Category Archives: animation

I am going to Emerald City Comicon, OKAY? Can I GO nowww?

pigfarm

 

So the Emerald City Comicon is happening again in Seattle Washington on March 1-3, and I’m going to be there. It’s gonna be great, and I can’t wait to see the looks on people’s faces when i smash through the convention center walls on my custom built, jet powered  signing table.

That’s right, I really hate how, at every signing, you have to look up at all these strangers’ faces looking down at you as you sit on some lowly folding chair, a position of weakness, no doubt, so a couple of years back I started work on retrofitting one of those military rocket desks for civilian use.

So yeah, I’ll be there, doing my usual convention thing, signing, mumbling, eventually regretting not dishing out the extra cash for the defensive cannons on the rocket desk.

Even though I’m there with the TopatoCo guys, they themselves are ashamed of me and have banished me to the SIGNING AREA C (dramatic echo effect), where dreams go to shit themselves and die.

Friday

Signing Area 1

6:00-7:30pm

 

Saturday

Signing Area 2

1:30-3:30pm

6:00-7:00pm

 

Sunday

Signing Area 2

12:30-2:30pm

4:00-5:00pm

 

If you have trouble finding it just follow the sound of my haunted cries.

I’m also on two panels this year, one where it’s just me and then another with the guys from Titmouse Studios. You can skip the one with just me so I can catch up on some sleep but don’t miss the Titmouse one.

MY PANEL – Saturday – Hall A at 12:30 P.M.

TITMOUSE PANEL – Saturday  – Hall B at 5:10 P.M.

I’ll keep ya updated as things like special con-only mini prints come up.

 

 

 

 

 

Randy Cunningham’s Title Sequence

Part of my year was spent doing character designs for a show for Disney XD.  Every time I tell people that they freak out about the Disney part of that story, but there’s some pretty great design design stuff happening on that channel, and a lot of it is thanks to the guys at Titmouse Animation.  Titmouse was who I dealt with, actually, and I never really had any direct involvement with anyone from Disney so my hands are clean of any mouse droppings.

Anyhow, my involvement was in designing the main cast and then I followed up with a ton of creature designs that I’m guessing would show up in a second season.  Mostly I did conceptual work that looked somewhat less like the stuff of mine people are used to from ZIM, but the end result ended up being pushed more towards that familiar look. At some point I should post some of what I drew so you could see the differences.

My favorite thing about the finished product, however, is the fantastic title sequence directed by Kevin Dart and produced by Passion pictures.  It’s way more it’s own thing, more of a hybrid of things that are clearly mine but in the hands of someone that’s just working their highly distinctive magic with it.  When working with animators, there are times when I’m happiest seeing someone not just aping what they THINK is my style, when something unique and interesting results from them taking it a direction it’s not been seen in.

I had never met Kevin before, but I was a fan of his artwork, and the first thing I did after watching the show was email him to say thanks for his part in it.  It’s still one of the best feelings designing some elements that then get handled by people who make it do shit you never imagined.

 

Les Miserables Invaders.

So I had a day one at Invadercon, but this post won’t be my usual detailing of the events (I’ll save that for a future post, maybe).  This post is more about how my signings have worked out.

The way a lot of these conventions work out is that people charge for autographs and such, softens the blow of sitting and risking all manner of anal deformities resulting from being on one’s ass all day.  It’s a dangerous life, sitting for a living!  It’s just the way it goes and that’s cool.

I’ve never charged for autographs, though, so we had to figure something out for this particular convention since the standard practice there was artists being compensated in some way!  What I ended up doing was a pretty nice screen print for a select number of fans who shelled out a little more than the price of a standard ticket in return for some extra goodies.  That way the convention guys pay me for doing the print but I’m still not charging everyone to get an autograph!

So yesterday – and I don’t know why I didn’t really realize this was how it would work come signing time – I found myself signing ONLY for the people that bought those magic tickets!  My Jewish guilt kicked in immediately (I’m not Jewish but I have a lot of Jewish friends and they breath on me a lot) and I felt like a bunch of people showed up at the convention and weren’t able to access my laughably terrible scrawl all over their belongings.

Basically, I’m hoping to be able to sign as much stuff as I can for everyone today, the last day of this convention.  People traveled from crazy places of the world to be here and it seems wrong to deny them the joy I just can’t help but spread.  With great power comes great something something.  If you’re attending the convention and don’t have a pass, cross your sweaty fingers and please don’t touch me with them.

 

INVADERCON Screen Prints

These INVADERCON screen prints showed up earlier, delivered to me by a shadowy figure around midnight, the way most of my stuff shows up.

I designed these for the INVADERCON hootenanny happening this weekend, and after I sign them they’ll end up in the probably sticky hands of the 200 people whose hands were SO sticky that only these industrial strength, screen-printed hand-wipes could cut through the grime.

I’m pretty happy with how the things turned out, and the thick chipboard paper stock gives them some serious heft.  Mama’s Sauce printing did a damn fine job on these.

Like I said, these aren’t so much for sale as already sold, but the owners are only flesh and blood, right?  You get what I’m saying!