story of my life.

techno-cracked

i've been watching a lot of Flip the Frog cartoons lately, as they happen to be in a volume on netflix streaming called "forgotten cartoons," or something like that. the title is, sadly, appropriate. the volume i've been watching is all Ub Iwerks cartoons, mostly Flip the Frog and Willy Whopper. if you're like me, you probably never heard of Ub Iwerks or these characters, so i ended up looking him up, and i'm so glad i did.

Ub was a very talented artist, and was one of Walt Disney's oldest friends and collaborators. Iwerks came up with and animated the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney eventually lost to Universal and has been in news recently for being traded back to Disney. he also created lots of early Disney characters like Clairabelle Cow, and co-created Micky Mouse, as well as animating most early Disney cartoons himself.

eventually he and Disney had a falling out, mostly over his feeling overworked and receiving little credit, and he went on to start his own studio, and employed fresh young animators such as Chuck Jones. after his own studio folded, Iwerks went back to working for Disney where he animated, pioneered special effects such as the combination of live-action and animation in Song of the South, and even designed theme park attractions for Disney theme parks. he was also the animator behind one of my favorite cartoons of all time, The Skeleton Dance. i was amazed i had never known about this guy, or Flip the Frog.

Flip cartoons have a certain charm and punkish nature i find endearing, especially compared to Disney cartoons, or even Looney Tunes at the time. for example, in the cartoon pictured above, Flip takes refuge in a spooky old house in a storm, only to find it inhabited by a scary animate skeleton, who tries to force feed him chicken bones, watches him dance with a skeletal lady, then decides Flip's skeleton would be the perfect size to add to his collection of assorted sized skeletons, and goes about trying to extract it with a large knife. in another, Flip tries to sneak out on his hotel bill in the middle of night, and in the ensuing chase with the hotel owner and a policeman, he keeps catching peeps at a shapely lady getting out of the shower (awesomely, when she catches the policeman peeping in her keyhole, she stabs him in the eye with a hat pin!). i'm a little sad that Flip was slid under the rug for so long, but glad that collections like this are bringing him back to a wide audience (including me!).

as i started watching these classic cartoons, i began to wonder what shaped them; as animation is an almost limitless medium, and these people were pioneering new frontier here, why were they so similar and formulaic? i understand that there was probably some meddling going on here from the top, like this is what sold and what people wanted to see, so make more of this, type of thing. but who started it all? why do inanimate objects suddenly spring to life? why is everything so round, jolly, bug-eyed and prone to whistling? why does everyone have noodly appendages and a penchant for sight gags? i was surprised to learn that it was all almost completely because of Iwerks. his style was what pretty much all animation aspired to be afterward.

i also find it interesting that Iwerks' cartoons were an influence for Osamu Tezuka, who saw them soon after World War II. so, in a way, Iwerks also had a hand in shaping the style of anime!

i know Iwerks is well known in many circles, but he and his work were new to me as an amateur animation enthusiast, so i thought i'd share how this little discovery has blown my mind.

mañana

new page 12...i redrew panel 4 because of various problems, mostly to clarify storytelling...hopefully it helped!

here's a bunch of little sticky notes sketches of some of the Dinogeddon cast i did at work today...it was pretty fun.

i realize they're mostly terrible, but i was thinking about doing some kind of giveaway or little contest thing with them? would anyone be into that? it would be more fun than just throwing them away. like i said, i know they're not great, and they're just drawn on sticky notes with a blue pilot V-ball pen, which doesn't produce the best lines, but i just really like the way it feels. i drew Lupe with a new hairstyle i've never drawn her with before; i don't know if i like it.

shake

page 12

sour times

roar

finally finished another page. i know i'm super slow, but at this point it means a lot to me that i'm able to keep making comics at all. this page was quite a triumph for me with the mood i've been in lately.

this is probably my favorite page so far in terms of coloring :) and i actually simplified my coloring techniques a lot so i can be faster, but i actually like the speedier look better. i'm learning so much all the time, but there's always more to learn! it's exciting.

also i'm getting pretty tired of hand writing the words, and i worry that it's too sloppy and hard to read :/ anyone know of any good free comic-y fonts that would kinda fit the Dinogeddon aesthetic (if you know what i mean)?

castles made of sand

i've been mostly writing, getting things in order lately....

help!

okay, i need some help, guys! (if anybody still reads this blog....)

here is the latest Dinogeddon page i just finished:

i'm not sure if i'm happy with it, and i'd like some input before i'm done for sure. in the last panel, i have a little introductory blurb about Ronnie, obviously. i plan on having similar blurbs for all the main characters. the main reason is because it's a pretty big cast, and while i think everyone looks different enough, i wanted to give readers some tidbits of solid information they could grab onto to help them identify all the different characters, and help them keep track of who is in what gang, etc. and i thought it would be fun and maybe add a bit of humor to add an irrelevant factoid or two linked to the character's personality. but after getting the ball rolling with Ronnie's here, i'm beginning to second-guess myself whether it's a good idea or not, or if so, if i executed it properly.

i know my handwriting can be hard to read, but i like the look of my hand written lettering for the comic and don't really want to use a font. (and yes, i have tried making a font out of my handwriting, and it just ended up terrible.) i thought about having the blurbs in little boxes, but i was thinking that might be too cliche? i don't know. maybe it would be easier to read that way. and like i said, i'm wondering if i should do the whole blurb thing at all? maybe it would just be better to let the characters unfold for themselves over time? i don't really like it when comics have to have bio pages or whatever, unless it's like a series catch-up kinda thing, and eventually i'll probably have a character bio section on the Dinogeddon site, but....like i said, it's one of those ideas i originally really liked, but i'm not so sure comes off as well in practice. what do you think? keep it, lose it? change it? and how?

sailor moon saved my life

i watched this episode of Sailor Moon on a day i was feeling my depression really hard, and i wanted to vanish...and this scene brought me to tears. i felt like Sailor Moon/Neo Queen Serenity was talking directly to me, telling me that i'm surrounded by people who care, that she believes in me, and not to give up. i felt so much better after Usagi told me i'm not alone. :,)

i think i finally understand how a lot of people feel about their favorite heroes in comics...that's how i feel about Sailor Moon. i've never been into super hero comics and never really understood their appeal, but maybe now i do a little. i fell in love with Sailor Moon from the very first time i saw one of the horribly dubbed episodes on local cable tv...even though i hate getting up early and like sleeping in, i would get up extra early just to watch it. it was unlike anything i'd ever seen before...ordinary girls who became super heroines. and their leader, Usagi, was clumsy, did badly in school, and liked to eat too much and goof off...this was the first heroine i could ever really relate to! everyone loved Usagi because she had such a pure, giving heart, full of love for everyone. i think even for me.

Sailor Moon's always been my biggest hero, but now especially, more than ever. all of the sailor soldiers, and so many other characters in general are so great...my other favorite senshi, Sailor Jupiter, taught me that it was okay to be a big, boyish girl, and i shouldn't let that stop me from doing things i want to do. Luna, for always trying her hardest and even jumping into the fray, even though she's just a small kitty without any offensive super powers, she never gives up. and Sailor Uranus, my androgynous idol, helped me to feel more comfortable about my queerness long before i really figured it out. i really want to read the manga, but they're so hard to find/expensive...hopefully some day.

Sailor Moon Transformation Make Up Tutorial by Michelle Phan, YouTube

this video also made me tear up, i mean the message at the end, skip to about 8:08...it's so true. i want to try harder to make my dreams come true, and stop letting stuff hold me back. i want to start imagining myself as a super hero, like Sailor Moon, a sailor senshi, when i get scared, or feel powerless. i want to be brave, and full of love, like Usagi. thank you, Naoko Takeuchi, for giving me my hero.

thank you, Sailor Moon.

beastly

some concepts for an idea i had about a beauty and the beast story, but with the gender roles reversed and the man being the beauty and a woman being the beast. i've always been a little bothered by the intrinsic sexism in beauty and the beast and wanted to address it. i tried making the beast unattractive not by my personal standards or anything, but by what is conventionally considered ugly/beastly.

why must i stay here

a customer snuck up on me at work and caught me drawing this, then laughed and said it was funny...hmm, okay....

i haven't been posting/drawing much because i've been going through some stuff...i was (am?) in a really bad place with my depression and anxiety issues, and that combined with my job caused me to lose all passion and interest in life, and things i used to enjoy, like drawing. i knew i couldn't go on living this way much longer, so i reached out and am seeing a therapist for the first time in my adult life. it's a bit nerve-wracking for someone like me, but i'm beginning to feel like there's hope again. i started a new livejournal, dinosaurblood.livejournal.com, mainly as a coping strategy since i basically didn't have one, or utilized really counterproductive ones. it's mainly just me ruminating way too much about pointless stuff and venting about my personal stresses and trying to make sense out of my sad, rambling mind, so i totally understand if you don't want to be my lj friend and read it.

otherwise...i don't like my job and am going to start looking for another one. i'm reading a lot, that's one of the few things i still get enjoyment out of. oh, and Sailor Moon. i got Rob to start watching it with me and now we're slowly rewatching the entire series from the beginning. everything is going to be okay.

servitude