posting a big picture and not explaining anything. But to be fair, I was also being lazy. I figured that if I started talking about Comicon I wouldn't be able to stop, and since so much happened I'd be writing all day instead of doing what I was supposed to be doing... which is working on Underfist.

So all of my Comicon reviews and thank-yous will have to wait a few more days. For the moment, just kick back, relax, and let Underfist knock some sense into you!

The Underfist Halloween Bash!

I pitched Underfist just for a laugh about a year ago. It probably wouldn't have even made it to Atlanta if C.H. Greenblatt and Jay Bastian hadn't also been so excited about it. So I sent off a few drawings (inclusing the group shot in the previous post and the drawing of Skarr below) and the next thing I knew I had a Halloween Special for 2008.

Yeah, let's get that out of the way up-front. It's still over a year away.

"My sugar-free double-shot half-caff mocha!"

Per the bible, Underfist is the continuing story off Hoss Delgado, Skarr, Irwin, Jeff the Spider, and Fred Fredburger, and their battle against evil monsters from the Underworld. Sort of like adysfunctional half-monster "A-Team". The action takes place (strangely enough) in the near-future of next Halloween. Hoss has obviously been through some rough times since we saw him last, and Skarr has augmented his love of growing plants with a new love of growing facial hair.

I'm really happy with the way the storyboards are turning out. It's still got a "Billy & Mandy" feel, but it's really all about epic slapstick battles and fnding out more about some of the favorite secondary characters. If you thought Hoss was just a generic beat-em-up lunkhead or that Fred Fredburger had nothing more to offer than running off to go poo-poo, you're in for a pleasant surprise.

Billy, Mandy, and Grim do make a few brief appearances, but Underfist is truly a spinoff and truly its own show. It's still too far out to be giving away the story, but I'll try to leak something every once in a while. And not the stuff I usually leak. You wouldn't want that. Trust me.

In the mean time... "May the Fist be with you..."

The Fist is out of the bag

2007-07-31T14:46:00.000-07:00

ComiCon 2007!

2007-07-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hello boys and ghouls!

Here is the updated updated info on the Billy & Mandy ComiCon presence this year:

Signing #1 (weewee):
Thursday, July 26th
2:00 - 3:00
At the Cartoon network Booth

The Panel:
Friday, July 27th
11:45 - 12:30 (Followed by a Chowder preview and a Foster's panel!)
Room 6B

Signing #2 (doodoo):
Friday, July 27th
1:45 - 2:45
At the Cartoon Network Booth

Don't forget to stop by C.H. Greenblatt's signing. He's the creator of Chowder, the voice of Fred Fredburger, and a level 68 Orc Hunter. He'll be doing a signing on Saturday and I might stop by to heckle him.

I'm excited about this ComiCon. It'll be the last B&M ComiCon panel, so drop by if you can. It's a nice big room, so hopefully I won't stink the whole place up.

Creepy, crawly.

2007-07-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

I used to have a tarantula when I was a kid and now I pretty much let spiders run free in my house. We have an understanding. They kill the other bugs, I let them crawl about and occasionally rescue them from drains. I had a funny conversation with a friend the other night about that. I'd said that I let the spiders go so they can eat the ants and the flies, and he said, "Well they're all bugs. Don't you think you're siding with the spiders just because they're the loners and rebels of the bug world and the ants aren't? Isn't that why you play a spider on TV? Aren't you just projecting your own worldview onto the bugs? Is that fair?" I thought about it and said, "Ants are stupid. &@#$ those ants!" So technically I'm the Spider King. Now if I can just learn to control them...

July is here and it’s a big month for Billy & Mandy. It might be the last big month for Billy & Mandy ever! That’d show you! Seriously, “Wrath of the Spider Queen” is coming up on July 6th and ComiCon is happening again in San Diego at the end of July. We’ll be having our second (and most likely final) Billy & Mandy panel during the weekend, so I hope some of you stop by and give a shout-out to Stupid.

To answer some questions I’ve been getting lately:

1. Yup. “Wrath of the Spider Queen” is the series finale. Because I say so, that’s why. Cartoon Network has chosen to hold onto a few of the final episodes for Fall, but any permanent changes to Billy and Mandy’s world caused by the Spider Queen won’t affect your enjoyment of those last few one way or another. If it bothers you, you can always Tivo Spider Queen and watch it next Christmas. It’s really just all about me believing that we went out with a bang…

2. This really is the end of “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy”. I don’t think there’s any going back now. I feel really lucky that it got made at all, and the fact that we got to 78 half-hours in the current media climate is a miracle. Like, a no-kidding-bloody-flaming-frogs-falling-from-the-sky-and-healing-your-boils kind of miracle. With the crew gone, the network changing, and 78 already in the can, I seriously doubt you’ll see any more new episodes of Billy & Mandy. Specials, probably yes. Episodes, no. Don’t get me wrong. Nothing better will ever come along to fill the void. Ever. There will never be another funny cartoon ever made. It’ll be “Billy & Mandy” and “Tijuana Toads” forever, and that’s all we get. Just grieve and move on.

3. Yeah, I guess there are Billy and Mandy toys out in Kay-Bee now. If you can find a Kay-Bee. Someone told me they’ve been out for weeks now. I had no idea… I personally prefer the stuffed ones that smack-talk when you beat them up.

Again, I have to thank the fans for keeping the show alive for the run. You guys rock, and you have great taste. And cool hair, and a killer style. Great shoes. And I’m sure you’re pretty smart, too. You look smart, at least. Do you wear a puffy shirt? You look like you would.

May you not see the Grim Reaper again for a long, long time.

-Maxwell

P.S. – Enjoy the “spider fun” below!

The "Wrath of the Spider Queen" trailer:

Education on a box:

It could happen to any of us:

I'll stick with the chicken marsala, thank you.

Life is a rollercoaster...

2007-06-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

...and I think I might need to puke.

Been a while since I updated this thing. Sure I've been working. But what am I allowed to show you? I still don't know. I'll try and get something up soon for those of you who need visual stimulation.

In the mean time, for those of you who need mercantile stimulation, I give you confirmation that the Season 1 DVDs are coming out this fall. Also, Kay-Bee is selling some Billy & Mandy toys! This could indeed be a sign of the End Times.

The seasons are being broken down differently on the DVD than they were when we produced the show, so you actually get more episodes per DVD than I'd originally thought. That's good news for those of you who think the show didn't "peak" until later. And, hey... I'm one of you. What show peaks in its first season? The answer: A show that gets canceled after one season. Just ask any prime-time network sitcom from the last three years...

As for the extras, you get two half-hours of Evil Con Carne, some commentary featuring me and Billy (A.K.A. Richard Horvitz), a documentary where I make an ass of myself, and a couple of other fun bits including the "Virtual Mr. Snuggles".

I'm really happy with all of the extras we were able to get onto the DVD, and you know how I feel about being "really happy". Another sign of the End Times?

Fashionably Late

2007-05-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

Because some of you asked...

Billy and Mandy a Commie Plot! Buy Pork Bellies!

2007-05-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

What with the 1st Season DVD in the works, we're unearthing all sorts of Billy & Mandiana. The most recent piece was a mini-poster for the then-fledgling Cartoon Network website. Each creator was assigned to do one of these to promote their show for "The Big Pick". I don't remember who won the Big Pick, but I'll bet whoever did has a helluva' ulcer right about now.

Don't Look at the Monkey!

2007-04-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

CN did this for the Emmy screeners this year.

From left to right: Joe Murray, Tim Cahill, Surly Monkey, Julie McNally Cahill, Yours Truly, Everett Peck, Craig McCracken, Joe Horne, and Tom Lynch.

Nothing really ends well, but I'm going to call this one a victory.

2007-04-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

I love the smell of Chowder in the morning...

2007-04-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

Just got finished doing a guest-board on Mr. Greenblatt's new show "Chowder". In addition to being an amazing board guy and friend, C.H. Greenblatt was the creator and voice of Fred Fredburger.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of drawings I did for the board...

Big Boogey Fool's Day

2007-04-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all.

Thanks for putting up with my April Foolishness. I have to say I'm sorry if I fooled anyone, but I may as well also say "ha ha I fooled you".

But most of all, thanks for watching through all these seasons, and thanks for watching Big Boogey! I hope you all liked it.

As for me, I'm still working for Cartoon Network, and there's a bunch of fun Billy and Mandy stuff yet to come. In fact, Hoss Delgado's walls held a hint as to what one will be. You know, the more I think about it, the more cats transforming into jet fighters actually sounds like a good idea...

Happy April Fool's!

March 30th... Big Boogey Adventure!

2007-03-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been toiling away at my Chowder board and working on my Super Secret Project, so I haven't had much free time lately. This'll probably be my last post here until I get back from New York, so I thought I'd leave you with a last peek at the movie before you see it for yourselves...

The Boogey Bay sails toward the Burning Seas.

Billy and Uncle Slash rock out with their guitars out.

Billybot and Mandroid make a dramatic entrance.

Horror makes a point.

Hope you guys like it! If you don't... smash your TV with a lead pipe!

Post Wondercon/Season DVD News

2007-03-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came out for the panel and signing. It's easy to start feeling like you're producing stuff in a vacuum, so it's always nice to see that you guys don't think it sucks! It just scrapes and licks...

A special thanks to Eric and his pals at Medjool for getting me off my barstool and into the thick of things. Seriously, do look me up when you get out here next.

And since I spilled the beans during the panel, I guess I may as well say it here... CN is now working on a Billy and Mandy Seaon 1 DVD. I'll try and convince them to put some fun extras on there for you. Like jagged edges or a free vial of fake blood or a scratch-and-sniff menu or something. Happy now, ya little punks!?

The First 20 Minutes of Madness

2007-02-23T10:47:00.000-08:00

I'm all over the place this month.

First I'll be doing the Billy & Mandy panel at WonderCon, where the six or seven lucky people who attend will be able to see the first 20 minutes or so of "Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure" and then talk about crud.

Late next month I'll be in New York working with Mr. Warburton on the dreaded "Grim Adventures of the KND" crossover. So you NY people hook me up with some fun places to go. That's an order.

The Boogey Man is the primary antagonist in the movie. For a while I was calling this our "Wrath of Khan" movie because Boogey (like Khan) was a villain who only appeared in one episode of the series, and here he is making a big comeback.

Last we left Boogey, he'd failed to cheat Grim out of his job and was left stuck in the nostril of a monster in the Nightmare Realm. How he got out we'll never know, but this time Boogey's got a whole crew of monster pirates and underworld creatures to back him up. He's also got a really stylish pirate hat.

Boogey is voiced again by the lovely and talented Fred Willard, who did such a great job that I'm sad we didn't get to use him more. Boogey does show up once more after "Big Boogey", but you'll have to wait a while for that one...

The Wondercon panel is Saturday, March 3rd from 3:00-4:00 in room 200. See you there!

Two Cons, and Elevator, and a Rug

2007-02-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

The Forces of Evil have summoned me to perform their twisted bidding again this year. Twice! I guess I'll be doing panels at Comicon in San Diego and Wondercon in San Francisco. I've never been to San Francisco, much less Wondercon. What should I expect from Wondercon? What can i do or see in one day/evening? Is Rice-A-Roni still the treat up there? How often do you get to see and/or participate in high speed chases?

In other news, Cartoon Network put some fun stuff up in their new Atlanta offices. Here's an elevator painting and an 8-bit rug. Neither of which are bombs.

7 Year Itch

2007-01-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

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:

If you pretend you know what you’re doing you can get away with almost anything.
Humans are much more frightening than sharks.**
Jeans are not the enemy.
Always slice your car registration sticker with a razor blade so the idiot who tries to steal it won’t get the whole thing.
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.
A little bit of hot sauce in a beer can be a good thing.
Never date a stripper.
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.
I don’t know if the thirties are the new twenties, but the new thirties are certainly more enjoyable than the old twenties.
Expensive luggage still breaks. Sometimes quicker than the Hefty bag you’ve been using.
It really is better to die on your feet than live on your knees. Apply it as a metaphor for everything.
Twelve to fifteen dead gophers can really stink up the joint.
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.
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.
One bottle of Jack Daniels can force one hour of good TV writing.
Absynthe. (Too bad it’s illegal here.)
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.***)
It is important for men to know that women understand their thought processes. Women don't care.
Creative collaborations are fraught with peril.
Writing is the best therapy there is.
A crude common gross-out joke is a waste of everyone’s time, but a crude brilliant gross-out joke is forever.
When it comes to alcohol, steak, and shoes, you really do get what you pay for.
Belgians hate fun, but they love trash and fruit-flavored beer.
X3 didn’t count.
Trust is earned slowly but lost instantly.
Arguing is not the same thing as fighting.
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.
Just because a relationship fails doesn’t mean it was a failure.
It takes a brilliant person to understand another person’s brilliant idea. That’s why all we’ve got is reality TV.
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.
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.
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

2007-01-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-08T19:11:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-08T18:50:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-08T18:45:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-08T18:19:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-06T20:50:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-06T18:24:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-01-06T18:13:00.000-08:00

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.