A DECADE IN CALIFORNIA - PART 1: Getting Here In One Piece

(I did this drawing the day I arrived in California for the first time - 10 years ago this month)


Boy, I hope you ingrates appreciate this (but then, I suppose if you're ingrates, there's no chance that you'll appreciate it)... I could be playing 'God of War 2' right now, but instead I'm taking this EXTREMELY rare moment of free time to actually DO something with my blog (besides use it as a dumping ground for doodles, that is).
As of this month, it's been ten whole years since I moved from Michigan to California, and I thought it would be interesting (for me, that is... it's going to be a snooze-fest for you) to dig up some of my journals and sketchbooks from that time and wallow in nostalgia for the events that surrounded my life at the time.

At the risk of this little retrospective taking forever and a day, I'll spare you the gory details of what prompted me to move out here, but here are some of the circumstances I was dealing with:
- lost my job in Ann Arbor... had searched all over Michigan for another one in ANY kind of art field with no success
- had nearly $80,000 in debt with student loans and other various shady deals
- had never driven outside of Michigan by myself before and never really wanted to
- knew only TWO people in the entire state of California
- was scared shitless

For those of you who don't know me very well, allow me to make one aspect of my personality abundantly clear: I DO NOT LIKE ADVENTURE!
I had always pictured myself living in Michigan forever while working at little commercial production studios until I 'made it' as a syndicated cartoonist or underground comic book artist (HA!). I had absolutely NO desire to leave the confines of my limited little world.
And yet, when the well of animation work in Michigan ran dry, I was faced with the notion of either becoming one of those dudes who lives with his parents his whole life, or taking a real risk for the first time in my sheltered midwestern life and actually leaving the proverbial nest.

I knew virtually nothing about the actual animation industry, but I figured that given half a chance I might be useful as a character designer. I figured it was a choice between New York or L.A., and even though I would have preferred NY, I had two friends in San Diego who offered to let me stay with them until I found a job (bless your hearts, Anne and Ed).

Thus, I sold everything of mine I could bear to part with (including a bunch of comics), put the rest in my parents basement, drove around Michigan to say goodbye to everyone and hit the open road.

As inexperienced as I was with travel and such things, I have always been something of an obsessive compulsive organizer... so, suffice it to say, I was not about to leave anything to chance on this trip, so I took detailed notes about what to take and where to go... here are some samples from my journals at the time:


(click on the images to enlarge them)



During week I actually left, Michigan got hit with one of its worst winters ever. I was driving around in an almost complete whiteout. It almost seemed as though the weather was testing my resolve. On top of that, I had a positively wretched sinus infection that made it painful to breathe. I was given these enormous horse-pills by my doctor to help clear the infection, but I am unable to swallow pills (that's a whole other story entirely), so I had to chew them... 3 times a day for about 2 weeks. They were awful.

Anyway, as I said, blizzards engulfed Michigan that month, so getting out of the state was taking WAY longer than I had expected... I was literally about 5 miles away from the border when I got pulled over by a state trooper for speeding (I'm certain I wasn't going more than 7 MPH over the limit, but because of the snow and ice he wasn't too forgiving). The roads were deserted, and I explained to him that I was leaving the state - probably forever - hoping that it would sway him to just give me a warning and let me go. No dice. So my last 'goodbye' from the state of Michigan was a $200 speeding ticket. Great. I was already broke and in debt up to my eyeballs... I really didn't need this.

It was one of those situations where it would have seemed very easy to just turn around, go back home, live with mom and dad until my debts were down a little and maybe try this another time when circumstances weren't so daunting... it was a crossroads and, for the first time in my life, I took the road less travelled.

And, as cliche'd as it sounds, that's made all the difference...

More later...

NO TIME FOR BLOGGING

Well, our internet is working again (finally!). Nonetheless,Leigh and I have been constantly busy for the past couple of months, so with that in mind I present to you two REALLY OLD single-panel comics I did for my college newspaper, The Western Herald. My first comic strip, 'Fountain's Pen,' ran during the fall and winter semesters (the busy period) and was an actual narrative that was semiautobiographical (just like every other kid's college comic strip... I'll post some someday), but the summer newspaper was significantly smaller, so I crapped out a single-panel strip that was just meant to be surrealistic and weird. Yes, I was ripping off 'The Far Side' (in my own way)... practically everything I did from that time in my life was very transparently influenced by stuff I liked (the stuff I do now is just as derivitive, I've just gotten slightly better at hiding it). Looking back at these two strips, though, I'm pleased with how 'almost original' they are. I had intended on doing a whole boatload of 'The Secret Life of ----' strips, but then I accidentally graduated and those fascists at The Herald had this kooky rule that you had to be an enrolled student to contribute to the student newspaper. Bastards.
You can click on the image to make it bigger.

MARRIED!

Howdy, gang! Sorry it's been so long since we've had any updates here, but between starting new jobs(!), buying a house(!!), and getting married(!!!) Leigh and I have been stretched to our limits lately.
Plus, we're having major internet problems that require new hardware and all kinds of crap. I have to sit outside by our garage with the laptop just to write this update. It's a pain, but all things considered it's a small price to pay.
We both love our new jobs, the house is wonderful and the wedding was a blast... so we're both sitting on top of the world right now! I'll spare you the details since I know it's annoying to hear someone go on and on about how great life is.
I'll get back to the routine of putting up watercolors of fat guys and talking about robots sooner than you probably would have liked. So stay tuned!

LOVE IS STILL IN THE AIR

On February 17th last year I got engaged... on February 17th this year - this Saturday - I'll be getting married to the most wonderful woman on Earth.
I don't care how gooey all this sounds... everyone reading this should envy me.
Happy Valentine's Day.

REVIEW OF HOT MEXICAN LOVE COMICS

Apparently HOT MEXICAN LOVE COMICS #3 - which features a story by Leigh and I - was reviewed here:

http://comicmaker.blogspot.com

Mucho thanks to the Comic Makers, but you should have mentioned how great 'DON'T DRINK THE WATER' by Leigh Hope Phillips and John Fountain is.

But we'll forgive your oversight.

Anyway, give this site a visit and the review a listen.

I have nothing of interest to say today.

UPDATED: FAVORITE ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEOS - NOW INCLUDING GORILLAZ

Here's what an old fart I am: I can actually - clearly - REMEMBER a time when Mtv simply didn't exist. I remember it being invented. Crazy.
Anyway...
Music videos are an interesting phenomenon... most of the time, they're just marketing tools, but every great now and then, someone seizes the opportunity to embrace it as another form of artistic filmmaking and transcends the medium (for those of you who are struggling artists, take my advice and look for ANY opportunity in casual conversation to use the term 'transcends the medium'... it makes you sound all artsy and intellectual and you'll get an arts grant).
But, as usual, I digress...
When you approach music video as a 'multimedia art piece', it's easy to see why some of the most innovative directors/musicians choose animation as a way of providing a visual accompanyment to the music... in animation you can literally control every single image and every nanosecond of the timing.
For instance, if you're shooting a live-action video and you choose to have a scene outdoors, you can't control how the wind blows or what shape the clouds take... of course, sometimes this is precisely what the director WANTS for a sense of immediacey and a 'naturalistic' look... but, if you're trying to 'say' something very specific with your video, animation allows you to control the shape of every could and the speed at which it moves... the leaves on the trees in the background obey your commands... they can stand PERFECTLY still (something else that is virtually impossible in a live-action scene) or sway in a breeze of your creation... you could do a scene where trees swayed 'menacingly' if you wanted.
Anyway, with this in mind, I present to you 3 animated music videos that I can watch over and over and over and over ad infinitum (and, yes, I'm too stoopid to know how to actually post these videos here - so just cut and paste the links into your browser if you wanna watch the videos. Or don't. I won't lose a lot of sleep over it either way).

Gorillaz - "Clint Eastwood"
I'm filled with shame that I forgot to include this in the original post. I have no excuse, but let's move on with our lives, shall we?
Now, the fact that Jamie Hewlett came up with an animated pop band is enviable in and of itself, but let's just focus on this particular video...
This video is an absolutely brilliant example of what you can do when you actually COMBINE different animation techniques instead of relying on any single element to be the "star". You could technically classify this video as LIMITED animation with the sheer amount of re-use it utilizes.
When this thing came out, I simply could not stop watching it, taking the time to watch it repeatedly frame-by-frigging-frame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpDer9wdUEw

Linkin Park - "Breaking the Habit"
The animation styling and art direction on this are so gorgeous I could watch this all day and never stop loving it. Not a wasted line. Not a wasted movement. Very deliberately 'anti-slick' yet clearly created with absolute precision and purpose. I also dig the song a lot, but it's the only Linkin Park song I'm familiar with. I can't honestly say one way or the other whether or not I would like it if it weren't attatched to this video. Maybe, maybe not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZWZP0KrnE

Tenacious D - "Wonder Boy" - Anime Music Video
What's odd about this addition into my little rant is that this is NOT the actual video for the song... this is a masterfully edited series of clips from the endlessly brilliant Japanese anime 'FLCL' put to an equally brilliant Tenacious D tune.
The reason I include this is to point out that editing, like anything else, CAN be an artform when the editor has a vision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFmNNRIdbCE

Peter Gabriel - "Sledge Hammer"
What can I possibly say about this video that hasn't been said a million times already and a million times better? It's art. It's sheer brilliance. SO far ahead of it's time. While everyone else was making videos that were basically just taped concert performances or gyrating bikini girls trying not to laugh at David Lee Roth, Peter Gabriel made THIS. Peter Gabriel is the greatest musical genius of the modern age. Period. If you disagree, you are utterly and pathetically wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaPYQysTHtA

ARGH! I mean, seriously... AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

Look - I'm sorry I haven't been updating regularly, okay? Cut me some slack... if you knew everything that was going on in my life right now (which I have no intention of relaying) you'd sympathize.
You'd say "Whoah, dude! You weren't kiddin'... you ARE busy! I'll just leave you alone..."
Part of the problem is that I'm feeling inhibited about what I want to do with this stupid blog (I realize the term "stupid blog" is WILDLY reduntant since all blogs are stupid, but I digress...).
At first it was gonna be all rants, then it turned into a big art debate, then it turned into social commentary, lately it's been a lot of movies/tv/pop-culture stuff.
I've got a lotta stuff to throw out there... for instance, everyone should rent "IDIOCRACY" - it's positively one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. It was written and directed by Mike Judge and it dares to make the accusation that people are stupid and getting dangerously stupider with every generation. So if you're really stupid, don't rent it 'cause you'll just get all pissed off (it is my assumption that this was the reason it was never released theatrically - test audiences of stupid people).
See, now, I just deleted something else that I wrote because I'm convinced everyone would take it the wrong way and just get mad at me. That's how the world is these days. You have to live in constant fear of 'offending' people because it seems as though people go through life LOOKING for reasons to be offended by stuff. It's very inhibiting. I suppose if I were interested in being a commentator for a living I would throw the dice and post it - but what's the point? I just wanna draw goofy shit. So - anyway - sorry to deny you a paragraph that I'm sure would have either outraged you, intrigued you or bored you to death.
Lots of exciting and fun stuff has been going on in the little Fountain household lately, but it's all just so happy and positive that reporting on it would probably just make everyone ill. So I'll spare you. You can thank me by buying "BIRTHDAY WISHES" at Amazon.com (scroll down for details). I thank you all in advance.
And, of course, by "you all" I mean my 2 or 3 friends who regularly check this site and then the random folks who hit my link by accident when they were visiting GOOD blogs like the ones listed below.
By the way, for those of you wondering why Leigh's blog is mysteriously absent, the short answer is that she took it down for a while 'cause she's too busy to do anything with it. Obviously, she's not as desperate for attention as I am.
So, that's it for now. Sorry this wasn't more interesting. I'll try to be all ranty and pithy next time.
In the meantime, here are some kreechors.
Enjoy.

KILL THE KID: More Observations on 'Superman Returns'

Okay, so it's been, like, forever since I've posted anything new - if I thought you really cared, I'd apologize... but I find that notion extremely difficult to believe, so I shant waste my sincerity.
Suffice it to say, Leigh and I have been busier than any of you can possibly comprehend. I'll give the full report some other time when I'm not knee-deep in it, but trust me when I say that we are simply batshit insane.
Anyway...
I hope you all had a lovely holiday season (GOD I'm sick of the word 'holiday'... we're all just oh-so-sensitive... argh... that's another rant) and a happy new year.
A special, massive thanks to those of you who actually went online and bought 'BIRTHDAY WISHES'. It means a lot to us and we truly hope you enjoy the book. There will be at least one other John and Leigh collaboration coming out this year (possibly more) - so I'll keep ya posted.
But back to my topic for the day...
One of the Christmas presents Leigh got for me was the special edition 'Superman Returns' DVD... it was, in fact, something I asked for in spite of the fact that - as you may recall - I was not particularly thrilled with the movie. But the fact is, I have seen many movies and hated them upon first viewing and loved them upon the second viewing. Who knows why? I certainly can't explain it.
Another example of this phenomenon I can site was 'The Hulk'... I liked it okay the first time I saw it, but then I saw it again and came away thinking it was not only 'great' but at times it was downright brilliant. But, again, that's another topic for another time...
'Superman Returns'...
In a bunch of the behind-the-scenes footage, they talk a lot about how long it took them to get to make this movie... as many of you may or may not know, a 'Superman' movie had been in development at Warner Brothers for over a decade before this one finally came out. There was a version with Kevin Smith as the screenwriter, Tim Burton as the director, Nicholas Cage as Superman, etc. etc. etc. "So what?" I can almost hear you saying... but THINK about it... WB must have spent countless MILLIONS over the course of 10 years going around and around with how to re-invent the franchise, and after all that time and money what they finally got around to was an incarnation that was only slightly different from the movies with Christopher Reeves! What a waste of time, energy and resources. It's no wonder the movie industry is in such a slump... it took them ten years and all that money to come full circle. I'm sorry, but if you can't figure out that the way to make a buck off a movie with SUPERMAN in it, I just don't have any sympathy for you.
What breaks my heart about this movie is that it had such potential. The scene where he catches the falling jet in the middle of a baseball stadium? WONDERFUL! The movie is sprinkled with little moments that just make me ache for it to be a better movie. Unfortunately, there are just too many major flaws that get in the way of that.
Firstly, I would have enjoyed the film at least 40% more if it weren't for Kate Bosworth's awfulness. Lois Lane? Please.
Can somebody please stop casting these Kewpie-Doll-faced 'Dawson's Creek' rejects as reporters, scientists, doctors and what-not? Women like her become actresses on 'The O.C.' - they don't become hard-hitting newspaper journalists.
I'm not saying Lois Lane needs to be ugly... but c'mon... Bosworth looks like she's 19. Did she get her degree in journalism in grade-school?
Anyway...
One of the other themes that is effectively pounded into our heads is this notion of 'The Father becomes the Son and the Son becomes the -blah-blah-blah psychobabble bullshit". This kid from Krypton who becomes a hero was Clark Kent - Kansas farmboy LONG before he was Superman. He didn't spend his life wondering who his 'real' father was... his real father was Jonathan Kent. Superman is Clark's alter-ego... not the other way around. What makes Superman a great character is that he is NOT a Kryptonian demigod... he was just a regular small-town kid who discovered that he has special abilities.
The whole plot is that Superman went into space to try to find the remains of Krypton... why? Was he hoping is birthparents were still there?! He abandoned his friends, career, AGING MOTHER and post as superhero so that he could find: NOTHING!?
Superman wouldn't do that. He's not that selfish. Pa Kent taught him better than that.
Consequently, the other major plotpoint that makes me cringe every time I think about it is this hippie-haired little moppet as the Superman/Lois Lane love-child. I just don't know how to put into words how awful this is. It'll take too much time... but the fact of the matter is, NOTHING ruins an action movie more than the presence of some adorable little kid. Ugh.
Which brings me to my brilliant concept for the sequel that will fix most of these problems (unfortunately it looks like there's no getting rid of Bosworth)... in the next movie Lex Luthor should KILL SUPERMAN'S SON!
What better way to give Superman a whole new reason to hate Luthor? What better way to give his character more complexity? I mean, let's face it... Superman has never really suffered real LOSS before. In the first movie he 'almost' lost Lois, but he made time retract and saved her life... yeah, sure, Pa Kent died... but he basically died of a weak heart brought on by old age... okay, so he never knew his real parents or home planet, but how can you really feel loss for something you never had? But killing his only SON? Yowza! Now THAT'S dramatic! The crushing loss would make him realize his selfishness, remind him that Earth is his real home, and he would have a whole new motivation for being a hero.
Of course, they'd never do this in a million years 'cause Hollywood has gotten so chickenshit. We'll simply be subjected to several sequels with Superman and son flying around like Batman and Robin (from the 60's tv show) with several adorable scenes of little Jason learning to use his powers alongside his dad. Ugh. I need a Rolaids just thinking about it.
The final nail in the coffin that holds 'Superman Returns' is that I don't see ANYONE having any fun in it. They're all just kinda doing what they're told and everyone's taking it too seriously.
I truly think the key to success in ANY line of work whether it's plumbing, accounting or making movies is to somehow make the job fun. If everyone LIKES their job, they do better work. 'Superman Returns' has some fine talent in it... but they all seem so inhibited by the crushing weight of the responsibility of carrying this iconic movie that they're all stifled and there's no chemistry with any of the cast.
Oh well... I gave the movie another chance... I'm happy that I own it if for no other reason that I can watch the plane-cathing scene over and over again.
Take my advice, Warner Brothers... in the next movie: kill off that kid!

BIRTHDAY WISHES! - JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

What's that, you say? Still haven't found that perfect holiday gift for that hard-to-please friend, relative, or blood-enemy?
Then you, my dear reader, are in bucketloads of luck...
'BIRTHDAY WISHES!' - the first (but not last) collaborative effort between me and my soon-to-be-wife is now available in hardcover form from Visikids publishing on AMAZON.COM!
Are you tired of children's books that are purile, lame and just plain insulting to their budding little minds?
Are you - yourself - a fan of the genre?
Do ya like funny drawings?
Do ya like a good rhyme?
Then follow this here link and plop down your dough, Jackson, 'cause Leigh and John have answered your prayers!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1933156031/sr=1-1/qid=1165955400/ref=sr_1_1/105-4343581-3041242?ie=UTF8&s=books

Now even though ordering one would be simply marvelous of you, I really must recommend that you order no fewer than ten. I mean, you'll want to give one to at least everyone you know, right? But then, you're a popular person... you know WAY more than ten people. You're right... better order fifty. Good call.

Okay, enough with the sales pitch... but I truly am wildly excited about the release of this book. It's my very first children's book EVER - and believe me I've been asked to do many. It was only after I met Leigh and read her wonderful and unique writing that I felt inspired to tread such waters.

For those of you who are unaware, 'Birthday Wishes' is a story told entirely in rhyme about about twins who take 'sibling rivalry' to a whole new level when they discover that every year their birthday wishes actually come true. As we all know, siblings are prone to wicked pranks, and thus begins their 'wishing war' as they induce all manner of horrors on one another whenever their birthday comes around.

Apart from being Me'n'Leigh's first collaboration, this book was absolutely one of the most fun projects I've ever participated in. It got me back into painting and drawing for the fun of it. For me, this book represents more than just a publishing venture, but an expression of our respective artistic inclinations and a labor of love. That, if for no other reason, is why I think you'll enjoy it.

Sincerely,

John

THE LIVE-ACTION TRANSFORMERS MOVIE WILL PROBABLY SUCK

More and more, I'm learning that the key to enjoying most movies these days is to bring my expectations down as far as they can possibly go. Then, when the movie is merely bad instead of atrocious, I don't feel quite so let down when I leave the theater.
Unfortunately, I'm guessing this is what I will need to do with the July 2007 'Transformers' movie.
The most recent issue of Wizard magazine (yes... I read Wizard... congratulations... you're cooler than me) quoted Lorenzo di Bonaventura - one of the movie's producers - as saying, "The scale of the Transformers is so big... but how do the humans play out? How do you make sure the human actors have an equal role?"
Allow me to answer that little question for you, Lorenzo: YOU DON'T!!!
Here's a little tip for ya... people who go to see a movie called 'Transformers' aren't seeing it because they wanna see a bunch of actors flapping their lips... WE WANNA SEE BIG ROBOTS DUKING IT OUT! We wanna see laser blasts and explosions and crumbling buildings. No one is going to give a shit about the stupid fucking 'love story' you're ramming into it (which they are, of course, doing). Why does EVERY movie have to have a romance in it anyway? WE WANT ROBOTS, DAMMIT! I gotta look at PEOPLE every frigging day... when I go to my big, dumb, fighting-robot-movie, that is exactly what I want to see... no more, no less.
What if they jammed a space battle in the middle of 'When Harry Met Sally'? Everyone would say "What the hell was THAT?" Y'know why? Because a space battle has no place in a gooey romantic comedy. SO WHY DO THEY ALWAYS GOTTA JAM THESE STOOPID LOVE STORIES IN MY BIG, DUMB SCI-FI THRILLERS? Didn't any of these idiots learn ANYTHING from the horrible American remake of 'Godzilla'?
There were two major reasons as far as I can tell that 'Godzilla' flopped as badly as it did:
1) It was jammed with so-called 'name' actors who were doing it entirely for the humungous paycheck.
and, most of all...
2) It had absolutely no loyalty to the source material.
Which seems to be the case with 'Transformers' as well... they seem intent on changing all the very core, key elements that have kept the franchise alive this whole time. Rather than merely give the characters slightly updated and film-friendly designs (as Sam Raimi did with 'Spider-Man') they've gone down this ultra-complex road that so many producers tread when they have no idea what their doing. "I don't know what a good robot design looks like, so I'll just make sure it's got lots and lots of really complicated stuff on it."
Two of the biggest and most successful movie franchises in the last several years were 'Spider-Man' and 'Lord of the Rings'... doesn't anyone in Hollywood bother to notice why those movies were so great? Do they think they were just multiple flukes? Argh.
Here's another gem from Lorenzo on whether or not they'll cast the original voice actors from the TV show: "Some of these guys are TV cartoon guys. I want to get better characters if we can."
Ah - of course... another brilliant bit of producing. "TV cartoon = bad... high-priced bigshot movie actor = good"... never mind the fact that, once again, you're writing off one of the elements that made these characters popular as insignificant.
Double Argh.
Anyway, the ONE good thing they've done is hire Peter Cullen to do the voice of Optimus Prime... Cullen was the original voice actor on the 'Transformers' animated TV show and animated movie. No one else can do Prime as far as I'm concerned. Now if they REALLY want to take another bold step in the right direction, they'll hire Frank Welker to return as Megatron.
The bottom line here is that everyone involved with this film seems to have an agenda of making it as distant from the source material as they possibly can. They seem to be trying really hard to fight the fact that this is supposed to be a big, dumb, fun, geeky science fiction story with big fighting robots.
The tragedy is, there are probably countless hungry, young producers, directors and actors out there who would have embraced it with open arms and done an amazing job for half the money - but, no, the Hollywood machine is ever-insistant that it's not broken when, in fact, it's belching smoke, leaking oil, low on gas and dragging a rusty muffler behind it.

WHY TRANSFORMERS ARE COOL - part 1 of 500

THE TRANSFORMERS CULT: My Review of the 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD
In the past couple of years it seems as though all of the animated feature films to come out of America are indistinguishable from one another.
Recently, however, THE TRANSFORMERS MOVIE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION was released on DVD and I was reminded of what it was like to go to an animated movie and actually be surprised, shocked, entertained and exillherated by it.
When the movie first came out 1986, I was sixteen years old and had basically grown out of collecting toys (since then, of course, I've grown back into it all over again), but I still loved cartoons.
While most kids my age would spend their after-school time playing sports or hanging out at the mall, I would indulge in my guilty pleasure of rushing to my TV for the block of VOLTRON, THUNDERCATS and TRANSFORMERS shows.
Nowadays, science fiction fans have a million different ways to get their daily 'fix' from television... but when I was in high school, the only real sci-fi available was in the form of TV cartoons. Consequently, I had found myself deeply invested in the TRANSFORMERS mythos and followed it religiously.
Back then, Disney was the only company with any real focus on animated features, and - for the most part - their stories were skewed very young and followed the same basic types of storylines... in other words, cartoon movies were in a similar slump that they're in now... lots of 'sameness'. THE TRANSFORMERS MOVIE, however, was incredibly complex and groundbreaking for its time.
The plot was obvious of course... it chronicled the war between two factions of robotic life from the planet Cybertron - the noble Autobots and the evil Decepticons... however, in the movie, a new danger - a monsterous, roaming robotic planet that devours everything in its path - threatens to destroy Cybertron. In their efforts to save their world, Autobots and Decepticons alike are forced to face some harsh realities, go through painful changes and make new alliances.
Oftentimes when animators discuss the greatest animated films of all time, TRANSFORMERS is overlooked for its obvious and - yes - blatant tie-in to the toys... but to me, its commercialization is just another sign of its brilliant execution: Sunbow and Marvel productions were given the task of wiping out the first generation of TRANSFORMERS characters to make way for a whole new toy line... it would have been very easy for them to simply hack out a cheap simpleminded tale with little or no regard to the characters or story arc... but they didn't. They injected real emotion and conflict into the plot and used the idea of going from one toy line to another as a way of making a statement about sacrifice, loss, maturity, growth, friendship and unity.
The original cast from the television series stayed true to their characters and - in a shocking twist for an American animated feature - died fighting for their cause. Optimus Prime - the leader of the brave Autobots - maintained his staunch, John Wayne-like heroism up until his death at the hands of Megatron - the malevolent Decepticon tyrant. Seeing the two of them fight to the end was precicely what we fans of the TV show had waited for, but we never could have dreamed that the bad guy would actually win the fight! We were used to movies showing us that good always triumphed over evil - but this movie showed us that oftentimes in life, the villain wins. Despite the existence of an all-powerful corporate agenda, the filmmakers worked within those boundaries and created an epic science fiction masterpiece that has endured the test of time.
Japanese anime features rarely made it to American theaters, so even though I was aware of anime, I had never seen anything with an anime style on a big movie screen before. For many Americans, the TRANSFORMERS movie was their first exposure to a feature with an anime-sensibility.
In its original release, the TRANSFORMERS movie didn't make a lot of money... but it has enjoyed a 'cult status' and gained popularity more and more with every passing year since then.
One of the many reasons I've always enjoyed it was because it never 'dumbed down' to the audience: the characters spoke like adults... the relationships between them were often complex and riddled with sub-plots... they carried and used dangerous-looking weaponry... they acted like soldiers and used military jargon. Nowadays, all American cartoon characters speak like a nine-year old surfer kid with a nonstop barrage of "whoah" and "dude"... they never get mad at one another or display any real personality... The weapons carried in cartoons these days look like gummi bears... once an action show has been filtered through the American "political-correctness machine" it becomes so sanitized that it lacks any real drama or excitement. So, for me, the TRANSFORMERS movie represents the last real hurrah for animated action shows in the U.S. Oh, sure, every now and then you get something exceptional like 'Batman' or 'Justice League', but even those shows struggle with the increasingly stringent rules for broadcast standards.
The DVD itself includes multiple commentary tracks - one of which includes producer/director Nelson Shin - as well as interviews, trivia, commercials (U.S. and Japanese) for the movies and toy lines, some quick deleted scenes and test footage. I watched everything on the two-disc set which, ultimately, meant watching the movie from beginning to end five times in a row, and each time I enjoyed it and appreciated it more.
In summer of 2007, a live-action big-budget adaptation of the Transformers will hit screens courtesy of Steven Speilberg... based on everything I know about it (which is almost nothing) I have no idea whether it's going to be any good or not.
But if you've grown weary of the seemingly endless parade of films that feature big groups of CGI animated prancing animals, I highly recommend you join myself and the rest of the loyal cultists who revere THE TRANSFORMERS MOVIE. It's a lot of fun, and you're not even required to shave your head.

THE FOUNTAIN FILTER

Well... there it is... my animation career in one drawing.
I just thought it would be fun to do a 'group shot' of all the major cartoon characters I've worked on in my career and squeeze them through the filter of my own drawing style.
Featured are (from left to right) 'The Tantrum' - floating in the top left... he was the first character of my own creation to star in his own short on 'Oh Yeah! Cartoons!', below him is Yang from 'Yin Yang Yo!', standing taller than any of them is Jenny from 'My Life as a Teenage Robot, scowling hatefully is - of course - Zim from 'Invader Zim' and hovering above him is his robot servant Gir, holding the map is Eliza from 'The Wild Thornberrys' - my first real job in the industry was as a storyboard artist for that show, above her is Cosmo from 'The Fairly Oddparents' and, finally, in the lower right is Cartman from 'South Park' - I worked on the movie 'Bigger, Longer and Uncut'.
Anyway... I have nothing profound to say... I just jammed this out for fun - and it was.

WOMEN: DON'T SLEEP WITH KEVIN FEDERLINE!

Look, I promise I'm not going to make a habit of commenting on celebrity gossip nonsense here... and believe me, I have struggled with whether or not I should post this for over a week... but the fact is, it's IN me and I simply HAVE to say something about it.
Kevin Federline (or "K-Fed" or "Fed-Ex" or "The-Most-Disgraceful-Person-In-America") got dumped recently by his airheaded yet slightly less evil wife Britney Spears... since then, he's been proclaiming (via graffitti on his dressing-room doors) that the ladies of the world should "look out" because he's single again and, apparently, plans to have a lot of sex with a lot of different women (this, of course, implies that he hadn't been doing that throughout his entire fourteen-minute marriage to Spears... but we shant speculate on that).
Thus, I am compelled to make a plea to all women out there: Don't give him the satisfaction.
If EVERYONE agrees to this, it will be the worst possible of punishments to someone who is in DIRE need of a metaphorical kick to the balls.
Now, I know that you're going to be tempted... you'll do it as a lark... something you can brag to your friends about and then have a hearty laugh... goodness knows I can't imagine there is any other reason anyone would sleep with him. But this is one of those times where you simply MUST consider the greater good.
If a man approaches you and he LOOKS like Federline but you're not sure, stick to side of caution and just run away. It's best to avoid relationships with guys who walk around in 'wife-beater' shirts anyway (I'd be willing to bet that if those shirts had somehow been nicknamed 'saggy-testicle-lickers' that Federline wouldn't be caught dead in one... kinda gives you an indication of what sort of fellah we're dealing with here, doesn't it? Perhaps we should go back to calling them 'undershirts' hm? But I digress).
Prostitutes: DO NOT TAKE HIS MONEY! I know it will be rough, but everyone needs to stick together on this.
If Kevin Federline ever gets laid again - EVER... for ANY reason - it will mean that we, as a society, are completely without hope.
Similarly, GUYS: DON'T SLEEP WITH PARIS HILTON for, essentially, all the same reasons.
The only thing that gives Federline the edge in the 'evil' race among their ilk is that Hilton - though certainly the embodiment of feminine evil - has not reproduced (yet!) whereas there will soon be four extremely unfortunate kids in this world who must choke back the bile and call K-Fed 'dad'.
The disgrace must end NOW.

MY MEMORIES OF A TEENAGE ROBOT

I haven't had time to do any new doodles or paintings lately, so I'm just going to wax nostalgiac.
Unfortunately, tragically and disappointingly, not all that many people are familair with the show 'My Life as a Teenage Robot'.
It was created by Rob Renzetti who, apart from just being an overall good guy, has been instrumental in shaping some of the better cartoons from the last decade or more.
'Robot' was, originally, part of the 'Oh Yeah! Cartoons!' anthology series on Nickelodeon.
Anyway, it became a series and I had the honor of working on it in a number of capacities.
Rob let me write, direct, storyboard and - oftentimes - design entire characters. Rob was one of those rare directors who was able to step back, hire folks he trusted and just let them run.
This is not to say, of course, that Rob wasn't always at the helm... but he recognized that animation is, by nature, a collaborative medium and - as such - he valued the contributions of all who worked with him.
As a result, I did some of my best work and had some of the most fun of my career on 'Robot'.
Unlike many cartoon productions wherein you are given a script, we were given rough outlines that just gave us - the board artists - a general idea as to where the story should go.
Consequently, being the renegade that I am, I would oftentimes BLATANTLY ignore the outlines and go in my own direction... but much to my absolute shock, Rob not only didn't MIND this, he actually ENCOURAGED it.
This is not to say we didn't occasionally have our disagreements... but they were always in the spirit of making the cartoon as great as possible.
One of the major challanges was the fact that the main character's head was - for all intents and purposes - perfectly round. And this show wasn't done in FLASH, so we couldn't just rely on computer software to make it easier... and I just hate stencils for some reason, so most of the time I drew it freehand which - to this day - has taught me to draw virtually perfect circles freehand.
But I had fun, and I think it shows in the episodes.
To see what I'm talking about, go to:
http://teenagerobot.tk
The episodes I worked on include:
Season 1
Shell Game (featuring my personal favorite character - Sheldon)
Daydream Believer (please note the semi-truck that almost hits Jenny says 'O-Prime' on the side... that's an homage to Optimus Prime of the Transformers)
Season 2
Last Action Zero (one of my all-time favorites for a whole variety of reasons)
Dancing with my Shell (I love it when Jenny loses her temper)
Robot Riot (one some of the best robot-fighting I've ever gotten to dray - and, hey, I'M THE VOICE OF LIL' DIPPER!)
Bradventure (this has one of my favorite lines of any cartoon EVER in it... can you guess what it is? And, no, I didn't write it)
Season 3
No Harmony with Melody (c'mon - two girl-robots in a midair dogfight... what's not to love?)
Legion of Evil (the 'head cozies' that the bad-guys wear are based on actual garments)

I also got to do the first half of 'Robot For All Seasons' - the Christmas episode - in which Jenny takes the most savage beating of any teenage robot cartoon I've ever seen. It was way fun. I can't find it anywhere on YOUTUBE or anything, so you'll just have to buy the DVD or something.

Anyway, despite the fact that it got 'good' ratings, the fact of the matter is, television is a competitive arena and networks don't want 'good' ratings - they want 'blockbuster' ratings.
The good news is, Rob is doing great things now as is everyone else from the show... but that's another blog.
Speaking of which, the MLAATR blog's address is:
http://teenageroblog.blogspot.com

Thank you for allowing me to indulge my online flashback...

"...THE BEST RANTS EVER..."

I was moderating my blog comments recently (which - for the record - I do very begrudgingly... I only resorted to moderating when the 'YOU SUCK!' comments got crashingly dull... I will generally post anything, no matter how critical, as long as it's ENTERTAINING... but I digress...) when I - to my surprise - recieved an e-mail from Jamie Oliff and Angie Jones (authors of "Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap between 2-D and CG") informing me that I'm featured on their site:
http://thinkinganimationbook.blogspot.com
Their site has a lot of interesting info and discussion that you won't see on a lot of the usual animation-related web-sites.
How can a fella NOT be flattered?
It almost makes me wish I actually contributed to the discussion of animation with this blog... but, the fact is, Jamie and Angie are clearly better at it than I would be... on top of that, we have Eddie Kline (http://klineburgers.blogspot.com) - so between those two sites, I think that angle is covered nicely.
Thus, this blog shall continue its commitment to being completely unprofessional and sloppy.
If anyone REALLY wants to hear my thoughts and opinions on animation, they can attend the KALAMAZOO ANIMATION FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL (http://kafi.kvcc.edu) from May 17th - 20th 2007 where I will be doing at least two lectures and probably a bunch of other workshops and stuff. Or you could just give me a job... then you'd hear my nonstop rants all day every day.
Anyway, massive thanks to Jamie and Angie for the humungous plug on their site which is now in my regular rotation.

BOO!

I had planned to do a much more elaborate post than this... I was gonna upload pictures of all of my wonderful costumes from past years and this one... but the fact is, it's been a really shitty week (ugh... and it's only Tuesday) so I'm just not in the mood.
What I will say is that Leigh and I did a collaborative costume, and it was one of my favorite costumes ever. Maybe I'll post pictures next week if I'm in a better mood.
I love Halloween... it's a holiday that lets people be creative without being pretentious.
I must say, I feel fortunate to have a bunch of incredibly creative friends... one of the things I look forward to every year is seeing what everyone else cooks up.
Anyway... here's a drawing of a zombie. It's the first and only zombie I've ever drawn (okay, that's not true... I did a bunch of zombie character designs for "Invader Zim" a million years ago, but I don't consider those 'mine' if you get my drift).
Sorry this post sucks. Hope you all have a fun Halloween... remember: eating too much candy can make you bleed out of your rectum.

CRETINS CRETINS CRETINS!!!

So... ya think I'm just a misanthrope crank, eh? You think I'm just cynical and grumpy?
Get this...
Some genuis(es) decided it would be lark to take a Pasadena RALPHS shopping cart and raise it up the supermarket's flagpole (don't ask me how)... well, apparently when one of the store's employees went out to take down the flag (which they quite reasonably could have assumed was still up on the flagpole), the shopping cart fell and hit them going full force breaking their neck. The employee is now paralyzed from the neck down. For life. Forever.
I swear, if you took some of the stories like this one (which seem to happen every day... at least in Los Angeles) and strung them into a "MAD MAX" style post-apocolyptic movie and went back in time and showed it to people in the 1930's or 40's, they'd say "Well, that's compelling science fiction, but America will NEVER become that barbaric!"
Welcome to Thunderdome, folks!

YOU WIN, CRETINS!

Congratulations to all of you cretins, slobs, assholes, hillbillies, dickheads and morons... YOU WIN!

I give up... you will NEVER AGAIN have to put up with me 'shush'-ing you at the movies... 'cause I just can't take your loud, inane, grating commentary any more. The movie theaters belong to YOU now. I give up. There are more of you than there are of me (by 'me' I mean anyone who's not interested in hearing your sub-retarded play-by-play during a movie)... your army of stupidity has overwhelmed all the forces of decency, so in the interest of survival, I am retreating.
Consider all public movie theaters 'Asshole Territory'.

Let me point out, I do not blame the movie theaters for this... in fact, I pity them greatly... but it seems that no matter how many clever little announcements they run before the film BEGGING you to shut your trap, you just don't give a damn.

Which is why I am surrendering... any time you're dealing with two foes - one of whom is civilized and one of whom is barbaric - the barbarian will ALWAYS win.

In case you haven't guessed, Leigh and I actually made an attempt to go to the movies this past weekend and found ourselves surrounded by douchebags (pictured above).
Now, I'm relatively forgiving when it comes to talking during things like previews or those horrible commercials that movie theaters run these days, but once the movie starts - call me crazy - I expect people to shut the hell up.

Obviously, this doesn't include laughter, gasps or appropriately volumed reactions... indeed, that USED to be part of the moviegoing experience I actually enjoyed.
In fact, I don't even mind a certain amount of WHISPERING... but for the most part, every single member of the audience was talking in their normal speaking tones... NON-STOP!

I do take a certain amount of responsibility... we usually make a point of seeing movies that have either been out for so long that the general populace has lost interest, or we go to 10AM shows when most L.A. residents are still fast asleep.

We saw 'The Grudge 2' which - make no mistake - was not very good. It really was just more of the same. Nonetheless, there has never been a movie made in all of history that is as bad as hearing people talk during a film.

The fat (and by 'fat' I really mean obese peice of shit) guy above started talking as loud as he possible could DURING THE VERY FIRST SCENE IN THE MOVIE. It was clear that he was just getting started, so Leigh and I turned around and Leigh said "Shut UP!"
Now, get this... this is great, he looks at us and says (again, at a level just below a shout) "SHEESH! YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY 'SHUT UP'! YOU COULD JUST SAY 'BE QUIET'!"

I swear to you, I was ready to leap on him and rip out his jugular with my teeth... fortunately, Leigh stopped me.

I wanted to say to him "Do you need someone to tell you to wipe your ass after you take a dump as well? Do you need someone to tell you how to chew your food? (a silly question I know)... WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO TELL YOU TO BE QUIET YOU PILE OF MEAT!"

Anyway...

The rest of the folks (and by 'folks' I mean 'insects disguised as teenagers') depicted above were the types to give a slightly quieter but no less annoying 'running commentary' on what was happening. When a character picks up a glass of wine, they say "She picked up that glass"... when a character gets hit over the head with a lead pipe they say "That hurt".

And here's the punchline... when the movie was over, the girl on the far right said "That was stoopit". Meanwhile, she sceeched at every scary moment.

Anyway, that was the last straw.

I'm not going to the movies any more, so all of you idiots out there have my permission to talk as loudly and as extensively as you want. Only one out of every fifty movies to come out of this town are even remotely worth seeing anyway, and I've got a huge TV... so I can wait for everything to come out on DVD.

Movie execs wonder why no one is paying $85 for a typical night at the movies (and let's face it, that's what it winds up costing). Well, there's your answer: Your movies are horrible and people are scumbags. I can put up with one or the other, but not both.

Thank you - and enjoy the film.

WHITE AND NERDY

For those of you who have been waiting for me to post again - PREPARE TO REGRET IT!

So a coupla weeks ago, one of my favorite performing artists - "Weird Al" Yankovic - put out a new album called "Straight Outta Lynwood". And that, my readers, is today's topic...

It's funny, but ever since 'nerd culture' really started becoming trendy, I've wondered - what's the test of a REAL nerd? I mean, it's pretty hard to find anyone from my generation who didn't like Star Wars, and thanks to its mainstream popularity, Star Wars paved the way for everyone to 'come out of the nerd closet'.

But how many of these people are REALLY nerds? I mean, when you've got hot actresses going on Jay Leno and saying "Oh, I'm a total nerd... I love sci-fi and video games" how nerdy can sci-fi and video games be? It's not that YOU, little miss "IT-girl" are nerdy, it's that sci-fi, fantasy and video games simply ceased to BE nerdy. So 'admitting' that you like these things is no big deal.

Don't get me wrong (oh - who am I kidding... you're probably going to get me wrong no matter how many friggin' disclaimers I write, so go ahead and get me wrong... I hope you choke on your getting-John-wrongness)... I don't begrudge beautiful and popular people for embracing nerd culture... I WANT nerd culture to thrive and grow so that I always have an abundant array of media to choose from. I LOVE the way the wind is blowing... I feel like a kid in a candy store! I used to watch 'Buck Rogers" because there simply WASN'T a source of sci-fi television when I was a kid (none of our local syndicates picked up 'Star Trek' reruns and that show was too brainy for me at the time anyway... I wanted to see space battles, dammit - not get lectured about treating everyone with equality). But NOW? Holy CRAP! There's like fifty billion sci-fi shows on, and a few of them are even GOOD! But even if that weren't the case, every DVD store has an absolute abundant array of selections to choose from including stuff from Japan and around the world!
My point is, with nerd culture becoming so trendy, even if 95% of it sucks, 5% is plenty to keep me occupied. So I have no problem with this trend growing and growing ad infinitum.

BUT, the trend DOES take away some of the 'punch' that the word 'nerd' once had... so what is the NEW litmus for whether or not you're a nerd?
My friends, the answer is Weird Al Yankovic.

I love Al. I love his music. And not just his parodies like 'Eat it' or 'Like A Surgeon'... he does TONS of original songs that are just plain funny (songs that tell stories of Santa Claus going postal and killing a bunch of people, songs about hating your ex-girlfriend, and - yes - songs about food).
On his last album - 'Poodle Hat' - he did a song called 'Bob' in the style of Bob Dylan - but the whole song was a panendrome... how brilliant is that?

Al, to me, proves that you can be silly, childlike, juvenile and dorky while still exhibiting nuggets of brilliance. ANY humorist can exhibit their intellect by being pithy and sardonic, but Al SNIPES at you with his brilliance... he says "Yeah... I like farts too... but here's a dash of academia just to throw off your balance!"

I can attest to this with firsthand experience... when I was in college I wrote for the school newspaper and got to do a phone interview with Al (and got to meet him in person after his Kalamazoo Koncert). I was expecting him to be schticky through the whole conversation and be all goofy and - well - weird... but he was very thoughtful and poingnant.

Having said all of this, I must confess that "Lynwood" is not his best album...it's still VERY good listening, and there are at least 3 songs that I can never live without, but pound for pound it doesn't have the same punch as his previous work.

Nonetheless, the first track on the album - which I think is the number 2 song in America right now - "White and Nerdy" is an absolute scream.
The funny thing is, I have absolutely NO idea what song it's parodying. I know it's a parody of SOMEthing, but it's definitely a parody of just another friggin' gangsta-hiphop thing and - as frequent readers already know - I've grown really tired of that whole sound.
But, while I'm sure the original song probably talks about all kinds of things I can't possibly relate to (the 'hood, drive-bys, etc.), "White and Nerdy" is practically a musical catalogue of my entire existence!

To quote one of my favorite lines: "...the only question I ever thought was hard, was do I like Kirk or do I like Picard?"

One of the things that turns me off when it comes to music in general is when it takes itself too seriously... you'd think rock stars were curing cancer when you hear them talk about themselves.

Why SHOULDN'T music be funny? And not just "Frank Zappa" funny, but OTHER kinds of funny too?
I just think people do themselves a disservice by limiting their musical tastes to one genre. And, oftentimes, it's the fear of being nerdy that keeps them from appreciating the brilliance of someone like Al.

Call me a goofball (and I'll say "thanks!") but I still dig this kind of humor... and I hope I never outgrow it.

Anyway, that's my Weird Al rant - misspellings and all - take it for what it's worth.

(don't you just wish I had posted a painting of a Gazelle or something now?)

I'm Busy... Lay Off...

Look, there's about a million more important things I want to write about, but I'm just too damned busy (I'm working from home lately - which you'd think would make it easier to constantly futz around... but I'm busier than ever)... and I don't like writing about stuff without putting a drawing with it but I just don't have time to whip up something special. So, in the interest of killing time and blog-space, I'm just putting up another watercolor. I never intended for this blog to be a 'showcase' for my work, but it's a great thing to fall back on.

I figured since the moose painting caused such a massive controversy, surely this Yak will shake the very foundations of the internet and spark a violent revolution.

Anyone who wants to hear me talk about all the things I hate about my so-called 'artistic abilities' need only ask and I'm prone to go on and on about how amaturish I am. That's no secret. But people who kvetch too much about their shortcomings oftentimes wind up just sounding like they want sympathy or praise - and I don't need (or want) either.

All I can say about my watercolors is that they were fun to make.

All I can say about my 'style' in general is that - for all of its flaws - it's mine.

It's nothing so special that it's going to change the world... and, sure, I have influences... everyone does... I'm as guilty as anyone of copying (note the similarity between my Yak and the ones from the 'Kilted Yaksmen' episode of 'Ren and Stimpy')... but if I suck, one of the reasons I suck is because my influences are so varied. Maybe I should have been one of those guys to just endlessly copy artwork from 40's Jazz ablum covers... maybe I should have just endlessly copied the anime style... maybe I should have cone to CalArts... I love all of those styles, and I'd probably be more successful if I'd just picked one and stuck to it. But, hey, here we are with my quick-n-dirty watercolors... and I like 'em.

Those who really know me are aware that I'm wide open to advice, critiques, etc. And those who want to use this as an excuse to tell me how much I suck are an endless source of amusement as well - so all comments are welcome!

So - here's a Yak. Enjoy it or enjoy hating it.