A VISIT TO WB CONSUMER PRODUCTS

A couple weeks ago I went to visit my

good friend

Kathleen Wallis

at Warner Bros

Consumer Products.

She used to run all the 

KND

licensing until 

Cartoon Network

opened up their own division.

Consumer products,

if you didn't know,

is all about

STUFF:

Toys

Shirts

Mugs

Hats

Commemorative plates

Keychains

Tortilla Warmers

Throw pillows

Model kits

Decorative swords

Novelty Ice Cream

YOU NAME IT!

If they can sell it,

they'll make it

because

MONEY!

The lobby was

rockin' it

straight up 

Batman

style:

With lots of Legos:

But in the upstairs lobby

they went

full-on

Man of Steel

and

Looney Tunes:

All this came from a

private collector

who's spent decades 

collecting this stuff:

 I would have taken more pictures

but the

Superman

pogo stick

creeped me out:

Awesome stuff, right?

ERNEST ET CELESTINE

So the other day I went here:

To see this guy:

Talk about this:

To be more specific,

Dreamworks was hosting an

ASIFA HOLLYWOOD 

screening of 

a film by 

French director 

Benjamin Renner

called

Ernest and Celestine.

Based on the books by

Gabrielle Vincent,

the film is about a bear and a mouse 

who become friends,

something unheard of in their

segregated society.

Check out the trailer:

Personally, I thought it was totally charming: Beautiful design (loved the broken line and watercolor textures) Fluid animation (great weight to the characters) Wonderful voice acting (I can listen to people speak French all day) and a cute, silly, fun story (not saccharine) (great for kids and adults) (BUT it has subtitles so unless your kids speak French...) Definitely check this out  if you get a chance! Oh...  and this is  coming soon, too:

DON'T PIGEONHOLE MO

Sketchbooks.

I'm always talkin'

about sketchbooks.

About how you oughta be 

filling them up with

drawings

doodles

ideas

notes

thoughts

stuff

scribbles

photos

scraps

musings

clippings

and

just,

you know,

KEEPING

A

SKETCHBOOK!

Because

SKETCHBOOK!

And because they're great places

for future projects

to gestate.

Case in point,

Mr. Mo Willems.

(yeah... him again)

For the last two decades,

Mo has created a mini-sketchbook

that he's printed for friends, family, enemies,

clients, attractive ladies and anyone who asked.

Over the years these sketchbooks have served as a

business

slash

holiday card

slash

 'zine

slash

creative laboratory

slash

overstock warehouse

for all things Mo.

And it was one of these

sketchbooks

that gave birth

to a bird that would eventually

launch Mr. Willems'

semi-successful 

book career:

And now,

since Mo

isn't releasing another book

in the next 

3 hours...

There's

THIS:

All twenty of Mo's

sketchbooks

featured in one big book! 

Actually, I don't have all of them.

But I've got a bunch:

They're a fascinating look into

Mo's creative process.

And a way to see how some of his

experiments later evolved into

books.

Like Pigeon:

And Goldilocks:

And Leonardo:

One of the things I've always

admired about Mo

(aside from his taste in friends)

is how his creative mind never rests.

He's always trying something new.

Challenging himself with:

A looser style:

A simpler aesthetic:

Stamp art:

and commuting penguins:

My favorite part of the book features Mo's 

early cartoon sketchbooks:

Many moons ago,

while looking through Mo's latest book,

my wife expressed great love for this

drawing:

I asked Mo for the original

so I could give it to her as a gift.

And he was nice enough to sell it to me for 

$74,000.

He's still waiting for the check.

Get this book.

There's a lot to

love

learn from

and

admire

in there.

STAY YOUNG IN THE PRINTLAB

You asked for it!

And even if you 

didn't...

you were 

THINKING 

of asking for it.

Either way,

it's 

HERE.

The latest addition to

the mighty 

printlab

Si, señor!

By popular demand,

the iconic last image

of the KND finale

OPERATION: INTERVIEWS

has been redrawn

and reproduced

as an 

8.5 x 11

print

on sooper high quality

Arches Aquarelle Rag!

Each one will be inscribed to 

anyone you like by me

and as a 

SOOPER BONUS

each print will have a

hand-drawn 

sooper mini pencil sketch
of one of the KND!

Kinda like this:

Interested?

Then head over to the

printlab

and 

take a look

around!

MR. WARBURTON: FASHION BLOGGER

I am

many 

things:

Artist

Animator
Writer

Director

Producer

Author

Blogger

Ninja

Loudmouth

Nerd

Layabout

and

That Guy Who Walks Really Loud

You may now include

Fashion Blogger

to that list.

I know.

It was only a matter of time.

Because,

you know,

this:

I mean,

obviously,

right?

But

perhaps you didn't know

that the fabulous

MRS. WARBURTON

(aka Meg Gallagher)

just so happens to be a 

sooper famous personal stylist.

And sometimes she lets me be seen 

amongst the fashionable people.

Why, just the other night

we went to the opening of

the new flagship store for

The Left Shoe Company!

We had such a great time that

I wrote about it on her blog

(when she wasn't looking)

Check out 

Madison to Melrose

over

HERE!

And don't be shy to sign up for her e-mail blasts

to receive all manner of fashion tips.

Some of you could use the help.

(I'm talking to YOU animation artist-type person)

A SKETCHBOOK FROM THE EARLY 90's

In the grand tradition of

trotting out an old sketchbook

to show you 

whilst

I slowly grind away at

my latest,

I give you

THIS:

This pile of pulp started on 

May 28th, 1992

I was two years into my animation career

and sooper busy on the first season of 

Beavis and Butthead

at

J.J. Sedelmaier Productions:

I worked alot

and

smoked too much:

I did assistant animation

on this MTV id

by the ultimate

Craig Yoe:

So he drew me this:

I volunteered on

an old schooner at the

South Street Sea Port

in my free time:

Not sure who this guy was based on:

We always listened to Howard Stern at the studio,

so how surprised was I when

Mr. Sedelmaier brought

Gary Dell'abate

and

Stuttering John

in for a visit:

Back then

our good friend Lil

opened up a bar called 

The Coyote Ugly Saloon.

(Yeah... that one)

Me and my cronies could usually be found there

playing on the darts team.

Working the door.

Playing pinball.

Or just lounging about:

We did a Converse commercial

starring 

Chainsaw Bob.

Creator

Brandon McKinney 

sketched me this:

Sooper powered 

cartoonist

Gary Leib

was kind enough to do 

some scribblin' for me:

I used to wear big bear slippers around the studio.

When I'd take the elevator from the 3rd floor studio 

to the upstairs offices of JJSP

the the guys from the law offices in the building 

would look at me funny:

Old school NYC graffiti artist

Todd James

(aka REAS)

did some time at

JJSP

and got a hold of my sketchbook

at one the many rooftop parties

at my apartment

on 2nd avenue

between 5th and sixth:

These days Mr. James

is rockin' the art world pretty hard.

Which reminds me of the time I rocked the bottom 

of a pool in the Hamptons...

WITH MY FACE:

Almost scraped off a nipple, too.

But it made for a lot of

good skechbook fodder:

I bought my first computer,

a Powerbook 520C!

160mb hard drive, yo!

And then on

September 17, 1994

(almost two and a 1/2 years later)

it was done:

Back then I was working crazy hours

and animating non-stop

so getting through a sketchbook took a lot longer.

I find it fascinating how much time 

I spent drawing myself back then.

I don't do that much these days.

That's the great thing about keeping these

sketchbook/journal/diary

thingies.

They're true time capsules.

I hope you're 

filling up sketchbooks, too!