NAna Nana Nana Nana NAna Nana Nana Nana BLOG POST!

Once again, the Internet has unmasked my latest [secret project]. This one's called Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and I'm one of three directors on it, along with Brandon Vietti and Michael Chang, working for James Tucker, of Legion of Superheroes/Justice League/Batman/the-drawing-at-the-end-of-this-post fame, and Sam Register, executive producer of all kinds of awesome shows that you've spent so much time enjoying like Teen Titans, Transformers Animated, Clone Wars, Ben 10, and so on.

Of course, at this early stage, I can't post any actual images from the show, which are being kept under wraps, but there's nothing to stop me from posting this crude scribbling of Batman I did three or four years ago which (I must emphasize) has nothing to do with the show.



Also, here's a list of characters and guest-stars that will be appearing in the show - self-redacted, because 1/ I'm not allowed to spill these particular beans yet and 2/ it will annoy Colin. Keep checking in from time to time, though, and I will be unredacting names selectively, as I have been doing for my previous Transformers and Legion posts.

I wish I could talk about it, because we have [secret character], Black Canary and The Huntress appearing. How awesome is that? Also Blue Beetle (psst - it's Jaime in the suit) and the new Atom. We also have Green Arrow and Aquaman, rocking a decidedly more Silver Age appearance than they have in the comics currently. I also get to draw Speedy, who I haven't drawn since Teen Titans. We even have some really obscure characters popping up, like Adam Strange, Kamandi and fan favorite B'Wana Beast. Also James has promised that we'll finally see the return of Firestorm to the world of animation, which makes me happy, since I thought he should have been in JLU. Not to mention tons of Green Lanterns, including one who's never been animated before. And of course, my favorite, Red Tornado.

Oh, and the guest star voices! Can you believe we got R. Lee Ermey? We also got Tom Kenny, reprising his role as Plastic Man, and Michael Rosenbaum, but not in the role you might expect (he'll actually be playing Deadman). Plus the return of many familiar faces from shows I've worked on in the past, like John DiMaggio, Greg Ellis, [secret guest star], Wil Wheaton, [secret guest star] and [secret guest star]. So you can see why I would be excited!

Anyhow, the show is apparently airing Fridays on Cartoon Network, but not until the Fall. I will probably forget to remind you when it airs, but please, check it out!


Publicity drawing by James Tucker.

Batman, Blue Beetle, "Brave and the Bold", Green Arrow are all ™ and © DC Comics.

My poor neglected blog

I've been busy working on the new show Transformers Animated, and I'm only going to get busier. So here's a toy by way of apology. And as an added bonus, here are some pictures of Bulkhead that are NOT in the new show.

I can't put up any drawings that are actually IN the show, so this batch of doodles from the recording session for show 10 is it for now.

Show 10 is the one with Soundwave, so that was a fun recording session, as I'm sure you can imagine. Sorry there was no Laserbeak, but Hasbro sprung that on us as a surprise well after the board was already done.

Actually, as far as recording sessions go, the Transformers sessions have been among the most enjoyable of my short career of sitting in recording booths and doodling on scripts.

The regular cast are all seasoned pros with enough experience to goof around and make the sessions fly by while still delivering knockout performances for every single line.

On top of that, we've had an amazing selection of guest-stars already - Townsend Coleman, Lance Henrickson, [secret guest star 3], John Moschitta, [secret guest star 4], [secret guest star 5], [secret guest star 6], Peter Stormare and Weird Al Yankovic! All in just the first 2 seasons!

So far, a very fun couple of seasons. Hopefully all that fun will get captured on the screen.

This, that, and the other thing

Okay, NOW you can buy Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. Here's a link. I've been boycotting my own blog until it got released, so now I can post again (it's really not because I've been too lazy to post - how dare you even suggest such a thing?)

In other news, Kid's WB is running new episodes of Legion of Super-Heroes again, all through February. Finally, a reason to wake up on Saturday mornings! And speaking of Saturday mornings-

I painted another painting! It's for this show! How 'bout that? That brings my lifetime painting total up to 3. Here it is, in case you can't make it out to Alhambra this Saturday (after you watch Legion and buy Titans: Tokyo, of course)-

It's called "GNAP!". If you don't know why, watch this little video clip here.

November at last!

You know what that means - Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo is available on the 7th! Wouldn't it make a great Christmas present for all your Titan-loving friends and family? Sure would! And look at that temptingly low SRP!



Or not - apparently, they moved the release date again, this time to February 6th. Grinched again! Oh well. In the meantime, here's a page of sketches I did for the DVD cover.



The actual finished box art was done by some guy named Glen Murakami. All Teen Titans characters ™ and © DC Comics.

Hey, American Titans fans, since you can't buy the Titans DVD this Tuesday, make sure to go out and vote! I know you have 70 minutes suddenly freed up, so no excuses!

Guess who's coming to breakfast

If you're awake by 10 AM, there's a new show you'll be wanting to watch on whatever channel airs Warner Bros stuff in your neighbourhood. That's right, Legion of Superheroes starts today. Check it out!

If you miss it, don't panic! Apparently they'll be re-airing it Oct 14. Oh yeah, Validus is ™ and © DC Comics.

Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo airs tonight

At 7:30 on Cartoon Network. We made it a long time ago, and it's been sitting on a shelf for a while now. They dusted it off for San Diego, but if you didn't get a chance to catch it there, it finally airs tonight at 7:30. If you miss that, don't worry, it airs again at the same time tomorrow (Saturday). And if you miss that, apparently you can buy it November 7th. Really, after that, you're on your own.

Here's a little script doodle - including a little section of the script! So watch out for spoilers.

I think I was inspired to put big feet on Cyborg by Irineo Maramba. Cyborg, big feet and all, ™ and © DC Comics.

Attention all horror fans

I don't normally do this, but I want to recommend a movie. I only mention it because I haven't seen any ads for this yet, and I'd hate for people to miss it because they don't know about it. It's called The Descent, and it's coming out today. I happened to get lucky and see it a few weeks ago, knowing nothing about it, and enjoyed it immensely. I don't want to give too much away, but it's about 6 spelunkers who go down into a cave, and things go wrong. It's tense all the way through - it's already scary before the horror movie genre stuff kicks in. If you're tired of slow-moving Japanese ghost women and/or scratchy-looking torture-fests, and just want to see a finely crafted horror film, check out The Descent.

Coincidentally, I recently recovered a painting I did last year for a show at a store called Robocon. I think it demonstrates quite vividly why I'm not making a living as a painter, but I enjoyed painting it. It's cel vinyl on illustration board, for those that wonder about stuff like that.


Zombie Future ™ and © me.

DOOM

Here's something weird about blogspot - if you start a post in, say, February, and don't publish it until July, it'll still post as a February post. Just sayin', is all.

Any ways, here's an old page of scribbles from the days of the second Doom Patrol episode of Teen Titans. Glen had designed a bulky Robotman, and I was messing around, trying to get a feel for it.



At the time, someone had suggested Mr. T as a potential voice actor for Robotman. But then, that same someone suggests Mr. T for just about every voice being cast, so I don't think there was ever any serious consideration of the idea.



This drawing is just for fun.



Robotman, Negative Man, Robin, Elasti-Girl, Raven, Slade, Cyborg and Robin ™ and © DC Comics.
Mr. T ™ and © Mr. T.

Doom

I know I keep saying I'll post more than once a month.



I am one day early this time.



Negative Man © and ™ DC Comics.



See you in July.

Gamecock fever

Almost let a whole month slip by again. Oops.

I'm not sure how to apportion the blame for this one. Derrick was the one who found the Gamecock entry in the Marvel handbook, but Canete was the first to draw him. Soon enough, everyone was drawing Gamecock, and I got swept up in the tide (this happens from time to time - it's how I started the blog in the first place). So here's my Gamecock-



And a coloured version too, why not -



For those Legion fans checking in for Legion news, rest assured that even though we are spending so much time drawing Gamecock, the show is looking great and does not feature Gamecock in any way (since Gamecock is ™ and © Marvel Comics).

Spammed!

So a spammer decided my comments section was a great place to plug their internet survey. No thanks. I adjusted my blog to moderated comments from now on - that means that when you post a comment, blogspot has to email it to me for approval before it can be published. Which I will do, as long as it's not spam. But that does mean when you post a comment, it won't appear right away. Please don't let that stop you from posting, though - I don't reply to comments very often, but I do read all of them (especially now).

For those that are in the direct mail business, please, do me a favour - go get a real job. Sell drugs. Become a whore. Overthrow a small island and set up a banana republic. Whatever, just do something with more dignity than spamming or junk mail, okay? The rest of the world knows what it means to sleep soundly - feel free to join us sometime.

(I know I'm probably directing these comments to some program that randomly posts on blogs automatically, but on the off-chance that there's a human being responsible for spamming up my blog, please, rethink your life. Everyone hates you. That can't be any fun.)

In the meantime, for those who've been having problems loading the Quicktimes in my previous post, don't trouble yourself - they deliberately reveal nothing about the show. I can't post any Legion images until the show's already aired - the movies I put up are cropped too close to see anything, really (although hard-core Legion fans could probably deduce which character is in at least half of the movies - hint - each movie features a different individual Legionnaire). I thought it was funny, but my wife thought it was mean. Maybe she's right, and the spam is karmic retribution for my little prank. Although it was really as much a parody of all the secrecy surrounding the project as anything else. Sorry to anyone who got their spirits up.

In the meantime, I've dug up an old drawing I did in my Titans days. It has nothing to do with the new Legion show, even though it bears a strange resemblance to a certain green hero. Rest assured that in the show, that particular green character looks nothing like this drawing.



Strange green character © and ™ me, although I certainly have no plans to ever draw him again.

Unmasked!

If you're here for the Watchmen drawings, scroll on down to the next (previous) post. For everyone else, some news-

Somehow, the fine folks at titansgo.net have figured out that the [secret project] I'm working on is Legion of Superheroes. Not a terribly big secret, but credit where credit is due.

Anyways, now that the secret (such as it is) is out, here's some Legion stuff. Sorry about the low-res, I don't want the blog to load too slowly.



This is all stuff we put together to give some idea of the feel of the show.



Hey, Warner Bros marketing people! If I'm not supposed to post this stuff, let me know, and I'll take it down.



The show's looking great so far, as you can see. This is all early footage, though, so some things have changed.



We've got some great stuff lined up, too. There's a story with Starfinger lined up that I'm really excited about (Taylor Negron is playing Starfinger).



Also, the Legion of Substitute Heroes guest star in the episode, and Starboy and Matter-Eater Lad join the team.



And that's not our only guest star, either. We've got Cosmic Boy and Ferro Lad, one of them joining the team, with voices by Wil Wheaton and Dave Wittenberg. Also, we're doing the Sun-Eater story - that should be pretty amazing.



Legion of Superheroes characters ™ and © DC Comics.

Just don't ask, please.

So I drew these today.

Please don't ask me why.

It just came up at lunch, and I had to get these things out of my head so I could get back to work.

That's all.

Please don't read anything into it, is all I'm asking.

Of couse, all Watchmen characters are ™ and © DC Comics.

So how's everyone been?

I've been extremely busy lately. But now I'm finally just really busy again, so I can post infrequently on my blog.

Not "often" or "occasionally", mind you, but "infrequently". Which is more than every two months or so. I'll try to get back onto a weekly schedule.

But in the meantime, please check out the many awesome (and much more frequently updated) blogs on my sidebar at the right. Michael Chang has a swell new post with storyboard images from "Things Change", which is an idea I'm absolutely stealing.

You know what, I almost forgot the copyright stuff. So Beast Boy, Cyborg, Robin, Slade and Starfire are ™ and © DC Comics. The gorilla might be Monsieur Mallah (I can't remember whether I meant it to be or not), and if he is, then he's ™ and © DC Comics. Otherwise, he's ™ and © me. Also, I guess the donuthead guy is ™ and © me, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the first person to draw a guy with a donut for a head.

Pufnsmudge

I know I haven't posted in a while - I've been working on a nice little post that is turning out to be extraordinarily large. In the meantime, here's this -



I drew this during the Bunny Raven recording. Or was it Mother Mae-Eye? No, it was Mother Mae-Eye. Those were probably the two most enjoyable records I sat in on - Bunny Raven because Tom Kenny kept ad-libbing hilarious stuff (some of which we kept - the "You're great, I love you" bit from the Stagehand was ad-libbed) and the Mother Mae-Eye one because of Billie Hayes. Now, I didn't grow up on Sid & Marty Krofft stuff like some people, so for me there wasn't the nostalgic resonance when Ms. Hayes was recording, but when she did the evil Mother Mae-Eye laugh, I got chills up my spine. Seriously.

Anyways, this was drawn with a black Sharpie, then coloured with highlighter pens (yellow, orange, pink and green). I really like the way the highlighter pens smudged the Sharpie, making the costume look old and filthy. I don't really care for the drawing on the back of the page bleeding through, but what can you do.

I don't remember why I drew Derrick Wyatt in the costume, or why he is so unhappy. HR Pufnstuf is probably ™ and © Sid & Marty Krofft. Derrick Wyatt of East Gotham City ™ and © DC Comics.

In search of a gag

Some time ago I promised to post an example of an idiot-style drawing that had a practical application. Of course, I also promised a moratorium on the Super-D - but I'll still keep the first promise. Here's a page of idiotic scribbles in search of a gag for "X".



Sometimes it helps to feel your way through a scene like this before you storyboard it. Most of this was in the script (probably not the multiple SD Starfires), but I can't find a copy of the script around, so take my word for it for now. I still wonder if the gag would have played better with a full-sized Starfire standing on Robin's head. Also, it looks like I forgot to include the drawing of Robin with an X in place of his eyes. Oh well. Another X gag lost to the pressures of deadlines. Remember kids, haste makes waste. I think we hid enough Xs in the show as it is. In any case, that becomes this -
















And then we make this (this is my only character design for Titans)-



Then Derrick takes a pass to make it actually look like the rest of the show, Chris Hooten colours it, and we get this-



And then Tom McLaughlin adds the timing, and it gets sent overseas, where Lotto subjects it to their mysterious and wonderful processes. Then they send this back to us-



Then Joe Gall plugs that into his avid and turns it into this (I don't know why this is the only version I have in widescreen)-



The next step is very mysterious to me, since I'm not involved in any way. Someone writes some music, someone else adds some sound effects, Scott redubs a line or two of dialogue, and they all get mixed together to make this -



I guess I kind of lost track of the point in there somewhere.