I had a great Saturday! For one thing I got to hand out the coveted Theory Corner "Percy" Award, named for Percy Dovetonsils. The Percy, for those who've forgotten, is an award for excellence in comedic animation by a student in the LA area. This time it went to a really funny guy, Mike Pelensky (above) at the Laguna School of Art and Design. Will somebody please hire this man?
Incidentally, if you're not familiar with that school, you will be. The new leadership takes animation very seriously, and they're located near a spot so beautiful that you'll think you're on the French Riviera.
It's a pleasure to look at Mike's work. The guy has a knack, no doubt about it. He also has some of the world's nicest parents.
Here's the Percy (above) as it is now. Later versions will include a gold frame around a somewhat smaller Percy Dovetonsils, and cartoony white writing near the base.
Later in the day I made arrangements with a friend to pick up my copy (above) of the new IDW Mad Magazine book.
Here's (above) one of the inside covers.
If some of the pages look yellow that's because the originals photographed for the book turned yellow with age. Speaking as a collector, I value that. I also value the printer's notes, white out splotches, and coffee stains. The pages here are the same size and state as the originals.
Later that night I went over John's to watch the latest UFC fight. Wooooow! If you tuned in then you saw what the announcer called the best kick delivered in the history of the UFC.
Before going to bed I took a close-up picture of my face in the bathroom mirror. I feel silly for posting this, especially since it calls attention to what looks like a really bad shave and to skin covered with mange. What I like about this picture is the inherent drama in close wide angle facial shots. Geez, what you can accomplish with ordinary snapshot cameras these days is nothing short of miraculous!
6 comments:
Beautiful, jaw dropping drawings! I'm so happy that you had a great weekend and got to meet some good talent too. Mike Pelensky is no stranger to the Blogosphere himself.
http://mikepelensky.blogspot.com/
He seems like a pretty damn good cartoonist to me. Maybe I'll someday get to do storyboards with my own talent, but right now, it seems like a pipe dream until I've worked in other kinds of jobs to sustain myself. You've already seen my stuff, so you're familiar with why I think storyboarding would be suited best for me.
As for my weekend, I decided to check out this show called Breaking Bad on Netflix and I've been hooked. Every episode that I've seen thus far is worthy of an A- or higher.
Currently, I'm on the second episode of the second season. The only characters I don't like are Walter White's mentally retarded son and that annoying wife of his named Skyler.
Otherwise, the show is jam packed with action, compelling characters, and some funny dialogue here and there just like with Sherlock. AMC, HBO, Shotime and FX seem to be leading the way for exciting, original content while the more standard networks seem to be content with recycling old ideas, especially for sitcoms. House of Cards also looks like a show that I'd really like and possibly Hemlock Grove.
This show also really makes me want to check out stuff like Mad Men, The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, and Sons of Anarchy. I wish I had known more about all these shows years ago, but I kinda stopped watching television regularly starting sometime in 2011 with the exception of shows like Louie and occasionally the news channels. Netflix has given me so many interesting suggestions that I've been checking them all out.
Only reason that I didn't really have Netflix until recently, or at least the streaming service, is because my old Toshiba Satellite laptop's cooling system absolutely sucked and it would have been much harder to play videos on there without it overheating. Thankfully this computer I'm using now that I got back in January can handle that sort of streaming stuff.
Eddie: Thank you so much for the kind words! Again, we are so glad you could make it to LCAD to see our cartoons. Sorry for closing my eyes in the photo. I suppose that could pass for bliss. Thanks also for forcing me to look up Percy Dovetonsils and other clips of Ernie Kovacs. The bit at the beginning of "Ode to a Book Worm," where he suddenly tries to look serious in front of the audience, made me lose it.
The MAD book looks extraordinary... I should check if the school library could use a copy!
Roberto: Thanks for your compliments as well. I wish you the best of luck with a storyboarding gig, and I salute your screwball slant (seeing your stuff on Scrawnycartoons).
Mike: I thought I recognized the style in the example Eddie posted! I'm a regular visitor of your 'Cartoons of a dangerous mind' blog. A hearty conguratation on the much coveted 'Percy'!
Eddie: I'd watch the 'Percy' awards every year.
Roberto: You don't like Skyler from breaking bad? She's the most gorgeous TV mom since...who knows!
Woowoo, Ngyeh Ngyeh!
Nice work, Mike! Reminds me of John K and some of the early (more inspired, looser) Nelvana. Hopefully there will be a studio or other opportunity for you soon!
Joshua, I personally think Marie is much more attractive and wonderfully naive and stupid. They are somehow able to pull that combination off very well. Skyler's not bad looking, but I'm not a fan of her passive aggressive, fickle tendencies or how she's fallen out with Walt so many times and made his job much more difficult. There's even a page on Facebook called "I Hate Skyler White" with over 6000 likes, so I'm hardly the only one to notice.
She's like an amalgamation and caricature of all the worst girls that I've ever met in real life, so I think that's another huge reason why I absolute can't stand her. The clip of her saying "shut up" in season 5 summarizes what I feel about her. I have nothing against the actress playing her, because it seems like she does her job well and does exactly what the directors tell her to do. I just don't like the character. AMC programs tend to have some type of super unlikable woman playing a main character. I heard Walking Dead and Mad Men do the same thing. It's like the modern incarnation of the battleaxe character.
That Mad Artist's Edition is wonderful. The margin paste-ups when the art was repurposed for the Mad Super Specials are my only gripe as it took me out of the 1950s and into 1979. That's a small gripe. I shouldn't have even mentioned it!
Other than Mad I also have Artist's Editions of Jack Davis/EC, Wally Wood EC and The Spirit. I consider selling them off because the size makes it hard to enjoy while keeping a five-year old at bay. I just don't have enough quiet time to set up a reading space for savoring the art.
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