Flurry

It's looking like this year is going to end in a frenzy for me with several personal projects in production as well as a busy work schedule at the studio.

One of the things I can announce now is my part in illustrator extraordinaire ASHLEY WOOD's publishing empire in the form an artist feature in SWALLOW. Ash has assembled quite a line up for book number 3 which will premiere in early 2007. It was Ash's burning desire one day to find books about artists that inspired him and when his search came up short, he decided he would create his own compilation series featuring some of the best talent in the planet. With a diverse graphic sampling from world class artists like George Pratt, Kelsey Shannon Celia Calle and others, Swallow number 1 was a stunner.


Needless to say, I am quite humbled to be in such fine company and excited to be featured with my dear brother Ron. (yep, he's featured too) My deepest gratitude to Ashley for considering me worthy. I owe him a frosty mug of brew next time I see him.



In other news...

Work is progressing well on my first comic. I've been having a blast putting this together and I am looking forward to the end result. That's about all I can say about that for now....

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A number of you have emailed me about attending the Pixar story extravaganza this saturday as part of SCREENWRITING EXPO 5. I'm actually looking forward to meeting some of you who, up to know i've only known via cyberspace especially through your respective art blogs. It's also our rare chance to pick the brains of the people who work in one of the few bastions of good story around. Here's to a fun and productive day!

Click HERE for Ronnie's post and preview in TIRADE

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A pointed and insightful article was posted today by Cartoon Brew's AMID AMIDI regarding the subject of artists pitching to studios as an exercise in futility. I give Amid a lot of credit for saying what needs to be said while putting forth several different points of view.

Here is an exact quote to me from a studio exec whom I pitched to (i'll spare this person the embarrasment by leaving them nameless): "What I like about your show is what I hate about it" I've since tried and given up trying to even make any sense of that.

"Nobody knows anything" as it's been said in Hollywood for quite some time. But it seems our esteemed studio exec colleagues are busy trying to create the next mega-hit show while alienating an entire generation of viewers by continuing to sell them crap. What's even more grating is the fact that they actually claim to know what kids like to watch. With terms like "kid relatability factor" and "funny is money", all these guys want is a ticket to the "live action" realm. Animation is simply a stepping stone. As Amid put it, the connection to the audience has been lost. I believe the reason for the connection gap is a simple combination of ignorance, negligence and irreverence for the medium and a severe lack of desire to position the viewer to accept nothing but quality. (there are some exceptions of course)

The bottom line is this: The vast majority of the North American cartoon universe is controlled by a handful of people and they decide what goes on the air. We are all artists but also individuals and if one's choice is to pitch within this broken system then it's their choice. But one thing is for sure. When the importance of "having a good relationship" with a development exec plays an equal factor in deciding whether your show gets made, i'm sorry to say that we can expect more of the same from the cult of mediocrity.

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.... I sometimes think that what we really need is a little zombie apocalypse just to bring people back down to basics, don't you think? Hence, the zombie sketch done in black prisma and photoshop.