Thursday, November 11, 2010

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S., Eh?

So there's a new episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold airing tomorrow! This one's overflowing with more patriotic spirit than any half-hour of television ever. Check this out!


Naturally, when the time came to hand out this most American of scripts, it somehow landed on the desk of the show's only non-American director, me. To compensate, I have tried to jam it full of those vivid Stars and Stripes that you Yankee Doodles are so fond of. 


It's also a rousing adventure full of as much of the usual B:TBatB mayhem and whimsy as ever, so even if you're not in the USA, check it out! It's also got this guy in it -


If you can't wait for tomorrow, there are video clips and more pictures here to whet your appetite. They'll make your computer smell like Mom's apple pie!

All characters ™ and © DC Comics

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Hey, Bat-Mite, what's new?



Emperor Joker is on Cartoon Network this Friday? Awesomesauce!

Coincidentally, at least 3 of the characters on the cover of that issue of Who's Who will be appearing in upcoming episodes. Watch for 'em!

Art and characters ™ and © DC Comics.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Doomed

Now that the Doom Patrol episode's aired, I thought I'd post a closer look at the sideshow banners from the circus, since a lot of work went into them. That's kind of the nature of animation - working for weeks on images that flash by in seconds. But in this age of DVD extras and blogsa and what not, there's no reason that work has to zip by unappreciated, is there? Let's all linger over this fine art, drawn by Lynell Forestall and Steve Jones, inked by Robert Lacko and coloured by Bill Dunn. They're all clickable for larger versions.

First up we have the bountiful Baboushka and Romulus and Remus, both background characters from Doom Patrol v.2 #37. There's not much to say about these guys, they're just there to fill empty banner slots.


Next up we have Lodestone, also from that era and that same storyline. Lodestone was also a member of the Doom Patrol in one of its less celebrated incarnations.


Following that we have a strongman, because every circus sideshow needs a strongman. This one was drawn by Steve, for some reason doing his take on the style of Frank Quitely.



Then we have Dorothy Spinner and Shasta the Living Mountain. Both were members of the Doom Force, although Dorothy is portrayed here in her Doom Patrol version. Shasta used to have a lot more line work on his tragic self, painstakingly rendered by Steve, but James pulled us back.

  

And here's the much-anticipated Brave and the Bold appearance of  Beast Boy - this is all the Beast Boy you get this episode. Sorry to those wanting him to be a part of the Doom Patrol, but don't be sad - if we put him on the team, we would have had to kill him. Is that what you want? Beast Boy's blood on your hands? I didn't think so.


For similar reasons, we kept Mento off the team - if we killed him, it wouldn't have seemed like a tragedy. That guy is such a jerk!

Next up we have Crazy Jane... wait, I didn't do a poster for Crazy Jane? What the heck is wrong with me?

To finish off, here's Negative Man himself. I wrote that banner copy myself, and I am as proud of those six words as anything I have ever written.


All art and characters ™ and © DC Comics.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Hey, look at this!

I would've plugged it sooner, but I didn't know they were putting it online - a brand new Super Friends short, directed by Ciro Nieli, with boards by four of the world's top board artists and also me!


It was made (I was told) to be packaged with a Fisher-Price toy, but thanks to the magic of the internet, everyone gets to enjoy it for free!

Also, the Doom Patrol is on B:TBatB tomorrow - get your piping-hot images and clips here or here!

Sunday, October 03, 2010

DOOM (Again)

OK, as Brianne has reminded me, {SPOILERS FOR SIEGE OF STARRO} Starro is dead now, {SPOILERS OVER} so let's move on and plug talk about my next episode, The Last Patrol!, which is airing this Friday for you lucky Americans with Cartoon Network. Of course, Australia has already seen it two weeks ago, so if you're the type who likes to spoil stuff for yourself, you can find info about the episode all over the internet already, including the special appearance in the teaser of {SPOILERS AGAIN}Batgirl{SPOILERS OVER}.

In non-spoilery news, The Last Patrol! stars my favourite superhero team, the Doom Patrol. I got to direct an episode featuring them (half of a two-parter) for Teen Titans many years ago, but I was still very eager to put them in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Fortunately for me, James was too, so here they come. The story is loosely adapted from a very famous DP story, although we had to change the ending for television, but I think we did a great job capturing the tone of the Doom Patrol all the same. I'll have a post with more stuff after it airs.

In other B:TBatB news, kind of mid-spoilery to non-spoilery, it seems like a lot of info is trickling out about Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!, our big crossover episode. Not so much from me, I think - I've been pretty good about not leaking stuff. Here's what I didn't leak - the episode will have three stories featuring 1/ a teaser with Batboy and Rubin from the MAD Magazine parody, 2/ a story featuring a version of Batman based on Jiro Kuwata's Japanese Batman comics from the 60's, and 3/ a crossover with Scooby-Doo.

Like I said, none of that got leaked by me - I've kept quiet for all these months. It hasn't been easy! So I don't think anyone will mind if I leak one frame from the show, right? So here it is - a genuine exclusive still from Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!





Man, I hope that doesn't get me in trouble with Warner Bros. I'm just so proud of this episode that I couldn't help but share!

It's a pity it wasn't finished in time for San Diego -  I mean, the episode that we did screen there, Emperor Joker!, was great and all, but B-MP:B'sSC (as I have decided to abbreviate it) is tailor-made to be screened at a comic convention surrounded by hundreds of the fans who would've appreciated it the most. But it'll probably air before the next San Diego Comicon (even with Cartoon Network's scheduling shenanigans), and who wants to premiere a cartoon everyone's already seen? I guess the timing just didn't work out, so that opportunity is lost.

If only there were some other comic book convention between now and the theoretical airdate - one that would maybe fly me out and put me up for the night - why, then all I'd have to do is square it with the powers that be at Warner Bros and we could screen the guaranteed fan-servicingest episode of any Batman cartoon ever produced! Ah, but that's just a pipe dream, I suppose.

Batman image ™ and © DC Comics.

Friday, September 17, 2010

STARRO LIVES...


STARRO LIVES...



STARRO LIVES...



...at 7:00 tonight on Cartoon Network, that is!

And while I'm here, there's a bunch of spoilers for the last season and a half of B:TBatB here.

All characters in picture © and ™DC Comics.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Bat-News

So much happening all of a sudden! Well, just three very tiny little tidbits of news, but enough to rouse me from my blogging slumber.

Anyways, Cartoon Network is "tentatively" scheduling Siege of Starro! Part One for September 17.  That's tentatively good news for those who haven't already seen it via itunes, Amazon, On Demand or just by being in the United Kingdom 2 1/2 months ago.

And in other news breaking on the internet, we're doing a crossover with Scooby-Doo! Actually it kinda got leaked at San Diego, but the Comics Continuum article has a couple extra details, so check it out.

And finally, there's this, a little promo I directed for the upcoming video game. And when I say directed, I mean "watched Michael Goguen storyboard the whole thing then sat back and waited for Moi to do the animation". Either way, it turned out pretty sweet, so why not check it out? Hopefully it'll tide you over until September 17 (tentatively).

Monday, July 26, 2010

Post San Diego Wrapup!

Mostly I spent the whole Comic Con either chasing after my 2 year old or stumbling about in a daze, but it turns out a bunch of Brave and the Bold stuff transpired over the weekend with or without me anyways.

First, let me address the rumor accidentally generated at the panel - Batman: The Brave and the Bold is NOT cancelled.  The show will come to an end after the third season, not after the second season, as reported on many comic news sites. So the tally will be -

Season 1 - 26 episodes (all have aired)
Season 2 - 26 episodes (12 have aired* + 10 more in the can + 4 more in production)
Season 3 - 13 episodes (all in various stages of production from being-animated-overseas to still-just-a-germ-in-James-or-Michael's-head)

Anyone reporting the show's ending at 52 episodes is misinformed.

Also announced at the panel is the upcoming appearance of two new characters - James dug deep into DC's Golden Age and scrounged up some Depression-era strongman and a World War Two era princess with a magic rope or something, and they'll be appearing in Season 3. The crowd seemed pretty excited about that, even though they lack the star power of, say, Ultra the Multi-Alien, who will be appearing very soon in Season 2.

How soon?

Tell you what - go to the itunes store now and you can buy both parts of "Siege of Starro", our big Season 2 two-parter. Never mind, they pulled it down again. Too bad, Ultra's in there somewhere. Shoulda grabbed when you had the chance!

But hey, if you're looking for more spoilers, check out this promotional video of a Season 3 voice recording. If you have sharp eyes, you can spot my face through the glass in the background around 0:42, looming over the proceedings like a pale giant-foreheaded ghost.

To top it all off, when I got back from San Diego, I found this interview with none other than Grant Morrison, in which he says he's a "big fan" of our show. Wow! That's pretty gratifying, what with him being one of my favorite writers and all. Hopefully he'll appreciate our little nods to his Doom Patrol and Batman R.I.P. runs in upcoming Season 2 episodes.

*not counting either the episode that aired only in the UK or the episode that aired only in Australia.

Friday, July 09, 2010

Mid-Season Update

Nothing big, just a post to gather a bunch of little nuggets of news while waiting for the network to start airing new episodes again (no, I don't now when that will start happening).

Nugget 1 - Brave and the Bold got a third season! This is old news, but maybe someone out there hasn't heard it yet, so there it is.  We've got 13 more episodes to follow the 14 you haven't seen yet from season 2 (unless you live in Australia or the UK), which will eventually bring us up to 65 altogether.

And what news can I spill about Season 3, you may ask?

Nothing.

Sorry.

But there may hope if you check out...

Nugget 2 - There's going to be a B:TBATB panel at the San Diego Comicon ! I'm not on it, but producers James Tucker and Michael Jelenic, executive producer Sam Register, voice director Andrea Romano and Batman himself, Diedrich Bader, all will be! Plus we'll be screening an as-yet-unaired (even in the UK and Australia) episode, and there will also be a preview of Young Justice!

Friday! 10:30! Be there or be sad when you read about it online afterwards and realize what a swell panel you missed!

And if you still have questions that weren't answered at the panel, there's always...

Nugget 3 - I started up a formspring account, why not!  If there's an internet bandwagon, I'll find my way onto it, usually as everyone else has grown bored and is already leaving.  But come feel free to come ask me questions before I forget my password! It's right here.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Shazam!... again

Okay, Power of Shazam! is back on the schedule, set to air this Friday. I didn't talk much about the Captain Marvel parts in my last post, which is a shame, because this episode is stuffed to the gills with Captain Marvel.


Unfortunately, there's not really that much I can say without getting into some spoilers, so I'll just say that we worked pretty hard to capture that very specific Captain Marvel tone for this episode. If you're a Captain Marvel fan, I think you'll be pleased.


Not that Batman's not in it too, but really, it's primarily a Captain Marvel story with a light Batman glaze. Plus, it's got these happy fellows-


So check it out!

(All characters ™ and © DC Comics.)

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Shazam!

So here's the scoop - even though Cartoon Network has been messing around with the schedule, delaying new episodes until March, itunes has been sticking to the original schedule, meaning you can download The Super-Batman of Planet X! and The Power of Shazam! right now if you want, and presumably the much anticipated (and deservedly so) Chill of the Night! this upcoming Friday.


Now, as big a fan as I am of Captain Marvel, who guest-stars in The Power of Shazam!, I want to talk here about something else that happens in that episode. Something that took me five years to finally accomplish, after repeated failures.  In its own way, the culmination of a lifetime's obsession.  I'm talking about...



Blowing up the Red Tornado.


I became a comic fan back in Nineteen Seventy Something, reading Justice League of America comics in what has retroactively been dubbed the Satellite Era.  Back then, the Justice League had anywhere from ten to fourteen members, half of whom had their own titles.  So usually the writers focused on the other half for character development, and pre-eminent among these B-listers, to my young eyes at least, was the Red Tornado.

Now, the Red Tornado was an android with wind powers and a Pinocchio complex.  Pretty straightforward comic book stuff.  But what drew me to the character was his tenacity. In the era I was introduced to the character, he blew up at least three times, returning from the grave a few issues later each time.  It was almost like his secondary superpower was dramatically sacrificing himself in that gruesomely explosive way that you can only achieve in a Comics Code Approved book with robots.

So many years later, I ended up picking up a little freelance storyboarding work from Justice League.  The episode was Panic in the Sky, and I was boarding a little sequence where the Justice League satellite is under siege from an army of superpowered clones called the Ultimen.  In the middle of the fray, taking up a solitary sentence in the script, was a showdown between Red Tornado and a bunch of Ultimen.  Here, I thought, was a chance to pay homage to my favorite hero in the appropriate fashion - by killing him in a blaze of exploding glory.

So I boarded it that way - Red Tornado beats Wind Dragon but is then overloaded by Juice, and dies in a big electrical explosion.  Unfortunately, Panic in the Sky happened after The Return, in which the Red Tornado also blows up, and James Tucker, producer of Justice League Unlimited, felt that blowing the Red Tornado up twice was once too many.  I argued that blowing up heroically was basically Red Tornado's whole schtick, but James didn't buy it, and Reddy remained unexploded that day.

A few years pass, and I get a call from Sam Register about a new show James is developing called Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and am I interested in working on it?  Of course I'm all for that, especially when Sam, knowing my weaknesses, mentions the prominent role that Red Tornado will be playing as one of the most frequent guest-stars.  In short order, I was on the Warner Bros. ranch drawing Batman and Green Arrow dangling over a pit of acid.

Now, here's how they decide which director directs which show - it's pretty much just left to chance.  But if there's a script coming up that you have a special interest in, there's no harm in letting James or Michael Jelenic know that you wouldn't mind if that script happened to fall into your slot.  And when I got there, in the first batch of scripts was a perfect chance to blow up the Red Tornado in classic style.  So I dropped a few hints about how I sure do like the Red Tornado, and if nobody else wanted that particular script, maybe I could have a go at it?  Which everyone was fine with, so show 4 was to be Invasion of the Secret Santas! starring the ever-exploding android, Red Tornado.

Unfortunately, the reality is that the scripts each have their own challenges, so they get done when they get done, and sometimes that means a script will get delayed or pushed forward to stay on schedule.  Secret Santas wasn't going to be done in time to be show 4, but Day of the Dark Knight! was ready, so that became show 4, and Secret Santas got bumped to show 5.

And so it was left to Brandon Vietti to explode Red Tornado.  And a bang-up job he did - it was a classic Red Tornado explosion, easily one of the character's best.  As proud as I was that Red Tornado got his moment to explode in the spotlight, and as much as I enjoyed watching it, I was still left with the nagging feeling that I wanted to be the one with my finger on the detonator.

And then, 32 episodes later, purely by chance, the script to Power of Shazam! landed on my desk.  And there in the teaser was the moment I had been waiting years for - a chance to explode my childhood hero.  You can believe I boarded that part myself!

And so, after five years and two failed attempts, here it is - I have finally exploded my childhood hero, the Red Tornado.

There's also twenty-one and a half other minutes of stuff in the episode too.

So 2 measly bucks will get you early access to a full Captain Marvel episode, steeped with Captain Marvelly goodness.  Or wait 'til March, whatever.

All characters ™ and © DC Comics.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Oh yeah new show!

Friday!

Firestorm!

Versus Double X!












Plus these guys!

And... this happens!













Also, surprise villain in teaser - spoil it yourself by watching the first five minutes here!

Friday!

All characters ™ and © DC Comics.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Big Announcement!


I don't know if this is the appropriate venue for this announcement - I should probably post it in some forum about Quantum Mechanics or something, but I don't know enough about science to find a reliable one.  Anyways, here it is - it turns out that, somehow, in the natural course of making Batman: the Brave and the bold, we have made contact with a parallel universe.

I know, I can hardly believe it myself.

There was a weird accident in the editing bay, and before we knew what was happening, we had opened up a portal to another earth, very much like ours, but with one minor difference - Aquaman is the world's most popular hero there!




I know, I know, it sounds insane, but to prove it we arranged an exchange - we couldn't send people or things through the portal, only editing bay data - so we traded the episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold that we were working on for an episode of their hit show Aquaman: The Awesome and the Outrageous.  It's a show where Aquaman teams up with a new hero every week!  Here he is with Green Arrow-



Unfortunately, we lost their teaser and the main titles, so we just dropped our own in, but after the title card, you're in for a treat - an episode of the Aquaman team-up show from another world.  I'm very excited, so tune in and check it out!  We'll be airing it this Friday!




Oh, and if anyone from Earth-Aquaman can read this blog, enjoy the episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold that we sent you!

Aquaman images ™ and © DC Comics of Earth-Aquaman.  Batman images ™ and © DC Comics of this Earth.