HALLOWEEN PICTURES

I have a small but well-loved collection of funny Halloween masks, which I keep year 'round along the top of some book shelves in my living room. I was hoping I could add one mask a year to the shelves but most years there are no good funny masks and I have to make do with what I've already got. 

This year I don't know what to think. I like the middle-aged man mask with the red nose and white glasses (above), I just don't know if I like it enough to give it a place of honor on the shelf. I mean I could get the cheesy Smith Brothers beard with the penile nose (above) instead. I know that would fit in. Then again living rooms are supposed to be tasteful. But then...well, I'll think about it.



BTW, how do you like the cardboard crescent moon with the black cat on its nose (somewhere above)? The guy who designed that is my hero. He made it possible for kids to own something funny and beautifully designed for the price of a candy bar! I also like the poster of the pumpkin on the stairs.

The hanging pumpkin with the teeth is really well done but it probably costs a fortune! I don't see the point in making Halloween things that kids can't afford. Some people want to turn Halloween into a kind of adult Mardi Gras. That'll be fun for us but it'll cut the kids out. Do we really want to do that?

PUNCH-UPS

When I did "Tales of Worm Paranoia" I hired a dialogue specialist (Mark Schirmeister) to help me punch up the dialogue. Thanks to Mark I got "...from the lowest protozoan crawling on his belly in the lowlands, to the great speckled trout that leaps in pristine, crystalline lakes in the uplands (sorry I repeat these lines so often). " When I hired Mark I was only doing what live action producers routinely did in the big studio era. They brought in specialists to punch up every aspect of film making. 

There were action, romance, comedy and lighting specialists just to name a few. These people didn't do the whole film, just the parts that lent itself to what they do well. Today advertising still follows this practice. A beer commercial will call in a glass photography specialist to film the close-up where the beer pours into the mug. That seems perfectly natural to me. 

The question I'd like to pose here is, why doesn't the animation industry follow this practice?

One of the differences between classic animated features and present-day ones is that modern features are almost completely devoid of imaginative set pieces. Dumbo had the "Roustabouts", "Casey Jr.", and "Pink Elephants. " Where are the modern equivalents? What happened? If modern studios have trouble conceiving of stuff like this then why don't they seek help outside the studio? Why don't TV artists working on serious shows run their comedy sequences past outside comedy specialists and visa versa?

The audience doesn't want to see the best that a particular unit can produce, it wants to see the best that possibly can be created, no matter who does it. My advice to both TV and feature producers is to build time into the schedule to run some of the finished scripts and storyboards past appropriate specialists for a punch-up.

I FOUND IT! MY DAUGHTER"S NECK HAIR DRAWING!!!

OK, based on this drawing (click to enlarge) I claim that my daughter "owns" neck hairs! If you've got a better neck hair drawing put it up now or forever hold your peace!

I may as well add that the original title of this drawing, emblazoned with marker over the top of the page, was "Hi! My name is Eddie! I am fat!"



Hmmm... this post seems a little sparse. Here's (above) a couple of photos to bulk it up, and a pithy caption to accompany them: "Scrumptious tongue mystery hat!!!! Noodle stretching putty service....tomahawk?"

Satisfied?

ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CARTOONS I'VE EVER SEEN!

Saturday night I saw what may be the most beautiful short cartoon made in the last 50 years! I refer to a rock video called "Classico"; song by Tenacious D, cartoon byJohn Kricfalusi. I can't begin to describe how gorgeous this film is. John kicked off the color revolution in TV cartoons years ago with the "New Adventures of Mighty Mouse," and the industry's been cruising on that advance for years. Now John's in a tinkering mood again and he's come up with something new, which I'll call hyper-color until somebody thinks of a better name.

I can't be too specific because I don't have a copy of the cartoon to study. Nobody does but don't worry. It'll be all over the net soon to promote Jack Black's new film,"Tenacious D."

The film is full of interesting techniques including frequent use of multiple background changes within the same scene; rich, saturated colors using what may be a "glaze" technique contrasted with flat pastels with the effect heightened by skillfully timed cuts; simulated multiplane effects; a new way of using FLASH; and most importantly, a deep understanding of how the right kind of line, shape, movement and cutting enhances color. And did I mention the hilarious gags and way-cool animation? What a colossal achievement!

HIPPIE CARD GAME

I used to have a hippie friend who was a frequent shopper at the local "head" shop. One day he asked me to play a card game he just bought. I asked what the rules were and he said, "That's just it, man! There are no rules!!!!! No fascist telling you how to play! No CIA dictating your life! This is a game for the PEOPLE!" 

He dumped out the cards and I swear they were just random pictures of things just like the pictures you see on this page. No numbers, no suites, no duplicates, just pictures. I spent two excruciating hours trying to "play" this game. My friend was happy as a bug playing with his glass of milk and chocolate chip cookies beside him. Me? I'm wondering if we should petition the fascists to re-involve themselves with the card game industry.

EXAMINING TEETH

Every set of teeth I've ever paid attention to seems to have a story to tell. Take the teeth on top. At first glance they seem normal enough but look a little closer. First of all there's a slight overbite but maybe that's normal so we'll let it slide. Then there's the two perfect front teeth. That's unusual all by itself because you rarely find absolutely perfect front teeth. All the stranger then that the chisel tooth next to them seems to be lonely and is inclined to hug the perfect bucks. The fang is shamefully wimpy. It's an accountant's fang, not a vampire's. You could argue that all the remaining teeth on the top are wimpy fangs. Nature has equipped this man to savagely rip into tuna fish sandwiches and Cup O' Noodles.

The teeth on the bottom row are OK except the snooty teeth in the back seem to have elevated themselves above their friends.
The teeth above are all over the place. Some face outwards, some inwards. The chisel teeth aren't even on the same level but seem to be an incline. It's hard to imagine why nature would produce teeth like this. I suppose this man is specialized to eat the tapered end of corn. The two front teeth curve down and inward like spider teeth. The noble bottom teeth join together to resist the goofy onslaught from above. If I had to guess this man's occupation I'd say...mmmm...professional corn-husker adept at picking out weevils with his teeth.

Aaaagghh!!!! Blogger's dropped the rest of my teeth pictures! I guess I'm only allowed two photos tonight! I'll pick this up again later.

MORE MIKE FONTANELLI

Sorry I cut off Power Weasel's feet. My scanner has a small platten.

FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE: MORE MIKE FONTANELLI!

SOME UNCLE EDDIE PHOTOS

I'm kinda busy tonight so I'll have to put up Mike's pictures tomorrow. I think you'll find it worth the wait. Meanwhile here's some Uncle Eddie photos taken in the backyard of my first house. John needed some pictures so he could try to sell me to TV as a cartoon show host.

THE REMARKABLE MIKE FONTANELLI

It's about time I paid tribute to a terrific artist and a good friend, Mike Fontanelli. Mike is an awesome character designer, a phenominal writer and gag-man, an ace director, a hilarious caricaturist and a legendary oogler of women. The designs on this page were done for Tiny Toons, which was his first character design gig. In other words he did these drawings when he was raw, almost right out of the starting gate. He's even better (and much thinner) now but I don't have his recent work at hand so these will have to do.
Mike grew up in Brooklyn and went to the School of Visual Arts where he studied with Will Eisner. After SVA Mike got a job in a New York book store while he tried to figure out what to do next. While there he did some free drawings for a small-circulation fan magazine which somehow made its way to Los Angeles where Bruce Timm saw it and showed it to John K. John immediately called him and offered him a job. He even offered to pay his plane fare out to LA. The rest is history. Boy, it pays to get published, even in small venues! You never know who might be watching!

This drawing of Buster Bunny (above) is an interesting one for a couple of reasons. Look how happy and energetic it is! It just oozes charisma and appeal! And take a look at the clean-up line. The thick-and-thin is exquisite! Then there's the bear with human feet below. Now all these years later Mike is a rich, ascoted bachleor living with his cheetah and fine art collection high atop a penthouse in Beverly Hills. Really, Mike is carried around everywhere by an army of naked butlerettes. We still eat pizza together but his tasters have to have the first bite. OK, I'm exagerrating just a bit.

WHY ANIME SUCCEEDS

When I first got into the industry I was really impressed by some of the animatics I saw. I remember thinking, "Gee, you don't need to animate some of this stuff! The story is interesting even without animation! And without animation there'd be more time and money to make the drawings really good!" I remembered how much I liked "Crusader Rabbit" when I was a little kid and that was nothing more than a Leica reel. "Roger Ramjet" and "Astro Boy" confirmed the idea.

Of course the biggest advantage of animatic films like anime isn't the low cost or even the potential for better drawings. The biggest advantage is that having no animation forces the filmmaker to look for other ways to make the film interesting. Even the least imaginative animatic makers are likely to consider drawings with drastic angles and stories with a Sergio Leone sensibility. Animatic producers tend to be more aggressive in their search for new ideas and audience-pleasing techniques. With no animation they have to be! You've gotta hand it to them, the animatic people made an asset out of a liability and generated a whole industry (anime) centered around animated films without much animation.

So how does the rest of the animation industry compete with this? It seems to me that the natural way to compete with innovative still drawings is to create innovative moving drawings. That's what John did with "Naked Beach Frenzy," possibly the funniest cartoon made in the last half century. Funny moving drawings require a new way of writing stories. The stories actually have to be funny and they have to lend themselves to the type of humor that funny artists like to draw. Good plots may be less important than good opportunities for funny drawings. Well, it's a big subject and there's no space to cover it here.

Following the lead of anime, it would be nice if cartoons containg funny movement would be cheaper to make. Sometimes I toy with the idea of making cheap, pencil test cartoon shorts. I don't know how often I've heard studio people say things like, "Well it was a lot funnier in the pencil test" or "You should have seen the pencil test!" The fact is that pencil tests are almost always far, far more funny and gutsy than the finished film they're subordinated to. The only problem comes with trying to color them. How do you put color on lines that are all over the place?

SOME ROCK & ROLL FACES

I wish I could remember the name of the library book I got these pictures from. Maybe it was a history of rock & Roll. Anyway, what do you think of them? I love the picture of the Jitterbug musicians on top. Is that Duke Ellington on the left? No, it couldn't be, he'd be older. The guy on the right is surely one of the happiest people ever captured by photography. I know how he feels. It's a great feeling to get some drastic new threads! Other musicians and vocalists (below) include Louis Jordan, Nathaniel Mayer, Little Richard and...who are those 70s guys?

THOUGHTS ABOUT ANIME

You don't need a crystal ball to see that anime is poised to make a big impact on the American market, even bigger than it's made so far. Somewhere down the line someone will make the breakthrough anime that'll push Disney and Pixar off the map. It's only a matter of time.

Me, I'm not an anime fan. I know there's been some good stuff done in that medium but there's also an awful, awful lot of kitch. I mean big, hulking mountains of it! All the cute girls with gigantic, cute Bambi eyes, cute and oh so precious hairstyles, and cute little outfits with cute little boots... Cute! Cute! Cute! Even the guys are cute! Man, I'm getting a sugar overdose here!
And how do you like anime plots ? "Ganzu, the cute princess of cutania must get the power ring back that was stolen by Power lad and his Power Pals. A fight ensues with Power Lad shooting power beams at the cute girls and their cute, fuzzy little animal friends. Eventually Power Lad and his Power Pals realize the've been manipulated by the evil Ganzuni. Another power beam fight ensues with the cute forces in beautiful outfits joining with the powerful Power Pals (also in cute outfits and hairstyles) against Ganzuni. The good guys win. " Aaaaarggghh!!!!!

BTW, I didn't draw the picture of power Lad and his Powerful Beams of Power above.

GWEETINGTH FINE ART LOVERTH!

Can you guess who did these nudes?