SLAVES OF NY

Leigh and I are in NY after spending several days in Kalamazoom, and I gotta say - you can make fun of midwestern small-towns all you want, but we had a GREAT time there.
Honestly, I DO love NY and LA, but they really need to 'get over themselves'...
Yes, they're super cool, but Kalmazoo has lots and lots of character.
Anyway, I've had several gin'n'tonics and I've slept about 3 hrs in the past 5 days. Ao I'm gonna go... hope all of you are well.

AA MEETING

Also known as the "Animation Dinner with Ira."
My good pal Ira (seen here in the polka-dotten shirt) occassionally arranges these post-work dinner meetings where a bunch of animators get together and discuss the beloved industry we all work for.
Being the restless and obnoxious type that I am, I decided to do REALLY fast ink sketches of everyone at the table.
I shant reveal identities because then I know everyone will just write me and say "That looks nothing LIKE me!"
While Ira's intentions, I'm sure, are to use these as an opportunity to 'network' and 'share info', I rely on it purely as group-therapy that helps me tolerate some of the nonsense we all have to deal with in a field that's at the butt-end of the entertainment industry.

KALAMAZOO-BOUND

This weekend, Leigh and I are leaving on a 10-day journey that will take us across the skies to Kalamazoo and - ultimately - to New York City. Leigh's got some humungous work-related bash going on there... I dunno... she can explain it better.
Regardless, this trip to Kalamazoo will be Leigh's introductory visit with my parents - which I'm sure will be delightful and all, but flying from ANYWHERE to Kalamazoo is a carnival of horrors. It requires multiple layovers and connection flights - I don't even want to go into it all.
I'm looking forward to the trip, but not the traveling.
Anyway, coupla new posts below... take a look.

NASAL-SPRAY JUNKIE

Remember my "sick and tired of being sick and tired" post a couple of weeks ago? Well, a few days after feeling better from the flu, I got the world's worst COLD! I was actually fairly convinced that it was a sinus infection. The entire inside of my head and throat felt as if it had been invaded by some sort of microscopic alien creatures (pronounced kreee-CHOREs) who were building vast empires of mung in my nasal cavities.

After a shitty weekend of this I went to the doctor last Tuesday and got some really nifty pills that seemed to relieve the symptoms and give me REALLY messed-up dreams including one in which I was a flying orca whale.

Maybe that's boring to you, but I rarely have 'surreal' dreams... unfortunately, my dreams are seldom 'fantasies'. They're always extremely realistic and grounded pretty heavily in reality. Which sucks.

The only semi-recurring dream I have is one of flying - which is as 'crazy' as my dreams usually get... but even in those dreams, my flying ability isn't like 'Superman'-style... it is somehow justified as some sort of natural, physically evolutionary development, and it usually takes some sort of 'effort' on my part to do it (kinda like flexing a muscle).
This makes the dream much more 'real', and all the more of a disappointment when I wake up to find that I can't actually fly.

But I digress...

During my bout with whatever flesh-eating virus had made its home in my nose, I discovered the wonders of NASAL SPRAY! I'd never used it before and - initially - found the sensation of shooting a wet mist up my schnozz to be irritating and off-putting.
But about 15 minutes later, my sinuses opened up so well I swear I could SMELL GOD!

Leigh informed me that you shouldn't use the stuff for more than a couple of days because it can actually be addictive, which I now fully understand... after snorting this stuff a few times, I could breathe better than I ever could even when I WASN'T sick.

C'est la vie.

HOT MEXICAN LOVE

SHAMELESS PROMOTION TIME!
Many years ago, long before I moved to Los Angeles, a bunch of artists in the animation industry said "Hey, let's do a comic anthology" - and thus, some of cartoondom's top talent went to work on a series of strips that all related (some very loosely) to a Mexican theme. Out of this, 'Hot Mexican Love' was born thanks to the initiative of Albert Calleros, Larry Reynosa and Rob Goodin.
In the years that have passed, two volumes were created, and I am pleased to announce that a third volume has been compiled (thanks to my good pal and editor Ira Sherak) and will premier at the Alternative Press Expo on April 9th & 10th in lovely San Francisco, California.
The list of contributors are a 'who's who' of animation talent and I am proud to say that I and my lovely fiancee Leigh are among them.
Our story - written by Leigh and drawn by me - chronicles the legend of 'Montezuma's revenge' (the scatalogical phenomenon one experiences from drinking the water in Mexico).
This story actually marks our SECOND collaboration together (the first of which is in publishing limbo... but that's another story). We hope you like it...
I'll have more details about where/how/when you can obtain copies of the book, but until then if you wish feel free to e-mail me and I will make sure you get the hook-up.
The heart-logo above is the graphic 'teaser' for 'Hot Mexican Love' (copyright and trademark Hot Mexican Love Comics) and highlights a handfull of the art - the drawings below are a couple of samples from Me'n'Leigh's story.
Stay tuned for more info in the near future - you'll be glad you did!

ANTICIPATING APRIL

I'm really excited about April. I can't really say why at the moment - but it has something to do with this drawing (this particular image was a collaborative effort between myself, Cynthia French and Holly Kim - who did the amazing coloring on it).
It's one of those 'bittersweet' anticipations... but I'm excited nonetheless.
Anyway... I just wanted an excuse to post this image because I think it's rad.

SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED

I'm sick... and tired.
I feel as though for the past month and a half I've had maybe three days where I haven't felt sick. Right now I feel like I'm fighting off a cold... last week I had the flu...
I've been waking up every morning with achy joints and sore muscles (such as they are). I can't seem to get enough sleep - EVER.
Leigh thinks it's stress... she's probably right, but if I could just switch my stress 'off' I'd have done it a long time ago.
I've always felt that I have a mild case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder... some would say that it's not so mild... I'd try to 'do' something about it if it weren't for the fact that my OCD seems to make me REALLY GOOD at managing my time and prioritizing my goals.
Here's an example of how my brain works... while I'm driving home from work, I will plot out my exact course from the second I walk in the door. Let's say I've decided to have spaghetti for dinner... that means I have to boil water... let's also say I have to go to the bathroom really badly... so I get home and before I even take off my coat, I go to the kitchen, fill up a pot with water and put it on the stove... THEN I will go take off my coat, THEN go to the bathroom... I have just saved myself aproxomately nine seconds of valuable time by overlapping my coat/bathroom time with the water-boiling time.
I work this way CONSTANTLY. And that's just one example of how my OCD works with SMALL things... you can just imagine how it dictates more important matters.
On the one hand, it has made me GREAT at meeting my deadlines... on the other hand, it has made me really uptight. I have a whole 'shutting down' ritual I have to go through every night to turn off my brain or I can't sleep.
It's no wonder I'm sick.
Anyway, it's this kind of mania that inspired this comic strip. If you click on the image it'll be large enough to actually read.

SKETCHY BEHAVIOR

Here are some really quick paintings I did in my sketchbook. I love sketches... a lot of times I like sketches more than finished art.
These were done with one of those marvelous brush-pens and a travel watercolor kit.
What's nice about watercolor is that it has an immediacy and kinneticism to it that other paints don't have... plus, when you can't draw for shit (like me) it makes your doodles look like they were 'meant' to look rough.

I first decided to put sketchbook scans up on the blog when I saw them on Louie Del Carmen's blog (randomanomalies.blogspot.com) and thought they looked incredibly cool... now, in retrospect, I realize that I've just set myself up for a horrifyingly disappointing comparison... oh well... enjoy these drawings, but if you wanna see really GOOD stuff, go to Louie's blog. He's my hero.

OSCAR MADNESS

Ah, the Oscars... the big night where Hollwyood gathers together to collectively pat itself on the back for mastering the fine art of 'pretending on film'...

But I kid Hollywood...

I LOVE movies, I just hate the movie industry. Or something. I dunno. I guess that's kind of hypocritical. Oh well.

I thought John Stewart did a good job, but I've always dug him.

Frankly, though, in the past decade I thought the two best hosts were Steve Martin and David Letterman.

The good news is, "Wallace and Grommit" got the award for best animated feature... how come the media always makes such a big deal about how 'CGI is replacing traditional animation' and yet I didn't see ANY stories about the fact that this year there were NO CGI nominees and TWO of the THREE nominees were STOP-MOTION animation???

I'm really tired of the 'animated characters' giving out awards, too... they have live-action directors give out awards... why not animation directors?

Oh, that's right... because we suck...

Anyway...

I liked Clooney's speech... he's a class act and oh-so easy on the eyes!

I'm glad "Crash" won because I liked it and it's the only one of the nominees that I actually saw. I eventually want to see ALL of them, but there are just too many good (and bad) horror and gore movies coming out these days - how am I supposed to find the time to go see "Brokeback Mountain" when "Hostel" and "Wolf Creek" beckon me and tempt my desire to see humans hunted for sport? (oh, c'mon... it's a joke... lighten up)

My biggest complain of the show was when the woman sang the song from Crash (I'm too busy and too lazy to look up names) and they had this incredibly gay 'broadway-style' production going on in the background of people pantomiming - what - the ills of race relations in our society? IN PANTOMIME?
During one of the closeups I saw one of the background dancers who was (or was portraying) a 'hispanic' character complete with greased back hair and hairnet. The rest of the background dancers were similarly stereotypical.
Wasn't the point (or one of them) of "Crash" that we are all our own best/worst stereotypes? And yet for their little Oscar number they might as well have had a Native American in full headdress 'whoo-whoo'-ing to complete their chorus line of stereotypes.

I've also read articles this year that praised Hollywood for producing movies of "substance" - unlike previous years with the horrid likes of "The Lord of the Rings" and "Spider-Man".

Hey, pretentious-art-school-dropout-entertainment-writers... I got yer 'substance' RIGHT HERE! (pointing at crotch for some reason).

Oh well... the only other upset for me was that "Revenge of the Sith" got no nominations - not even for music, effects or anything like that.

Funny, isn't it, how Star Wars has shaped our popular culture more than any other film in the past umpteen decades and yet somehow the Academy still manages to see no merit in them.

This is one of my worst, most incoherent blog entries to date. I'm really tired. I'm stopping now.

SHUT UP!!!

Don't you people EVER shut up?
I don't mean YOU people... you people are obviously solid citizens because you're reading my blog.

I mean the people who NEVER shut up.

In the apartment complex I call "home" it seems as though there are always people standing outside my window yammering it up at 3 AM. I'm not just talking about on weekends, either... I'm slightly more forgiving of that... but it'll be 3:37 AM on a Tuesday and there will be two, drunken, fratboy chuckleheads whooping it up outside.

The way this complex is laid out, it has several concrete 'courtyards' all of which may as well have 'Marshall' stamped on them because they amplify sound to the point where if a cockroach takes a dump, I can tell what he had for dinner by its impact onto the ground.

Tonight, by the way, it was "Koo Koo Roo" chicken wings and human snot.

But I digress...

You can well imagine that if the sounds of cockroach crap are hear-able (yes... 'hear-able'... it's 4:21 AM on a Wednesday and I feel like death, so just deal with it) then you can just imagine how chrystal clear every "DUDE!" from fratboy conversation echoes through the cul-de-sacs...

The thing I don't get is: WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP AT THIS HOUR ON A SCHOOL NIGHT? DON'T YOU HAVE JOBS? AREN'T YOU TIRED?

My apartment complex is NOT cheap... HOW DO THEY PAY THEIR RENT??? I direct cartoons for Disney and I barely get by every month... how do they DO it???

And trust me, these are not blue-collar joes trying to put food on the table for their salt-of-the-earth families by taking a night-shift... these are pink, healthy, manicured young folk who obviously live off of some sort of new-money parental trust-fund.

Anyway, I'm thinking of becoming a 'noise vigilante' who dresses like Batman at night and runs around abducting these types and locking them in a Dodge Stratus with "Convoy" playing on a continuous loop with the volume at full blast and letting them rot there until the car battery runs out.

Okay, not really, but it's fun to dream...

ENTERTAINMENT WEAKLY

Hey...
I just read a couple of 'entertainment news' headlines...
It would seem that Lindsay Lohan is tired of being referred to as a 'teen queen'...
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
It also seems that there's a sex-tape circulating with Kid Rock and he's upset because 'rock stars have rights to privacy too!'
DOUBLE-AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Celebrities in general just kinda make me ill these days. They're so self-important and convinced that because they can scream into a microphone or pretend-to-be-someone-else in a movie that their opinions actually matter.

Make no mistake, people, for the most part celebrities are the most rock-stupid people on the face of the earth.

The only difference between "According to Jim" and the puppet show in the park is BUDGET.

Have you ever noticed how self-referrential the entertainment industry is?
Sometime, try to think of all of the TV shows that star characters who are - in some way - involved in the entertainment industry.
There's a lot.
It's sad to me that America seems to have lost interest in 'regular' people. We watch TV shows about TV shows. Where are the Archie Bunkers? Where are the Fred Sanfords?

Regular people are generally WAY more interesting than show-biz people.

KONTROVERSY KORNER

Okay, I've resisted this long enough.
I want to use this section for what I am hoping will be an intelligent, calm, good-natured exchange of ideas and opinions. If it ever goes beyond that, I'll just get rid of it altogether 'cause the last thing I need are more headaches in my life...

Having said that, I was thinking about laws today. Specifically, laws in a democratic political system.

It seems to me that the biggest obstacle in understanding the idea behind 'laws' is the inherent human tendency to let their emotions rule everything.

But it seems to me that the reason democracy works as well as it does (at its core anyway) and that laws work as well as they do (in theory) is that they are not based on emotions. They're based on objective facts. When objectivity is discarded in favor of an emotional viewpoint, both democracy and laws become less and less effective.

Bear with me on this...

In a democratic system, you are 'free'. Theoretically, your freedoms are limited only by the caveat that you may not interfere with someone ELSE'S freedoms.

So, in essence, there really should be only ONE law in a democratic society: You can do whatever you want so long as it doesn't LITERALLY interfere with someone else's freedoms.

In other words, you have the freedom to buy any kind of car you want. But if you steal someone's car, you have interfered with their right to own something that they paid for. Thus, you have broken the law.

"Well DUH" I can almost hear you saying... but this leaves me to ask the question: Do we punish someone for stealing because stealing is 'EVIL'? I say no. We punish someone for stealing because it interferes with someone else's freedoms - and that's against the law. 'Good' and 'evil' are subjective terms... we may have a general consensus on what they mean, but when you are dealing with a democracy - which by nature allows for the freedom to hold many different viewpoints - terms like 'right' and 'wrong' and 'good' and 'evil' become HIGHLY subjective and open to interpretation and, consequently, a stumbling-block for effectively governing and upholding laws.

Maybe there's something I'm missing - but that's what I've been thinking about.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

Hey, guess what?
I'M ENGAGED! TO BE MARRIED! TO A GIRL!

Believe me, the astonishing fact that some woman out there is nutty enough to marry me is just as baffling to me as it is to you, but there ya go... it's a wacky, wacky world!

How's THAT for a blog entry...

More details to come...

TV = HAPPY

Yes... this is the TV review section...

I love television. Television serves as a mervelous reminder of how capitalism works. Everything you see on TV is there because we, the people, demanded it.
Consequently, tv shows compete not only with each other for ratings and ad dollars, they're competing with movies... AND WINNING!
Every week when 'LOST' comes on, I feel like I'm watching a really great movie but with no crying babies or jabbering teenagers to ruin the experience.
But I digress...
I have watched a total of 3 full episodes (at most) of "American Idol", so I may not know what I'm talking about... but is it just me or does EVERY (with only occasional exceptions) singer ALWAYS perform either R&B songs?
I realize that R&B helps showcase your vocal range, but criminy are these people dullards... ENOUGH with the extended vibrato already!
Besides, there's LOTS of other music out there to show off your range... or could it be that my suspicions are correct: Most people have mind-numblingly dull tastes in everything.

FILM FLAM

Check in here for my bloated opinions on movies...


I used to LOVE going to the movies. I'm a film whore. I love all kinds... idiotic car-chase movies, summer blockbusters, chick flicks, foreign 'films', incomprehensible art-house fare, holiday feel-good movies, sequels, prequels, thrillers, gore-fests... I love 'em all!
Unfortunately, I can no longer GO to the movies because I live in Los Angeles where everyone who goes to my local theater is a monumental jackass.
A friend of mine and I went to go see "Jackie Brown" (which, if you haven't seen it, is really quite good... I don't seem to recall it being much of a hit, but then I also don't recall what I had for lunch today, so I'm not a good judge of such things)... the movie was perpetually serrenaded by the screeches and howls of the INFANT-CHILD-BABY IN THE ROW IN FRONT OF US! Now, this wasn't a matinee of "Austin Powers" or even an evening showing of "Batman and Robin" (although that movie is equally unsuitable for children, adults and sentient life-forms in general... but I digress)... THIS WAS A MIDNIGHT SHOWING OF "JACKIE BROWN"!!!
I realize I'm not the first self-proclaimed misanthrope to rail against those who bring babies to movies, but shouldn't that be the whole point? I mean, how much more needs to be said on the subject before you dull-witted, irresponsible parents out there stop dragging your poor, defenseless, doomed-to-therapy little yuppie-spawn into R-rated movies?!?!
And on those RARE occasions when I can manage to find a theater sans-toddlers, there are invariably at least a half a dozen of THIS guy sitting within earshot of me:
Again... STOP IT! Okay?!? JUST STOP IT! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT... UP!

ARTSY FARTSY

Come here frequently if you want to make fun of my artistic ineptitude, or if you're actually INTO this sort of thing, inquire about purchasing original 'art'...

Recently I just started getting the hankerin' to paint again. This was brought on by lots of things - seeing friends and collegues making more personal work, etc. - but mostly it got brought on by the fact that my multi-talented girlfriend Leigh decided that a wall in the apartment needed some color, so she just jammed out this amazing acrylic painting as if it took no effort whatsoever. I'd post it here if it were small enough to scan, but just trust me... it's very rad. And, like I said, she just decided she wanted to do it, so she just DID it.
I tend to overthink things - particularly when it comes to creating 'art'... I become far too stunted by my anal-retentive desire to make everything perfect and it winds up giving me multiple excuses for procrastinating.
Well NO MORE!
From now on, I'm gonna just make stuff and if it comes out right - great... if not, c'est la vie. If people like it - great... if not, I'll just kill myself so that I won't have to hear their taunts echoing through my head as I lay curled up in a corner of my studio! I think that's a healthy attitude, right? RIGHT?!?!
Anyway...
I've had the idea for a long time to do a series of 'pinup girl' paintings... firstly, because I like pinups... secondly because it's a hot trend in the art world right now and I wanted in on the racket.
The type of pinup girls I have always enjoyed were curvy ones during the pre-Kate-Moss era of America (sigh)... women with 'hourglass figures'...
So, as a guy who simply can't resist a good pun, I give you the first in a long series of paintings of hourglass women...
I call this one 'WASTED TIME'

I gotta say, I'm having a blast with this little venture - I'll be updating this as frequently as possible with new ones.

I, NERD

This, too, shall be a frequently updated topic...


Every day, in every way, I become a bigger and bigger dork.
And I'm fine with that...
"Oh come now, John" I can almost hear you saying, "I like 'Star Wars' too! I'm a nerd too!"... I can only chortle churlishly at your well-intentioned yet feeble attempt to 'relate' to my geekiness.
Think you're 'nerdy', eh? Well, allow me to share THIS with you:

This is a caricature/painting of Adam Saezler and Morgan Webb - the hosts of G4-Tech TV's video-game-review show 'X-Play'. I did this. Because I wanted to.
I, my friend, am a bigger nerd than thou.

THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY

Look here for constant updates on this wonderful topic...

...today was one of those days that made me wish I'd opened that bait-and-tackle shop in Saugatuck, Michigan.


This past Saturday, ASIFA-Hollywood (which is the big-shot animation association here in lovely L.A.) hosted their annual 'Annie Awards' (this is where a more experienced blogger would put a link, but I'm too lazy and inexperienced to bother with that right now, so just lookit up on Google or something if you're really that interested).
The Annies are like our Oscars... I always look forward to attending the awards ceremony because it's almost like a class-reunion... I wind up seeing lots of people I'm fond of but don't see very often because I'm too busy sitting at home watching the DVD commentary for "Dark City".
I'm always somewhat saddened by the Annies, though, because they serve as a reminder that animation is the redheaded stepchild at the ass-end of the entertainment industry.
Despite the fact that practically every moneymaking film from the past several decades has either been animated or relied heavily on animation in some way, this industry just has no luck in getting the respect it deserves.
Contrary to what many might think, I'm against the 'Best Animated Feature' category for the Oscars. This implies that animation is a seperate artform in need of its own category. I disagree. Animation is a filmmaking technique... nothing more and nothing less.
The word "animation" means life... it implies movement... well, don't ALL movies portray life and have movement?
Brad Bird - who wrote and directed the mind-alteringly amazing "Iron Giant" and "The Incredibles" is, technically, not eligible to join the director's guild of Los Angeles because he 'makes cartoons', yet whoever directed those reprehensible commercials for Subway where a baby's mouth is lyp-synched with the most grating voice on the face of the earth is undoubtedly a member in good standing, and before you know it he'll be tapped to direct the next X-Men movie while some of the most talented filmmakers in Hollywood are struggling to make ends meet because animation (though much more technically challanging than live-action) pays about a twentieth of what your average grip makes.
I dunno... I shouldn't be bitter... animation HAS made some big strides in the last couple of decades... things ARE improving albiet at a snail's pace...
In the meantime, I guess we should cherish the time we have in our relative obscurity and enjoy the peace and quiet.

SUPER-BOWEL SUNDAY!

Okay... I USED to be one of those guys who hated sports.
Having grown up as an uncoordinated, unathletic art-nerd, I simply had very little interest in them. Oh, I like playing softball with a group of friends and for a while I even got into volleyball (stunningly, I discovered that while I was inept in all other aspects of the game, I - shockingly - had a killer serve).
But as for watching and following professional sports... I dunno, it just never seemed like a priority.
Of course, having grown up around a lot of country-bumpkin trailer-trash-tornado-bait-rednecks, I can very vividly recall being alienated for my lack of interest in sports... I've always found it ironic that - among the vast unwashed - if you don't embrace a passtime that involves voyeuristically watching big, muscly men run around in alpha-male-enhancing Freudian costumes and jump all over each other, this somehow made you "queer".
And, of course, being "queer" brought on all sorts of bullying from the beefhead sons of petty larsonists that made up the vast majority of my classmates at school.
Like so many overly-sensitive-tortured-artists-in-the-making, I blamed sports and - like so many pretentious-wanna-be-art-geniuses, I
Over the years, however, I've shed that resentment. I'm still not 'into' sports per se, but I "get it." I get the excitement of the competition and gladitorial blah blah blah (I'm particularly fond of Hockey - but don't ask me to quote a bunch of statistics or have strong opinions about any of it... I just like watching it... especially when there's bloodshed).
Somewhere during my last couple of senior years in college, I realized that hating sports simply because lots of stupid people love it isn't fair to the sports in general. Lots of stupid people drive cars, too... that doesn't mean I'm gonna start walking everywhere. If I were to reject absolutely everything that is embraced by stupid people, I'd wind up having no choice but to go off into the mountains somewhere and become a hermit... and even then I'd probably come across other hermits who were stupid and pissed me off.
Ultimately, sports are no different than anything else in this world... when enjoyed responsibly with a healthy attitude, they're as legitimate as anything else.
After all... who am I to judge? I love transforming robots... you could probably make all sorts of psychoanalytical analyses about that if you wanted to. Any time anything is given unhealthy levels of priority (including one's own ego) it becomes annoying.
Anyway, these were the thoughts that inspired the cartoon below... the cartoon itself is in rough form because it was a submission for a magazine that got rejected (shortsighted bastards!), but it seemed appropriate to run the day after the Superbowl.
By the way... who won?

STORYBOARDING

This is a comic strip I originally created for NEWTYPE KOREA magazine - I do a monthly column for them outlining various aspects of the American animation industry. This particular strip was the illustration to a column I wrote explaining storyboarding.
Generally speaking, before any cameras are turned on or any animators start animating, some poor schmuck works for months on end with no sleep to create the 'visual blueprint' of the film or show - what results is a storyboard (along with hair loss, back-pains, chronic migranes, etc.).
Storyboarding is, in my utterly self-rightous opinion, the backbone of the animation industry if not the entire entertainment industry. Obviously, I'm biased in that regard since the better part of my career has been spent as a storyboard artist.
The fact is, in collaborative mediums, everyone's contributions are monumentally indispensible... so don't think I'm intentionally being a douche... but what I CAN say with complete objectivity is that I've held a lot of different jobs in my life (both in animation and in other areas) and storyboarding is by far the most taxing.
Right now I'm working as a director and I thank my lucky stars that I don't have to do it nearly as much as I used to.
It's one of the career paths for an animation artist with the most amount of creative input on the overall finished film, but it's also a gargantuan pain in the anus.
Thus, this strip.