INSCRIBINS

"With great power
comes great responsibility...
But a great burger
doesn't always come with great fries."

These are words I try to live (and eat) by.
And while I wouldn't say I have great power...
I happen to have a lot of sooper friends who do.
So I feel it's my responsibility to share their awesomeness...
often at a steep price.

Take for instance my eldest son's school auction that was held last June.
Through a strategically coordinated rapid-fire assault of begging, bribery, dirty tricks, sycophantic flattery, threats of violence and offers of hot tips to great burger joints I managed to get a whole bunch of author/illustrators to donate books that would be inscribed to whomever the winner choosified!

Imagine the smile on your child's face after getting a copy of Kate DiCamillo's THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX inscribed just to them!


Or ponder the love from your significant other after presenting him or her with a personalized copy of ROBOT ZOT signed by former Ambassador of Children's Literature Jon Scieszka and David 'No David' Shannon!

Or OH NO! (or How My Science Project Almost Destroyed the World) by Mac Barnett and Dan Santat?

Yeeeeeeeeeah...

Well, one bidder made it a point to grab not one but FIVE of the eight books that went up for auction and I thought I'd share the inscribed pages here to make you jealous.

LUNCH LADY AND THE SUMMER CAMP SHAKEDOWN by Jarrett J. Krosoczka


TRUCKERY RYHMES by Jon Scieszka


ROBOT ZOT by Jon Scieszka and David Shannon


HUGO AND THE REALLY REALLY REALLY LONG STRING by Bob Boyle


Some book by some jerk



That Emily, Mary and Jake are some lucky kids, right?

But guess what the most awesomest item that got donated was?

No, not the chance to make a 32 course dinner for sooper famous animator/author/underwear model/mecha warrior mr. warburton...
but I like the way you think.

No, the bestest best item that got put up was an advance, unbound copy of Mo Willems' upcoming KNUFFLEBUNNY FREE signed to the person of your choice.



Yup... the winner got to be one of the FIRST to read it before it hits the shelves this September 28th!

With a burger like that who need fries?

COMIC CON SKETCH #5

Ashley Wood paints good.

Oops...

Did I say good?

I meant TOTALLY REALLY SOOPER AWESOMELY AMAZINGLY OVER-THE-TOP ARMY OF GORILLAS TAKING OVER THE WORLD GOOD!

Talk about someone who has their own distinctive style going!
I first saw his work in SPARROW:


And picked up this fun mini-series:


Wow...
His texture...
His brushwork...
His atmosphere...
His ROBOTS!


So whilst at Comic Con I saw him standing by a table of his original art (none of which I could afford). He was finishing up a sketch for someone else and afterwards I asked if he could please doodle me up something.

He was... um... perhaps a bit tired after a long day of Comic Conning.
But was nice enough to sketch me this:


For which I am ever so happy!
Thanks, Mr. Wood!

COMIC CON SKETCH #4

Have you watched GENERATOR REX on Cartoon Network?

It's the latest show by MAN OF ACTION, the guys behind Ben 10!
And I had a chance to hang out with them in their booth at Comic Con!
Specifically, Duncan Rouleau:


We hung out for a long time and talked cartoons, comics, and Cartoon Network.
And while we were talking, I made sure he was drawing at the same time!
Check out this sketch of Bobo Haha, complete with the cigar that Standards and Practices haaaaaaaates:


But wait... if they say that Bobo can't have a cigar,
then how did Mr. Boss get away with it for so long?


I guess evil adult sooper villains have more pull than hyper-intelligent monkeys.

ON NO! GALLERY SHOW RE-CAP!

As previously threatened, Dan Santat and Mac Barnett's EYEWITNESS REPORTS gallery show and auction preview went off with a big boom!

And for those who showed up, they got the added bonus of not one but TWO shows!

Yup, while EYEWITNESS REPORTS was being shown in the upper reaches of Gallery Nucleus, there was another show for MOONSHINE, an upcoming book featuring the personal work of a whole mess of artists who work at Dreamworks!


I don't need to tell you that these folks are non-stop amazing. Chris Appelhans, Jason Scheier, Samuel Michlap, Nate Wragg... and that's just a couple of the sooper talented artists whose work was shown.

But back to EYEWITNESS REPORTS!

There was a great turn out:


Mr. Santat was on hand to sign books and prints:


And there was, of course, lots of stellar art by folks like...

Well... ME:


Chris Appelhans:


Tony DiTerlizzi:


And Mr. Willems:


And more:





Rockin' right?

Wouldn't it be cool to have a piece from this show hanging in your home?

I can arrange that RIGHT NOW!

See, starting today (Monday, August 23rd), all artwork from the show is gonna be auctioned on Ebay to benefit 826LA

All the information you need is on this poster right here:



Wanna see some more art? Check out this blurb on The Huffington Post!
(WHAT?! No pics of Jarrett Krosoczka's piece? Nor mine? Blasphemy!)

So get those auction shoes on and get ready to bid bid bid!
There's a whole lot of rockin' stuff for sale and it's all for a good cause!

FLIGHT OF THE HAMSTERS!

It takes a LOT of power to keep a KND Treehouse going.

Between the offensive and defensive systems, the 5 story gameroom, the indoor/outdoor waterpark, 24 hour automatic kitchen, Numbuh Two's 2x4 tech lab-- not to mention Numbuh Three's animatronic Rainbow Monkey museum... there needs to be an endless source of energy to make sure everything is up and running at all times.

So what would you use?

Solar energy?
Cold fusion power cells?
Bio-diesel fuel?
A matrix of comatose human beings?

Nope. The KND use something even better.

HAMSTERS!


And yeah, it takes THOUSANDS of them critters, all running on their wheels, to power up the massive KND headquarters. It's rough work, but they're well rewarded and shown much love by Numbuh Three.

But what do they do the lil fellas do when they've get some time off?

They toss each other into the air and see how far they can launch themselves into the next county, that's what they do!


And it's REALLY FUN!
See what this guy has to say about it:


So what? Is 99 cents too much to pay for a game?
Or maybe you don't have an Iphone, Ipad or Ipod Touch?

You can always play it as much as you want, for free, right HERE!

But I'll warn you... it's addictive!

And don't be shy to check out all the other KND games on cartoonnetwork.com while you're at it!

OLD SCHOOL HEAD SPLITTING

Once upon a time not long ago, when people wore pajamas and lived life slow (in 1995) I was working in the lofty tower of J.J. Sedelmaier Productions out in White Plains, NY.

We did a whole lot of commercials there, which for a time seemed to come in batches of three. This worked out well since there were three up-and-coming staff animators champing at the bit to prove themselves. Their names were:

David Wachtenheim
Dean Lennert
and the handsomest of the trio...

ME!

And it's a good thing I had the handsome thing going for me because Dean and Dave were (are) way better animators than I ever would or could be.

Still, it was cool how JJSP would get commercial orders in these 3 spot batches that would allow each of us to take one and run with it.

We each got spots for a line of Converse sneakers.
We each got our own episode of Schoolhouse Rock to direct.
And we each got a spot for Celebrity Cruise Lines designed by none other than the mighty Gary Baseman.

You know... the awesome illustrator who also created Disney's Teacher's Pet?


Now this was the thing about JJSP--

Mr. Sedelmaier (and the rest of us in turn) prided himself on taking an illustrator's style and being as faithful to it as possible.

And I think we did that with these Baseman spots.
See whatcha think of mine over HERE

Do you remember seeing that on TV?!
You do?

LIAR!

You couldn't have seen it because it never aired!!!
I think the guy that owned Celebrity Cruise Lines thought it was a little too creepy, what with all the head-splitting, devil horns and skull melting.

Oh well...

At least we had fun making it 15 years ago...

And just a couple days ago, totally out of the blue, Mr. Baseman posted the pic at the top of this page on Facebook. And imagine my surprise when I saw the soda can with a picture from that spot!!!
So now where do I gets me one of those?!

But while animating the commercial, I did get something way, way better than a soda can.

I got a drawing from Mr. Baseman in my sketchbook:


What? You thought I only recently started pestering folks for drawings?
Maaaaaaan, I been kickin' that for years!

OH NO AT GALLERY NUCLEUS!

Hey, are you going anywhere in mid-August?

Really?
That sounds nice.

Now cancel it.

Because you don't wanna miss this gallery show.

See, sooper pals Dan Santat and Mac Barnett have gathered up the scum and villainy of the art world to create their own eye-witness reports of what REALLY happened in their soon to be Oscar winning picture book OH NO!

All the artwork is gonna be shown at the legendary Gallery Nucleus (along with their corresponding police reports) before the lot goes up on eBay. And what's better, all $$$ made goes to one of my sooper favorite charities, 826LA.

Check the stats:



Wanna see some of the artwork and learn about 826LA?
Yeah, you do.
So check out this video:



Didja catch that glimpse of my drawing at, like 1:23, in there?
Yup... I'm totally honored to be counted among the scum and villainy!

So let me show you what what I did...

First, I doodled up some ideas in my sketchbook:


Then I roughed it out on my computer:


Next, I printed it out and did a test ink by hand:


And then finally, inked it again, and scribbled on some colored pencil and voila:



(The scan kinda uglified the colors... so go to the gallery to see the real thing!)

And here's my police report:



Like I said, all the art will be up on e-bay, so ANYONE can be in it to win it!

But definitely drop by the gallery if you can!
It's gonna be a great show for a great cause!

COMIC CON SKETCH #3

Allow me to introduce you to Derek Kirk Kim.


A while back, while working on KND, Numbuh 440 (aka Alison Wilgus) introduced me to a book called Same Difference and Other Stories by Mr. Kim.



And it was really fun! So I kept track of this guy, reading all his other stuff:

I especially love his online journal:

When I met Mr. Kirk Kim at Comic Con, I DID make it a point to cut a jab about how he rarely updates the journal.
He could have easily jabbed right back and said,

"Oh, I'm sorry I'm not updating to your satisfaction...
I was too busy winning an EISNER AWARD for this:


I think the kids say "OH, SNAP!" to kind of stuff.

And rightly so.
Derek Kirk Kim had JUST won the coveted award the night before!
But big award winner or not, I was gonna get this guy to draw me a pretty picture whether he liked it or not!
And here it is:


BOOM!

How ya like that?

Stick around for more tasty drawings sandwiched into my sketchbook!

COMIC CON SKETCH #2

Do you know Doug TenNapel?


First of all, he created one of the most funny, creative video games of all time:


I mean, even if he did nothing else in his life,
he created Professor Monkey For A Head:


That alone would have been enough for him to be ensconced in the Mr. Warburton pantheon of awesomeness for all eternity.

But no... Mr. TenNapel moved on from there.

He made a show on Nickelodeon called Catscratch:


And he rocked some awesome graphic novels:





What else has he done, you ask?

Well, as of Comic Con 2010, he's drawn in my sketchbook:


YAY!