Happy October! I love this time of year, it get's cooler outside, leaves change,
monster movies show up on AMC....
To start things off, from last year I present one of my most popular monsters.
" Meatballs" is a favorite movie of mine. Maybe it's because I had learned all of my romantic techniques from the Bill Murray character. Maybe it's because of the clunky acting, or that bushel of hair on top of Christopher Makepeace's head. Or maybe, it's this scene from the movie that still cracks me up. Let's join the campers around their fire..."I remember a night like this a few years ago. A guy and a girl went out driving.It was one of their first dates.It started out kind of casual, but they ended up deciding to go park.
Not too far from here, as a matter of fact.
They're going at it, listening to the radio.
All of a sudden, a news bulletin broke in:
'Dangerous lunatic has escaped... from the
hospital for the criminally insane at Two Pines'.""Oh, come on, Trip.""They described him as a monster, six and a half feet tall,
280 pounds... with one horrible,distinguishing feature... a sharpened, stainless steel hook...""Oh, God.""...Where his right hand used to be.
That was enough for the guy. He slammed the car into gear,
floored it, bounced off a tree... didn't stop till they gotto the girl's house.
Got out of his side, walked around to hers.
There, hanging in the door, covered with blood... was a stainless steel hook.The strangest part is that after all these years...
after the biggest manhunt in Two Pines' history...
they never found the killer.
Some people say he's still up here in the woods...
waiting for the chance to kill again.
And I say... I say they're right! "Then, the classic wrap-up to this scene:
"That's a bullshit story.""You guys, it's true. I heard it before."
"I heard it was on a beach.""Yeah."
" I heard it happened in a park."
" I heard it, but the guy was missing a foot."
"How could the guy have a hook on his foot?"
So, today's monster, with Hook On Foot, is the Twin Pines Lunatic!
( click on the beast to get a better view )Today in Douglasville, Georgia, the city council is having a vote on banning pitbulls.
My opinion is that you must be a complete moron to own one of these dogs.
Spare me the ..." I had one growing up and it was the sweetest blah blah blah..."
I don't care.
Here is the link to the story:
Douglasville to vote on ban for pit bulls tonight
I worked on an animated version of this book, " No More Pacifiers " last year.
I was given the layered Photoshop files, and from those I had to separate the
characters, backgrounds, etc., and then animate those elements in Flash.
After the animation was finished, the company I was working with would then
compile the files in After Effects to export everything to a DVD.
It was an unbelievable learning experience.
In fact, thanks to my experience with this project, I have been able to work
on other projects like this, where the client wants his original artwork used in the animation.
Click on this link to watch the first scene.
I agree. It's all about the branding, the name. It's image, not content or message, that
will turn out the voters.
Oh well....
(Click on the image for a larger view)
As always, click on the image for a better view.
I took this picture from Ellis Island in August of 1992. It was a Friday and my family,
parents, brother and sister, and their kids, were having a great time exploring .
In the foreground, you see the bronze plates that have the names of the families that first passed through Ellis Island to start their lives in America.
Fast forward to Tuesday, September 11, 2001, and the Twin Towers became something else besides a backdrop in movies such as Moonstruck, or in my photo.
You can meet all sorts of great people on the internet,( thanks for inventing it, Al Gore!).
A very talented cartoonist, Joie Simmons, has created a comic strip called "The Aliens".
He had posted on one of the cartooning sites I go to, Digital Webbing, that he needed a colorist.
So, I colored a few sample strips, and we hit it off.
Pictured here is Bob.
Click on the image to see the strip.
