New Year, New Post

Well, sort of. Still spending way too much time working on that upcoming Nickelodeon show to do really new work, so here's some "classic" stuff from DEXTER'S LAB: The one where, as a senile old man, he reminisced (incorrectly) about his days as a secret agent.... in outer space. We set out to do a deliberate parody of the SAMURAI JACK alien bar, which was pretty easy, 'cause most of us worked on that show, too:

I tried to keep these designs loose and super-sketchy....
y'know, keep 'em fresh. All in all, a fun assignment.

Yes, that is the infamous "Jim" character from THE POWERPUFF GIRLS
"Mime For A Change" episode, originally designed by the mighty Craig Kellman,
and based on PPG/DEX background designer Jim Worthy. ....and yes,
that's Gleep/Glorp from THE HERCULOIDS hanging out with him.

Be sure to check out the suspicious characters in the lower right.

I'm not dead, but it feels like it.

Jeez-- it's been over a month since I last updated this thing. I've become a Deadbeat Blog Dad. SO lame. But not without good reason: It's mainly 'cause I've been working crazy hard on THE MIGHTY B these past few weeks as we gear up for the show's premiere next month, and I am T-I-R-E-D! Seriously. I am a walking coffee zombie.

Wanna see it early? If you buy a copy of the "SpongeBob SquarePants: Atlantis SquarePantis" DVD, you get a free bonus disk of the 1st episode! Pick one up now, or you'll have to wait 'til the January air-date to see it, and nobody likes waiting.

UPDATE: I hear that the bonus DVD is only available at WalMart, so maybe you should just wait for January.


Watch the origins of Amy Poehler's Girl Scout character from
The Upright Citizen's Brigade!
(...and ignore the "Video no longer available" warning. It's there.)
There's art shows happening next month that I will hopefully be a part of if I don't pass out at my desk-- One that I will be in for sure is a special benefit show at MONKEYHOUSE TOYS on January 19th. More info on that next month!

... and in the middle of all this, I almost forgot that last month was my 2-Year Blog Birthday! Holy crap!!! Where does the time go? Click HERE to see what things were like in a more innocent time called 2005.

Sneaky Critters Show

Monday night was a big night for UK artist Sneaky Raccoon as she celebrated the first "birthday" of her nom de art with the Sneaky Critters art show at Bodhi Gallery. Sending out tiny 4" x 4" canvases, she invited her favorite artists near and far to contribute to the special one-night party. I was one of 'em:

All the pieces got their own tiny easel. How cool is that?

If you were there, you got beer, cake, and goody bags. Lucky!!!

A small sampling of the works of over 30 artists in the show.

When you're the only one without a fully painted piece, you really stick out.

You can check out Sneaky's Flickr set of the whole soirée HERE, and also peep Urban Retro's coverage, too.

~ Photos generously supplied by Sneaky Raccoon. ~
...................................

CHOWDER Premieres next Friday!

My pal Carl Greenblatt's brand new show CHOWDER premieres Friday, November 2 at 7:30 PM! You know Carl's work from SPONGEBOB and BILLY & MANDY, and now he's got his own crazy show that also features the talents of Anna Chambers, Dan Krall, Phil Rynda and more! Click on the picture above to watch a sneak peak of a full episode!

Cartoon Network's red orange-headed step-child first born

C'mon, Cartoon Network.... where's the love for Dex? Not only was Dexter one of the 1st breakout stars of the "What A Cartoon!" shorts experiment, but he also was nominated for numerous Emmys, and would be the launching pad for future CN hits like Samurai Jack, Clone Wars, Powerpuff Girls, and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. Now, not only can you not find it on CN (...only on Boomerang, but it's not available in every market), but it's one of the few CN originals NOT available on DVD.


Now, thanks to Warner Home Video, we DO have a full set of Samurai Jack DVDs, and this year saw the debut of the 1st Powerpuff Girls full-season DVD set. Awesome sets with great extras. But WHERE'S THE DEXTER DVD SET? Some years ago, Columbia House Home Video Club had season sets available, but no longer. A complete series set was produced for a contest winner, but was never made available to the public. (I was lucky enough to find one on eBay) The "Ego Trip" movie was only released on VHS, and never saw a DVD release.


Dexter still has many fans out there who are patiently waiting for a DVD release. C'mon CN/Warner... show your first-born child ya still love him!!!


Here's one of the few episodes I storyboarded. It's not very funny.
...................................

Sneaky Critters Show

Hey, UK bloggers: If you happen to find yourself in London on October 22, check out the SNEAKY CRITTERS group show at Bodhi Gallery in Bricklane. I have a piece in the show and will be sharing wall space with 30 other cool artists like Peskimo, Julie West, Elisa Chavarri, and many more. It's celebrating artist Sneaky Raccoon's "birthday", so there will be cake, beer, and goody bags! It's for ONE NIGHT ONLY, kids-- so make sure you go to the opening or you'll miss out!

EL TIGRE es muy magnífico!

I was at Comic-Con this year and I didn't even know it.

Well, sort of: Turns out Nickelodeon made some special EL TIGRE posters that used one of my very first drawings for the show; I didn't find out about it until I saw one up on eBay! Here's a breakdown of the process:

Going off the original board by Dave Thomas,
I did my usual Post-It note rough:
Once I had that figured out, I did a tighter pass....
(The shadow tones I added just for this post....
'cause I go the extra mile for you guys.)
Here's the final result, after some fixes by Gabe Swarr, inks by Su Moon, and final color & paint by the man himself, Jorge Gutierrez:

Storytime

Since I'm too swamped with work to produce some nice artwork for ya to look at, I thought I thought I'd totally steal a great stalling tactic from Lambey, and post some pics from a favorite art book straight from my personal library: Hiyao Miyazki's MONONOKE HIME. No, not a book of the 1997 film, but a story treatment from 1980, published in 1993 as an oversized hardcover storybook. You'll find that instead of the eco-fable of the '97 film, here Miyazaki presents a more familiar tale, this time set in feudal Japan....


A Duke, sperated from his army during battle,
wanders the forest, lost.
He comes across a cave...
... and seeks shelter by the warm fire.
But the cave's occupant returns...
... and prepares to cook the Duke for dinner.
The Duke tells the beast (Mononke) that if he lets him go,
he will give him one of his 3 daughters to take as his wife.
He accepts, and drops the Duke at his castle,
telling him he will return at the next full moon.
The Duke's wife is not happy when she hears of this.
But the Duke had become possessed by an evil spirit,
and his youngest daughter knew this, so he chose her
to go with the beast in order to keep his secret.
The beast returns to claim his bride.


The daugther is obviously not into her new marriage.
The beast tells her if she doesn't get with the program,
he's going to cook her for dinner.
He begins to prepare her for dinner,
expecting her to cry uncle.
... which she doesn't. Turns out he's a softie
and wasn't really going to cook her.
She tells him she must first save her father from the evil spirit,
and if he helps her, she will remain his wife.
A quest begins for a magical object
to fight the evil spirit.
A giant turtle leads the daughter to
the bottom of a lake...
... where a magic mirror lays.
They arrive at the castle, deciding to rest for the night
before confronting her father the next day.
While the beast sleeps, the daughter uses the magic mirror...
... and sees the wicked boy the beast once was.
... and how he awoke one morning cursed.
A friendship has developed.
The daughter wakes early and confronts her father alone.
Using the mirror, she drives the evil spirit from her father...
... but it possesses a suit of armor...
... and attacks them.
The beast, upon waking and discovering the daughter gone,
races to the castle and leaps to protect her from the evil spirit's fire.
When the smoke clears, the evil spirit has been defeated...
... but at a heavy cost.
Her tears resurrect him, or maybe giant cat-beasts
are just naturally tough.
They lived happily ever after.
I like how he stays a cat-monster rather than turn into a handsome prince. I assume that this idea was perhaps abondoned to produce NAUSICAA IN THE VALLEY OF THE WIND instead.(Can anybody out there provide some confirmation?) A great find full of beautiful art. Don't hesitate to grab it if you happen to come across a copy!


Find out more about it HERE. Ja matane!