LA OBSERVATIONS

NEW SKETCHBOOK

A sooper brand new, unblemished, white-as-vanilla-ice-creamy sketchbook is both exciting and scary. Soooooo much empty space...

Will it be filled with pretty pictures?

Or lame scrawlings that should be sunk to the bottom of the ocean?

Let's see where we are so far:




One way to ensure that maximum awesomeness goes into my sketchbooks is to have maximumly awesome artists draw in it whenever possible. Example: Sean 'Cheeks' Galloway, who I had the giant pleasure of having dinner with a week or two ago. I met him briefly at the San Diego Comicon a bunch of years back, and then ran into him at The House of Secrets here in LA... so we made plans to get together and eat. And of course, no one gets away without drawing me something:


Dude...

Awesome artist. Sooper nice guy. And sooper sweet fiance, who came along for the meal!

Make sure you check out this guys BLOG
and get his BOOKS!

Another artist who didn't escape the new book was Chris P! I finally got to visit his studio, Titmouse, Inc and man, it ROCKS! They're always doing REALLY cool stuff over there, like Adult Swim's Metalocalypse, G.I. Joe: Resolute and tons of other stuff I'm not allowed to tell you!

Check out his drawing on the right side...


Were you expecting something normal?

Nope.

As this book's been going on, the squid's tentacles have been turning into plants, pipes and other assorted stuff that travels from page to page.


Who knows what it'll be by the end...

SITTIN' 'ROUND SIGNIN'

Remember when I said you could ship me your copies of 1000 TIMES NO and I'd sign 'em?

No?

Aw, c'mon... It was over HERE.

Oh... NOW you remember.

Well, that's what I'm doin' a lot of lately and I love ya'll for it. Here's a batch I did this morning:


And now that the school year is starting, it'll be back to doing lots of readings and signings--- LA STYLE!

(No, that doesn't mean I wear sunglasses whilst reading the book)

Oh, and here's a sweet lil review from Jenny the Librarian in Syracuse:

"The illustrations are bold and colorful and depict Noah with blond hair, curls poking out of the top if his head, and a large diaper that looks like it's about to fall off at any moment. He dons the appropriate outfit for his voyage through different cultures and children will enjoy seeing the many ways you can say "no." This book is absolutely delightful!"

The rest is hiding behind HERE.

LEVY'S LATEST!

A while back I told ya'll about ASIFA-EAST President for Life and sooper author David Levy's upcoming new book.

It's called ANIMATION DEVELOPMENT; From Pitch To Production and I just got an advance copy in the mail yesterday! And ya know what? I gotta tell you the sooper honest truth--

IT ROCKS!

At least the parts I've read so far... which were mostly the parts about me. I'm particularly proud that I didn't say anything TOO stoopid. I also made sure to chekc out some of the quotes and passages from other big shots Mr. Levy interviewed-- Craig McCracken, Jackson Publick, Mo Willems, Linda Simensky, Stephen Hillenburg, Los Brothers Krause, and sooooooo many more! And it was kind of annoying because I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking, "UGH-- I wish I said THAT!"

Still... I need to read this WHOLE THING and so do you.

So why dontcha pre-order one right now?

C'mon... it's not like you know everything about pitching shows, do ya?

CN ACTION PACK #40

Hey Cartoon Network Action Pack fans-- Issue #40 is on the stands NOW!

And if you like the idea of Numbuh Three and Four alone together in the Treehouse on a romantical moonlit night... I think you're gonna like this one!


Could this be the night?!

Or just another chance for Numbuh Four to be a jerk?

Pick up your copy today so you can bask in the awesome art of Potent Penciller Maurice Fontenot and Inveterate Inker Rob 'The Iguana' Smith!

HAPPENINGS IN LA

One of things I definitely love about LA is that there's no shortage of animation related events going on at all times. Why, just last week I had the honor of being invited to the sooper big Hanna Barbera Anniversary party:


My first pilot was one of the the last few (if not THE last) project that went through HB before it became absorbed into the vast Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network juggernaut. And lucky me, both Mr. Hanna and Mr. Barbera were still around back then-- in fact, my office was RIGHT NEXT to Mr. Hanna's and only a couple doors down from Mr. B's! And you could just stop in and talk to them any time you wanted! Unbelievable...

Unfortunately they've long since passed on and could only be at the reunion in spirit. But there were hundreds of alumni and fans milling about the Paley Center, enjoying the rare HB artwork on display, catching up with old friends and co-workers, and filling their pockets with the passed hors doeuvres.

Of course I had an awesome time hanging out with Mr. Maxwell Atoms, Greg Miller (Whatever Happened to Robot Jones), Chris Prynoski (Titmouse, Inc), character design rock star Chris Battle, old school New Yorker John McIntyre, the fabulous Jennifer Hale (aka Numbuh 86, the KND Treehouse Computer, amongst a billion other voices), the incomparable Dee Bradley Baker (voice of Numbuh Four), 'evil' executive Khaki Jones and jeez... just too many awesome folks I haven't seen in ages.


Sooper old school animation director/timer Robert Alvarez, CN executive wrangler Linda Barry (and person who took these pics), Johnny Bravo creator Van Partible (who put the event together), background painter Don Watson and I'm not sure who that is in the back (sorry, dude!)


Chris Battle, me and Greg Miller looking all classy-like


That's Titmouse founders Chris and Shannon Prynoski in the front there.


Don Watson again and Billy and Mandy creator Maxwell Atoms.


CN Admiral of Studio Operations Zita LeFebvre and recently escaped CN Jay Bastian and me in the middle

Great times...

And on Friday night I made my way down to Santa Monica to a sooper special screening of Mike Judge's office space and Beavis and Butthead Do America!


For those who don't know, I was the production designer on the first season of B and B when it was done at J.J. Sedelmaier Productions. The rest of the series was done at MTV's brand new animation studio, but I stayed behind at JJSP to cause havoc there. Still, I could often be found lurking about MTV visiting my sooper pals. And even though I didn't work on the movie, I felt almost like I did since I saw so much of it going on.

It was definitely a blast from the past seeing it... and hard to believe its 10 years old. What made it extra special was the introduction by director Yvette Kaplan and Exec Producer John Andrews, two old school New Yorkers I hadn't seen in a long while.

Like I said... great times.

ITCHY?

Imagine my thrill when the mailman comes and hands me a sooper-shiny-hot-off-the-press-brand-new-not-even-out-yet Elephant and Piggie book by Mr. Willems!


Because usually Mo makes me beg to get his latest books. Sometimes he makes me do backflips. Or he has me bake him 1000 chocolate chip cookies-- and then decides he wants oatmeal instead. There was also the time he wanted to see how many naked mole rats I could fit in my underpants (less than you think).

But you know something? It's all TOTALLY worth it. Because in return for all the backflippin', cookie bakin', scratchy pants craziness I get a signed copy of Mo's books.

So I can't say I wasn't suspicious when I got an unsolicited copy of
'Pigs Make Me Sneeze'

Then I looked at the the title page:



GASP!

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!

A DEDICATION?!

To MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?!?!?

Talk about being HONORED beyond all honorifficality.

But now I'm afraid to answer the phone for fear its Mo asking for another 'favor'.

I have a feeling it has something to do with that 'itchy' comment.
(shiver)

thanks mo!