WonderCon was a blast!

Hey everyone,

I'm still unwinding from my first time exhibiting at WonderCon, and I will just say that I had a great time. Ran into a lot of old friends and met some new people as well. My "Two-Dee's" logo seemed to be very popular! Nice to know 2-D aficionados are still out in force at these cons...

Below I've included a few of my other recent designs. I plan to have a lot more illustrations, as well as a book of my sketches at APE. I'm also looking into setting up a store on my site so that folks don't have to wait until the convention to pick up one of my T-shirts or illustrations. I'll keep ya posted, but in the meantime, I'm just glad to have gotten my WonderCon presence established. See everyone there next year!

2D on the ropes again already?

After the toure de force that was "Princess and the Frog" I really thought it would be a while before the rumblings of a pullback in 2D features would be heard again. You know, like maybe 4-5 years at least?

Apparently studio honchos feel that even though it made $100 million, P&tF was a "disappointment" at the box office. Now the plug has been pulled on "The Snow Queen," what was to be the 3rd 2D film in this nascent renaissance for traditional Disney animation. Much of this is outlined in the story below:

http://showbiz411.blogs.thr.com/2010/03/02/princess-and-the-frog-may-be-last-tune-for-disney/

I have read and heard elsewhere that the Winnie the Pooh 2D feature is still a go, but that at this point, nothing else is really in the pipeline. I'm hoping that John Lasseter and other 2D-friendly directors & animators in positions of influence can keep this train on the tracks.

It was absurd of execs to expect Princess and the Frog to pull in Lion King numbers, it was the first 2D Disney film in years, and the first one in almost a decade anyone really cared about. I saw P&tF 3 times in theaters, and at two of those screenings there was cheering and clapping at the climax and as the credits began to roll. I haven't seen audience reaction like that in a Disney 2D film since Lion King. This film is very well loved by those that saw it, young and old alike. Frankly, with the female focus, it's impressive that this film earned what it did, considering a good number of young boys probably opted out. A film like Mulan or The Little Mermaid would have been a better benchmark for BO comparison than Aladdin or The Lion King.

It's important for anyone in any position of influence in the industry to push hard against this sabotage of the rebirth of 2D. Hand-drawn animation was always the primary creative medium of Walt Disney's empire, the wellspring of most of the shows, rides, and other fantasies that were born from the studio. Disney needs to ease in to reintroducing 2D features to today's kids. Older kids and teens probably have a bias against 2D to some extent, but adults fondly remember the magic days of Disney and will definitely pay to renew those fantasies for their children. Let's not give up before we've even started...

Where does the time go?

Just came full circle on a bit of web surfing, following my curiosities and whims, when I realized how a moment of "I wonder..." can lead to hours "wasted." (Whether they are truly a waste is somewhat subjective I suppose.) Still, this is probably something more of us can relate to than we might at first realize.

I'm just unwinding after a long week, no commitments this Friday evening, but an inkling to maybe work on some character cleanups or maybe get around to boarding a short that's been rattling around in my head for a while. Well, after checking my email (not a big time-suck for me compared to some folks) I decide to finish reading a news story I had open in another tab left over from by morning web browsing. Story's about NorCal scenic highways and quirky stuff along them. Someone in the comments section mentions that Route 101 around Monterey used to run along a adjacent road from the current 101, and that there's a lot of cool old buildings along there. Well, we're off to the races now.

I try to look up the location of this "old 101" so I can check it out next time I'm traveling near Monterey. I look at the page for the 101 on Wikipedia, and it mentions a bunch of obscure history about old routings of the road. I decide to look for an older Bay Area map to see what they are talking about. About 40 minutes in to looking at old maps, I see one of downtown S.F. that mentions an "Alcoa Building." Never one to ignore "lost history" I decide to look up this Aloca Building I have never heard of after living here more than a decade. Turns out it's the big dark diagonal cross-beam encased building over by the Embarcadero. Oh, good to know.

At this point, maybe I could have cut this stream of searching, but no.

This building reminds me a lot of a building seen in various Star Trek episodes, some kind of Starfleet facility. (Heck, they even position it near the Embarcadero towers, just like the former Alcoa Bldg.) After browsing various image links looking for it, I stumble upon images of a GM pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair that "inspired" a different Starfleet building. I see that it looks almost identical to the "Venture Industries" HQ in The Venture Bros., and go browsing for comparison images. Find one, and it is on a page with other Venture links. So of course I end up watching a streaming episode, one I have already seen (only once before, tho!) from Adult Swim.com

As I close the window after the episode ends, and see the string of tabs, I realize it is like a sedimentary layer, recording the progress of my web surfing for the night. With that US 101 news story at the bottom of the pile, I see that it is 12:30am, my evening is gone, and I should probably go nighty-nite. All that was the result of a domino effect from one moment of "I wonder..." I had about an offhand comment I read. And so, THAT is where the time goes...

APE Con - Reflections

Well, the APE convention is over for 2009, and I have to say it was an exhilarating new experience for me, selling my creations in a large convention hall for the first time! It was great, as always to see work from all the other artists, and I purchased quite a few items, but the the first time, I also got to trade art for other art and comics, which was a lot of fun.

A lot of why I chose to enter the convention was to just get my stuff out in front of a wider audience. Sharing it with other artists whose work I admire was a great new avenue for that. The web is great for allowing almost anyone to access my art, but if only certain groups of people are already aware of you, there are only going to be so many new people to stumble onto you. APE was a great experience, not just because I got to sell some of new latest creations to people who really seemed to like it, but because I was part of a larger community of artists, from the Bay Area and beyond, in a way I never quite was before. I'm looking forward to Wondercon, though I will probably tick to being just a visitor to Comic Con for now. That convention is pretty damn huge and intense! besides, it will give me a chance to wander without having to mind my booth!

Thanks again to Daria, Gerald, and Olivia, who shared the table with me. They all had great creations as well, and it was fun to start off with other great artists who were new to APE. Looking forward to next year!

The big debut is soon!

I'm feeling a rush as I approach the date of the 2009 APE Con in San Francisco. This will be my first time exhibiting and selling at any of the comic/art conventions, and I am really looking forward to the experience. I've got several never-before-seen artworks that I will debut there, and on my web site almost simultaneously, and I am ramping up production of several projects in order to have an even bigger set at WonderCon in 2010, which I plan to exhibit at for the first time as well.

I may leak a couple of previews on here in the coming days, so keep an eye on this blog, because it's going to get a lot more lively around here!

On the run-up to APE Con...

Lots still to do to prepare for my first sales booth at APE Con. It's still about a month and a half away, but seeing as this is my initial foray into "retailing," albeit just for a two-day event, I am still readying myself and trying to find out the "unknown Unknowns" since I think I have already covered he "known Unknowns" by now...

Not really ready to go to sleep, though that would probably be wise at this point in the evening/morning. Too many idea are racing through my head, while I am still working to make concrete the ones that came before them. New printer on the way, to help make them manifest. A lot of people who have done prints for sale at other events have recommended the Epson R1800, which is discontinued, so I went for it's descendent, the R1900. Hope all goes well, as the low-end Epsons could sometimes be fussy, I hear the higher-end ones are more reliable and deliver even better results. I think I have lined up a T-shirt printer, and I have about half of the shirts I want to offer already laid out in Illustrator. Now I just have to wrap up the others...

Anyway, enough thinking aloud...time for bed.

That's more like it...

All the Sturm and Drang is over, and the Futrama Crisis of '09 that I was only recently made aware of is over! Fox and the voice actors have worked out their contract dispute, and Futurama's revival will go forward with the One True Cast. Frankly, I think Fox "acted stupidly" by even taking their game of chicken that far. If the execs knew what made Futurama popular, and therefore, a financial success by any measure, they would known that having the original actors is critical to any revival. I can understand not wanting to give the farm away, the actors on the Simpsons have managed up re-up to some pretty nice per-show rates, and I'm sure Futurama's budget isn't going to be anywhere near the current Simpsons budget. Still, if Fox had followed through and used new actors for the show, many, MANY of the existing fans would have not watched, other than perhaps a brief peek at an episode or two before turning away in disgust. The reason the DVD movies made money is because Futurama has a big following, somewhere between a large cult following and a moderate mainstream following. And the time and money were taken to make sure the movies were made right. My only complaint about them is that having to structure them in such as way as to be ready to be parsed into individual episodes for repeats on Comedy Central made some of them a little awkward. In any event, if Fox was were willing to let the X-Files run into the ground just to keep a marginal cult audience, they should have been more than willing to invest in the right talent to make sure the show stays true to itself and keeps existing fans as well as attracting new ones.

Now that things seem to be back on track, albeit with some unfortunate cuts to the writing and production staff, hopefully the new, somewhat slimmed-down Futurama will be as good as the original. It's up to all of us who love the esoteric humor and witty banter of Futurama to support it when it finally returns. If we're lucky, maybe this show can live on longer in its second run than it did in its first one...

Good News, Everyone!

Been away from the ol' blog for a while, but I was so overcome with joy I felt compelled to holler from the virtual mountaintop...Futurama is coming back! Comedy Central has announced that they are ordering 26 new episodes of the series, after the success of the DVD movie sales and apparently, ratings for reruns on Comedy Central. After many years, there will once again be new weekly adventures with Fry, Leela, Bender, The Professor and the rest of 'em!

Honestly, I had dared not put much hope in this vague possibility, though I knew there was a chance. I was kind of disappointed when Futurama left Adult Swim, I felt like Cartoon Network was it's adopted "home." I hadn't really watched much Comedy Central for a while and it just isn't one of the stations I "automatically" find myself punching in when looking for something to pass the time. Well, once they announced the straight-to-video movies, it was clear that they were attempting the "Family Guy" miracle of reigniting a "dead star." I purposely bought, rather than Netflixed, each new movie, trying to do my part to show demand for the return of the series, and was thrilled by the crazy reception the Futurama panels always received at Comic Con. A lot of people I know love The Simpsons but say they "just couldn't get into" Futurama. Well, this was proof that there are still any people out there who ARE into it, and never let it go. I'm looking forward to the return of what I consider one of the greatest TV series ever, and I'm sure the throngs will be extra crazy at Comic Con this year. Wouldn't miss it for the world.

Have a Merry, Moddy Xmas!

This is one of my latest creations, it's currently available as a card on the Foldsy site. Kind of an experiment for me, I haven't done anything quite this "design-y" in awhile. I am not sure where the initial idea came from, though I was inspired style-wise by this great book I picked up recently! It's called "All Wrapped up!" and it's a collection of all kinds of mid-century wrapping paper designs, complied by a fellow Bay Area artist named Kevin Akers. I swear, Chronicle Books always seems to have the most wonderful, unusual stuff... Check it out here:

All Wrapped Up! Groovy Gift Wrap of the 1960s

Anyway, other than that I have been busy with a new round of Flash work for a longtime client, and have been looking to drum up some additional ones. These days, you can't have "too much work."

A Happy Birthday indeed!

This is my submission for a new online card site, Foldsy.com. This idea for a birthday card came to me unexpectedly, and oddly enough, close to my actual birthday! Sort of what I imagined to be the unconscious desire of a maladjusted magician, or a sexually curious Looney Tunes fan. I wonder, how many times DID Bugs Bunny show up in drag over the years...