A rare sighting of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles during the day.

Octopus Crossing!

My Desk: Lightboxing!

This weekend has been a productive one; I'm currently working on the first of a series of 4 kid's books for an American publisher (I can't say anymore than that for now but as soon as I can post and talk about it, I will!) and have been working on the second draft of roughs. My lightbox has seen a fair bit of action this weekend for re-drawing, re-formatting and tidying up the first pass roughs. What else is going on at the desk this week?

1. I booked tickets for Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy for November and have been listening to the soundtracks for FF7, 8,9 and 10. I can't wait!

2. I'm on a big Akira Toriyama kick at the moment; Cowa and Dr Slump are awesome. I just ordered Sandland too - can't wait for it to arrive!

3. Lightbox action for super secret kid's books.

4. Stack of kid's book character designs and roughs, paper and my finished Lovecraft comic.

5. Hilarious animation cel of Bow from She-Ra bought at Roll Out Roll Call!

6. £3.99 John Barrowman bank note, made by the awesome Mr Lewis Terry; this was counted as legal tender at London Super Con.

Ulysses 31 sneaky peek!

Ulysses 31 still remains one of my favourite 80s shows; the idea of setting The Odyssey in space is still genius and I think the cartoon still holds up, concept-wise, if not animation-wise! No-one can deny that the theme tune isn't awesome either...

Here's a small peek at my Ulysses 31 piece for the upcoming Jurassic Dorks exhibition.

Tripod Terror animated!

Here's a very rough animated gif made in Photoshop with one of my older images. I might try and do something a bit more complex next time! I'll have to try and convert the animation I made in my second year of University from VHS (yep, that's how long ago it was!) to post on here. Over 800 drawings for less than a minute of work! :P

Japanese Kid's Shows are the best!

In 2007 I went on an awesome two week trip to Japan. One of our favourite things was watching Japanese TV in the mornings before we left and when we got back in the evenings. The mornings yielded some amazing kid's TV shows and I could quite happily have spent a day just watching them! I couldn't find the ones I wanted on Youtube, but here are some other awesome ones!

Animation Influences!

Like most kids, I grew up with a plethora of cartoons. In fact, most of my childhood memories are of certain cartoons and video games although my mum says me and my brother used to play outside a fair bit too. My brain has obvious filtered out the important stuff! I can say without a shadow of a doubt that my artwork would not be what it is today without my imagination having been saturated with the animation I grew up with. Even at the time when watching a lot of cartoons, I was very aware of what was good and what was crap (Does anyone else remember an absolutely TERRIBLE cartoon called The Stone Protectors? I want to know I'm not alone on this one!).

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the animation that had a major impact on my life and artwork. Hope you enjoy!



The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show was a real favourite of mine; the voices were spot on, the animation was simple and the music by Vince Guaraldi is still genius. This clip from the Easter Special of Snoopy having a manic dance with some non-existent rabbits never fails to make me laugh.



Back when MTV was MTV Europe in the early '90's, they had a series of animation called Oddities which I watched obsessively. These were so different to anything I'd ever seen; I was just getting into anime about this time thanks to the Sci-Fi Channel but MTV's Oddities were mind-blowing. Aeon Flux still remains one of the oddest and visually stunning "adult" cartoons I've ever seen.



Also featured in MTV's Oddities was The Maxx, based on Sam keith's amazing and weird comic of the same name. Again, I'd never seen anything like The Maxx and it remains one of my favourites.



I don't know what it was about The Raccoons but I was pretty much obsessed with Burt raccoon when I was younger. I even sent a picture of him into Hart Beat in the hopes of being featured in The Gallery. Needless to say, my picture didn't make it.



To this day, I still think the concept for BraveStarr is genius. The '80's and '90's were full of toy-vehicle cartoons like this but I still this this one of the better ones!



Still one of my favourite cartoons. Along with Mum-Ra and Skeletor, Venger remains one of the all-time greatest animation villains!



When I was younger, Ulysses 31 had a major impact on me. I was terrified by this cartoon and I still find it very creepy and atmospheric to this day. And setting the Odyssey in space shouldn't work but it does. I highly recommend the episode "The Seat of Forgetfulness".

These are just a few pieces of animation I'd site as influences. Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Samurai Jack, The Powerpuff Girls, Spongebob Squarepants, She-Ra, Galaxy High, Galaxy Rangers, Visionaries, The Tick, Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, The Head, Daria, Beavis and Butthead - my list goes on! The fact that these are all being released on DVD makes me weep for the future of my artwork. Mostly because I'll spend all my drawing time watching these again.

Fantastic idea executed to perfection!

This animation from Sugimoto Kousuke is absolutely stunning and makes me slightly envious that I can't have and pull off these kinds of ideas! It reminds me a lot of the ideas and projects of Michel Gondry who similarly manages to bring to life the most implausible-on-paper ideas to a jaw-dropping extent. Enjoy!

Moving picture delights!

I've been trawling the wonder that is YouTube lately and feel I need to share some videos I've been enjoying! (The videos are slightly squished but click on them to go to YouTube)

First off we have Tetra Vaal; a fantasic short video by Neill Blomkamp, director of upcoming sci-fi film (which looks amazing), District 9. I saw this years ago and have been trying to find it ever since. Everything about this is just so well done and I love the robot!



On the subject of District 9, here's Neill Blomkamp's original short film, Alive in Jo'burg that was the springboard for District 9. Love the bio-suits!



Some hilariously surreal animation by Don Hertzfeldt. Wait for the Intermission in the 3rd Dimension...!



One of my all-time favourite gags from The Simpsons, Worker and Parasite! Absolute genius!



And finally, Stick Figure Theatre presents: Night of the Living Dead!