Space Ghost Rules

This will probably be the last post of 2006. But, there will be plenty more next year! I'll be visiting friends and family for the rest of December. It's been really fun blogging for the first time. This blog began January 21st, 2006, with postings through most of the year. There's a ton of work from my [adult swim] years that is now on the Internet for the most geekiest of fans to hunt down. I've really enjoyed looking at all this old stuff. With the year in review in mind, I thought I'd end it with the current theme that's been running through this blog, which is ole Space Ghost. It seems appropriate since SGC2C was my first job in the cartoon show biz. Here's a quick sketch that I tied down with marker, probably in 1999. Not a perfect drawing, but I like it anyway. Happy New Year! I'm headin' South!

Vague Memories of Drawing a T-shirt

(OK. Digging way back, on this one, into my first years out of school. This is one of a few posts that I have in mind to write about from the years I freelanced as an assistant to C. Martin Croker, during his company's several seasons producing the animation for Space Ghost Coast to Coast.)

WHAT ARE YOUR SUPER POWERS?

This old crusty, stained, stretched-out shirt was given to me, well, I don't remember what year exactly. My guess is somewhere between 1997 and 1998. Clay gave it to me (and it was new then), and I greedily accepted, very pleased to see my art on a Space Ghost Coast to Coast T-shirt. I vaguely remember drawing the figures of this shirt. From what I do remember (which I'm sure is not entirely accurate), it wasn't originally for a shirt at all, but for an episode of SGC2C. I was asked to flesh out some poses for an idea using Zorak, Moltar, and Space Ghost doing a parody of the old graphic for the original Charlie's Angels TV show. Here are some variations:




Clay probably asked me if I knew what this logo (above) looked like, which I'm sure I answered yes, even though, appartently, I didn't. For some reason we didn't actually have reference for this. I wonder why we didn't just Google it on the internet.

(Maybe, it's because Larry and Sergey hadn't officially invented it yet (launched Sep 1998), and that whole realm of thinking was much different in animation. Around then, artists were packrats of sorts collecting video, anatomy books, art books, comics, and especially model sheets that you kept nearby for reference while drawing. If you wanted reference for something you had to plan ahead. Artists still do collect all that stuff but freelance animators no longer feel the need to lug all that stuff in to work. It's so sterile to see animation studios today with hardly a book or comic decorating it's offices and cubicles - a direct link to the Google-your-reference culture in animation. I mean, when's the last time you've seen a copy of Eadweard Muybridge?)

Anyway, I vaguely remembered it but what I didn't understand was that he wanted a direct parody of the logo. It was one of those scenarios where I completely missed the mark and the art wasn't used, though Clay tucked it away. I'm not sure how it got inked, though. It looks as though I was really into Frank Miller, which I was at the time. As the story goes, Clay got a call from CN wanting to know if he had any art laying around for promotional T-shirts, and this was one of a few that he submitted (after inking in the cool looking moon).


Anyway, I'm glad it's finally posted here for all eternity, since the shirt is disentigrating and pretty much unwearable after heavy usage these last 8 years, and until now, this shirt was my only copy.

And, for fun, I threw in the art that was used (which I'm guessing Clay drew). Nice bell-bottoms! Hopefully Clay can fill me in on the inking and the other fuzzy details.

Frederator Interview

Hey everybody! My recent interview for Channel Frederator was published today! Check it out if you have an hour or two! --> Frederator Interview <--

Yes, Space Ghost Really Was Fat

Another post on Fat Space Ghost. Here are some boards and some sketchbook pages from work I was doing at Primal Screen in 1999. For a while, there was this whole theme of Space Ghost getting fat and washed up (the theoretical chronology puts this event happening sometime between the late 1960's show and the 1990's SGC2C show).

Carl Doodle Vid 1

I was goofing around with my wife's Nikon COOLPIX3100 digital camera yesterday while waiting for the big Thanksgiving dinner to be ready. The camera's main function is shooting photographs but it also has a feature for capturing video, however low quality it may be. On the highest video resolution the maximum capture length is only 20 seconds, and it doesn't record audio. I was wondering what it could be used for with such crappy limitations. Well, I guess you can do something cool with it. The hardest part was drawing and holding the camera while trying to look around the camera at the drawing.

The Fratellis

If you saw the premier episode of the Venture Brothers season two, and you didn't blink your eyes, you might've seen some characters who looked a lot like the Fratellis from Goonies. Well, you were right! I jumped at the chance to design these guys for the show because Goonies is one of my all-time favorite movies. I was exactly 12 years old when it came out, right around the same age as Data, Chunk, Mouth, and the Adopted Wuss.

Global Grilling - ATHF episode 65, part 1

Global Grilling aired last night. It's the only Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode I've worked on this season, my first time back on the show in over a year. Here are designs for Moucus Man.




This image, with some adjustments from the first round of designs, became the final design for Moucus Man.

Here's Moucus Man is his three states of formation.

The Poodle, part 2

This is the original design I came up with for the poodle. It changed a lot from here, but I still used the expression and a few other things. ---Can't I get a poodle with frickin' lasers strapped to it!?

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Film - The Poodle

This is the first minute and a half, sneak preview, of the much anticipated Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie, due to be released sometime in 2007. Of course, you can see a much larger version of this on the adultswim.com website, but I felt I had to show it here too, since I had the privelege to work on it. Check out the movie below to see a pencil test from this scene.



I designed and animated the Poodle for the movie, sometime around February of 2005. Jeez! It sure is taking them forever to finish this movie!

I'd like to take a moment to give a shout out to Mike Carlo. I had forgotten until today that I had hired him shortly after I moved to NYC, to do all of the finishes for the animation I created for the ATHF movie. Thanks Mike! I've added his name to the links section so check out his blog when you get a chance.

Sunburned Master Shake

Ouch!

So when is the damn movie going to be finished?! I saw the first minute or so this summer out in San Diego and was quite pleased. I only did a little bit of the animation for the movie but some of it is in the opening scene.

Brak Sketch for a Fan

This was done at the San Diego Comic-Con 2002 for a fan that had a penguin themed website. I found it while surfing the 'net a while back. Most of the time these sketches are done with a huge line of fans wrapping around the convention center, waiting for a sketch, so most of them turn out rushed and, well, crappy (especially when you have Cartoon Network people standing behind you saying, "Don't sketch for the fans, just sign your name" Are they for real?). This one ain't so bad though, so I'm posting it here. I use to love drawing Brak...

Space Ghost was Fat?

I worked as an assistant on the Space Ghost Coast to Coast show. In fact it was my first cartoon show that I ever worked on! Due to this experience, I was a shoe-in for directing the animation for the promos that came through Primal Screen, a broadcast design company I worked for in the late 90's. Out of all the ones I worked on, this is the only one that I mananged to keep a copy of for my reel.



As you know Space Ghost was a "serious" cartoon from the 60's. In the 90's when Coast to Coast came out, it was a huge hit with the fans that loved the original. They loved the new twist to the characters - Space Ghost was a little crazy (he always seemed Tick-ish to me) and Zorak being downright mean. So what happened to ole SG in between? One theme that was pretty popular among the promo writers was that SG let himself go and got fat. I have some more art in this theme to show in another post, just have to find it...

ATHF - Show Open Storyboards

I was showing a friend my old [adult swim] archives (the first link in the links section), specifically the storyboards I did for the opening title sequence on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, when I realized you can't view them up close. So, here they are once again, and you can click on 'em to see them bigger! Some of the scenes turned out exactly like my 'boards. And there are some fun ones that never made it into the show. Enjoy!







There are enough to do a part 2 of this post. I'll do that some other time. Gotta go!

Don't be Bloggy-Whipped!

Whip that Bloggy!

I recently realized that instead of me running my blog, my blog was running me. Has that ever happened to you folks? I was posting for VB and keeping up with the new episodes and the whole thing just became a chore, instead of a fun way to pass time. So, with that in mind, I'm not going to do a post of the final two episodes of this season's VB finale. At least not for a while, or not until someone wants to see them! They were great episodes and I'm sad the season is over, so I feel like hoarding the last few designs and saving them for later.

So, with that in mind, I'm going to jump around from subject to subject, in no particular order, on all things [adult swim]!

Venture Brothers Season 2, pt. 9

These designs are from I know Why The Caged Bird Kills.

Venture Brothers Season 2, pt. 8

Finally, as promised, here's the post featuring most of my designs for last week's Venture Brothers episode, Viva Los Muertos!













(And look to the next post for the front view of the van. )

This was one of my favorite show's that I worked on from second season. We (designers) were really getting warmed up at this time during the production. Originally, we were supposed to start the season off each with a brand spanking new 21" Cintiq. Well, they were on such back order that they didn't arrive for three months, half way into the season. Oh well, it didn't take long to get used to them, and not long after that when we started designing in full color! This was mostly due to Chris George's influence (who you must go and see his blog for a post on this same show! The Shaggy/Son of Sam character was his design, that was loosely base on yours truly!) and Martin Wittig was quick to catch on to this as well (just go try and get him to post some of his VB designs!). So it wasn't long before I was to follow suit and that's why most of these designs are in color unlike previous posts. I love VB, but before that I loved Scooby-Doo! It was a total blast to work on this hybrid Mystery Machine/Groovy Croo van, and even more of a thrill to work on Patty who of course is based on Daphne. I even got paid to draw a naked Venus-esque woman, and I bet you can't guess who I based the Orpheus guest design on! Go on! I dare ya! I sure hope there's a new episode of VB on tonight!