As if creating two, count 'em, TWO, sooper huge animated series isn't enough, now he wants to... he wants to...
Omigosh, how do I say this...
He wants to start HIS OWN NETWORK!
You heard me. His own online network.
Crazy, right?
But is he REALLY?
After making Rocco's Modern Life for Nickelodeon and Camp Lazlo for Cartoon Network, Joe wanted to do a show without the constraints of a network telling him how to do it. A network that lets the creators and the audience decide what's funny instead of corporations that have too many strings attached.
For years, or decades... no CENTURIES, the forces of evil have conspired to keep me and Jarrett J. Krosoczka from meeting. And they were overwhelmingly successful...
UNTIL LAST WEEKEND!
But perhaps the forces of eviltry have kept YOU from meeting Mr. Krosoczka, as well. Then allow me to introduce you to him.
First of all, his name is pronounced
KRA-ZOPA-WAKKA-NOM-NOM-NOM-PALA-ZOOK-A-ZAH-SKA.
Or something like that. But he seems to respond with less of a scowl if you pronounce it
KROW-ZAUS-KA.
Second of all, he's an awesome picture book author/illustrator.
And if you liked that one, than you most definitely liked this series:
Both rock and BOTH are being developed for sooper movie-dom, yo!
Anyway, the aforementioned powers-that-do-evil somehow decided that me and Mr. Krosoczka should never-ever-ever (forever ever?) meet. But then I ran into the oft mentioned sooper robot pal Bob Boyle while perusing the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. And he decided I SHOULD meet Jarrett J Krosoczka.
AND MEET WE DID!
Here's proof:
Both he and his wife Gina were sooper very nice and we laughed and joked about lots of stuff. Like weird talking goat books. And certain award shows. (You had to be there to appreciate it.) (And even then you had to be in the right mood.)
Anyway... the book festival was pretty huge. It was on the UCLA campus, which is gorgeous and a great setting for such a big event. It was a little more commercial than other festivals, but interesting nonetheless. I wish I had more time to wander the stalls, but I had my two little ninjas with me which means I spent more time locating them than locating interesting books and authors.
Hopefully I'll be there next year with my next book!
BONUS BLOGGY STUFF
If you didn't believe my last post... go over to Lisa Yee's blog where there's more proof of our escapades at Versailles.
There's also proof that Dan Santat rides a horse around LA:
Sorry about the extended bloggy absence... but I got pretty swamped with trying to finish up some book and animation stuff so blogging got put in the back seat for a bit.
But I'm back...
And boy am I behind on stuff to talk about.
First of all, this weekend is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books!!! I've never been, so I'm pretty excited to check it out. Unfortunately, I don't have any readings or signings scheduled, but that only means that I'll have more time to wander about and check-in with all my sooper pals that are gonna be around.
She's doing a reading at a Barnes and Noble over in Hollywood Friday night. I'll be the one in the audience with the brainsucker machine pointed at Kate. Once I have her brain, perhaps I'll be able to craft such artful and breathtaking sentences as her. But probably not. Information on her appearance is over HERE.
So a bunch of us got together to have dinner with him and his compatriot in show-pitchery and fellow illustrator/author Andy Rash... who I had never met before. Or maybe I did. Maybe. We couldn't remember. Regardless... I'd like to meet him again. He's funny.
And yeah... the amazing Dan Santat was there. Don't forget his tour de forcefield new book OH NO! is coming out this June and it's the best book ever.
EVER!
And illustrator/animator/singer/dancer/ninja Joe Rocco came along for the ride, too. He was late. But still funny.
We started off the evening by all taking pictures with her Peep. (You might want to check out her blog if you want to know what I'm talking about... I don't think she liked it when I stuffed her stuffed Peep in my stinky sandal for the photo op.)
Then we ate really good Cuban food at a place called Versailles. Most of us had the Famoso Pollo Versailles. But Dan had the pork because he just had to be different. Then we all took pictures of each other taking pictures of each other.
Yup. That's as fun as we get. Wish you could have been there, right?
No?
Well, maybe if Hulk Hogan joins us next time it'll be more interesting.
What's that? Some of you aren't familiar with Shonen Jump? Then it's a good thing I'm here to tell you about it.
Shonen Jump is Japanese, long-running, big, thick WEEKLY, black and white magazine that's chock full of the hottest manga series. There are lots like it, but Shonen Jump is really THE creme de la awesome. I first picked up a copy in Japan years and years ago but my Japanese wasn't quite rockin' enough to read it properly. But then a bunch of years back they started releasing it here in the States in a monthly format so I grabbed it!
I first loved it for NARUTO... because, c'mon-- Ninjas RULE. In fact, I spent a loooooong time pestering the folks at Cartoon Network to put Naruto on the channel. A LONG time. Then, of course, when they DID get it they said-- "Hey Mr. Warburton-- have you ever heard of this new anime series we got called Naruto? You might like it."
Ugh...
Anyway... Naruto was definitely my favorite for a long time. Shaman King was another sooper giant favorite and I was kinda bummed when they stopped running it (please disregard the American version of cartoon-- they totally changed it from what the manga is!). Sand Land, by the creator of Dragonball Z, which also ran, was cool. The Yu-Gi-Oh stuff was kinda silly... and I'll never get why anyone likes Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. I tried. I really did. They jumped right into the middle of Bleach, so it took a little while to understand what was going on-- but now I really like it.
But my ultra sooper favorite grew to be ONE PIECE by Eiichiro Oda. It's about a kid named Monkey D. Luffy who wants to be King of the Pirates. That's simplifying it a bit, but it's really an amazing series with fantastically original art (the posing! the angles! the world!), sooper creative characters (a swordsman who fights with a sword in each hand and one in his mouth, a clown pirate who can dismember himself, giant banana gators) a weird sense of humor (Luffy and some of his crew tend to be brilliantly stupid), and a ton of real heart (a couple stories have brought a tear to my eye).
Now the only real drag about Shonen Jump is that since it only comes out monthly and some of the series have been running for eleventy thousand years in Japan, they're waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind the Japanese issues. By, literally, HUNDREDS of stories. And that's why I never watch the anime of Naruto or One Piece... I don't want to ruin the manga (which are often very different from each other).
BUT THEY'VE BEEN FIXING THAT!
First, they stopped running Naruto for a bunch of months and helped us catch up to the Japaense series by releasing more volumes of the compiled manga! Normally, one issue of Naruto has 3 or 4 twenty page chapters in an issue. But one of these babies has over 200 pages... and they gave us THREE A MONTH.
Can life get any better?
YES, IT CAN!
They've been doing the same thing with One Piece recently so for the last couple months they've been releasing FIVE (5) ... OMG... FIVE beautiful beautiful volumes EVERY MONTH.
I've never wanted it to be the beginning of a new month more.
One of the things I really love that Mr. Oda does better than anyone is group shots. He takes the characters and puts them into these great situations that tell a fun story without words being neccessary. If you get a chance, find his Color Walk books.
A lot of his group shots are in there and I constantly refer to them for inspiration.
Now if I could just meet Mr. Oda and have him draw me a sketch I could die happier than I already am.
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