TITMOUSE, SMASH!

I've known Chris P. a long time.

Creator of MTV's Downtown.

Owner and proprietor of rockstar animation studio Titmouse.

He of the glasses, scraggly beard and Budweiser hat.

Yeah, that guy.

We know each other from our mutual time served 

on the front lines of animation in NYC.

And now, of course, we're both in LA.

But in the many years I've known him...

I've never ever (forever ever) been to one of his

Smash Parties.

Ridiculous, right?

Wait...

Did you just say,

I'm sorry, Mr. Warburton.

But I'm unfamiliar with this 

Smash Party 

thing you're talking about.

Oh c'mon.

Really?

You've NEVER heard of the legendary 

SMASH PARTY?

The one where you bring something, 

anything

(non food-related) 

to bust up into itty bitty pieces:

An old TV.

A cow skull.

Your mother's fragile porcelain mice collection.

Then you enter THE CAGE...

and pick from an assortment of items:

An axe.

A sledge hammer.

A bowling ball.

Etc.

And you smash it.

You smash it like there's no tomorrow.

And the crowd

ROARS.

It's a MUST GO event.

But somehow I've managed to NOT GO over the years.

So I fixed that this weekend

And the party

was amaaaaaaaaazing.

Live bands.

Food trucks.

Open bar.

And SMASHING.

Don't believe me?

Check what Maxwell Atoms did to this subwoofer:

Yikes.

Anger issues much?

Me?

I got there late so I didn't have time 

to rustle up anything to smash.

But I had fun watching.
Hanging out with friends.
Meeting new people.

And filming Chris P getting asked 

the BIG question:

 Thought provoking.

So now that I've finally been to this event,

I gotta go back next year

and SMASH me a 

little sumthin' sumthin'.

You should, too.

SMAY!

What, you smay ask, is SMAY?

It is this,
and I quote:

smay has no Webster "definition."

I define the word through the work.

music. art. packaging. thought. action.

connecting the dots between the eyes that you didn't know were there.

(and making the whole thing look cool)

It's also a graphic design studio
run by one of my oldest pals,
Phil Yarnall.


Phil and I grew up listening to Devo
and Adam and the Ants,
drawing comics,
throwing ninja stars at garage doors,
playing in a band called No Duh,
and eleventy billion other awesome teen activities.
Eventually we moved to NYC to take over the world.

Phil started Smay with fellow troublemaker Stan Stanski,
but these days he's rockin' things solo.

Phil handles all the design for the Jimi Hendrix Estate:




He also designs stuff for a lot of other artists, too:
(living, dead and somewhere in between)








He designs water bottles:


Posters:


And all sorts of other sooper cool stuff.

Check out the smay website over HERE!

You'll like it!

I KNOW THAT VOICE!

Wanna see some of the best of the best voice actors and directors
talk about what it takes to be the bestest of the bestest?

Then you gotta see this:



Brought to you by veteran voice actor John DiMaggio
(Jake in Adventure Time, Bender in Futurama,
and of course, JOCKTOPUS on Fish Hooks),
the film is still a work in progress,
but dang boy...

It's gonna be GOOOOOOOOOD!

HANNA AND BARBERA

When Cartoon Network flew me to LA for 3 months
to begin production on the pilot for Kenny and the Chimp,
I missed getting to work in the iconic Hanna Barbera
building by only a couple months.

No, instead of getting to work at the studio where Scooby Doo,
Johnny Quest and Smurfs was done,
I ended up in a building attached to the nearly deserted mall where
Fast Times at Ridgemont High was filmed:


But it wasn't so bad...

Because they put my office directly next to Bill Hanna's.
And just around the corner from Joe Barbera's.


And I was all like...

WHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAT?!

I mean...
I could just pop into their offices and hang out.
Ask questions.
Listen to stories.
Sometimes they'd stop by MY office and check out
the drawings of Kenny and Chimp on my wall.
Mr. Hanna even cut the cake for my 30th birthday.

So on one of my trips back to NYC,
I grabbed my Tom and Jerry book:


And I asked them to sign it:




Unfortunately, these legends have long since passed.
But man, am I honored I got to meet them.

I WIN!!!

So Mr. Willems and I made a little trade.
I drew this for him to give to the fabulous
Mrs. Willems for her birthday:


(she's weird and likes the plant/squid thingies I draw in my sketchbook)

And in return, I got THIS:


If you're asking whether that's the original,
final art from page 42 of this book:


Then you're all kinds of right.

And I'm all kinds of like,

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

I WIN!

Final score:

Mr. Willems - .7 points
Mr. Warburton - 365,042,954.44444444 points

BOOM!

My walls just got awesomer.

THIS MONTH'S KIDSCREEN MAGAZINE COVER

Kidscreen
is a trade magazine that follows the world of animation licensing.
Like most trades, it's chock full of ads, mostly for
animated shows,
wanna-be animated shows
and the studios
and networks
that make them.

And there are articles, too.
This month's cover story is about Cartoon Network's 20th anniversary.
See if you can find the Kids Next Door
in that mosh pit of characters,
old and new!

SUPPORT THE ADAMS AUCTION RECAP

So the auction to
help Joey Adams and his family
was,
as the kids say,
off the hook.

There were LOTS of people there:


And there was TONS of amazing artwork on display.
These conceptual drawings for Madagascar
by Craig Kellman were some of my favorites:




Alot of the artwork on display was for the big online portion of the auction.
The Bronies were going wild for the My Little Pony artwork Lauren Faust donated.
I thought this one rocked pretty hard:


And after the online auction smoke had cleared,
each Pony drawing had sold for around $2000.
Except for one which sold for...
get this...

$9100.00

You heard me.
NINE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!

Wow.
How awesome is THAT?!


I had to send Mo Willems a picture of this clerical error:




I won this piece by sooper star
animator/director/Tap Out Crew T-shirt model
Mike Hollingsworth:


As of this right now, I'm not sure how much the auction has brought in,
but I know it did pretty well.
Of course, it's nowhere near enough to solve the mind-numbing
medical bills of the Adams Family.
But every bit helps.
And how cool is it so see animation folks
rally around one of their own?

If you can't help out by donating at supportheadams.com,
keep Joey's family in your thoughts, okay?

FACEBOOK TIMELINE

Facebook's got this new layout called
TIMELINE,
the focal point of which is a sooper big giant
COVER PHOTO.

So I thought I'd make one.

It started out kinda like this:



And ended up like this:


Wanna be friends?
Head on over to my page and say hey!

JOEY ADAMS ART AUCTION BENEFIT

Remember when I showed you that
KND drawing I did for an upcoming auction?

Well, the event is this Thursday, April 5th
at The Animation Guild in Burbank, Ca.

The auction is to benefit storyboard artist Joey Adams and his family.
After losing their infant daughter to a genetic disease called HLH in 2009,
their twin boys were hit with the same thing last Christmas.
And while both survived, one of them is still struggling
and in dire need of a bone marrow transplant.

Needless to say, the family's medical bills are astronomical.
So a group of amazing folks in the industry have put together
an art auction to help them out.

And while my KND drawing might bring in some spare change,
here are two pieces that oughta get people to bust open their piggy banks:


That there's an original Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie sketch.

You can say, "DANG BOY!" now.

After you're done,
say it again for this:


No.
You're not dreaming,.
That is the very firstest ever
FISH HOOKS/ALMOST NAKED ANIMALS
mash-up painting by Noah Z. Jones,
creator of both shows.
This kinda thing just hasn't been done before.
But now it has,
and for a good cause.

If you're in the LA area,
come on by the auction and show your support.

If not, you can donate over at
SUPPORTTHE ADAMS.COM
Head on over for further information and photos of the kids.