THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I was a bit stressed out this weekend because of what happened at work Friday.  Friday afternoon I got called back in to be told that the original plans they had laid out for me were changing.  The new crew I was going to work with, I no longer was going to work with.  Instead, I was put on another crew.  Which is fine. The thing is, the new crew is the second show of the new season. Which is actually REALLY great.  Maybe I won’t go on hiatus at all and I could work straight through the year.

So why was I stressed out?  Well, because things are changing again.  As of the time of this writing, I’m not allowed to explain how, since most of the crew doesn’t know, but I will say that our job has now gotten a little more intense.  The reason this was stressing me out is not because I thought it was bad or anything.  The reason I was  stressing out was for the same reason I always stress out when a new situation arises, namely: I don’t have a method of dealing with the situation since I’m not in it and therefore I couldn’t have a plan of attack to deal with the problem. Without being in the new situation and actually dealing with the new changes, I felt nervous and stressed.

Matters got a bit worse when, on Monday, I was told that I wasn’t going to start on the new crew until Tuesday.  I helped out on the last of Lance’s show on Monday and on Tuesday, I started on the new crew.  We had a crew meeting that morning where we were told what the situation was and how we were going to handle it.  Once all that was done, I felt much better, mostly because now I had some control of what I could do.   It’s almost like I’m back on the movie again.  In fact, some of the people I’m working with in this crew where the people I worked with on the Fox lot during the movie.  Including the editor that’s working with us. It was good to see him again.

Funny how that is.  As a layout artist on the show, we never really get to know any editors. We are our own department and we don’t really leave it, but during the movie at the Fox lot, when working on the story reels, many different department were all working together in the same rooms to get the job done and we found ourselves getting to know different people from different parts of the process. That was one of the unique parts about working on the movie.

In lighter news…

Another drawing of superheroes. I don’t have a drawing from Tommy this time, again.  As last time, I’m not sure it’s appropriate for my site.  If you want to check it out on HIS site, click HERE. Paul asked me NOT to put his drawing up because he’s planning to print a Sketchbook of his drawings. In fact, there is another drawing he did that falls under the same “please don’t post that drawing because I’m planning to publish it in my Sketchbook” rule, that I can’t put up.  So enjoy the drawings that are here.  I’ll tell you what he drew though.

Martian Manhunter (DC comics) versus Marvin the Martian (Warner Brothers).  Though technically Marvin isn’t a “comic book character” there are such things as Looney Toon comics so…

Besides, it’s funny.  They fight because they are both Martians. Wanna see it? You’ll have to buy Paul‘s Sketchbook when he’s finally done with it and publishes it.

I drew Black Adam (DC comics) versus Namor (Marvel Comics). They fight because they are often drawn exactly the same.  I went out of my way to make them look different but in most comics, if it wasn’t for their costumes, they generally look like the same person.  And of course, they both have pointy ears.  I also tried drawing  Zachary Quinto in there since he’s playing Spock in the new Star Trek movie.  Not sure if I quite got his likeness, but I gave it a shot anyway.

COMIC BOOKS

Since I’ve been drawing all these superhero comics, I’ve been getting back to reading comics again. It’s been a month or so since I was really able to read any.  I’m really behind on my comic continuity.  Mostly because I can’t really afford to buy comics.  Luckily, I’m rescued from this comic Limbo by none other than comic book artist Drew Johnson.

Drew comes into the studio often.  He’s married to the director of our retakes crew and they’ve recently had a baby. Sometimes he brings a box of comics he doesn’t want and leaves it in the studio “kitchen”.

Ever seen a bunch of hungry hyenas fight over a fresh carcass? Ever seen one of them beat the heck out of all the other ones to get the choice meat? That’s me. Snarling, growling and biting my way to the comics I want.  “My Superman! Mine! Mine!” “Don’t you dare touch that Final Crisis!”  The last time, I left with so many comics, I could barely hold them using both arms.  Then, like the dog I am, I peed on them to mark them as mine…okay…maybe not, but I would pace back and forth in my cubicle giving people the evil eye who even looked in the direction of my stack of comics.  “My own…my…preciousssss.

In any case, this is the only way I can get caught up on my comic reading.  I always look forward to the next box of comics he brings in, just because I finally can get caught up on all the things I’m missing  out on in the DC universe. Most of the comics he brings are a year of two old.  This doesn’t bother me since I’m that far behind anyway. Although sometimes there is one or two that are pretty current.

Now if only I can find someone who works at Marvel and get free comics from them…

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Wednesday evening of last week, my friend Paul, came over to my desk and handed me a drawing. It was a copy of a drawing he had done of Hellboy (Dark Horse comics) filing down the horns of The Demon Atrigan (DC comics) while he struggled to get away. It was a very silly drawing.  He then explained to me that the day before he and Tommy (my friend and my Assistant Director), had gone to lunch and started talking about how there are a lot of comic book characters from different companies who either looked a lot alike, where of the same archetype, or who had similar names.  They thought it would be fun to draw them fighting each other in some way. They even went so far as to write up a list. The drawing he had given me was the first drawing he had thought up to do.  He then asked me to join in. I thought it sounded like fun so I did.

It’s funny how the same idea can get interpreted in different ways.  Tommy was taking his drawings very seriously.  He wanted to have the characters he drew, fighting each other in a very dramatic fashion.  Meanwhile, Paul was all about being silly.  He wanted to find the humors side to the conflicts.  I sided more on Paul‘s side than Tommy‘s.  If I was going to join in, I wanted to find the humor in the situation.

Little did I know how much I was going to get into doing the drawings.  Something about the “assignment” really sparked my imagination.  During my initial conversation with Paul, and after I had seen the list, I had noticed after looking at the 67 couples they had thought up, they were missing Superman (DC Comics) vs The Sentry (Marvel Comics), which I thought would have been an obvious one.  Paul told me I should probably draw that one.  I spent the rest of the day thinking about  how to draw them.  In fact, I spent the rest of the day trying to come up with ways to draw many of the characters I had seen on the list.  I ended up coming up with quite a few ideas and by the time I got to work the next day, I couldn’t wait to start drawing some of them.

For the rest of the next two days, whenever I had a break or some time (like during lunch), I would spend that time drawing something up.  I quickly found myself at once enjoying the process and getting frustrated at how limited my drawing abilities where.  My first drawing was the most painful, mostly because I was trying to get the hang of drawing in a completely different style than I’m used to.  Also, I need to come up with the shorthand I needed to be able to produce a drawing in a “comic book style” quickly. When I was finally done with the first drawing, I was a bit disappointed with myself. Mostly because, (1) it didn’t come out the way I wanted it to and (2) it felt a bit stiff.   I had intended to make the drawing a bit more exaggerated and cartoony but  somewhere along the way, is went a bit too far in the other direction.  What I ended up with is a weird drawing that is not quite cartoony and not quite realistic, and for some strange reason, The Sentry’s proportions don’t look quite right. Also, the hands I drew are a bit wonky.  You can always tell the quality of an artist’s draftsmanship by how well they draw heads, hands and feet.  These are the most difficult part of the body to master.  In the end, the result was a drawing that I was not too happy with, but it was a drawing that helped me gauge where I was at artistically and where I  wanted to take the next drawing.

I was much happier with the next drawing. Not only do I think it works much better, not only did I draw what I intended, but I also drew it in a shorter amount of time AND I learned a lot drawing it.  Suddenly, all I wanted to do was draw this stuff all day.  I didn’t want to go back to doing my work (although I did).  I haven’t had this much fun drawing in a long time.  I’m most likely going to be putting these drawings up on the blog for the next couple of weeks.  And if you notice that I’m not writing as much, it’s probably because I’m spending more of my time drawing the silly superhero drawings than writing on the blog.  I’m actually in the mood to draw again. That’s just amazing to me.  I better ride this wave while I can.  I don’t know how long it’s going to last and I’m learning and improving more with every drawing I do.

So here are some of the drawings we did this week:

Tommy‘s first drawing was Captain Marvel (DC comics) versus Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics). They have to fight because they share a name.

Paul’s first drawing was Hellboy (Dark Horse comics) versus The Demon Atrigan (DC comics). They fight because they are both demons.

My first lousy drawing was Superman (DC Comics) versus The Sentry (Marvel Comics). They have to fight because they are practically the same character.  Even down to the fact that they get their power from the sun.

My second drawing that day and the one I was a lot more happy with, was The Question (DC comics) versus Rorschach (…er…DC comics. Okay so this is a cheat but at least they are from different comic books universes). They have to fight because they are pretty much the same character as well.

Okay, that’s enough out of me, I gotta draw.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

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I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.