A recap....also known as TLDR

Work has slowed up a bit. I have weekends again. Having the ability to get a full nights sleep and the ability to plan outings with the wife and friends took getting used to. The peace wont last more than another couple of weeks. Ive been told to expect virtually no days off all of June, so to suck up the easy days while I can.



We are working on the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I am both excited and feel a little dirty about that. Next to Ghostbusters, TMNT is my favorite property and I have wanted to be a part of that universe since I was eight. However, I always have hesitations when it comes to reboots of old franchises as I rarely agree with the way they are handled. That said, its mainly because I want more of the version I loved as a child and not ready to give the series to another group of kids.  What I have seen of the movie does look like a lot of fun, so every day I get a little more excited about the film.

We are also working on Guardians of the Galaxy.  Im a fan of the marvel owned movies and James Gunn is one of my favorite directors, so there is nothing but excitement and anticipation for this film. I mean, talking raccoon with laser rifles...how can that be anything but glorious.





 
   Rachel and I went to see Godzilla yesterday morning. This was another film that we worked on (if you havent noticed, the best way to get your name on a bunch of blockbusters is to be a stereoscopic compositor) and I was beaming with pride when the end credits rolled. The film was phenomenal from the script all the way thru the 3D conversion (the 3D scored almost perfect marks on one blog).




  Its been awhile since Ive had the time for a good long type on here. I keep meaning to do little recaps, but I get distracted by Call of Duty or sleep. There was going to be a big End of Year wrap-up, but we spent a few weeks back home in Missouri with family and it was hard to pull myself away from all them. A short and quick summation of last year?

  2013 was awesome.

  Living in Los Angeles affords one a lot of opportunities as a nerd (its to balance out all of the time you spend dying slowly in rush hour traffic on the 101 or 405).  In 2013 (and up to now in 2014) I was able to meet all of my favorite authors, artists, and many actors and directors. A few for instances.

I got to sit in and be a part of the audience for Bruce Campbells pilot, Nightcap. In real life he is just as charming, witty and hard working as he seems in his films.

Rachel and I were in the audience for SPOILERS with Kevin Smith, who has been a icon of mine for quite awhile. I got to chat with him one on one for awhile and had him sign a comic that my Pops had bought for me a few months before he passed away.

I met Jim Butcher (Dresden Files),  Neil Gaiman (Sandman and a hundred others), Chuck Pahlniuk (Fight Club), got knocked over by Patrick Rothfuss (he very was sorry and I bounce), James Ellroy, Neal Stephenson, new favorite author Stephen Blackmoore, artists Dean Yeagle, Frank Cho, Juanjo Guarnido, and the iconic and incredible Drew Struzan (on 5 different occasions).





I was able to meet actors from the Goonies, watch Elijah Wood spin the turntables at a movie shown in a cemetery, chatted with Bill Paxton (the dude is just as laid back and awesome as you'd imagine), and saw a random smattering of B-C-D list actors at the grocery store. I was able to meet the director of Godzilla who thanked us for our awesome work. We see Weird Al almost every Sunday morning (brother knows his hymns).

   My shelves of autographed books literally had so many books on them that they pulled themselves out of the wall. I had to buy another heavy duty, sealed poster tube to keep all of the art and posters Ive had signed better protected. For the first time my studio, Knights End, will be listed in the credits of a film created by people I had never met before, but contacted me after seeing my reel and wanted me to do all of the visual effects for their horror film, Mile Marker 7. I've added 14 movie and television titles to my IMDB page and worked with more incredible artists and compositors than I thought possible (none of who get the thanks and adoration they deserve but are all moving on to great things).

And the icing on the ridiculously tall, 30 layer red velvet cake, is that we are expecting our first baby in September. We are excited as all get out. We are told its likely a girl. To keep our baby name choices from getting out into the Collective Consciousness, we are referring to her as codename Dr Zhivago.

(photo taken at the Gallery 1988 Ghostbusters Art Show)

I dont expect the next year to be as mind blowing. Honestly, I feel like there are probably a lot of people calling bulls--t now. But If all else slows down, being a dad sounds like it will be an experience hard to top.

All work and no play make jack a dull boy...

  Well, we all survived the Mayan Apocalypse.  I'm feeling pretty good, its like the 6th or 7th end of the world that I have managed to go through unruffled.  Seriously though, if elected officials had as much research done on them as these half-baked end of the world type scenarios, capital hill would be a much more efficient place.

  Twinkies are no more, so the twinkie wiener sandwich is now an extinct culinary delight.  I think that is what the Mayans were talking about, the death of hostess. On a plus, all of the hostess news helped me remember an old TMNT treat, turtle pies. I am sure they were as delicious as they look.








  Currently, I'm working at a studio that converts regular movies into 3D extravaganzas! The work is great even if its not as exciting as building the shots from scratch like standard effects projects.  I'm working 12 to 14 hour days, 6 days a week so there is pretty much no movement on any projects of mine...at all. But on the plus side I am able to get my name into the credits of Jurassic Park.

  I did get ten days off for Christmas, so naturally there was a lot of sleep and wasting time involved.  I got some fun nerd gear, the high points being a stuffed Fozzie the bear from Mom and Karla, a beautiful Calabash pipe from Marshall and a couple of old ninja turtle masks from Rachel.

 During our time off, we went to Rachels grandparents in Houston since we hadnt seen them for a few years and, well, why not?  I cant say that Houston has been particularly astounding to me, but I have had a good time hanging out with her family. Her grandmother immediately won me over (again) by giving me a Donatello Pez dispenser and Real Ghostbusters StayPuft Marshmallow man from her random toy collection. Rachel decided to learn how to quilt from her Grandmother and in a moment of stupidity I challenged her by saying I would make a quilt as well.  It was a bluff designed to push her to finished product but I just aimed the barrel at my foot and pulled the trigger because it meant there was another project I would like to finish in 2013. Naturally, the patterns I found were TMNT and Doctor Who inspired.




My current obsession is autographed books, spurned on by meeting the incredible Jim Butcher at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in Redondo Beach, LA.  Since then I've gotten a couple Orson Scott Card, Palahniuk and shortly a few random authors from the urban paranormal fiction section. Butcher was signing copies of the new Dresden Files book entitled Cold Days.  If you aren't a Dresden Files fan, then I assume you ended up on this page because you were surfing for porn and one of my tags somehow was pulled into your query.  Anyhow, I asked him the important questions such as 'Who would play Molly Carpenter in a movie?' and 'Is Macs Pub a real place and if so can I have the address.'  I did not agree with his answer for the first question (silly creators thinking they know what their characters look like) and the answer to the second was 'No, so no.'

Groundbreaking investigative journalism.  I missed my calling.

  LFM hasnt moved in nearly two months.  Check out the last strip...it was leading in to actual story elements!  Naturally, thats when we stopped putting out fresh material.

  Anywho, hope you all had a great Christmas and have a wonderful New Year!

  Remember, you still have a couple days to try and cram in those resolutions from last year, so get to work!

San Diego Comic Con 2012 wrap up

This was the first time I ever went to the nerd Mecca known as San Diego Comic Con. When I was originally creating this post there was going to be lots of pictures of celebrities and going nuts on how awesome the panels were but with a little distance from it I realize that wasn't the part of the convention that I will remember long term.  I mean, dont get me wrong. Bumping into Andy Serkis or some of the folks from Supernatural out on the convention floor was pretty cool. But still.

 I've wanted to go to the San Diego Comic Con for as long as I can remember.  It was a dream and while living in Missouri it seemed almost unreachable (dream bigger, darlings).  Once I moved to LA and it was a short (2.5 hour) drive I had built it up in my head to be overwhelming.

 And it was overwhelming. Giant transformers, huge sculptures, bright lights and people. There were SO many people.  Nothing I had been to, concerts or otherwise, prepared me for the sheer throng of people in an enclosed space.  There were the perfunctory (emphasis on funk) unwashed fanboys, the scantily clad cos-play girls, and the nerds.  But I wasn't expecting all of the people that were there for the TV shows and movies.  I realize now that more than anything thats what comic con's focus has become.  There is a lot of money behind film production, its how I earn my keep so I cant begrudge that.  But I didn't think about all of the people that would be there to get an interview, to see a couple minutes of footage that would be online in a week or were just there just for work.  There were publicists and executives and little underlings everywhere taking up space and saving seats. If they took out everyone that wasn't there due to fandom there would have been another 100,000 tickets available for those unwashed fanboys and half naked girls with pink hair.

 Another complaint of mine is that even after the success of the Avengers, the world continually underestimates the cult of Joss Whedon.  They put the 10 year Firefly reunion in a large room, but not the biggest.  The show that got that space happened to be involved with one of the people that bought a booth inside.  So instead there was a literal 2 mile line that had more than the rooms capacity standing in it by 2am the night before.  Joss was a cool guy though.  He walked down the line, drunk off his ass, at 3am signing autographs and talking to folks.

Speaking of lines.  You spend a lot of time in them.  Like 6 hours a day to see the big panels.  Or slightly less time for crap freebies.

Now, the actual highlights.

1) I met a couple idols.  J.Michael Straczynski, whom second to Neil Gaiman I think is one of the best writers of our time, had a great panel, signed a couple books and was simply great to chat with.  Dave McKean, an incredible author who has done a number of illustrations in collaboration with Neil Gaiman, was every bit the delightful Englishman I expected him to be but far more down to earth and easy going than I would have thought.  I thank Mr. Rhoads for pointing him out to me as I probably would have passed him by unnoticed if not.

 I spent a good half hour talking with Dean Yeagle, who has been drawing beautiful women for 20 years and worked for Disney a good 30 years before that. Speaking of beautiful women, Chris Sanders was there showcasing some of his pretty ladies. While I did not get to chat, I did grab a print he was giving away showcasing a few production drawings for an upcoming project.

The number one favorite person I met, and wouldn't have even known was there if not for recognizing his signature on someones backpack, was Kevin Eastman.  He is one of the co-creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, one of the most treasured elements of my childhood.  I waited a long time, but it was worth it to get several books signed, an awesome quick sketch of Donatello and a chance to thank him.

2) I met some incredible people while waiting in line or just randomly while walking around San Diego whom I hope to see again next year.  Wearing your Comic-Con badge was an instant icebreaker for nerd and local alike.  We did not go anywhere without talking to someone about what we had seen that day, how crazy the costumes were, what their nerd obsession was.  It was awesome.  This is where nerds are the norm. I felt like I belonged to a large group, something I wished the young me could have felt.

3) Croce's was awesome.  Its rare that I would sit down at a restaurant that expensive and not feel at least a little bad about the bill, but the music was incredible and the food was glorious.  Add in attractive waitresses, good drinks and a celebrity sighting and its a no fail senario.

4) We ended up staying at a bed and breakfast due to us dropping the ball and not getting hotel reservations until the last minute (5 months in advance). Carole's Bed and Breakfast had a great staff, wonderful food and a vintage charm that was a fun juxtaposition (ha! way to use that art degree, son!) to the bleeding edge, overload that was the Con.

5) This is the year for doing.  I'm 31 now and it really feels like all those things I have been saying I will do are either going to happen or I might as well just give in to mediocrity.  Its one thing to have great plans but my follow through has blown.  There are far too many half finished projects on my hard drive and too many friends I have let down by not finishing what I started.  This trip was a good instigator to evaluate what I really wanted to be doing for the next twenty years and see that I was already late enough that getting there was going to be harder than it should have been.
 Mr. Rhoads, who was my compatriot at this event, is going though a similar period of evaluation in his life.  We reflected each others self disappointment which enabled us to make realizations through discussion spurned by the success stories we were sitting in awe of every day of Comic Con.  Those who had dreamed big, bled for and reached their goals, we sat by the thousands to pay homage and found ourselves lacking.

 So this year we try to change that.