Friday Freak Sergio Argonés

During my first year at the Kubert school, Sergio Argonés came to speak.
One of the greatest people I have ever met. His talk was so funny, as he's telling us about doing cartoons in Mexico and coming to America, barely able to speak English, just really funny stuff.
We were all in the Animation Trailer, ( this was back at the old location on Myrtle Drive. I think it's student housing now), and Joe Kubert was there because he and Sergio were old friends.
Sergio was busting Joe's chops about how expensive the school was because Joe liked to buy new cars.
At the end of his talk, Sergio did sketches for us. I was constantly drawing rats, ( this was before "Secret of Nimh" came out), and I asked him to draw a rat for me.
Look at this sketch. Completely loose, and not over worked, yet he still captured a mood, making the viewer wonder what this rat is up to.
Two more things. One, he whipped this out in less than a minute, without penciling anything, while using a Sharpie.
Two, he did over 100 sketches, in this sort of detail, for everybody there, and not once did he ask for a drawing back because he didn't do a good job and wanted a mulligan.
Not like some of the Prima donnas you run into at some of the comic conventions around the country.
You know who I'm talking about......
On a sad note, during Sergio's talk, a third year student came into the trailer and told us all that Wally Wood had died.

New Jersey's Best #6

When I lived in New Jersey, I used to do some t-shirt design work for WDHA in Dover, NJ.
I can't remember the station manager's name, but he was a good guy.
Anyhow, they would put out an album of home grown rock, with a contest for the album cover that was open to anyone.
I always submitted covers, but never won. The closest I ever came was when my room mate,
Pete Callahan, won with a really cool concept. Imagine a geologist's work station, with a magnifying glass, rock samples, all kinds of stuff.
So for the sixth album, I turned in this idea. I don't have the finished piece, just this rough.
The station called me a few days after I turned this in, and said that if I wanted to be part of the contest, I had to turn in a different cover.
They didn't want this sort of imagery. They liked it, but it was dead in the water.
Oh well....

Brainy Bob

Just a quick sketch of a left over character design.

Finally Friday Freak

Last week I was contacted by a potential client regarding me drawing monsters for a web application. The idea was very cool, and certainly right up my alley.
I gave him my price for the designs, and haven't heard anything yet.
Oh well....it was a fair price, but then again I don't know what his budget was.
All I do know is that if you pay peanuts, you get to work with monkeys.
That being said, I drew up a cute little Cthulhu ( H. P. Lovecraft, great reading!), and this will take us into the weekend.
Have a great one!

The Love Boat

I created this quick animation for the Toronto Animated Image Society.
The parameters of the short were that it had to be :10 seconds in length, and the subject matter was monsters.
I tried to come up with an idea, but I just didn't have the time to create the animation and still make the deadline. ( I did this in an afternoon).
So, I recycled a gag that I did for Dragon Magazine, and punched it up.
This version is actually :30 seconds long. I think this length works better with the storytelling and pacing, without feeling padded.
Click on the Viking ship, and enjoy!

" Global Warming is Your Fault! "

This is an animation I created for the May 26 ASIFA-ATLANTA " Roll Yer Own " independent animation show.
Here is the quick version of how I made it::
I was wrapping up work on some Compass animations, and checked the ASIFA-ATLANTA website.
Imagine my surprise when I saw that the " Roll Yer Own " deadline was a week away, ( I checked the site on Tuesday, the 22. The deadline to submit was April 30th).
I finished all of my work on that Saturday night., while trying to come up with an idea.
Things just popped into my head, and I created this animation that Sunday afternoon.
A few more details:
The car featured is my Hyundai Excel. I still miss it!
As for the polar bear, I am still trying to puzzle that out. As I was watching the Discovery Channel,
the Planet Earth series, I saw a polar bear try to eat a walrus. He crept up on a bunch of these fat seals, sprawled out on the rocky beach, catching some sun.
I thought the bear would make short work of a walrus....WRONG!!!!!!!
The walrus was a stone cold killer. Before the polar bear knew what was happening, it was stabbed with those two to three foot long tusks at least 8 times, leaving the wounded bear to bleed to death as the walruses, (walrusi?), went back to their loafing.
Later on that same show, I saw a polar bear dive into a hole in the ice, and drag out an adult Beluga whale, which it ate.
So, polar bears...delicate creatures on the brink of extinction...or cuddly looking maniacs just waiting for you to let your guard down?
Hope you enjoy my tongue-in-cheek public service message.

TagBoard

I had a feature on this blog that would allow people to post messages to me. It was called
" Tagboard " and it worked great. My relatives, friends, and people who just liked my site would use it.
Well, I removed it because some jerks posted a link to a porn site/ virus carrier link.
I don't want anyone who visits my site to become infected.
That's why I monitor the comments before I allow them to be posted.
Keep your eyes open and update your security software frequently!