Name that Toon?

I'll admit it, I'm upset. News from way up high at Cartoon Network is that we have to change the name of our animated series from 'The Secret Saturdays', a title that everybody I've ever spoken to loves (including very nearly everyone at Cartoon Network itself!), to 'The Secret Adventures Of Zak Saturday', which sounds remarkably similar to 'The Sweet Life Of Zack and Cody' or 'The Life and Times Of Juniper Lee'. Ugh. The worst part is that the new title isn't as good at reflecting what our show is really about... it's like calling the Fantastic Four 'Johnny Storm and his amazing Friends'. Please let CN know which title you like best here. Thanks.

Momo a Go-Go

The Secret Saturdays director Scott Jeralds and I were talking last week and, being his birthday, I guess he was a little nostalgic. It came to light that 35 years ago this summer, Scott was vacationing in Missouri during the terrifying Momo monster flap of 1972. It was wonderful to get that kid-perspective of the event-- I mean, can you imagine being a fantasy-prone kid who discovers that your parents have been shielding you from the news that a real, honest-to-gosh, dog-killing monster is roaming around exactly where you're having a nice, rural vacation? Yipes! I know producer Fred Schaefer once told me about the Goat-Man that was said to live in the swampy woods near his childhood home in New Orleans, and I'm starting to wonder just how many folks on the crew have had cryptozoological encounters! Sadly, I've never spotted a Sasquatch or oogled an Ogopogo. I feel so unqualified for the job!

Hallowe'en Town

I was hanging out on Magnolia Boulevard this afternoon checking out all the drop dead gorgeous pin striping on display for the hot-rod studded 'Be-Bopping In The Park' and finally got the opportunity to visit the new Halloween Town location. It felt like home, naturally. Too much fabulously fearsome goodies to describe here... spend some time creeping around their site to get the idea. What I'd really like to know is how they get the murder of real-life crows to skulk around the outside of the store!

Hearing Voices

You what's really fun? Getting to sit in on an animation voice recording. Even better? When the actors get along like the family you want them to portray and have just as much fun with the material as you have listening to them record it. The pilot episode was recorded this week in lovely North Hollywood in two seperate sessions to break up the hour-long script. The cast is just plain amazing... funny, enthusiastic, and perfect for the show. The big villian of the piece, Argost, is portrayed in gooseflesh-raising glory by none other than Corey Burton of 'Haunted Mansion Holiday' fame. It's a truely brilliant bit of old-school horror acting that I guarantee Monsterama fans will dig. Doc and Drew Saturday are played by Phil Morris and Nicole Sullivan respectively, in characterizations even better than I imagined. Phil is best known to you lot as the Martian Manhunter from 'Smallville', and Nicole is probably best recognized from 'MadTV' and 'King Of Queens'. Sam Lerner (Chowder from 'Monster House) does a bang-on Zak Saturday, and Diedrich Bader of 'Drew Carey Show' fame is uncanny (and hilarious!) as Fiskerton. 'Batman Beyond' himself, Will Friedle does a great Doyle, and Fred Tattasciore freaked us all out with some amazing monster sounds for Komodo and Zon. What a blast!

Lurking in the Backgrounds

Here are a couple of background paintings for the Secret Saturdays. I really wanted a lot of solid blacks and gritty texture to stay on the screen, which is fairly abnormal these days, and I sent the crew a bunch of old Roy Crane scans to emphasize the 'spotted blacks'. I think we've achieved a really nice comic-booky, updated Jonny Quest vibe with these.

It's Saturday

I'm thrilled to pieces about our having Scott Jeralds aboard directing the Secret Saturdays, and not just because he has stories about Iwao Takamoto, Doug Wildey and Alex Toth from his days at Hanna Barbera. Scott and I share the same cartoon influences and predilections, and Mr. Jeralds is a man who really 'gets' this show. The fabulous crew he's assembled in-house seem to be a very loyal to him, as well, and things are looking very very nice as a result. I guess it's also looking good because it's such a fun show to work on. That's what they tell me, anyway. The storyboards for the hour-long pilot episode are nearly all done, and it's looking wicked! Here's a quick peek at a monster transformation sequence by none other than Monsterman Mike Manley...

The Hills Have I

I'm settling down to my first lonesome night in the Hollywood Hills, right across Barham Boulevard from the ol' Bates Motel in the Universal lot. I'm staying at the Oakwood Toluca Hills, about one hundred feet away from where a couple of kids from Illinois started a fire that nearly burned down Griffith Park earlier this summer. The dead, blackened wood jutting out of sun-baked earth gives the place a rather post-apocalyptic look. It's very homey.

Off to Horrorwood

Well, I'm all packed up and ready to go. My U.S. Work Visa finally came through (for more on that drama, please refer to dear Steve 'Tyrant' Bissette's blog), and I'm going to spend the month of August in Los Angeles working on the Secret Saturdays intstead of dealing with all the emailing, FTPing, and Conference Calls that have dominated the last three months. I ought to have time to post every evening, so stay tuned while Monsterama becomes something of a production blog for the next few weeks.

Happy Friday The 13th!

The Secret Saturdays has been so fun to work on so far! Here's some creepy concept art by me from the first couple of episodes, including the fiendishly fun billboard above, promoting our show-within-a-show, 'Weirdworld'.

Breakfast Of Skeletons

The mad mad plans of my petrifying pal Doctor Von Kreep are finally coming to fruition! Cereal Killers will soon be here. Kreep calls it "A spooky, kooky coffin table cartoon art book featuring terrorfying takes on some of your favorite breakfast cereal's." And, yes, I'm involved.

The Beast vs. The Living Vampire

Welp... the news has finally leaked out about the Marvel Comics 'indy' anthology, so I might as well officially confirm my participation. Rather unsurprisingly, my short piece features a couple of characters from the '70's 'monster-hero' phase that Marvel went through during my childhood. Anyone who read the original run of Son Of Satan will get my drift, here. Monsters fighting each other seems quintessentially Marvel to me... as do extended monologues and villainous boasting, which are also featured in decent doses in my offering. I had a fun time drawing Beast and Morbius, I admit it. But it's mostly because I was allowed to draw the vintage versions. Big kudos to Aubrey Sitterson for his ambition here...

Horribly Delayed

So sorry for the long wait between posts. I've been working hard on both the third drawing book (this one about Robots), and the Secret Saturdays cartoon, which became much more stressful and problematic once the Department Of Homeland Security refused me entry to the U.S. to oversee the production in person. Despite the fact that I'm not an employee of either Cartoon Network or the production company Porchlight Entertainment, and I was paying my own way down, I was harrassed, fingerprinted, and photographed at the border and a 'flag' was put on my passport preventing me from "trying to enter the States illegally in the future". All this because they felt I needed a work visa. Well why not just say so? I'm still steamed about it, especially since the recent news that our joint 'border security' effort requiring all Canadians and Americans crossing the boarder to show their passports was recently relaxed for Americans. Only Canadians need the extra scutiny, it seems. Sigh... At least I'm not the only one. After my Gitmo experience, I was told a multitude of other stories by fellow Canadians like myself who had been travelling back and forth from the U.S. for many years suddenly finding their rights and livelyhood under attack since the inaugeration of the DHS. Looks like Canadians are no longer welcome in the land of Freedom, folks. Their loss, I say. Unfortunately, the travel ban caused me to miss my seat at the Daytime Emmy Awards where my show TUTENSTEIN won it's second Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program. My wife had a dress picked out and everything. Oh well, c'est la vie. The production for the Saturdays in full-speed ahead, and looking great. I'll try and make this a bit of a production blog for the show whenever I find the time. Until then, stay spooky!

Farewell to the Main Masher

The man, the myth, the legend that is Bobby 'Boris' Pickett has passed into the big black. Link "He does the "Monster Mash" no more.
Bobby "Boris" Pickett, whose dead-on Boris Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem "Monster Mash" to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one of pop music's most enduring one-hit wonders, has died of leukemia. He was 69. Pickett, dubbed "The Guy Lombardo of Halloween," died Wednesday night at the West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital, said his longtime manager, Stuart Hersh. His daughter, Nancy, and his sister, Lynda, were at Pickett's bedside. "Monster Mash" hit the Billboard chart three times: when it debuted in 1962, reaching No. 1 the week before Halloween; again in August 1970, and for a third time in May 1973. The resurrections were appropriate for a song where Pickett gravely intoned the forever-stuck-in-your-head chorus: "He did the monster mash. ... It was a graveyard smash." He will be forever remembered as the creator of the most famous Halloween song of all time.. and any mad monster creator is an eternal friend of us here at Monsterama. Don't rest too well, Mr. Pickett!

Ogoh Ogoh!

Check out this wicked photo gallery of Ogoh Ogoh Monsters! These creepy and colourful Balinese sculptures are made out of bamboo and paper mache. Most represent traditional creatures from the underworld known as buta-kala, but modern Ogohs may also take on pop culture forms, including media or government personalities.

Read 'Em And Creep

Hey, fiends! The aforementioned books I've been working on are finally available for preorder. MONSTERS! is slated to lurch onto bookshop shelves in June. I got my preview copy, and it looks pretty swell, if I do say so myself. HEROES! is due out the same time, and ROBOTS! and MANGA! are coming out in January 2008. That's a long way off, and I guess it's a little early to be posting about these, but what the heck... I'm excited!

Omni-monster! Aieeeee!!!

Mmmm, Kaiju! Geozilla has created what he calls Kaiju Utopia, and I gotta tell you, it was hard to leave the place! Omni-monster is overflowing with cute, creepy vinyl. Just the sort of site to help you kill off a dozy spring morning.

Real Spooky Estate

If you're anything like me, a weekly blog about all things Haunted Mansion is essential. For those unfaithful of you out there who don't believe the subject could possibly merit that much discussion, I point you to the year-old Ghost Relations Dept., devoted to new, obscure or just plain odd information about the Disney Haunted Mansion's. It's just plain awesome!

Happy Happy Dead Dead

Know what I like? Drazen's quiet little Happy Undertaker comic strips. Really beautiful work.

The Full Monster

At midnight tonight, the complete Milton The Monster Show will appear on DVD for the first time, thanks to the folks at Shout! Factory. Don't be scared... the only frightening thing about this collection is the ghastly cover art. This four-disc set comprises the entire catalog of 26 episodes, each running about 22 minutes each, presented in its original full frame format. As if a complete clean print of one of my very favourite cartoons wasn't enough, we get cool bonus stuff like home movies of creator Hal Seeger appearing at the N.Y.C. Toy Fair to promote his characters! Here's a nice review over at DVD Verdict...

Starting to Sizzle

If you scoot on over to the Cartoon Network 'Upfronts' page and click on New Shows, you'll get a bit more buzz on my new animated series 'The Secret Saturdays', including something called a Sizzle Reel. Just ignore the doofy dude in the hat...