CRANIUM ANECDOTE

LEFT: R2D2 by Leigh Hope Fountain RIGHT: Tie Fighter by John Fountain

A couple of weekends ago, Leigh and I played 'Cranium' with some friends... one of the little mini-games within the game called 'Quickdraw' requires both teams to do a sketch (with their EYES CLOSED) based on a word given to them on a card... basically, it's like charades but it's done with drawings.
Anyway, Leigh and I were pitted against each other and the word on our card was "STAR WARS". Go figure.
Everyone playing the game was/is a huge Star Wars fan, and - despite what she will tell you - Leigh is also very good at drawing... nonetheless, my teammate and I were both storyboard artists and had spent countless hours of our youth drawing Star Wars stuff over and over and over and over and over again... and, for whatever reason, everyone I know who grew up drawing Star Wars stuff always recalls the Tie Fighter as being one of the most memorable. Actually, the reasons seem very simple in retrospect: It was easy to draw. Suffice it to say, my teammate and I won that round (much to the surprise of Leigh and her teammate). The funny thing is, when you look at both drawings, Leigh's is inarguably better than my peice of shit. Mine just happened to get the message across faster. The Tie Fighter's basic shape is so iconic, unique and simple that it instantly says "STAR WARS!" Sure, R2D2 has a simple shape as well, but he could easily look like a trash can or stick of deodorant or something... it isn't until you depict all of the little buttons and panels on him that he begins to look unique whereas the only thing that resembles a Tie Fighter is a Tie Fighter.
Anyway, I dunno what my point is... but Leigh's R2D2 drawing is now one of my favorite drawings in the universe. I fully intend to have it framed.

NEW COMICS BLOG!

Hey, you nutty funsters...
Before I get back to the business of waxing nostalgiac, I want to point out that I've started yet ANOTHER blog, specifically for posting random comics I've done.
http://fountainspencomics.blogspot.com/
This site (linked on the sidebar over yonder) will be my dumping ground for all kinds of comics, including stuff I did in college alongside current stuff. It's a gumbo of comic goodness!!!
Check it out.
Here's a sample:

STILL MORE SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

I dunno what prompted this sudden surge of attention, but anyway - but since FREDERATOR has been airing 'The Tantrum' this week, the blog site for the Fred empire is currently running three (yes THREE) interviews with me. One about 'Teenage Robot', one about 'The Tantrum' and one about my career in general.
Two of the features were written by my blog-buddy Jeaux "The Freakishly Talented Artist" in my links.

Anyway, check them out if you feel so inclined:

http://newtoons.frederator.com/post/3678

http://newtoons.frederator.com/post/3674

http://newtoons.frederator.com/post/2717

In the interest of giving you a taste, one of the common questions I get asked a lot is "Who are your influences?" - so here's a snippet from one of the interviews asking this question:

Ah, my influences... I could thank them and damn them in the same breath.
One of the things that has been both a blessing and a curse in my career is that my influences are all over the map, so-to-speak. I believe that is in large part responsible for the fact that I've never focused on one style of drawing or storytelling and consequently, my work has been called 'undisciplined'.
Anyhow, here's a partial list:
Film: George Lucas- perhaps the greatest overall artistic influence in
my life.
Television: Jim Henson- 'Sesame Street' and 'The Muppet Show'.
Music: Peter Gabriel- a genius that will likely never receive nearly
enough credit for his brilliant innovations in music and multimedia.
Comics: Kyle Baker, Evan Dorkin, Robert Crumb and many others.
Comic Strips: Charles Schulz, Berke Breathed, George Herriman, Bill Griffith, Bill Watterson, Gary Larson, Patrick McDonnell and many others.
Painting: Picasso, Magritte, Dali, Munch and many others.
Literature: J.R.R. Tolkien, Moliere, Douglas Adams, Greek Mythology, the Bible and virtually any books pertaining to philosophy.
Animation: Obviously, Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and all of the masters. Nick Park and Aardman... Over the course of the past 20 years, I've been increasingly influenced by anime - specifically the works of Miyazaki and anything from Gainax.
Some of the most important influences in my animation career however have been people that I've worked with and call my friends - Shawn Murray, Chris Graham, Ira Sherak, Louie del Carmen, Rudi Berden, Ian Graham, Rob Goodin and many others. If these guys hadn't let me peek over their shoulders while they worked, I'd have drowned in animation ignorance LONG ago.

Thanks once again to Fred and his vast network of hench-people for the recognition.
Be sure to visit Jeaux's site and support his work.
Have a nice day.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: THE TANTRUM

We interrupt our tale of nostalgia to bring you some shameless self-promotion in the form of THE TANTRUM...
For those of you who are unaware, Fred Seibert is one of the biggest producers in the animation business (he also co-founded a little basic cable station called Mtv).
One of his more recent ventures into world conquest are his cartoon podcasts and his 'Channel Frederator' site... to learn more, go here:

http://www.channelfrederator.com

An eternity ago when I first started working at Nickelodeon, 'Oh Yeah! Cartoons' was going into its 3rd (and final season). 'OY!C' was, essentially, the pitri dish in which many of Nickelodeon's new series were spawned (including The Fairly Oddparents, Chalk Zone and My Life as a Teenage Robot - all of which I have directed and/or storyboarded at some point or another).
I had pitched about a half a dozen ideas for 'OY!C' and they were all rejected (with good reason). But after lots of trial and error, I came up with this little gem of a kid superhero character (long before the current onslaught of kid superhero characters) and, much to my overwhelming joy, it was approved (unlike a lot of Nickelodeon pilots, what was nice about 'OY!C' was that it was basically Fred's baby and he made the picks personally - eliminating the usual red-tape that new cartoons have to go through to get picked up... plus, the shorts were created specifically to air on the show whereas many cartoon pilots never see the light of day).
Fast forward to today, and Fred is running a bunch of the shorts from 'OY!C' on his podcast, and this week's feature is my little 7-minute story, 'The Tantrum.'
This was the first cartoon I'd ever created, produced, designed, written, directed, storyboarded and - yes - voiced (I'm the voice of The Tantrum himself). Consequently, I sort of consider this my 'student film' insomuch as I am proud of it for what it is, but I've learned a lot since then.

Anyway, enjoy my humble little cartoon.



By the way, it's interesting to note that Nickelodeon wound up buying the rights to this idea from me and tested it for a series pickup. Obviously it never got a series deal, but I was pretty stoked that my first film actually recieved such serious consideration.