Dexter Smith

Samurai Jack stuff

2011-09-18T12:24:00.000-07:00

Some of my Samurai Jack designs / color by Roger Webb
( these are scans of color hard copies)
This stuff is from the 1st season premiere episode.

My Johnny Bravo moment

2011-08-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

My likeness was used in an episode of Johnny Bravo.

This was my original design

Update 2011

2011-07-01T03:07:00.000-07:00

I can FINALLY see the light, at the end of the tunnel. I'll be posting some new stuff soon. thanks for stopping by.

SCOOBY TREATS

2010-05-21T14:13:00.001-07:00

Back in 2003 I was hired to work on the 9th incarnation of the Scooby-doo tv series entitled, 'What's New, Scooby-Doo?'. At this time I was fortunate to meet Iwo Takamoto (Ap.29, 1925 – Jan.8, 2007), the legendary animation designer and creator of the original Scooby-doo characters. He had an office at Warner bros Animation Studio while we were in production.

Around the time we wrapped up the 13 "What's New.." episodes, I pitched an idea of updating the Scooby-Doo designs for a new series, to Scooby producer Marge Dean. In 2004, while I was working on 'Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century' @ WB, I had an opportunity to develop a couple of new design concepts for our 'New Look' Scooby-doo series pitch .

The designs above and below are some of the things I developed.

The color rendering of my BG design was by Steve Nicodemus

Well as these studio things go, we pitched the "new look" Scooby-Doo show in 2004 to the folks at WB Merchandise. A few design changes were requested, as shown by the Scooby design below.

However WB had another Scooby series in mind 'Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!'. But alas this is not the end of the story.

Luckily, in 2009 Spike Brandt & Tony Cervone, producers at Warner Bros, remembered my "New Look" Scooby designs. They were putting together a new line of Scooby-doo DVD's and chose to use my designs for their opening title sequence.

Here are some "new look" Scooby Gang attitude designs Spike & Tony requested for the DVD.

Bat Trivia

2010-04-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

Back in the '90's, I was a production designer on 'Batman the Animated Series' and all the other Bat-variations that followed, from '91-'98 at Warner Bros. Animation Studio. In 1998, Paul Dini (writer/producer) and Chip Kidd, published the coffee table book 'Batman Animated', through DC Comics. It featured a whole bunch of art and behind-the-scenes stuff from the Batman series. In the book, there's a pic of Bruce Timm's desk, as it appeared in 1997. On the right hand side, circled in white, is a photo I shot of Bruce's wife in '93.

The portrait was actually done as a favor, for one of the BG painters on 'Tiny Toon Adventures', who also designed handmade jewelry. Basically I did 36 pics of Bruce's wife, in the same pose, wearing a variety of earrings. We did this portrait shoot in Los Feliz CA , where I was living at the time.

Hendricks @ The Blue Note NYC

2010-04-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

When I was living in NYC, I was invited by Jon Hudson, a student at The School of Visual Arts NYC and the son of famed jazz vocalist Jon Hendricks, to shoot some photos, for a couple of nights, during his father's week long engagement at the jazz club The Blue Note. Here are a few of my unpublished photos. BTW all these pics were shot with my Pentax K1000; that ain't digital kiddos.
Jon Hendricks was a member of the jazz trio vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross from 1957-'64. Their album 'Sing Along With Basie' '59 earned a Grammy "Hall of Fame Award" in 1998.

THE FIRST NIGHT at the THE BLUE NOTE
couldn't have been more of a disaster, for me. The only photography experience I had, up to this point, was a bunch of fancy portraits of my friends. The only shooting conditions I knew were the ones I set up myself; lighting, environment, props, stuff like that.

When I got to The Blue Note, I realized that the film speed I was using was too slow. I felt lucky, I brought my flash. Unfortunately, a group of Asian business men, sitting in front of me, didn't share my sentiment. 3 mins into the show and I was lost. All I saw were microphone stands, large instruments and a crowd of loyal Hendricks' fans who were not happy with the intrusion.

To be continued.....

The 2nd Set @ THE BLUE NOTE

2010-04-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

The Blue Note performance was billed as ‘Jon Hendricks & Company', featuring his wife Judith Hendricks, his daughter Aria Hendricks, and Kevin Fitzgerald Burke. There were 2 shows nightly. I shot these photos between sets. One of their live television performances on Vitoria TV; Brasil 1991

These were shot in Hendricks' dressing room

Hendricks' 2nd set had and opening act. I don't recall the performers name. But she and her manger cornered me and insisted that I not use a flash during the performance. The only option was to change my film stock and I had about 5 mins to find some.

A drug store on 6th ave. sold Kodak's new blk/wht film; TX 5063. This film speed is between Tri-X & Plus-X.

The 2nd set and the following night's performances , were much more enjoyable to photograph without the flash, to say the least.

I do have more Hendricks & Co. photos. I just haven't had time to scan them all.

Finally a NEW camera!

2010-04-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

One of my longest and most fruitful relationships, has been with my Pentax K1000. But as the digital age was ushered in, I followed the crowd.

My 1st digi was a Hewlett Parkard "point & shoot" PhotoSmart. Then I upgraded to a Canon Powershot G6. However I never warmed up to all it's presets, auto focusing and endless doo-dad options. We simply stopped communicating and our marriage quickly soured.

Nevertheless, I recently picked up a Canon EOS Rebel XS and we've enjoying a lovely honeymoon together!

Inking the Deal -08

2010-03-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

I color copied a bunch of old pages so I could safely explore a variety of different Inking tools & techniques, without screwing up my new originals. One thing I discovered while working this week, your drawing style should accommodate your inking style; whatever that is.
As much as I poured over all the scrap pages I collected of my favorite inkers, finding my own intuitive inking style is taking quite a bit of exploring and experimentation.

I have decided to not post my final pages in this blog. I will however update the status on how the book is progressing.

Inking the Deal-07

2010-03-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

While I'm working on the final inking of the 1st 23pgs, I thought I'd post a sample of the thumbnails for the next 12 pages. A few of these older thumbnail pgs will be revised. I'll be posting a few samples of my final inked pages next week.

Inking the Deal-06

2010-03-04T11:55:00.001-08:00

Here's a sample of the last group of rough inked pages w/tone. These are not the final inked pages, they've been scaled down 65% to spot the blks and experiment with inking.

This is a work in progress, so there will be revisions on most of the 23 pgs before I do the final inking.

Inking the Deal-05

2010-03-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a sample of the 1st group of rough Inked pages w/ tone . These are not the final boards. For this test run the pages were scaled down 65%, to spot the blks and experiment with inking.

FLASHBACK to 2004-1988

2010-02-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a 2004 screen grab of my desk top which had the "working title" of my comic book, 'Dr. Moody MD.' and the original pages of what is now called 'THE BOOK'. At this time I was at Warner Bros. working on the TV series 'Duck Dodgers'. I kept a hardcopy of this on my animation desk, so I won't forget .

2004 I put this book aside partly because I hadn't found the spine of the story, it was still unclear in my mind how the story should unfold. Finding a visual hook, to begin this stuff, was equally confusing. Reference (scrap) and research material can be a blessing and a curse.

1988 Above are the very 1st drawings I did for this project , back in February 1988, when it was titled 'American Chop Suey'. At this time, I was living in NYC studying life drawing, I had not yet become an animation cartoonist.

Nevertheless , in the fall of 1988 I found a comic book drawing class taught by Len Wein at The New School in NYC . At the end of every class, he sold photo copies of original penciled comic pages for $5 bucks a pop. I bought as many copies as I could, but I had limited funds.

Inking the Deal-04

2010-02-23T10:48:00.001-08:00

Still working on the revisions. Because of the countless times I've reworked all these pages, characters and stories (blah-blah-blah) I've had to re-stage the action entirely on some revisions, to keep my involvement fresh.

Inking the Deal-03

2010-02-20T01:49:00.001-08:00

Here's a sample of the last final pgs, before I start inking all 23 pgs. The boards are out of order, because I'm not posting them sequentially .

**Damn it--REVISIONS !!
I thought I could "fudge" the small revisions I recently found, when I do the inking, but now I feel there are too many . These revisions will set me back a bit, in my inking timeline.

I think the next section will be less of a hassle , because all 30 pgs will be completely NEW work.

Inking the Deal-02

2010-02-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

I thought I would have a new update today, however as you can see, I'm still noodling around with the story layout. To be on the safe side, I'll post my last 7 finalized pages (before I start inking) on Saturday.

Inking the Deal

2010-02-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

Today I decided that I should finally ink the pages I have . I think this move will offer me a greater understanding of my working process and an overall feeling that I've accomplished something.

Instead of finishing up all 54 pgs, before I present the 1st sample book, I've decided to take the first 23 pgs I have already completed and ink those boards.

This project has been an "off again/on again" deal that I've dragged out for decades. I think it's time to see the entire book finished.

FIBS© pgs 1-7

2010-02-10T23:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a sample of final clean pages. I haven't quite visualized what all these pages will look like, when they're finally inked.

Because this stuff is unpublished, I'm not going to show everything I'm working on, at the moment.

'FIBS' copyright © 2010

2010-02-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

I've decided to tackle my 'Atomic Romance' stuff, yet again, with a 3rd and final attempt at finishing my graphic novel. The new title of the book is 'THE BOOK'.

I plan on posting some rough thumbnail pages, followed by my clean-up. I'll also be posting some samples of the inked pages. The whole point of doing this, is to finally finish the inked pages.

I recently reworked the entire sample book "again", this time it's 50pgs. The entire 1st half of the series will be about 214pgs; yes, that number makes me nervous just typing it.

Horsing around at Warner Bros. Animation.

2010-01-31T07:01:00.000-08:00

Playing " WHERE'S BRUCE" with Art director, Mark Whiting (Iron Giant, Duck Dodgers) and Bruce Largent, production designer (Johnny Bravo, Duck Dodgers) while we were working on the WB series Duck Dodgers. At this time Warner Bros. Animation studio was in a new building in the Sherman Ocks Galleria directly across from the "OLD" location in Imperial Bank Building. Before the Galleria was remodeled in 1999-2001, the NEW WB studio was the original location of the 'Robinson May Co' department store.

Production, Prevenancy and The Pitch

2009-12-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

Back in Dec of 2007, I entered a MYSPACE sponsored FOX competition entitled 'Storyteller Challenge'. (BTW I would not advise anyone to enter a contest to sell their show). 2 years later, looking back at the winners, it appears that FOX didn't quite choose "The Next Great TV Show" as promised by their contest tag line. However the story I came up with for this challenge, inspired me to craft my next TV Animation pitch. Below is a sample of the artwork I created for my 5 min. Animatic video. In February of 2008 I was hired back by Warner Bros. Animation to work on a new series. Although I didn't remain on this show for any great length of time, it did offer me an opportunity to stop by the head of Programing Development and setup a time to pitch a couple of shows. Now, a decade ago, in 1999 while I was finishing up work on CN's 'Johnny Bravo', my crew was invited to pitch ideas to Warner Bros. for a possible TV series to develop. I submitted a show called "REX" Teen Space Cadet, however, none of the pitches we submitted were developed. Shown above is some of my personal development for 'REX". In March of 2008, I went into my WB Development meeting with 3 pitch ideas. The series that was ultimately singled out in the meeting was a show I created called 'The Kiddie Show'. It was a combination of "Rex" Teen Space Cadet and the idea I submitted to FOX's Storyteller Challenge. Shown above, is the main character from "The Kiddie Show' holding a copy of the 'REX' Teen Space Cadet comic book. In May of 2008, WB offered me a development gig. I went out, got an Agent and signed my deal. In june of 2008, Warner Bros. went through some interdepartmental restructuring and I was asked to come back in and re-pitch 'The Kiddie Show' to the new executive in charge of TV animation. Shown above are some "early" development designs I created for 'The Kiddie Show'. As these things go, in my re-pitch meeting, I was offered a number of things to development for 'The Kiddie Show' series. I was also allowed to hire a writer to work with on the pilot script. The art work shown above and below, are a few development designs I did during this time. For those wondering, I did include an African American, Asian and Latino "kid design" in this main group. It may appear that all the children look the same, due to my choice to unified their overall design theory.

Sometime around Oct of 2008, development on The Kiddie Show stalled.

In February of 2009 the executive in charge of Animation Programing Development was laid off.

In March of 2009 I was told that Warner Bros. was going to pass on my development option.

As things stand today, I pitched the 'Kiddie Show' series at a few other studios, back in June 2009 and had a couple of nibbles . However as of 2 weeks ago, everyone passed on 'The Kiddie Show.' That's Show Biz, kid'O.

ON THE STREET WHERE I LIVED

2009-11-06T13:51:00.001-08:00

The 'BEWITCHED' practical set on the Warner Bros. Ranch '09. This is me looking at the old 'BEWITCHED' set, while I was working on a new animated series at Warner Bros. Animation last summer.
It's an IPHONE photo.

ON THE ROAD with BOB

2009-08-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Bob is on the left, I'm on the right. The car and the dog belonged to our Art teacher Linda Rowell Kelley. You can kinda see one of her paintings, leaning on the Chicken house, way in the back. At this time, Bob and I were in the 7th grade.
Here's a winter shot of Linda Rowell Kelly and the Bug that Bob and I were sitting in. A few years later, Bob and I started selling some of our paintings and Linda suggested that we use the money to buy our own art supplies; which we did. That was my 1st in lesson in personal and artistic independence.

Bob Doucette: Maine, New York, California
Below, 'Captain Quantum vs. The Ugly Druggies' , a birthday present from Bob Doucette. For those of you who only look at the pictures, I did not paint these. I did not paint these. I did not paint these. This is an anti-drug program game for children called, Captain Quantum vs. The Ugly Druggies produced by John Kricfalusi and his production studio ("Mighty Mouse","The Ren & Stimpy Show"). Shown above and below, are some photos and scans of the board game. For those of you who only look at the pictures, I did not paint these. I car pooled a lot, back in the old WB days. Actually I was just hitching rides cause I didn't have a car yet. For a month or 2, I car pooled with Vicky Jensen ( "The Ren & Stimpy Show" WB's "Taz-Mania" and Dreamworks' "Shrek") . Shown above is a scan of a magazine cover Vicky painted. She also painted the background of the board game 'Captain Quantum vs. The Ugly Druggies" ( If you look closely you can see her signature). Vicky is now a live action director.

Traveling ON THE ROAD with Bob was great. I will always remember the friends we shared and the experiences we had together, growing up in Maine and the college years, with an enormous amount of love and appreciation.

Girlfriend's Back in Town !

2009-07-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

My friend Michele Graybeal is back in Los Angeles to work on a new project at Cartoon Network. I shot this photo of her last Saturday when we had lunch together. Michele and I were on Bruce Timm's crew ( Superman the animated series, New adventures of Batman and Robin) back in the early Warner Bros. days.

Here are a few characatures Bruce Timm did of some WB crew members; Kevin Altieri, Dan Riba, and Keith Weesner.

Below on the left, is a characature of me done by Marc Lumer (but honestly, looks more like him), when we were working together on Superman the Animated Series. Marc is pictured in the photo on the right, sitting along side Trish Burgio. She also worked on our crew as a background painter. Marc was a background designer.

Work the Room Baby.

2009-07-04T00:19:00.001-07:00

A closer look at my work spaces over the years
Posted below is a pic of my desk and crap, when I lived on 46th street in NYC. My apartment was next door to Joe Allen's Resturant in Hell's Kitchen NYC. I also worked at Joe Allen, as a waiter. The actress Ellen Burstyn yelled at me once, after I told her she couldn't leave the restaurant with an open bottle of wine.

My apartment on 46th street between 8th-9th Ave ( note the attractive bars on the windows) . The apartment above is also the same location I shot my 'Novella Romantica' photos. This is a sloppy panoramic view of my current apartment work space, near beautiful downtown Burbank. I was going through a "Velvet and Fur' phase when I moved in. A friend remarked that my apartment must be nice and cozy when it snows (which it does a lot in LA, so I'm all set).
My last apartment in Manhatten was on 30th street between 8th and 9th Ave.

Pictured below, is my work space in my 1st apartment in Los Angeles CA
Here's my cube, the last time I was at Cartoon NetworK; 6' x 6', it was quite spacious.

HOLY CLONE !!

2009-05-07T20:01:00.001-07:00

In early December of 2001, my production work on The Powerpuff Girls Movie at Cartoon Network was wrapping up. A friend of mine working on the movie asked me if I'd be interested in working on a new MTV animated series called CLONE HIGH USA, which he was involved. So I made my calls, set up an appointment to meet the producers and dragged my portfolio over to their studio which was located in an abandon hospital in North Hollywood where they shoot the television show SCRUBS. At this point in my animation career I had only worked at 2 studios, Warner Bros. Animation for 8 years and Cartoon Network for 2. Both studios were, and still are, well oiled animation production factories. Working for MTV on CLONE HIGH was a little different. Our production offices were located in the abandoned hospital , more specifically the Psychiatric / Rehab Ward. This makeshift work space was provided by our executive producer Bill Lawrence who was also the creator and producer of SCRUBS .
My work space was an actual hospital room, equipped with it's own bathroom and shower. The animation supplies were kept in Canada, where we shared the production responsibilities with Nelvana Studios. If I needed to make a xerox of my art work, I had to scramble past the film crew, craft service, actors dressed as hospital personal and take an elevator to the second floor in the main hospital building. The first time I made this trip I got completely lost. But I recognized a lady I had seen earlier in the Psych Ward, coming out of the shower in my hospital room , so I asked her for directions, to which she replied, " I'm not a real nurse. I'm an actress. I don't know where that stuff is".

The 2 creator/ producers of CLONE HIGH were Phil Lord and Chris Miller, most recently know for directing PARTLY CLOUDY at Sony Pictures. Here's some production design stuff from CLONE HIGH .
This was Phil Lord and Chris Miller's approval stamp caricatures.

At the start of production, Carey Yost finalized the main character designs on the series, I did the inking, as shown above.

Above and below are some samples of the design work I did for the series.
Production on CLONE HIGH remained at the hospital for 3 months. In March we were moved to the MTV Santa Monica offices and shared the work space with The Osbournes and The Brandy Show. In May my father died, 3 months later production wrapped on CLONE HIGH. November 2, 2002 the show premiered on MTV, then all the controversy hit . On January 30, 2003, the 55th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, approximately 150 protesters (including members of parliament) gathered in New Delhi and vowed to fast in response to Gandhi's depiction in the animated series Clone High USA . The series was canceled.

Warner Bros. Crew '91

2009-05-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

Back in Feb 1991 when Batman the Animated Series went into production, our crew worked out of the offices in the Sherman Ocks Galleria Garden building. Sometime around the middle of the year we were moved to the main offices in the Imperial Bank building. Here are some '91 Halloween pics I recently found. Some of the Batman crew members including the producer Bruce Timm dressed up as Glen Murakami -( Teen Titans/ Ben 10) . In the bottom right photo the red arrow points to Glen . BTW in the center group of photos, on the right , standing along side Bruce Timm is Ronnie Del Carmen. ( now a story supervisor at Pixar )

It's A SMALL World '65

2009-04-12T19:34:00.001-07:00

Disney's "It's a Small World" originated with the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair. After the fair closed, the entire ride was transferred to Disneyland and officially opened in 1966. These snap shots are from '64-'65 New York World's Fair.

Color my world

2009-04-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

Some painting I did way back in the 20th Century .

You ANIMAL

2009-04-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some rough designs I did for the Cartoon Network series
'My Gym Partner's A Monkey'

The REAL Camden Cove

2009-03-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

I recently went back to Maine to visit family. I got a chance to drive down to Camden to do some research for the main location in my graphic novel 'THE BOOK'. Here are some photos I shot.

My parents had a summer residents in the Camden area. I grew up hearing all about the "Hollywood Folk" who dropped by asking for cups of sugar or Whiskey, depending on the celebrity. My favorite yarn was about Bette Davis, who had a home in Camden for awhile. The way the story goes, Ms. Davis gave a fancy dinner party for her neighbors
(quote: Davis,"...F**K Betty Crocker"). After dinner, Bette politely told her guests never to speak or make eye contact with her ever again, (quote: Davis,"...even if my ass is on fire").

Here are a few Flicks that were shot in Camden, Maine: Peyton Place (1957),'In the Bedroom' (2001), 'The Cider House Rules' (1991), 'Pet Cemetery' (1989), 'Thinner' (1996), 'Carousel' (1956), “Forrest Gump” (1994), 'Iron Giant' (1999) (location research during development).

Lana Turner was the only cast member who did not do any location work in Camden, for the filming of 'Peyton Place' ( 1957)
Then in 1961 they made 'Return to Peyton Place' but the filming location was in Fitchburg, Massachusetts .
ABC's Peyton Place (1964-1969) was the very 1st evening Soap Opera on television. This version of the book was shot entirely on Stage 9 at 20th Century Fox in Studio City, California. I'm sure they didn't write too many cold snow days into the script.

Grace Metalious -- the "Pandora in bluejeans" (cheesy slogan by some hep PR guy) and the author of 'Peyton Place' -- was said by some to be a SMUT monger. But 'Peyton Place' was the 1st novel to sell 100,000 copies, which it did in the 1st month of it's release and then went on to sell over 12 million. Sadly Grace ended up broke, in debt and dead at age 40.

Name that TOON

2009-02-23T02:45:00.000-08:00

A lot of folks who don't work in the industry might think that Warner Bros. Animation is located on the actual studio lot. Currently the WB animation division resides at the WB Ranch. However during the 90's, WB Television Animation was located at the Sherman Ocks Galleria; more specifically in the Imperial Bank building.

In 1999 the Sherman Ocks Galleria was in the process of being completely gutted out in preparation for a major remodeling. At this time, I had transfered from WB's offices on the 8th floor of the Imperial Bank to Cartoon Network's ground floor offices in the Mall's Garden building. Needless to say there was a ton of falling debris in our office; ceiling tiles, electrical wire and huge scary rodents.

The Johnny Bravo series was created by Van Partible when Cartoon Network was know as Hanna-Barbera. However at the time I transfered over to work on Bravo, Time Warner., Turner Broadcasting /Hanna-Barbera and AOL.com had all merged together and Cartoon Network studios was born. I think I was on Bravo for 3 seasons, I'm not sure now.

Here's some stuff I did while in production on Johnny Bravo. After I left this series, the show went on and so did my designs. I think there was a Bravo TV special and another season or 2 of the series.

Part-01 The idea that won't die

2009-02-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

Back in the late 1980's, while I was living in NYC, I discovered Spanish "pocket" comic books, better known as " Novella Romantica". I was inspired to do my own Romance thing and create a Pop-up book. I wrote a short story and titled it 'American Chop Suey'. However I was not yet a cartoonist, I was studying classical life drawing @ the Art Student's League. I did a few sketches, doodled some thumbnails, but the Pop-up book idea stopped there. At this time I was doing my photography thing, so I decided to created a 'photo novella', I titled it "Atomic Romance'. Here's a small sample of the photos I shot.

A few years later in 1994 I was working at Warner Bros. Animation as a layout artist and designer. 'Batman the Animated Series' , the show I was working on, had gone on hiatus and we were invited to bring in ideas to develop. I brought in Atomic Romance. They liked the idea and the project took on a new name...
'True Romance. We used the original story I had written which was about a young nurse who left her small New England town to work in a Big City Hospital. The concept of the series was presented as an animated Hospital Soap Opera. Here's some of my original art work. The final product we development was a 3min. limited animation animatic, edited together on an AVID. True Romance was a bit ahead of it's time. There were questions by the studio as to whom this series would be marketed to; was it for adults, was it satire, was it "camp". What the hell was it. It was shelved.

8 years pass, it's now 2002. I've rapped production on 'The Powerpuff Girls Movie' I'm now working at MTV on a show called 'Clone High' (Our production office was in an abandoned Hospital where they shoot SCRUBS. My office was in the PHYSICATRIC REHAB wing ). At that time Cartoon Network was taking pitches for their new evening time block " Adult Swim'. I pitched the 'Atomic Romance' concept with a new name... Bedside Manor.
Cartoon Network liked the idea and in a collaborative way suggested that we make a few alterations to the project. The 1st thing we did was to change the focus of the series to a male character. Next, we changed story local from "The Big City" to a small coastal town. This location switch lead to changing the name of the series to Beaver Bay Harbor. Here are some character designs developed for our new direction in the project.
Timing is everything in animation and unfortunately our timing was off. At this juncture, there were a lot of studios going through interdepartmental restructuring, including Cartoon Network. It was 2003 and I was back at Warner Bros. Animation studios when I was told that Beaver Bay Harbor got lost in the shuffle and was dropped.

I was a little disappointed , sure. But then again, I had just finished a 13 episode series that was canceled because an entire country protested against the misrepresentation of a holy man. So in the case of my project, as they say," it could have been worse".

Part-02 the Graphic Novel that won't end.

2009-02-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

So (to back track) it's now 2004. I'm at Warner Brothers. Atomic Romance is still living in the back of my mind. Fox studio advertised a contest 'Pitch-o-Rama' and invite folks to submit ideas for a new animated television series. So I began the 4th wave of development on my "little idea" and I rename it.. DR. MOODY MD.. The interesting thing about this FOX studio sponsored "contest" was that, right before I submitted my material, I secretly heard "through the grapevine" that allegedly Fox had already chosen their contest winner; 'American Dad' created by Seth McFarland. Well... there ya go.
The 5th wave of development using my "little idea" came when a good friend of mine at WB suggested I do a Graphic Novel. As you can see I toyed around with another name for the project 'Pulpatations' , changed the style of the characters a bit and roughed-out the first chapter of the comic book.
But as production stepped up , I put this book away until I could find more time to devote to it.

Part 03 - Before "Atomic Romance'

2009-02-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

Ok , at the time I started my 'Atomic Romance' photo novella, I was working at a restaurant in NYC called 'LOLA'. I had written a short story about a nurse and her deranged family, but writing wasn't my milieu. So, I asked a couple of my "waiter friends" who where writers to read over my story. One of those waiters was Stan Wlodkowski who would later go on to produce a little Academy Award winning movie called....
'American Beauty'.

Speaking of "slinging hash". When I was going to school in NYC, the first restaurant job I had there was at a place called 'Company'; a flamboyant "Mafia" owned establishment on the East side of Manhattan. Every night they had these colorful "Happy Hour" lounge singers; most notably Phoebe Leger. The drunks loved her, we all adored her.

Anyway, Phoebe got SUPER famous after being in Warhol's 'Interview' magazine and did a couple 'Toxic Avenger' movies. Phoebe was an authentic East Village celebrity, back in the 1980's. I strongly suspect Phoebe Leger was the inspiration for the character "Phoebe Buffay' on the sitcom "Friends". However Phoebe Leger is a great singer and musician.

Anyway, one particular Halloween at 'Company Restaurant' a new Busboy was hired; his name was Lee Tergesen. The photo on the left has a white arrow pointing to Lee on his very first night at the restaurant. BTW he dressed as a sailor boy that evening. Lee went on to work at LOLA Restaurant and later Empire Diner, but he's best known for his work as an actor in "Misfits of Science", "Wayne's World", the HBO’s prison drama 'Oz'. The list is endless.

How FREAKY

2009-01-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

After Batman the Animated Series and the full length Batman the Animated Movie rapped, there was a short hiatus . A few projects were developed. Freakazoid 1995 was one of those projects that went into production . Here's some of the stuff I developed for that series. A few caricatures I did of my co-workers during production.

That's SUPER

2009-01-06T09:25:00.000-08:00

In 1996 during production on 'Superman the Animated Series' I was given a Villain to design and for the life of me I couldn't remember his name. I referred to the character as James Coburn ( 'In like Flint' 1967). It was my director's idea for me to taylor my design to look similar to Coburn.
I was given the assignment of designing Clark Kent's parents. Here's a sample design of the age progression for Mr. Kent.

The photo on the right was taken of me during Halloween (along with a Philip Stark water bottle) , while I was in production on 'Superman the Animated Series'. If you look closely on the right side of my animation desk, you can see a sketch for "young Mrs. Kent". Below, is the final version of that design.

Development Haven

2009-01-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

During the development period for Cartoon Network's 'Samurai Jack' 2001 a few designers on the crew had a shot at finalizing the design of "Jack". Here are a few of my " takes" for the "Jack" design.

Here's a lovely portrait of me by Carlos Ramos, during my time on 'Samurai Jack'.

Interesting Monsters

2008-12-24T23:31:00.000-08:00

After working on Batman, Superman and a number of other animated TV shows from 1991-1998, I worked on a variety of different shows that involved designing hundreds of Monsters; most notably The Powerpuff Girls 2000-01 Samurai Jack 2001-02 and Duck Dodgers 2003-04. Here are a few designs from that period.
What's NEW Scooby-Doo 2003: The monsters I designed for this series were basically " Man in suit" Monsters.

The designs below are from Samurai Jack '01.

The Monster designs below are from Duck Dodgers 2003

The Powerpuff Girls Movie 2002
After I finished up the allotted time designated for the design portion of production on the PPG feature film , I went on to work in Character layout. The layout below is from 'The Powerpuff Girls Movie'. Actually most of the Primates in my layout were originally designed by Craig Kellman during development.
Duck Dodgers 2003-2004

And this is a caricature of me during my 2003-2004 Duck Dodgers stint at WB

In the Beginning

2008-12-22T23:04:00.000-08:00

The 1991 Batman promotional Pop-up book was by Bruce Timm .

Below are some of my (discarded) production stuff from the 1991 Warner Bros Animation television series, 'Batman the Animated Series'. Mind you,this was my first professional Gig and all this stuff was done many years ago, so don't judge me too harshly. BTW the "Clayface" production background was a discarded BG by my layout partner Pat Agnasin, better known as 'Elvis' of the Philippines. The caricatures of me were done around the same time,so I thought I'd stick them in the group.