ASSORTED BITS OF OTTAWA 2014

I think I've made it 

abundantly clear that the

2014 OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL 

ANIMATION FESTIVAL

was 

Das Boomba.

So allow me to share some more

pics

tidbits

ephemera

and 

doodles

from my trip.

Here's a sketch 

Gary Schwartz 

did while I was being

interviewed for the 

Animation Pimpcast

The schedule for those of us on

 the feature jury wasn't too bad:

But it was busy enough that I didn't get to

see too many other screenings.

I 

DID 

make it to

PEN & INK:

CREATING CHARACTERS WITH NICKELODEON

Specifically, it was about Nick's upcoming new show

PIG GOAT BANANA CRICKET!

Creators Dave Cooper,

Johnny Ryan

and Executive Producer David Sacks

told us all sorts of fun stuff about what goes into the making of

this weirdo show.

They even did a live-drawing of a new character

where the audience was encouraged to 

suggest what body parts it was made up of:

And the name I suggested,

BACON-n-KEGS

(because of it's beer keg body and

umbrella with a piece of bacon on the end)

was picked,

which was kind of cool.

While we're on the topic of

live-drawing,

exquisite corpse

kind of stuff, 

we were out late one night and

Maya Erdelyi-Perez

introduced us to an interesting game.

We were each given five pieces of paper.

On the first piece of paper we were instructed to

"write anything in the world"

For example:

Then everyone passed their 

stack of paper to the left.

On page two we were instructed 

to DRAW what was written on page one.

The stack was passed again

and we were told to 

describe what was 

drawn on page two:

And on page four

the next person had to draw what 

was written on page three

And then one more time...

Essentially it's a surreal form of 

whisper down the lane.

I'd show you some of the other drawings,

but I'd get arrested.

Here's another caricature someone did of me.

At least I think it's me.

It might be Jay Leno.

And then there's the

forever awesome

ANIMATOR'S PICNIC.

As if eating and drinking 

in a park

on a beautiful fall day

isn't enough,

there's pumpkin carving:

{sigh}

The Ottawa International 

Animation Festival...

It's enough to make 

David O'Reilly hug

festival director

Chris Robinson:

GETTIN' JUDGY WID IT AT OIAF 2014

If you hang out with a lot of judges,

then you probably overheard them 

talking about me recently.

Because

there was a lot of

next level 

block rockin'

straight-up 

hardcore

JUDGING

all up in

Canada last week!

YES!

I had the honor of serving on the 

Feature Jury

at the

2014 Ottawa International Animation Festival.

AND I PASSED

MAD

JUDGEMENT!

But I couldn't do it alone.

I had two sooper talented

colleagues.

The first was

Ottawa's own

Patrice James:

As Director of the

Independent Filmmaker's Cooperative,

she knows a thing or two about film.

She also knows how 

to kick some style.

Patrice was our rock,

totally keeping us on topic

and making sure we didn't accept any bribes

of candy from

unscrupulous filmmakers.

The third of our trio 

was the 

insidiously brilliant

3-D animation deconstructionist

and

independent filmmaker

David O'Reilly:

Mr. O'Reilly

and I spent many hours

chatting over root beers,

fixing the world's problems

and fighting crime in Ottawa.

Hopefully we'll do so again here in LA.

Because he rocks pretty hard.

You can't really beat a jury 

like that, can you?

No, you can't.

There were five films in competition this year.

Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange; A Rapid Love Story

by Mait Laas, Estonia

Seth's Dominion

Luc Chamberland, Canada

Tanta Hilda

Jaques-Remy Girerd & Benoit Chieux, France

 Until Sbornia Do Us Part

Otto Guerra & Ennio Torresan Jr.. Brazil

Truth Has Fallen

Sheila Sofian, USA

Our choice,

by unanimous decision,

was

Seth's Dominion.

It's truly a charming, beautifully made documentary;

a mixture of live action interviews with the 

charismatic Canadian cartoonist Seth,

and perfectly animated versions of his comics.

Here's a picture I snapped of 

Luc Chamberland.

the film's

equally charming director

accepting his award.

This was my first time judging in a festival.

And I had so much fun 

I'm not sure I can go back to

NOT

being a judge!

Eleventy billion thanks to 

festival director

Chris Robinson

and

EVERYONE

at the 

OIAF

for having me this year.

Ottawa rocks!

THE 2014 NAUTICA MALIBU TRIATHALON

I did something really 

DUMB.

I swam 1/2 a mile.

Then right after that biked for 

18 miles.

And then immediately afterwards

ran 4 miles.

WHY ON EARTH

would I do

THAT

when I could instead be 

sitting on the beach,

in a comfy chair

reading a book

and eating ice cream?

I'd like to say I was tricked into doing the

2014 NAUTICA MALIBU TRIATHALON

 but I did it of my own free will.

Disney has a HUGE

tri-team and are ALWAYS 

looking for people to rope into it.

Since I was already swimming twice a week

and running the rest of the week,

I was thinking of

possibly

I dunno

maybe

giving it a try.

(but not)

Then my neighbor 

Darren

asked if I wanted to 

give it a shot.

And I said 

um

well

okay

i guess?

The next thing I know I

spent 5 months 

getting ready.

It was a great

challenge.

A goal.

I LIKE GOALS.

I set a lot for myself:

Working on a new show pitch.

Learning to read music.

Not picking my nose and eating it.

There's always 

SOMETHING

I'm trying to do.

And last Sunday

I completed a

triathalon:

It was hard,

but not awful.

I was grossly unprepared for the swim.

I only got to practice swimming in the ocean a few times

and when it came to the real thing I wasn't

able to get a good rhythm going.

The bike ride was fine.

The hills stink,

but every uphill has a downhill on the other side.

My chain came off twice,

but it only took half a minute to get it back on.

The run wasn't bad either.

But after doing the other stuff beforehand,

I was ready for it to be over.

And when it was

I rejoiced:

I think my favorite part of the event 

was the people.

There were

men, women, boys and girls

of every

age, shape, size, and ethnicity.

So many body types, colors and reasons for being there.

Everyone was beautiful.

And everyone was there for the same thing;

Challenging themselves

and helping raise money

for 

Childrens Hospital of LA.

My next goal is to

go to the

Ottawa International Animation Festival

and

NOT

train for a 

triathalon

starting...

NOW!

HEY, IT STILL GOT 5 STARS

There's really

nothing but

awesome reviews on

Amazon

for this book

Mr. Willems

and I 

rocked a while back:

There's a 101 and counting!

But this is my 

absolute

favorite:

RIGHT?!

I know you already have

five copies.

But you really should 

another three

or four

over

HERE.

THIS IS MY LIFE

This is the kind of stuff that 

happens at my house

before school:

Are you surprised?

2x4 technology FOREVER!

IT'S GOT THAT OLD SKETCHBOOK SMELL

Dang son,

I can't seem to get through sketchbooks

like I used to!

There are just too many

sooper secret projects

happening!

Hopefully I'll be able to tell you 

about some of them soon!

In the meantime,

let's dial the

wayback machine

to early 2006

and

take a peeksie

through

this:

This was around the time

Head Writer of Wrongs 

Andy Rheingold and I were

getting close to finishing up

writing stories for

season six of KND.

Yeah,

it was kind of stressful.

Back then I wasn't drawing much.

I was mainly beating out stories

over and over again

until the structure felt right.

Here's an early stab at

Operation: CARAMEL

Tick tick tick...

Here's an very early start to

Operation: GIRLFRIEND:

And here's a space sausage:

Before I even knew

Wow Wow Wubbzy

creator

Bob Boyle,

I already thought he 

rocked:

True this:

A visit to Nickelodeon:

My heart gets all smooshy when I 

find stuff like this in old

sketchbooks:

On the other hand,

I have 

ABSOLUTELY

NO

POOPIN'

IDEA

what this 

letter is in 

reference to:

And yes,

this sketchbook was 

powered by

Scramble Energy:

I love saving passages from books I like and 

taping them into sketchbooks.

Not sure if this was before or after

OPERATION: NAUGHTY:

Billy Wilder rules the school:

I really liked reading

Shaman King

in 

Shonen Jump.

And I still think this spread,

with all it's diverse characters,

is pure milk chocolate:

Before my iPhone,

this was how I kept track of things

I needed to do:

WTF?

Thor Bunny?

This 

STILL

makes me 

giggle:

And finally,

it's always a good idea to

write down things your kids say

because

ADORABLE:

And that's all I got for ya.

Wouldn't it be nice if I could show you a

NEWLY FINISHED

sketchbook 

in the next 5 years?!

I'll work on it.