About Fred Moore-a flashback, and forward.

Reposting this entry from 2005. More Moore is coming!

I've got this thing for Fred Moore.
Yes, me and about 5,000 other animation geeks, professional and otherwise.
Fred:  by all accounts a likeable, ordinary guy with a natural drawing ability and a predilection for cartooning women in a style all his own-immmediately recognizable.  His achievments include redesigning Mickey Mouse into the appealingly boyish character he became, and likewise refined and animated much of the dwarfs in "Snow White".
Like most artists what he drew somehow seemed to physically resemble him and took on his brash, pixilated personality.  When I became aware of him there was nothing at all about him in print, save one or two lines and drawings in the Finch book,  "The Art Of Walt Disney", but the appeal of those was enough to make me determine to find out more about him.  A brief conversation with Ward Kimball started me on the best treasure hunt of my life: Ward suggested I call Ken O'Brien at WED("He was a big fan of Fred's", Ward drawled with more than a hint of amusement).  I did, and interviewed Ken, as well as Art Babbitt, Ollie Johnston, Larry Clemmons, Carl Urbano(who'd gone to high school with Fred and his brother), and of course, Ward himself.
These were priceless experiences, a kind of time travel.  My motivating question, "what happened to Fred Moore?" was answered very quickly.  I knew beforehand that he'd died very young in a car accident, but the greater mystery for me--as it's been to many other animation lovers--was why someone with such sterling provenance and amazing talent had faded so fast fom the pinnacle he reached at Disney's in 1933-39.  The brief answer, well known today, is that his talent and his health were ruined by alcoholism, but that's a bald-fact answer to a complicated set of circumstances.  What I really learned from Fred's former colleagues was quite a lot about the optimism, opportunities, genius and frustrations of more or less inventing your own job description--as Fred did.  He seemed to be as intuitive an artist as it was possible to be: self-taught, self-improving, an innate sense of the ever-elusive "appeal" so desirable in all things drawn and gestured, a natural grace.
When sitting across from these titans of animation, asking about Fred and Disney's, I was very young, a teenager, and I couldn't grasp all of the adult nuances of the business of animation then as I could now.  I do remember coming away from hours spent with Ward and Art feeling as though I were in a trance.  Clearly, to have one's heart's desire and animate at the best studio in the world during the "golden age" wasn't all a bed of roses.  This seems absurdly obvious now, but even though I had a pretty good idea of history, I just didn't have the life experience to interpret it at 18.  Many times I've wished I could go back and do it all over again, but sadly all but one of my generous interviewees are dead.
Ward, Art and Ken O'Brien (Fred's assistant in the early 40s at Disney; he was loyal to Fred to the extent that when Moore was fired in 1946, O'Brien quit too, and accompanied Fred to Lantz' studio for two years) all lent me materials to copy; Ward showed me some of his incredible collection of hilarious drawings, collected in voluminous scrapbooks.  Several books--fat as phone directories--contained nothing but daily (often hourly) gag drawings of Fred, Ward and Walt Kelly by Kelly himself (curiously not nearly as many that Kimball saved were by Kimball--or perhaps those were in other books. Very likely.).

Looking at us looking at them: Walt Kelly, Ward Kimball, and Fred Moore, drawn by Kelly and saved for posterity by Kimball.

As the years roll along and not just Fred but his peers and world disappear, his influence has actually continued to grow among artists. Why his talents mattered in a unique place and time are subjects worth discussing, as is the best animation he helped to realize. Look for more to come-and feel free to weigh in on him yourself!

Books: David Derrick's new picturebook-tigers and crocs!

A stack of worthy and notable titles has been growing on my desk, demanding attention and certainly deserving it but my gosh, it's been a busy year offline.

So the stack waits for proper reviews, but there's one that has a launch party coming up in the Los Angeles area on Saturday, October 26th (as of this writing four days away) at the Wildlife Learning Center, and I'd like to spread the word. It's a picture book written and illustrated by my friend, fellow story artist Dave Derrick:

 



Dave loves drawing, and he really loves to draw animals. This little story about a junior crocodile and tiger cub doing their best to out-boast each other is loaded with charm, done with gestural ink line and watercolor wash.


A detail of the cub. This guy suggests a self-portrait to me-in that way that certain drawings seem to look like their artists. Hard to explain, but I'm sure plenty will know what I mean.

 

 

 

 

 

The endpapers feature a panoply of the animals and birds of India, the story's setting.

 





 

 





Using this flyer-either printing it out or bringing it along on your phone-assures admission for Dave's launch event. Should be a fun time!

Dave Pimentel published a lovely book: "Evoke"

I've written on these pages several times already about my colleague Dave Pimentel.

Dave is a story artist who's probably the loudest cheerleader I know for drawing, drawing, drawing--at all times, in all places and with all media--and he's got the tweets, posts and sketchbooks to prove it.

He was lucky enough to be in the late Walt Stanchfield's gesture drawing classes at Disney. Stanchfield's philosophy and approach had a profound effect on him (as on so many others), and in the spirit Walt embodied he loves to share with and encourage other artists. He genuinely gets a charge out of not only creating his own work, but by seeing what everyone around him comes up with, whatever their take might be.

When I first started working with Dave I'd seize the chance to flip through his sketchbooks. He always had at least one in progress and a stack of what he'd just filled up on a shelf in the office. Each page was fun to look at, and each page was drawn from life. In fact, it was on those pages that I got to know his family before I'd actually met them--from the beautifully observed and executed sketches of them at the park, the bookstore, the beach, in the car...just engaging in ordinary everyday pursuits, but made to seem lyrical and alive on paper. The same was true of the anonymous passersby in his world, caricatured just enough to be recognizable as unique individuals. They all contained stories.

I hoped he'd self-publish a book of his drawings, and he has--he's also made it not only good to look at but to feel; it has a tactile, hard cloth binding with one of his ink brush drawings embossed on the oversize cover. He wanted it to resemble like the kind of 1950s-era books that all artists are drawn to(in my experience anyway) and it succeeds.

In addition to the many sketchbook excerpts he wrote a about a dozen pages containing the tips and ideas he uses in his gesture classes and applies to his own work. It's 100 pages of a very handsome and inspiring call to the pen, the pencil, and the sketchbook. Looking at it will make you feel good. And you'll really want to draw.





You can buy it from him here: EVOKE: The Art of Dave Pimentel

Sanjay Patel's Ramayana

There was a lucky bonus from dropping into Shane Prigmore's office today. Displayed among the many other visual goodies on his shelves was a volume with an arresting cover-the kind you're compelled to pick up. At Shane's behest I did, and found it was a brand new book from Sanjay Patel.

I've never met Sanjay but his wonderfully appealing designs of figures from Hindu lore are instantly recognizable, posted and reposted on the blogs of his many admirers. This new book (full title "Ramayana: Divine Loophole")is really stunning in its tackling of the Ramayana, the same story of love and war between gods and mortalsthat inspired Nina Paley's "Sita Sings the Blues".

Leafing through page after page of his lush, beautifully composed, dynamic illustrations was inspiring. Fascinating material, brilliantly executed. The color styling alone would be worth studying-as it is, it's merely as choice as every other element. My copy is on it's way.

Torch Tiger tales

Cover painting by Paul Felix

Last year the story department at Walt Disney Feature Animation put together an amazing book, "Who Is Rocket Johnson?" just in time for the San Diego Comic Con. It sold out in very short order, and remains a bright gem of a compilation. Utterly unique and as representative of the talents at work at Disney as anything could be. One should never miss the chance to see--and own--the personal work of men and women like this-mostly story, a couple of directors and animators in there too-who are at the top of their game.

No sooner had he pulled the first copies of Rocket Johnson out of the box than the chief instigator of the project, Paul Briggs, laid plans for this year's book: "What Is Torch Tiger?"

Well, the books have arrived and as was done last year, Briggs and the gang are kicking off its official debut with an Ebay auction for a special copy of this beautiful book-signed by all the participating artists, as follows:

Steve Anderson
Aaron Blaise
Paul Briggs
Kevin Deters
Rob Edwards
Mike Gabriel
Nathan Greno
Don Hall
Byron Howard
Trevor Jimenez
Mark Kennedy
Joe Mateo
Nicole Mitchell
John Musker
Jeff Ranjo
Aurian Redson
Jeremy Spears
Lissa Treiman
Josie Trinidad
Chris Ure
Mark Walton
Dean Wellins
Stevie Wermers
Chris Williams

And as if that lineup isn't enough, there are also some pin-ups by:

Andreas Deja
Andy Harkness
Jeff Turley
Jin Kim
Shiyoon Kim

Remember, all these artists have signed the special copy now on auction at Ebay. The actual book itself doesn't otherwise go on sale until Comic Con opens next week, so if you can't make it to the Con and would like to both snag a lovely, brilliantly produced book and have every penny of your bid go to a worthy charity--the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, click on this link and give it a go. I did last year--and was outbid. Well, try, try again. You won't be sorry and you can write off your winning bid, both feeling good and having something rare and good to read at hand.

Torch Tiger Signed edition plus extra goodies Ebay Auction

I haven't seen all the stories, but since I did see this one and I can't help embarrassing him I want to add that it'd be worth it for Jeremy Spears' story alone. He did a wonderfully atmospheric tale with appealing characters and fantastic staging, completely lovable.
Now multiply that times 30 and that's Torch Tiger. They've each put their hearts and souls into their own versions of the theme and always, of course, had to navigate their day jobs at the same time, with the redoubtable Briggs cracking the whip and wrangling the printers on top of everything else. What's that bit that Bud Plant always adds? "Highest Recommendation"

"Bolt: One Ridonculous Adventure" by story artist Aurian Redson

Front and (below)back covers for Redson's book. Sorry about the glare-it certainly looks better in person


In my initial fizz over finally getting my copy of Joe Moshier's new Bolt Golden Book, I completely forgot to mention that I'm expecting yet another children's adaptation by an animation artist, Aurian Redson--a bright light in the story department.

He worked long and hard on "Bolt" the film, and he too has accomplished quite a lovely piece of publishing with "Bolt" One Ridonculous Adventure". A larger-format, longer picturebook than the Little Golden, it's also fascinating to see how Aurian has chosen to design his own version of the characters and settings. I've just seen a copy belonging to another story artist at work who's received his, and while I may sound like a shill for the publisher, I care not. This is a gorgeous and appealing book and a perfect compliment to your library.

a cropped photograph of one of the large (9x12)pages; these moving men look familiar...

"Bolt"-a Little Golden Book by Joe Moshier

This came in the mail yesterday from Amazon: ""Bolt", a Little Golden Book".

As most of you know, this film is coming soon to a theatre near you. But right now you can order the wonderful picture book by Disney designer/visdev artist Joe Moshier, which I recommmend doing stat.

I love the Golden Books done by Joe's former classmate Scott Tilley for such titles as "Finding Nemo" and this is just as appealing and beautifully done. I believe it's Joe's first book (his day job as a character designer at features is a busy one), but you'd never know it; the compositions, color, posing-all are completely assured and just so terrifically cute. There isn't a kid or artist alive that I can't imagine would love this eye candy. And by the way, "Bolt" is quite the same way in its other incarnation.

"The Art of Bolt" comes out soon as well-that I haven't seen, but have ordered. Believe me, the work by the directors(both of whom have drawn lovely storyboards), story, the incomparable art direction by Paul Felix as well as the work by everyone involved is beautiful. There are stunning displays in the animation building with all kinds of visdev and story work blown up lifesize and larger on the walls, and it not only holds together but is so solid that it makes one feel good just to walk by them. The film works that way too: it's one that reminds me of "Basil of Baker Street", which I loved and was a huge gift from the animation department to us--the audience. If you know what I mean. The early 80s were a nail-biting time for aspiring animation people.

I need to apologize to Joe for the rough iphone photos reproduced here, but I think as raw as they are you can tell what a swell little tome this book of his is.

Coming in October

224 pages. Bill Peet. Joe Rinaldi. Don DaGradi. Roy Williams. Ub Iwerks. Burny Mattison. Vance Gerry. And probably some other people we know.

Eric Goldberg animates, writes, publishes--and finally signs!

Well, it's happened again: I plan to do a post on a subject and Cartoon Brew scoops me.

But although they get probably 20 times the traffic I do here at Blackwing, when it's Eric Goldberg one is referencing the more the merrier.

Amid designated Eric as the "cuddliest" man in animation. I'd add that he's one of the smartest and funniest--and I don't mean his animation (only) but himself; he's as sharp as a ginsu knife and his wit is matched by his kindness. No hyperbole here, just fact.

So I'm happy to make mention of his appearance at Samuel French in WeHo tomorrow night, August 5th, to sign his new book "Character Animation Crash Course".
The book is a must and if you can, you should certainly stop on in.

Here's more information courtesy of CTN's Tina Price:

The Creative Talent Network and Samuel French Bookshops invites you to join Eric Goldberg at a reception and booksigning in Studio City this Wednesday August 6th to celebrate the publication of Character Animation Crash Course. This event is free of charge and great for students of animation to get an opportunity to meet Eric Goldberg and for pros to re-connect. Food and drink will be served.

Samuel French Theatre and Film Bookshop
11963 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 762-0535

Coinciding with the signing, Animation Podcast is up for the month(remember, friends: it's on a regular monthly schedule now-a great boon to those of us who enjoy this worthiest of podcasts)with the tantalizingly titled Part One of an interview with Eric Goldberg, conducted as always by the tireless and dulcet-toned Clay Kaytis.

New York Times writes about the Comic Con's relations with Hollywood

Normally I'd eschew a post of this kind--there's not much that's news in it--but this year the animation-to-comics quotient is going to really spike, and moreover while I'm a longtime daily reader of the New York Times and enjoy it, although occasionally their take on the doings of our west coast seem, well...a little clueless. Late to the party as it were.

Case in point: today there's an article that deals with Hollywood studios' presence at the annual San Diego Comic con. While the piece is titled "Comics Convention Beckons Hollywood"(click the title to read it in full), the print version adds a sub-header: "The film business grudgingly courts fans in San Diego". The internet version looks even more askance, using this: "Hollywood still leery of Comic Convention".

Really now?

It's exactly what you'd expect. No cliche about unwashed bodies goes unused. One of the accompanying photos online (there's none in the print version) shows an overweight, bespectacled teenager sitting cross-legged on the floor engrossed in his reading material,paper receipt dangling from his mouth. Reference is made to something called "Con crud" which it's suggested is either a common cold or an STD. Ugh(I suspect that the Con magazine that offers numbered "tips" and cites the aforementioned "crud" is probably meant to be a little more humorous in tone than the Times presents).

The overall slant is that a motley, frighteningly crowded contingent of cosplay folks and "fanboys" are "grudgingly" catered to by an unwilling Hollywood. It bemusedly describes things that go wrong (example: Joel Silver was actually kept waiting last year while star Kate Beckinsale claimed to be held up at a railroad crossing-no doubt the gospel truth as anyone knows who's been to the Con and tried to cross the street when the crossing arm goes down; the thing seems to take a minimum of 35 minutes each time). You'd think from the overall tone-studio people are desperate to get in and get out as quickly as possible-that the City of San Diego, is, well, perhaps a little plebian.
Actually the downtown area that surrounds the convention center is a Seattle-like, revitalized district featuring a lot of great restaurants and pubs and an enjoyable sidewalk scene not often seen in Los Angeles save for a few blocks of 3rd street, Robertson, Melrose or the Grove-familiar haunts of Business players(and I daresay Times scribes).

But back to the picture painted of ComicCon: while we get the travails of this or that company and their booking acrobatics, no mention is made of the extent that arguably the most powerful(certainly the most world-famous)director in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg, went to last year to do a live feed to the convention from the set of the then-filming "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". The SRO crowd was treated to a meet & greet with not only all the principals- Harrison Ford, Shia LeBeouf, Ray Winstone-but the confirmation by Spielberg officially for the first time the casting of Karen Allen. No, in lieu of any of that proof of ComicCon's importance we get a focus on a production company called Summit Entertainment-an outfit with a slate of titles I've never heard of. They're probably niche fan properties.

Neither was there any mention that "Iron Man" was represented last year by stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gywneth Paltrow and director Jon Favreau, all of whom have been to the snarkily compared Cannes film festival many times also, I'm sure.

No mention of "Hulk" star and writer Edward Norton, prince of the Serious Acting school of critics(with whom I agree-he's good) who also deigned to go to San Diego for his Con appearance and panel in '07.

No Pixar, either, although as far as I am aware Pixar for years has maintained a strong presence there, planning panels featuring its most well-known artists and directors, plus peeks and premieres of upcoming work.

I wonder how much more significant contributing film honchos could get than Spielberg, Lasseter, Bird, Lucas...yet none of them are mentioned. Nor is there a mention of Matt Groening, Bill Plympton, JJ Abrams, and a host of others I can't think of off the top of my head. Not chopped liver they. Remember, this is all just last year I'm citing, not a 10-year span of attendees. One year.

The fact is, for a lot of people who aren't your sterotypical comics geek the Con has become cool; it's a place to gawp, buy, and party-and not at Ralph's either(another mention in the article presumably showing how low-rent the affair skews).

I'd bet writer Cieply has never attended San Diego himself. He seems to have approached this article armed with a dated, preconceived notion of what a crowd attending something called a "Comic Con" would be like-and he was only partly accurate.

How much more intriguing if he'd been aware-and related to the readers-how a humble, standard annual comics show became over 20 years a mega-marketed, serious venue that makes clear the reality of pop culture's cross-pollination in its most egalitarian and visible form?

Instead it's merely a brief story about the supposed discomfort that Hollywood must endure to market to the sorts of people who buy tickets to "blockbusters". Sure, there are plenty of sweaty bodies-I'm sure I've been one since the heat is fierce in San Diego every year and the Convention Center main exhibition room always seems overloaded with attendees. Yes, there are people in costumes, which I always thought were great fun to look at. Yes, the Con is a ridiculous, hot, impossible to navigate, frustrating carnival of giant Lego Chewbaccas, crazy walkaround things, killer backpacks on oblivious collectors, nerdy crazy people, cool crazy people, artists, scenesters, lots of camera crews and a terrible din of a million people all talking at once. It's terrific fun.

But what's also there is is an every-growing contingent of film professionals-mostly from animation-who are presenting their own work alongside the huge players, offering self published books and toys as well as other merchandise they've designed, some of which are substantial businesses; former and current Disney, Dreamworks and Warner Bros animators' companies such as Conduct Happiness, Electric Tiki, Red Window, Red Tango all selling, networking, and in general having fun amid all the chaos; it's been one of the places that, love it and/or hate it, is a place to see and be seen and meet up with old colleagues.

some of last year's haul, and a big part of why I and my friends go to the Con

Given the people I know of this year presenting their own books, prints and wares there's a good article to be written about the crossover between the graphic books of the past and present and the people whose graphic work is usually employed in big-budget "Hollywood" animation doing their own small-press thing.

And you know, all of us are geeks if by geeks you mean lovers of cool stuff yearning to see new and exciting work of all kinds-be they filmed, drawn, sculpted or written. In that sense we have a lot in common with the non-pros sitting cross-legged on the floor. By the way, I confess I've done that myself as have most of my (adult) friends. That's because there are no other places available to sit in the Convention Center.

Michael Cieply-why don't you come on down? The train is a great ride.

See you in San Diego.

"Comics Convention Beckons Hollywood", by Michael Cieply 6/21/08

Eric Goldberg's New Book

"Character Animation Crash Course!", a brand new book by legendary animator, Freddie Moore expert, collector of exquisite stuff, sage and all-around nice guy Eric Goldberg is on its way to the bookstores in a few weeks.

Here's the official description from the publisher, Silman-James Press:

Character Animation Crash Course! is a veritable Genie's lamp stuffed with everything the aspiring animator could wish for! Renowned animator Eric Goldberg's detailed text and drawings illuminate how to conceive characters "from the inside out" to create strong personalities. Classic animation techniques are analyzed and brought to life through this unique book and its accompanying CD that offers readers animated movie examples that show, in real time or frame-by-frame, the author's principles at work. Add to this Goldberg's discussions of classic cartoons and his witty, informative observations based on the wealth of knowledge he's gained during his 30-plus years in professional animation, and you have a tour-de-force guide to character animation with the classic touch.

As described above it comes with not only a distillation of Eric's prodigious knowledge of the craft of personality animation but a DVD as well loaded with quicktime tests he's done himself, illustrating the principles he describes in the book--all the essentials.
Through the usual .05 degrees of separation that seem to exist between everyone in Los Angeles, I learned of this book's imminent birth while visiting the publisher at her home. Gwen Feldman is not only "Silman-James Press" but is an artist herself--she's a member of Chouinard's last graduating class in '71, former pupil of the great ones such as the late design teacher Bill Moore (about whom-like all his students-she's got some great stories). One of the most intelligent and creative people I've ever met, my husband's good friend even before I met her, she's an amazing photographer, art collector--someone whose range of interests still surprises me after twenty-some years.

Case in point: I blew a gasket when she casually mentioned a few months ago that she was publishing a book by Eric Goldberg. I got a glimpse of it completed then, and I was thrilled to see what was going to be in it. I'm sure you won't need me to tell you it's going to be a must have.
Eric's going to be debuting and signing it at Comic Con, on the Friday and no doubt at several other venues in Los Angeles as well. I'll add more details as I get them. For now it can be pre-ordered at Amazon and through the Creative Talent Network's portal.

Can't wait. And some guy named Brad Bird wrote the forward, too.

"Scrambled Ink" starts to spill

The other day an advance copy of Scrambled Ink-the book that I and six of my friends had collaborated on-arrived in my mailbox. It's a weird feeling, to be able to finally hold an actual book. In hardcover, 180 pages and with a gracious foreword by Mike Richardson(owner/publisher of Dark Horse), it's slated to be on shelves in bookstores everywhere in July as well as, of course, online.
Dark Horse did a beautiful job-they're really a class outfit. Diana Schutz(our editor), Dave Marshall and Tina Alessi all went above and beyond with its production.

I'm very proud of my friends who managed to produce beautiful extracurricular work while busy variously animating, doing story and visdev. We're all very different from one another and our stories reflect it, but when I flip through the book I see the personalities of these guys I've come to know and love on the page, and the stories seem to me to go together in much the same congenial way we did sitting under the olive trees at work eating lunch, chatting cross-legged on the floor of one another's offices, crammed into an Amtrak booth bound for San Diego or leaning furiously over the foosball tables. Good times.
I hope it finds readers who enjoy reading it anywhere near as much as we did doing it.


There's plenty more where this came from, but here's a sampling of what's inside the covers:

a page from "Burger Run" by Dave Pimentel

Ken Morrissey's illustration from "Greedy Grizzly"; he wrote and illustrated it, with an assist on the prose from Keith Baxter

a glimpse of J.J. Villard's work

Dave Derrick's is a story set in Africa

Ennio Torresan's roman a clef, highly autobiographical

...and me(plus my inspiration on my mousepad there):



The table of contents; click to enlarge
When the book's more readily available we're probably going to do a couple of shindigs with it(the fun part of publishing!), which I'll post about here as they're scheduled.
Certainly most of us will be lurking in San Diego the week of the Con. Hope to see you there!

Scrambled Ink book-coming in summer '08

Dave Pimentel and JJ Villard after our group trek to the Comic Con last summer.You couldn't find a better bunch of traveling companions.


An early rough splash page we put together for the book--this isn't the design, nothing here is final(especially color)-very, very early; this version also doesn't yet include the name of Keith Baxter; left column top to bottom is Ken, Dave D. and JJ; on the right is Dave P., me and Ennio

This blog is usually reserved for touting animation-related doings other than my own, but I'd like to give a heads up on a group project that six of us(all story artists working on the same crew, save JJ who was in visdev)hatched 18 months ago after visiting ComicCon '06 and being mightily inspired with the artists' books that were beginning to appear in ever-increasing numbers.

Since every one of us independently had thoughts of doing a sketchbook and had started exploring the various self-publishing options we decided to do one book together and split the expense. Eventually the book of sketches became a book of stories--one we still planned to do ourselves--but several months after that the founder of comics/book/entertainment company Dark Horse, Mike Richardson, came to Dreamworks to give a talk that most of us attended. A particularly intrepid soul among us approached Mike and pitched him our book. He liked it, we sent a rough dummy--and contracts were signed.
Our self-publishing venture had changed into a real publishing deal with a real editor, Diana Schutz(who's edited for and worked with Will Eisner and Frank Miller among others, ye gods!).
So in time for the ComicCon of 2008, our book "Scrambled Ink" will be out this summer in hardcover.

I'm in the company of a great group of guys with individual points of view: Dave Derrick, Dave Pimentel, Ennio Torresan, Ken Morrissey(who eventually brought Keith Baxter on board to write the prose for his story) and last but never least the inimitable JJ Villard. We did stories from 'the back of our brains'(as Ernie Kovacs might say) and ones we had had percolating for a while on the front burner, too. They're all quite different from each other--hence the "scrambled" title--which at one time we imagined might have a vintage menu look for the the table of contents, (as can be somewhat gleaned from the old page above). It's not like that now--there's not a retro diner menu design in it--but it's still a melange, that's for sure.

Dave Pimentel drew Ennio Torresan, me, and David Derrick taking a break last spring; I'm wondering why I am pictured drawing with a big smile, though. Given the date I'd probably just made reservations for Paris-that kept me smiling for two months-before and after.

They're all good friends as well as great coworkers and my life would be so much more dull without them. It's a hackneyed phrase but true: I'm honored to be in their company. I think--I hope--that our combined stories will appeal. It's great of Dark Horse, Mike and Diana to help us get it out there.

Coming soon!