Symphony In Slang Layouts

This is the second post for my continuing series on Tex Avery's SYMPHONY IN SLANG (1951). In the first post, I featured frames from every single shot of the cartoon. This time around, it's layouts. For some unusual reason, a great deal of Slang layouts have survived throughout the years. I wonder if a majority of them were saved by one person and then a couple were later passed around to others here and there. Whatever the reason, I'm glad they've survived. I didn't have to go too far to find all these images you see below.

There are three very good sources for Symphony In Slang layouts:

1. Tex Avery, by Patrick Brion. This is the most extensive resource not to mention the most expensive. Luckily, I was able to borrow a copy from my good friend Dave, aka. Dr. Strangetoons. (Thanks, Dave!) What's remarkable about this book is that all of the layouts are actual size and are all printed on nice toothy, thick paper and not the thinner, glossier kind the rest of the book is printed up on. Makes it look like they grabbed the original layout drawings and bound it just for you in this book. Probably why it's been out of print for over 20 years. That and it's entirely in French. Strictly for hardcore animation book completists (you know who you are).

2. Tex Avery: The MGM Years, 1942-1955, by John Canemaker. This came out in the mid-90's and features some great artwork, ranging from original animation sketches & layouts to original production cels. One interesting thing is that this book also features some "recreated" cels -- paintings that look and feel like the real thing but have been recreated from original production drawings. There were a couple of decent Slang layouts I scanned from this book.

3. Tex Avery: Les Dessins, by Patrick Brion. Not as hard to come by (and certainly not as expensive) as Brion's other book, "Les Dessins" is a soft cover book that features animation drawings and layouts only. No color, save for a second color of red for whenever there were some director notes scribbled in red. Again, everything printed in this book looks to be life-sized and not reduced. There's even a couple of multiple fold-outs of background pan layouts that are very impressive when you unfold them. Most of the Slang material in this book were of, surprisingly enough, scenes cut from the final film. (More on that later.)



A note about these layouts: What's exciting for me when I scroll through these images is the fact that the rough layouts were most likely drawn by Tom Oreb himself. You can just tell in the quirky way that the characters were drawn and how Oreb utilized the pencil to create shading and blending effects. There's a certain looseness, yet direct quality in his designs here -- very simple and effective. When I study these layouts, I'm noticing how each character is staged, and how the action is going to play out. For this cartoon, camera movement was pretty much kept to a minimum, allowing us, the viewer, to take in each gag as it's presented. Again, simple and effective.

You'll notice that there'll be other layouts that are cleaned up, with red pencil used to signify character movements. No telling who did these drawings. An assistant, most likely, but there's a slight chance it could've been Oreb, tracing over his own rough layout drawings. Slight changes are sometimes made from the rough to the clean version, based off of any director's notes. Not sure just how much could've been changed for this cartoon, but at least it looks to me that a good amount of the scenes featured here were identical to the final version.

Onto the LAYOUTS:

From "Tex Avery", by Patrick Brion:



The "John" mentioned here on some of the scribbled notes was probably background painter John D. Johnson, who worked with Tex Avery during his MGM years. You can see some more of his work here. He did the "Red Hot Riding Hood" backgrounds in the first part of the post.










This is my favorite gag in the film.












From "Tex Avery: The MGM Years", by John Canemaker:







There were many more slang terms that were not used in the final film. Whether it was because of timing or just not good enough gags, there's no way of telling. Either way, it's fascinating to see just how many of the layouts for these cut scenes survived.

Take this scene, for instance:

I'm thinking that the line would've been "The judge gave me life!" Compare this rough layout to the cleaned-up version below:


You can see changes made to the judge, probably to get the best possible pose in this shot. That's my guess, at least.

Here's some more cut gags/scenes:


"Fate brought us together..." I can see why this wasn't used. Everyone has their own interpretation of "fate" (isn't it usually depicted as a female?), so maybe this was cut because of it not working out. Maybe. Anyway, I like "...and then our eyes met," much better.


"Drinks were on the house!" Item worth noting: this gag was used in another Tex Avery cartoon: "The Shooting of Dan McGoo." Checkit at 3:30 into the cartoon.


"Played with the One Arm Bandit," I'm assuming. Corny gag.


"She had him eating out of her hand." It probably worked better story-wise for the guy to have the upper hand, don't you think? This gag gives Mary control, and not the other way around.


"She was a chain-smoker." Ha -- I like this one. Too bad it was cut. These last two were from "Les Dessins", by Patrick Brion.

There are plenty more layouts (along with many other images) from this wonderful cartoon on my Symphony In Slang Flickrset. Hope you enjoy.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, this is all part of research I'm collecting for a super secret side project I'm currently working on, paying homage to the great cartoons of the past. A short film that's being concocted down in the basement right now.

Up next: Backgrounds!

Ava Thursday: Pap Paw's Birthday Card

My Dad and his wife came to visit us for the first time this past February. We had a blast. During the course of their visit, Dad celebrated his 67th birthday. What would be the perfect gift for a man his age? Well, I wrangled the kids up to make some birthday cards for him, of course! Naturally.

This is what Ava came up with:

The front.


The inside.


On the back, Ava added a little logo down in the lower right-hand corner, "Daddy Cards." I had made a card with that logo on it a while back and she really liked it. So this is her version. Love little details like that.

Oh, and here's Ezra's card:


I think it says his name over and over.


He was real proud of it.

Ava then got all creative and us and made this Crayon wrapper sculpture-thingy:


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I've been meaning to do a follow-up post on Marjane Satrapi's talk from Monday night. I'm working on it. I took some good notes, but most of it's chicken scratch, so whatever I type out will be paraphrased. She had some good things to say. Very inspiring talk. And very funny.

I've also been meaning to update the long-overdue Blogroll over there in the right column. Still have all my Atlanta peeps' links up -- what's up wit that? It's been over a year now! I'll keep the ATL links up for the newer version, but I plan on putting up Portland and NW links as well. Gotta keep it fresh.

And, one other thing: I think it's about time for a new look here for the blog. Feels a bit stale to me. Whaddya think? We'll see.

Reminder: Satrapi Tonight

Just a gentle reminder about Iranian/French graphic novelist (and now, Oscar-nominated filmmaker) Marjane Satrapi speaking tonight here in Portland, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 7:30 p.m, downtown.

More info about this event can be found HERE.

Hope to see you there!

Photobooth Friday: Fools!

My best friend Lane came to town about a month ago. We haven't seen each other for several years. It was so good to hang out and be silly with him. We realized that this was the first time we've ever been in a photobooth together. Rest assured, when you get us two together, there's lots of conceptualizing going on. It was like choreography doing this strip -- we were worn out by the end of it.

By the way, that first frame was a re-enactment of a photo Lane and I did back in college. Har har! See below:


This was probably back in, oh, lessee, 1988? '89?

There's so much history between us, it's hard to know where to start if I ever decide to talk about him here on this blog. He's the closest thing to a brother that I could possibly have -- we're both first-born with one younger sister, so I guess we both longed for a brother.

There's some great stories to tell, but it'll all have to wait until I find a more opportune time.

For Andrea's Photobooth Friday Monthly Challenge: Fools. Yup, that we are.

Persepolis: Marjane Satrapi speaks

I saw PERSEPOLIS the other night. I was swept away by this film. It's astounding. I'm having second thoughts about RATATOUILLE -- I thought that film was great and incredibly entertaining and totally deserving of the Oscar, but... I'm beginning to think that PERSEPOLIS was probably even more deserving.



Lots of great press have been written about Marjane Satrapi's film. Boasting a 95% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it certainly has support from the critics. Sooooo, if that's the case, then...why aren't we talking more about this film? It's a 2D animated feature film with some great animation, great story -- a true personal historical tale told from a single individual artist's view; a graphic novelist who's been able to successfully visualize her story up on the big screen. That's what all of us strive for, right? This is what it's all about for us filmmakers, us artists, us animator/directors, right? To be able to tell our story the way that we want to tell it, without studio interference, right? (However, I'm sure that Marjane probably had her ups and downs in getting her story told here. That's bound to happen when you convert your graphic novel into a film. But the end result is still 100 times more personal than any studio animated feature, if you ask me.)

Why aren't we screaming at the top of our lungs, telling everyone we meet to go see this film? We need to support these types of films or else we're going to have to subject ourselves to typical studio output. Base, trivial, executive-driven, vapid, stale studio output.



For the uninitiated, PERSEPOLIS is Satrapi's account of living in Iran as a woman, from a young girl with idealized visions of becoming a prophet, to growing up midst the Iranian revolution and forced to be stifled by gender politics and fewer civil liberties. Humorous and poignant, abrasive and tender, PERSEPOLIS moves like no other animated film. I got wrapped up in its story, its characters, its tone and settings. The graphic, stylized 2D world that Satrapi creates (in black & white, mind you) become flesh, blood and bone right before your very eyes. I was transfixed. GO SEE THIS FILM.



For all you Portlanders and NW'ers: It's worth noting that Marjane Satrapi herself will be speaking here in Portland, next Monday, April 7th, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 7:30 p.m, downtown. More info about this event can be found HERE. I'm seriously thinking about going to this. I'd love to hear her speak. Looking forward to it.

Links:
PERSEPOLIS official site.
PERSEPOLIS Wikipedia entry (The Iranian government's reaction to the film are mentioned here.)
NY Animator/Director Michael Sporn's take on the film.

You can help me out by buying Satrapi's Complete Persepolis here:



GO SEE THIS FILM. SUPPORT.

Heal Emru

My good friend Emru Townsend has been diagnosed with leukemia and now needs a bone marrow transplant. Hailing from Montreal, Emru started up the excellent fpsmagazine, an online (former print) magazine that boasts some of the best writing about the animation industry you'll find today. (He's a big big fan of stop-motion, by the way. And anime.) I met him at Ottawa several years ago and was astounded by his knowledge of the art-form. Plus, the dude never stopped talking. I was left speechless by the guy. Now, I'm afraid, his voice could be silenced. And I don't want that to happen. He and his sister have started up a site for others out there to learn more about Emru's situation, as well as about donating bone marrow:

Heal Emru


There's a great deal of info to read through on that site, so here's a direct link to the FAQ page: Heal Emru FAQ

I've never donated bone marrow before, but this has prompted me to do something about it.

From the site:

In mid-December, Emru was diagnosed with leukemia, and a condition called monosomy 7. Due to the monosomy 7, he has an increased risk of the leukemia coming back, no matter how successful chemotherapy is. This is where you can help save his life.

Emru needs a bone marrow transplant. This kind of therapy is administered through a transplant of bone marrow stem cells from a matching donor. The highest chances for a match are from siblings, but his only sister is not a match. As a result, he must to turn to national and international bone marrow registries to find a compatible donor. There are 11 million donors worldwide, but there is still no guarantee that he will find a match: The chances of matching another person can be as high 1 in 450 or lower than 1 in 750,000. Time is of the essence as the optimal window of opportunity is in the first few months after remission.

Emru's situation is tricky because of his ethnic background. That's why I'm sending this out to everyone I know. The more people know, the better his chances. More about Emru's chances from the site:

Q: Who is more likely to match a recipient?
A: There is a greater chance that someone from the same ethnic background will match, but the match can come from anybody. Emru will be harder to match because there are fewer people in the general immediate population with the same ethnic background.

Emru's ethnic background is mostly people of African descent, and his parents are from Jamaica and Trinidad; essentially, the more black people and West Indians donate, the better it is statistically. However, this only increases his chances. Anyone from any background might be a match. The match may come from the most unexpected donor, or may help someone else who is waiting for a donor.


Please help. Do whatever you can. Send this out to everyone you know. Donate bone marrow. Anything. Even if you might not have the same ethnic background as Emru, donate anyway -- you'll be helping others out who might be looking for a match.

Want to email Help Emru? Here: info@healemru.com.

One Whole Year

This week marks one year living in Portland. It's wild to think that it's been one whole year. Time certainly has flown by.

In the next couple of days, I plan on uploading more photos of The Big Move from one year ago. Where we traveled from Decatur, Georgia, to Decatur, Illinois. Then from Illinois to Oregon. It was a fantastic trip.


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So, yes! I'm back. Things are slowing down for me here at work -- slow enough for me to timidly poke my head back into The Ward-O-Matic. It's been a wild & crazy two months, but the break from the blog was totally worth it. I sorely needed that time to do my thang at work. Even though production is still going strong on this particular job, the biggest hurdles have been thoroughly cleared. For now, at least. You never know in this line of work, though.

Lots has been going on during these past two months. On the home front, I was finally able to break in my dreamy, massive Galant desk from IKEA that's now in place downstairs in my recently-cleaned out basement workspace. And even though the breaking in was for work purposes, hopefully down the road I'll be able use my desk for good, not evil. With the desk finally up and running, I've been doing a bit of decorating, which includes putting up my favorite starburst clock.

The following is what happens when you mix late-night decorating, a mid-century wall clock, and a camera:

We'll Be Right Back

Often I'm asked "how do you find the time?" when it comes to this blog. Honestly, I don't really know. I never have a good answer to that question, so the person asking the question tends to leave flustered. Obviously, I don't give them what they were looking for. Straight up, most of the posts on this blog are created long before I post them. I then eek out time here and there, updating and adding new things to the draft until I find it necessary to finally post it. Some posts take months to write out. Some are done in minutes. The key factor is finding the time. And now, I'm afraid, I do not have the time. At all.

I'm putting a halt to The Ward-O-Matic for the time being. Whenever I've taken a break in the past, it seems like a good idea at the time, but I never adhere to it. I tend to post something, anything -- just so long as it seems like I'm still alive and/or give off the impression that I care about this blog thing. I guess that's pretty much what motivates me to keep blogging, though -- I feel I have an obligation to fulfill. And I want to share my stuff. Again, I always manage to find the time to sit and write a bit, scan a book (or two), post neato links, etc. Because I love doing this, I'll always manage to find the time.

Be that as it may, this time it's different. I'm about to embark on a ambitious job and it's going to stretch and pull me in ways that I've never been stretched or pulled before. I don't want to go so far as calling it a "make or break" situation, but, to quote De La Soul: "stakes is high". All extraneous time will be devoted to this particular job -- no time to blog or upload scans to my Flickr. A total and complete lockdown, people. Should be interesting.

It's odd for me to say goodbye for a while, but I know it's necessary. I don't even want to do a short, "I'm still here!" post, either. I fear that if I keep that door open, it'll only keep me from doing what I need to do at this point, and that's to focus all my energy and efforts on this job. I know you all understand. I'll still check out blogs and such, but I probably won't comment. I can't say I'll get back in touch with you if you email me, either. I'm still debating whether or not I'll keep my Facebook updated. At any rate, just wanted to let you all know that for the next three months, there won't be any new updates here.

Never fear, though! Once I'm back, it'll be as if I've never left. I promise.

See ya in May.

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One thing before I go, I'll be speaking at IUPUI on Tuesday, February 12th (right around the corner). Check this link for more info. This'll be my second time speaking there. My ol' Primal buddy, Brian Ludwick has asked me to come back to speak, and I appreciate the great honor in doing so. Can't wait.

Ava Thursday: Self Portrait

"Daddy did I do good?"

That sweet, delicate handwriting in the upper right-hand corner speaks volumes to me. While waiting in the car, I handed Ava my sketchbook and a pen for her to draw whatever she wanted. This is what she drew. A wonderful self portrait of a 7 year-old girl, growing up and being fully aware of the details around her. The question in the corner is a loaded one. Upon reading it, I immediately gave her a smile and said, "Oh, yes, sweetie -- you did an amazing job!" But I couldn't help but think about how much that question means to Ava. Obviously, it means that she's trying her best here. And she definitely wants to appease me, since she sees me draw all the time. But I never want her to gauge how well she's doing based off others' comments and opinions -- I want her to judge her own work for herself. But that's a lofty concept for a 7 year-old. At this stage in her development, she wants encouragement from her family. And that's what we try to give her, as much as we possibly can.



After Ava's self portrait, you turn the page and you come upon this. More self portraits. Of a little girl's hands. A sweet, delicate little artist's hands.

Drawings for you

Well, you asked for it:


Start it off with Grandmaster Flash. Bonus points if you know where that quote came from.


One of my favorite characters in The Office. I should draw the entire cast some day. Yeah, right! Like I've got time to do that!


A character I'm working on. Tell me what you think. Took the ol' Prismacolor pencils out for a spin. Forgot how good those pencils feel on paper.


Ezra likes to taunt and bug Ava. It's his vocation. And what he's saying? From a Spongebob episode, natch. Probably a Plankton line.


Ava has a hole in her smile. Ezra has shoooz.


I see that dude over to the left on the bus all the time, playing with his phone.


More Prismacolor action. Click to view larger.

Busy busy this week. I'll probably take a break from posting for a while. Things are just way too crazy for me right now. I'm sure you'll understand.

and i mean it

Meet Ezra, resident no parking bully.

UPDATE: If you cannot see this image, sorry, but I've decided to private all photos of my children.

Flickr-itis

Interesting. This shot of my Primal Screen business card is currently in the #1 spot for Flickr's Explore for January 18th, 2007. (However, this changes constantly, so it probably won't be there for long.) Nice to see it on the calendar page. In fact, it's pretty wild to see it there.

Funny isn't it? Most of what you see in the Explore pages are pros struttin' their stuff. I mean, some serious camera-headz sporting their talent to pick the right lens, the right filter, the right moment. These dudes are deep in it. And here's this simple shot right in the middle of it all -- just a quick close-up shot of my hand holding up my new business card at my desk at work. No special lighting, no big props or special lenses. Just a simple Canon Powershot A610, and a super-cool business card. Honestly, I have no clue how that Explore thing works, with its "interestingness" and whatever-ness. It doesn't go by views or favorites, that's for sure.

For the record, let's check out a couple of my Flickr images and see what's the most viewed, most favorited, most commented on, etc.

Most Viewed:

Fallout Shelter Handbook: Cover: 11,585 views

Because of the mention on Boing Boing back in November of '06, it's been my second most viewed post on my blog, behind my posts on The Polar Express. However, I suspect it'll be #1 soon, since the interest in this handbook never ends. I get SO MANY visitors to my blog who do a search for "fallout shelter" on Google. Go ahead, do a search. See what comes up. It's crazy.

Second most viewed:
While You Are in Shelter, with 8,232 views. But only because it's right next to the Fallout Shelter cover in my Flickr stream.

The third most viewed (with 7,108) is also my...

Most Favorited:


Party Perfect: 117 people call this photo a favorite.

A delightful scene depicting the seemingly perfect 1950's teenage party, the cover to Party Perfect has been favorited by 117 people. And I don't blame them -- it's a fun and quirky image. Oh, and the author is none other than Gay Head.

Most Comments:

A tie:

Vertigo!: 34 comments


Sawyer sketch: 34 comments

But only because both these images were springboards for conversation -- trying to stay connected with all these Web 2.0 sites, and LOST. Not much going on in these conversations besides the usual, "hey, I'm with you on that!"

Other Flickrstuff:


Yet another time waster for me has been Flickr's new stats feature. What's always been bugging me was trying to find out where my Flickr images have been linked -- Technorati is fine, but you can only go so far with that site. Here, Flickr finds out who's linking your images, even if they're linking the root image. Nice. And don't tell me it doesn't feed the narcissist in you to find out who's linking you and your photos & images. Quite a fascinating feature. Thanks, Flickr. Thanks for making me miss my deadlines...!


Woman aircraft worker, Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. Shown checking electrical assemblies (LOC): David Bransby, photographer. June 1942.

I'm curious to see how Flickr's new project, The Commons works out. So far, it's a winner -- they've combined forces with the Library of Congress, of all people, and have been uploading some amazing photos. Be sure to horde some time away before you get sucked in. It's a fascinating journey you'll take through our government's photo library. Fascinating! Fascinating, I say! I love checking out color photography back before the 1950's. If you do too, then waste your time away, my friend. Incredibly crisp and stunning photos from 1939 to 1944. Oh, and by the way, I love the fact that other Flickr members can chime in on the photos, even noting that the image shown above is staged -- her pen is capped.

This week, I promise to crank up ye olde scanner for some quirky vintage goodness. I promise.

Umm...does anyone care to see any drawings I've done lately? Just checkin'.

ezra

Back in August, we checked out a very cool outdoor market downtown and walked about the vendors, smelling the smells and ooed and ahhed over the sights. As Andrea went with Ava to get food for lunch, Ezra and I lounged about on the grass, underneath the trees. After some running around, my son stops and falls to the ground. I don't see him do this at first -- I was looking the other way. But suddenly I have this realization that the usual ball of energy I call my son is strangely quiet. So I turn and see him laying down on the ground all by himself, looking up into the trees.

He doesn't move. He's like this for several minutes. For those who have 3 year old sons, you know that that's like a small eternity.

I got real close to take his picture, and he still did not move.

A couple of Christmas goodies

Like I mentioned earlier, the mrs. and I decided to mix it up this Christmas, giving each other only "gently owned" gifts found in thrift stores, antique markets, and the like. Thought I'd share with you a couple of fun goodies that she lovingly wrapped for me:


Oh, the wifey knows me so well. Allow me to squeal with girlish glee, yes? This was found in my Christmas stocking. She found it at an antique mall here in Portland. Thankyouverymuch. This is my second watercolor set from her -- you can see the other one from this shot of my old workspace at Primal:


It's the red one in the bottom right-hand corner with "Kopy Kat" on it. I should take a photo of the inside of that one. Some very nice lettering for each of the colors. Very art deco-ish-like.

I also got this wonderful children's 45 for Christmas:


There's no mention of who did the illustration on the cover (of course), but the character design looks very similar to Aurelius Battaglia's style. Anyone?

One of my resolutions for this year is to scan more of my old stuff and post them for everyone to check out. I've been sitting on all that junk for far too long. I want to share! I promise I will keep my word on this. Expect to see some great gems for 2008.

Starting Off 2008 Right

Let's start of the new year right, shall we? A couple of super sweet images from a Metropolitan Life pamphlet from 1966 (part of an entire series -- see a previous Met Life pamphlet drawn by JP Miller here). No illustrator credit is given, but there's some speculation that it could be Roy Doty. Any clues? Give me a ring and let's discuss. I'd love to know who did these wonderful illustrations. I've had this for a long time, just waiting for the right moment to post it. Since it's the New Year, and people usually like to start the new year with resolutions, and resolutions usually consist of starting off right, health-wise, these fun two-color illos fit in rather nicely for the day.



So, it's been a while, hasn't it? Sheesh. Didn't mean to take that long a break. But it was needed. On Christmas Eve, the Jenkins clan hopped on a plane and flew to Atlanta for two weeks. It was the first time for the kids and they loved the entire experience. They were so excited by it all. And, surprisingly, they did really well, considering that it was a red-eye flight. At one point, a flight attendant leaned over to tell me just how well behaved my kids were. I almost responded with a "Well, just you wait," or "Thanks, but these aren't my kids," but decided against the cheesy dad joke-thing. Plus, she was already out of earshot.



Two weeks was just enough time for us to be away. Andrea and I both thought that while we were hanging out with family and friends that we would find the time to post on our blogs and/or Flickr, but, alas, it was not to be. Apparently, vacation time doesn't really mean a true vacation when kids are involved. But that's okay. It was great to catch up with a couple of friends (sorry we missed out on hooking up with others -- there's not enough hours in the day), so good to see all the cousins playing (somewhat) nice with each other, and it was great to see a couple of fantastic films. For the record, JUNO and the Coen Brothers' NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN are high on my list of best films for 2007. And I plan on seeing THERE WILL BE BLOOD soon. Big fan of Paul Thomas Anderson.

And yes, we found time for two rounds of bowling. Awesome.



Can't lie -- we miss our families. Of course, that's a given. This past year has been hard on us, since uprooting the family in March to move from Atlanta to Portland. Being so far away from close friends and family takes its toll after about 6 months. I long for the times where I could just swing by my Mom's and chat, or go see a flick with my Dad. Andrea's brother and his family live in Atlanta and we always enjoyed going over to their place to just hang out, order some pizza, listen to some new tracks, talk about TV shows, movies, silly things, nothing. While we were in Atlanta for Christmas, we got to do all of that. And more. After a week and a half, though, it started to get to us. Each day was filled with obligations and things to do, places to go, people to visit. By the end of each day, Andrea and I were so worn out, so exhausted.



But it was a good exhaustion. Even though each day was tiresome, we enjoyed the time spent with everyone. And it was good to be back home, to see all of our old haunts, our former houses, favorite restaurants, flea markets, stores, movie theaters, etc. One thing I noticed: in Atlanta, you have to DRIVE everywhere for like, 20 to 30 minutes. It was crazy. Funny how it takes me being nine months gone to finally realize that. Boy! Maybe it was all the driving around that made us exhausted. I wouldn't doubt it.

So, here we are. 2008. A new year, a new start. I'm excited about this year. There's already a lot that's planned. A sample:

I want to get my workspace up and running downstairs. A couple of trips to IKEA and various flea markets will do the trick, I guess. The reason I want to get my workspace finished is because...

...I want to get started on my short film. This is the year I must get going on this thing! Enough fooling around. Time to forge ahead. I'll post a couple of drawings here sporadically throughout the year just to give you all a heads up, but in the meantime, you'll have to wait.

Sigh....we need a new computer. Our current Powerbook G4 is barely getting Andrea and I though each day. If I start working on my short film, the little guy won't make it. Looking for a new Macbook. We'd be happy with just the basic one, but man! what I'd do for a nice Macbook Pro. Oh, well.

On February 12th, my good friend John Brian Ludwick has asked me to speak at his school again, at IUPUI, as part of a School of Informatics speaker series. That's in Indianapolis. If you're in the ballpark, stop on by.

In March, I'll be part of the Flip the Bird: Part Deux show at Lunarboy Gallery in Astoria, OR.

UPDATE: Oh, forgot to mention -- in March, I'm planning on visiting San Francisco to check out the Mary Blair exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum. I'm so looking forward to that!

More vintage goodies to scan and talk about! Stay tuned. Lots more fun to be had here, kids.

Here's to a great 2008!