Thursday, May 30, 2013

A DC COMICS GUIDE WITH STYLE


I gots a lotsa books:


Not like
gots books:


But I got books.

Like these:

WAIT, 
WHAT'S THAT UP TOP?

Oh, that?

That's
THIS:


The 1982 DC Comics
Style Guide.

I found it in a used-book store
in White Plains
many moons ago.

For ten bucks!

I KNOW, RIGHT?!?

RIGHT?!


For those not familiar,
a style-guide
is given to licensees
to set a standard for how characters are to be drawn.
A licensee can either use
the artwork right out of the book
to put on t-shirts, keychains, mugs, etc,
or use them as model sheets for their 
own artists to create new art.
(although that artwork has to be approved
by the company creating the style guide)

The artwork in
this guide was created by
the mighty
who knows a thing or 
two hundred thousand
about drawing comic books.

UPDATE
there's a comment below claiming
that Mr. Perez only did the Teen Titans section 
and the rest was drawn by




Being from the early eighties,
it's a bit dated:



Here's an example of Lois nowadays:


 I know, right?

Anyway,
the binder is filled with
really fun 
and
cheesy
stuff:












 Such an awesome score.

But to be completely honest...
I've always been a
Marvel
guy.


Monday, May 27, 2013

SCORE: ORIGINAL BRUCE TIMM SKETCH!



You know me.
I'm not shy.
I'll go up and ask
ANYONE
to draw me a picture.

But I'm not quite sure why I
never asked this guy:


Uh-huh.
The man that
re-invented 
the sooper hero
cartoon when he created
Batman: The Animated Series.
He made a show that was
ART
instead of just a 
toy commercial
(which was unheard of at the time)

When I came to LA 
to make my first pilot for 
Cartoon Network
I used to see Mr. Timm sitting outside
the building doodling in his sketchbook.

I always wanted to introduce myself
 but I never did.
So I never got a drawing from him.

UNTIL LAST WEEK!

My kids' school had their annual soopergiant 
silent auction
and look what was there:




PERFECT!

AMAZING!

GORGEOUS!

AND
NO
ONE
WAS
BIDDING
ON
IT
!!!!!!

So I got this 
original marker sketch
of
Harley Quinn 
for
NOT
a million dollars...

NOT
$200,000...

But
forty bucks.

$40!

What fools 
these mortals be.

In other news,
if you wanna learn more about
Bruce Timm 
and his work,
this book is
kinda awesome:


Thursday, May 23, 2013

THE SECRET CHAPTER OF THE HUMAN DIVISION

So as I mentioned in
I got to hang out with
Hugo Award winning
sci-fi author
ninja
mallet of loving correction
wielding
John Scalzi
while he was in town
promoting
this:


Which is the 
fifth sequel to
this:


But
was published a little differently
than the others.
Once a week,
from 
January 15th
to
April 9th
a new chapter
was released digitally
for
99 cents.

And every Tuesday,
for 13 weeks,
I parked myself at my favorite
with a spicy
burrito Massiel
con pollo,
a Jarritos soda
and 
a chapter of 
awesomeness.

But now it's over
and
Tuesdays feel kinda
empty.

Fortunately,
Mr. Scalzi has announced
that he'll be writing a follow up to
The Human Division.
But that's
SO FAR AWAY!!!

So what did I do?
I asked him to 
write me 
five sentence
chapter
of 
The Human Division 
in my sketchbook.

AND HE DID!


The story is,
of course,
THRILLING
EXCITING
and
filled
with
AWESOME.

See?


Wait...

Look closer:


Yup.

This is perhaps
one of the 
coolest things
that has ever happened
to me.

THANK YOU,
MR. SCALZI!

FYI:
The
hardcover
edition of
The Human Division
is out 
NOW.

And please
shut up
and
go see
Mr. Scalzi







Monday, May 20, 2013

SCALZI AND ME

You know I love me some


And you know I love me some


So the other day whilst
Felicia was recording
Angela for 
Fish Hooks:


We somehow hit on the subject of 
Mr. Scalzi,
whom she is good friends with.
I let slip that I had never actually met him in person
but had indeed made his

Shocked that we hadn't met,
Felicia immediately texted John
to see if he wanted to swing by the recording studio
since he just so happened to be in town promoting
this:


(more on that later)

Mr. Scalzi couldn't make it
but asked if I wanted to drive down to 
Redondo Beach and hang out
before his
book signing.

Um...

...

...

YES!

And hang we did!
We chatted about all nature of things
for a sooper long time
(books, KND, movies, stoopid people, etc)
and as expected,
he's a really
sooper
nice,
smart
and
FUNNY
guy!

He even bought me
a bottle of water!
(he had a diet Mexican soda)

And eventually
 it was time for his reading.


Mr. Scalzi read a chapter from
The Human Division...


And a brilliant
must-read
post from his long-running
blog
called


But what was the
bestest
best
part
of meeting
Mr. Scalzi?

When he wrote me
my very own
chapter of 
in my 
sketchbook:


But ima 
save 
THAT
for 
my next post!




Thursday, May 16, 2013

FISH PROM IS ON!

Did you go to 
PROM?

I didn't.

I took the train into downtown 
Philadelphia to skateboard
and buy punk rock records
like these:



To be honest, 
I don't feel like I missed 
anything.

But I would have
TOTALLY
MISSED
OUT
on
prom
if it had 
been like
THIS:


That's right!
The 
FISH HOOKS
season two
finale
is this
Friday
night
May 17th
at
9:30/8:30c

Getcha
fancies
on
and 
WATCH!

Monday, May 13, 2013

VOICE ACTING WITH DAVE WITTENBERG

This is what happens when you ask
sooper-pro
voice actor
singer
dancer
Tap Out tee shirt model
DAVE WITTENBERG
(Kakashi, Numbuh 74.239)
what it would sound like if he was 
giving online voice acting
lessons:
That is all.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

DON'T LET THE PIGEON BRITISH THIS ACTIVITY BOOK!

Look what I just 
got in the mail:


I know...
you're all like,

ANOTHER
copy of

WHATEVS, 
Mr. W.

But 
NO!
This is 
DIFFERENT!

This is the
BRITISH
edition of
Don't Let The Pigeon
Finish This Activity Book!

And
HOW
different is it?

Well, it's by a
TOTALLY
different
publisher:


And they totally spell words funny!
Like
COLOR:


and
FAVORITE:


and
AIRPLANE:


And
PRACTICING:


Which is cool.
They do that kinda stuff in the UK.

But then I saw
THIS:


And I was like...
YUH-OH!!!
They didn't fit the page right!

But in the back pocket
of the book
was
THIS:



Now
THAT'S
different!

A little
pigeon also told me
there might be a
KOREAN
edition in the works, too!

Can't wait to see 
THAT!

Monday, May 6, 2013

MIXING IT UP

Fish Hooks Creative Director's Log
Fishdate: April 29, 2013

Every two weeks we board the 
starship: 
to mix an episode of 
Fish Hooks.


General Maxwell Atoms and I 
immediately head to the bridge
of the ship where
and 
await us.


Communications Officer Huy Luong
is also there ready to make sure
everything happens on schedule:


As you can see,
the bridge has many buttons and dials 
to get us where we need to go:


Mixing the audio for a show involves
three things:

DIALOGUE

MUSIC

SOUND EFFECTS
(this includes FOLEY which we talked about over HERE)

But if all three of these things 
are played at the same volume
at the same time,
all you'd here
is a 
MESS!


So it's Melissa and Fil's job
to ride the volume up and down
so the dialogue is crisp and clear,
the music is driving the action,
and the SFX are accenting the right points
all without drowning each other out.

It's no small task.

That's why there are
snacks and cookies:


General Burton and I watch the two episodes
Melissa and Fil have mixed
and take notes.


We ask for some dialogue to be clearer...

For some music to be softer...
(or completely removed)

Some monkey SFX added here.
A fart added there.

And then we watch the shows
AGAIN
only this time over 
small computer speakers.

Why?

Because not everyone has an 
eleventy billion dollar sound system 
like the 
Starship: Advantage Audio.
Most people have a regular TV
with regular speakers.
And we wanna make sure
Fish Hooks
sounds great on
EVERYONE'S
TV!

I heard a story that Ric Ocasek of The Cars
used to transfer all his songs to cassette tape 
and then listen to them in his car
before approving the mix...
because that's how most people
heard his music!


Troy Underwood,
our
Series Executive
from Disney Fleet Command
(not pictured for security purposes)
attends the small speaker pass
to give us another set of ears.


After the mix is done,
it's outputted and sent back to Disney
where we prepare the last and final step
of production:

PLAYBACK!

That's our one last
viewing to make sure
everything looks and sounds
PERFECT!

And now you know everything 
you need to know about mixing!

Captain Warburton,
out.