Eating Hole In Head
July 2, 2008 - posted in work in progress
This Mystery Work In Progress that I’m supposedly working on is in the back of my brain, wedged behind a bunch of other things that are more urgent. Many months have gone by, and it’s growing restless. Writhing around. It’s eating a hole in my head. Hopefully I will live long enough to work on it again someday.
Animation Show Interview
May 2, 2008 - posted in news
Here’s an interview I did a little while ago with Taylor Jessen for the Animation Show. It’s mostly about Learn Self Defense, for the upcoming DVD. We also talk a bit about the new Mystery Work In Progress. Reading it back later, I see there was a lot of aimless rambling in there, but that’s just how I roll, yo.
Learn Self Defense on Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD
April 29, 2008 - posted in news, shop
The soon to be released Animation Show Volum
e 3 DVD will include my short, Learn Self Defense. The rest of the DVD is wall-to-wall high-class independent animated short goodness. I highly recommend it. The DVD ships May 30, but pre-ordering is already underway at the Animation Show shop.
Along with the DVD release, the Animation Show was kind enough to print two T-shirts promoting my comic, We The Robots. They are really cool about promoting the animators they work with.
So, go order your copy, or a We The Robots T-shirt! (additional shirt designs will also be available at wetherobots.com in the near future, so stay tuned)
Robot Comic Introduction
October 26, 2007 - posted in work in progress
To start my new robot comic, I made a three-part introduction.
READ THE INTRODUCTION HERE:
Where the Paths Cross
October 20, 2007 - posted in work in progress
So there’s the animated Work In Progress, and the comic strip that stems from it. Both take place in the same fictional world of robots. The short is more broad and doesn’t revolve around any specific character. The strip has several regular characters.
But there is at least one moment when the strip and the short cross paths. This still from the comic strip depicts some robots coming across a skeleton under a berry bush. What they have stumbled on is the aftermath of one of the scenes from the short.
That seems to be the only moment where the two stories overlap so far. That’s all I know.
Ed Emberley’s Fingerprint Drawings
October 19, 2007 - posted in work in progress
My mom recently retired from many years of teaching elementary school. She collected hundreds of childrens’ books over the years, which she has now passed on to her grandchildren. Among the books we got was Ed Emberley’s “Great Thumbprint Drawing Book.” I came across it the other day and looked through it for the first time since maybe 3rd grade.
It seems to have been, for better or worse, a terribly strong subconscious influence on me.
Non-Animated WIP – Sneak Peek!
October 10, 2007 - posted in work in progress
Here are a couple sneak peeks at some of the non-animated portion of the Mystery Work in Progress. Obviously, it’s a comic strip sort of thing. I don’t know where it’s going, but I’m going to keep making it for a while and see what happens.
Soon this thing will launch full-steam on its own Web site. Stay tuned!
Test 1: “At the End of the Day”
Test 2: “Superbot!”
The Frog Fountain
September 5, 2007 - posted in sundries
Between a pile of freelance work and my usual day job, I’ve continued creeping along on the non-animated facet of the Mystery Work In Progress, which I still hope to launch this fall.
I was doing more writing than I had time to animate, and most of the writing seemed to center around the same themes and characters. So now I’ve got all this material and I need to put it somewhere. It’s a little bit like having to poop… except for the impulse to share it with the public… which in both cases is unhealthy…
A lot of this writing was done at a certain coffee shop (I won’t mention its name because all you have to do is look out your window and there’s probably one there). Normally, I’d hang at one of the local joints. But this particular location, in a busy shopping district in Kansas City, has a special feature that I enjoy.
This bizarre fountain, brought back from Italy in 1928 by a major Kansas City land developer, depicts a frog squirting water straight into the crotch of a cherub, who looks absolutely ecstatic about the whole thing. (who wouldn’t?)**
About two feet above this lovely scene is a large window and a comfortable table inside the coffee shop. Beyond that is a fireplace. There is no better place in the world to write cartoons.
A constant stream of tourists and suburban shoppers passes this fountain, holding their shopping bags and cameras. As I sit there, every few minutes I’m treated to the sight of a family doing a double take, stopping in their tracks, pointing, smiling, joking amongst themselves, and then snapping a picture.
Kids under a certain age don’t find it funny or odd. (why on earth wouldn’t a cherub have a frog squirting him in the junk?) Older kids find it hilarious. Most adults do too. Some of them try to hide it. Once in a while a pack of high-school kids will walk by and struggle to maintain their fragile teenage composure. Few can resist smiling as they pass.
Nothing washes out the wretched stench of cynicism that can come from working in commercial art like spending an hour next to this statue. People are caught off guard, and for a brief moment they stop trying to look cool and just smile and point like first graders. It’s an oddly beautiful thing.
You can keep your Rodin and your Michelangelo and your Lipchitz and Moore. Give me Rafaello Romanelli’s masterpiece, “Frog Spritzing Cherub In Wee Wee.”
So that’s where I sit and write sometimes. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, come say hi. Better yet– let’s have a secret code so I’ll know it’s you!
If you see a guy sitting at the table by the fountain, watching the people and scribbling in a notebook, come up to him and say this Secret Production Log Pass Phrase:
“Excuse me. I’m looking for Mr. Romanelli.”
If he replies with the Secret Production Log Answer Phrase:
“WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?! GO AWAY!”
then you’ll know it’s me… or some unsuspecting, foul-mouthed stranger…
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