90% of what I do, you never see.
Countless pages of trial and error, countless sketches leading up to those pages, countless ideas leading up to those sketches.
How much of that 90% was necessary as a “means to an end”…Lord only knows. The art Director at Mad Magazine told me once after I presented a quandary of 4 pages that were only different to the most keen observer “we all have our own brand of neurosis, it’s what drives us.” which would imply that it is all part of what our brain needs to pump out good work. He also said once I’ll just”Just throw them all in the air and see which one lands face up”.
I tell you this to explain why the latest issue has been taking so long. About the time I started it, I got the call from TRIPTANK‘s producers, asking for more ideas for animated shorts. So…what would you do? I sent them everything that wasn’t nailed down, and continued to send them every idea I came up with up until they were done taking in ideas. Then I waited.
Took them about 9 months to finally give me the thumbs up on one. Is that a long time? I dunno. I know they have a lot of irons in the fire, and I know when it comes to actual television I an a very small fish in a very big ocean. Until they finally decided though, I couldn’t very well proceed, because anything I moved forward on that they decide to use…I would no longer own, and therefore not be able to publish.
As far as working in the creative industry, having to wait until an animation studio tells you if they are going to put your work out on Comedy Central before you can publish it, amounts to “first world problems”.
After they picked one, I did my best to weasel my way into making the character designs. It is a sci-fi story which needed a coupe of astronauts and a hot Martian. I scowered over pics of old pulp sci-fi magazines, old sci fi comic books, actual NASA pics looking for cool elements to give everything the right feel . Sent off about 10 rough versions of everything ( some pics below)
They took a pass on what I made. Why? I dunno. Because they did. Seeing as how more often than not my attitude is misinterpreted through emails, and I really wasn’t sure who exactly I was supposed to be asking…I didn’t really press too hard for an answer. Heartbreaking really, but that’s show biz.
(I explain all that, so I don’t have to hear from several thousand people to the tune of ” How come it didn’t look like your stuff?” or ” I thought it would look like A.L. characters”. Don’t ruin this for me with grumbling alright? )
So, that’s an example of how much work someone in the creative industry does that never sees the light of day.
as for the other 10%.
ARSENIC LULLABY WILL HAVE ANOTHER ANIMATED SHORT ON COMEDY CENTRAL’S TRIP TAKE THIS SEASON!
The season starts Sept.23.
Which episode are we on?…I don’t know. They didn’t tell me and I didn’t ask. There are about 160 different shorts in the 20 episode season and I suspect they have other things to do besides give me a break down of the episodes. They may let me know when the season starts. I do happen to know who one of the voice actors is…but I am not sure if I’m supposed to say. He’s a Second City guy that I like a lot, so that’s pretty kewl.
anywhoo, here is a link to our short from last season
Big Sale at our online store in celebration of this…coupon code TRIPTANK is good for 23% off! ( seasons starts the 23rd…23% off…sure that’s lame reasoning and pretty arbitrary but what do you care, is a discount)
www.arseniclullabies.com/store
As for the next issue of A.L. I am finishing the final story now. It is the Voodoo Joe story. I saved that for last because writing Voodoo Joe seems to turn out best when done in a blind panic. Maybe that’s because panic and stress supersedes my tenancy to second guess and redo things over and over…losing a bit of the life of the tale each time.
I’ll admit…I missed Voodoo Joe. Here’s just a glimpse (below)
You must log in to post a comment.