Here you’ll find an exploration on how to make a living, by being creative. This blog gives you a little bit of a window into the day in the life of a Simpsons artist, who’s doing his own art on the side. You’ll also get an insight into what goes on in an artist’s brain. As well, as how he tries to improve his skills and his way of life with his creativity.
He also draws things that will hopefully make you laugh, or at the very least, crack a smile.
I’m a Storyboard artist on The Simpsons TV show and The Simpsons Movie. I drew Simpsons comics, on the side, for Bongo Comics for 12 years as well. Author of The Art of Draw Fu: Beginners Level. I live in California with my wife, daughter and four sons who I love very much. I’m Roman Catholic and I was born in El Salvador.
This week and last week I worked on next year’s Halloween special. There is a board game story in it, but I won’t say anymore than that. I stayed late working on the show since Thanksgiving was going to take away a few days of work from that show.
On Wednesday I moved to the crew I’m going to be working for, for the next few weeks. I enjoy working for these directors, so it seems like it’s going to be a fun show to work on.
ART
I continued working on my sister’s logo designs this week. Here’s what I did and why:
I started by reworking the rough silhouette from last time so that the girl would be in a lotus position. My sister had given me some more ideas for items and I put them in the drawing. I cleaned up the circle also, mainly because I wanted to see what it would look like. I got rid of the laptop frame and used it as one of the interior items.
I thought that it we time to start defining the exterior of the design. my first approach was to do it with color. I took the colors I thought I would use and started defining the drawing better. I got stuck though. I wasn’t really sure where I was going and what was what. It was too confusing for me to work this way so I changed my mind and decided to use lines to define the details.
I used white lines and decided to just draw inside the silhouette, using the same shapes I had already defined with the color pass. I added a temporary background because I found that I when the white line hit the “paper” it got lost. I had chosen to draw a really squished rectangular head for the girl. This gave her a very big chunk of hair on top. The reason was mostly to create contrast between the too parts (face and hair) which creates interest. Then I drew the face. The details of the figure where taken from what I saw my sister wear in some pictures on her her site. The girl is suppose to represent my sister without being a direct caricature of her.
I was happy with the rough white line pass but I couldn’t quite clean up the line without doing a slightly more defined rough of certain areas. Such as, her legs and feet, as well as, her hands in prayer position. The red line is the clean up line while the blue line is my rough, definition drawing.
Once I was done, I turned the red line black and got rid of all the roughs and silhouette. I sent the drawing to my sister and she gave me some suggestions that I will add next. I will also begin to color it and add detail to the items. I hope to be done with this logo next week.
MY WEEK
I went to the CNT Animation Expo last Sunday. In order to not pay for parking, I parked at the Simpsons’ Studio (which was two blocks away) and rode my skateboard to the Convention Center. As I was doing so, I did the idiotic thing of trying to text my wife something as I rode my skateboard. The following event occurred shortly after:
The board’s front wheels got caught on an upturned chunk of sidewalk and I totally bailed. My phone went flying out of my hands, the battery flew out, my phone slid face down on the cement away from me as I lay face down on the side walk. Comedy gold. After I got myself up and unsuccessfully tried to recover my dignity, I put my phone back together and discovered, to my great relief, that it still worked. I continued my ride feeling stupid. As I approached the Convention Center, I stopped at a light and suddenly discovered that I was in pain in two places. I checked those two place. My elbow was very scratched up and looked bad, but wasn’t bleeding. I then checked my knee. My pants where ripped and when I lifted up my pants leg I discovered it was bleeding. That’s when I thanked God that all I had gotten was a scratched knee.
First thing I did, when I got to the Convention Center was find a bathroom and cleaned the wound. I now have a nice scab to show as a souvenir. Then I bought a ticket and went in to the Vendor’s Hall. It was small but full of great vendors and artists. It was worth looking walking through. Lots of great books there. The were also a ton of students and pros walking around with portfolios, looking for work and asking about the state of the industry from other pros. In the center of the Hall was a stage with where two artists did demos for all to see. The artists were very accessible and were rotated every hour. At the time I had walked in, J. Scott Campbell was on stage drawing and talking to a handful of people about his art and influences.
I quickly got bored after walking around the hall for an hour. It was small and I had seen everything by then. If I had gone to a panel, I wouldn’t have been bored but I hadn’t bought a ticket that allowed me to go to any panels. They were too expensive. The real reason I was there was to talk to friends I hadn’t seen in a while as well as meet up with new artists a didn’t know. This didn’t really happen.
I left the Convention Center and went to lunch. On my way back from lunch, I told myself that if I couldn’t find anyone to talk to, I would just leave.
Walking back into the Vendor’s Hall, I instantly regretted having gone to lunch. On the stage in the Hall was none other that Marcelo Vignali. He had been talking and giving a demo there the whole time I had been at lunch. He’s one of my favorite artists and one of the top Development Artist in the business. Since I’m interested in doing Development Art, I would have loved to have been there through out this whole demo. As it was, I caught the last fifteen minutes. There were a ton of people around him asking him really good questions. I just sat there and soaked it all in. Afterward, he got down off he stage and a small group of students, followed him out of the Hall where he sat down and drew for them. I followed and gawked at Marcelo‘s skill, trying to soak up everything he did as he drew. There is nothing like observing how a Master artist approaches drawing. I learn a ton, just watching.
One of the students was smart enough to have Marcelo, look at his a piece of work he had done, so that he could give him his take on it. Marcelo did, and as he did so, explained his process. It was amazing. I couldn’t believe it. He blew my mind.
Later, when all the students where gone, I reintroduced myself to him. I reminded him I had had lunch with him, my friend Paul, and a few other people some years ago when he was still working at Sony. I talked with him about his process a bit more and about sketching for fun. He gave me some advice on how to include my kids when I sketched, so they could do it too. It was great.
I left the Expo right after that. I felt the expo was time well spent.
ART
Last week I wrote about Jim Lujan‘s latest short film. Jim does what he dubs “Ghettomation“. It’s do it yourself (DIY) animation. He strives for clear storytelling without all the time consuming billions of drawings it takes to make a fully animated film. Many people in the animation industry might scoff at this idea because it’s not “well animated”.
I’m a trained animator. Once upon a time, I thought that if a movie was poorly animated, it wasn’t worth my while. This opinion has changed a lot since then, I’ve come to the conclusion that “well animated” films, are not necessarily good films. I think it’s far more important to have an animated “good story, well told” even if the animation isn’t the best.
I joined the motley crew of cartoonists on the JAVILAND podcast (episode 28) this weekend. It’s the first time that I’ve been on a podcast and not only NOT been interviewed, but my job as an artist is actually taken for granted while we talk about art. Check it out:
Worked overtime this Saturday. It wasn’t nice. We got what we needed done with time to spare though. The show looks great. I even got an hour to relax on Tuesday before I went home. Yay!
FAMILY/ART/PODCAST/BLOG
So my sister has commissioned me to design her a logo for her Podcast (www.elsiesyogakula.com) and her business (http://yogeek.me). She’s a Yoga instructor. She sent me a few example drawings of things that are in the general direction of what she wants, as well as some photos of herself in poses she though I could use. One example was a few very interesting cartoony silhouettes in yoga poses, and the other is of a cartoony Vishnu/Shiva like multi-armed woman with all kinds of devices and things in her hands (no I’m don’t worship these gods, nor does my sister). My job is to come up with something that has the general idea of the things she sent me without actually copying those things. Very tricky.
She asked me to do it in “my style”, but, to be honest, I’m not sure what that is. The “chibi” style I usually do on this blog, and in my upcoming Black Terror Kid comic strip, is not necessarily what I consider “my style”. It’s just what’s easiest for me to do. My “short hand” if you will. Does that make it my style?
So I don’t even know if I’m going to use that style for these logos. Although, it might be the first place I start.
So…here I go. The following is the start of my process of figuring out what to do:
So I chose to start designing the logos using silhouettes. It’s a technique I first saw used in a book called: The Skillful Huntsman. I chose this method because I figured, if the silhouette, by itself, reads well, adding detail would just be icing. My first attempts above, where my attempt to use my “Chibi” style for the logo. It wasn’t a good style to use though. It was too squat and compressed. In the end, the drawings just look like weird bugs. I quit using the style without refining the drawings. It would have been a waste of time.
My second attempt was to try a style that was a little like the “Chibi” style, only with more stretched out proportions. This worked a little better. It was clearer. Only it looks like the character is juggling. Also, it was too much like my source material. I didn’t want to directly copy my reference.
I chose a standing position to try to make the drawing something a little different than the reference. The proportions of the figure are much more naturalistic but still very designed. I think this is closer to the direction I should go. It’s a very clear design. Unfortunately, this doesn’t quite say “Yoga” to me. I also need more tech and health silhouettes in the hands. I’m going to have to go over this with my sister. She might have an idea as to what direction to go.
This last one is my first attempt at the podcast logo. It’s based off the photo my sister sent me, which is the same as her site photo. This was a happy accident. It just looks like a big brush stroke. I almost just want to keep it this way. Still, I might play around with it a bit more. I’ll also try working off the other photo she sent me to see if I can’t do something similar with that.
That’s all I have so far. I’ll post more next time.
ART
Fellow CARTOONISTA, Jim Lujan, has posted up the second part of his John Henry Unicorn trilogy. The story is basically about a manipulative cult leader that causes mayhem wherever he goes. It’s a dark comedy Jim wrote, directed, animated, voice acted and wrote the music for. Jim is a very funny and very nice guy. His humor stems from taking the things that make odd people odd and exaggerating them. It’s very observational. His art is very reminiscent of Mike Judge‘s art (creator of Beavis and Butt-head, and King of the Hill), only he drew this way before he ever saw any of Mike Judge‘s early films and Jim‘s drawings are a bit more stylized.
This lastest cartoon took him 2 months to do, off and on, during his free time. He assures me that it only took him this long because he was getting used to his new iMac. He told me, the next one would be done faster. This is just amazing to me. He was able to do a cartoon, by himself, in the same amount of time it takes most artists to draw a comic book.
He makes me want to try it myself.
My favorite part is the wig bit. That really cracked me up. The ending was very odd and very silly.
ART AUCTION on EBay. Former Disney animator and author Tom Bancroft along with Tony Bancroft (yes, he was also a Disney animator, my twin, and directed MULAN) and a friend (Chad Frye) are putting together a huge Ebay art auction for the Hodge family and their son, Matt. Tim Hodge (the dad) is a long time friend (my family has know their’s since our kids where babies!) and Tim is a former Disney storyboard artist and Big Ides Productions director. His son, Matt, a 17-year old senior in high school was in a terrible accident when his car was hit by a train a couple months ago. He is still in a coma because of the head trauma. Their family is in need of financial help. Thus, the art auction.
The plan is to have the auction hit Ebay in about a month (beginning of December). We have sent out notes to some of the biggest names in animation, comic books, comic strips, and illustration for donations. We are getting in great artwork every day! (I met with John Pomoroy yesterday, who contributed a signed animation drawing!)
Please go to our preview site at: [link] to see what has come in so far and keep going back for more and more artwork as it comes in and updates about the auction. I’m counting on all of you to spread the news about this site and auction! Tell all your friends, these will make GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!
Some of the artists that have donated or have promised to are: J. Scott Campbell, Chris Sanders, John Pomeroy, Drew Struzen, Peter DeSeve, Stephen Silvers, Charles Schutz’s family, Patrick McDonnell, and so many more!
BLOG
I was just checking out Paolo Rivera’s blog. His stuff is so COOL! Man, the guy rocks. He has a video of his process HERE. Here’s a video interview with him:
I’ve been working late hours this week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I had twelve hour days. Two days of overtime, and one day of making up hours because I’m going to be coming in to work late on Friday. Today (Thursday) is the first day I have a regular eight hour day and I’m looking forward to it. So far, the show I’m working on, looks like it’s on track. Still, I feel sooo tired.
ART
Last Friday, I was invited to my friend Raul‘s house. He was having a “Sketch Party”. The sketch party was described as a party where we would bring our favorite or current sketch book, show it off, as well as draw some. But this was not just any sketch party, it was a Cartoonista sketch party.
We are a loose collective formed between friends to promote their arts and events in the San Gabriel Valley areas.
I was invited to come to the party because I was asked to join the group, sponsored by Raul. I’m at a place in my life right now artistically, and socially, that I thought this would be exactly what I needed in order to develop as a person and as an artist. My social skills are lacking terribly, so I figured, if I join a very social, self motivated, group of artists, not only would it be motivating, but through my art, I could learn to be more social. Especially in an environment where we can all talk about things we have in common.
Well, the party was a blast. Raul‘s wife Hortencia made the yummiest food. She really went all out. I also drank tons of her horchata. It was really yummy. Thing about being in the room with bunch of Cartoonistas is that the jokes don’t stop coming. It’s as if everyone has to come up with as many ways to make other people laugh as frequently as possible. It was darn funny and fun being around these guys.
We had an “initiation ceremony”. Raul suddenly ran upstairs to get “something”. It’s funny because everyone got nervous that he was going to bring down something crazy for the “ceremony”. When he came back down, we saw he held three books. A fancy Frank Miller hard cover book, an Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 2 trade paperback which contained Ditko and Romita Sr. stories in them, and The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. We were to pick a book to be “sworn in” on. That was pretty funny (I chose the Spider-man comic). But our swearing in was pretty darn silly too. I was going to pick that moment to do a cartoon, but it turns out the whole thing was caught on video, so I’d just put that up instead:
It’s very overwhelming to be a Cartoonista. The amount of art these guys produce is ridiculous. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the link of to all the Cartoonista‘s sites:
I’m taking a break from the Disneyland story again. To be honest, I was hoping to have gotten it done already. I kinda want to do something else and it’s starting to feel like work. I don’t want it to feel like work, I want to have fun doing it, so I’m hoping to get back to it after I take a short break.
Having joined the Cartoonistas, has really put a lot of pressure on me to want to, “earn my keep”. To this end, I have resolved to, at the very least, finish a comic strip or two, and maybe actually get a small irregular webcomic up and going.
Before I had joined them, I had also resolved to draw, a minimum, of one (non work related) drawing a day. With one very important rule: I must have fun drawing it. For years, I have not been having any fun drawing outside of work. For the first time in a long time, I drew something that I truly had fun doing when I was drawing the Superhero Versus Superhero drawings, earlier this year (click on the numbers to see what I’m taking about: 1,2,3,4,5,6).
Now I go home and draw something at home and it’s actually fun. I will occasionally put up one of these sketchbook drawing on this site. Like I’m doing today, but most of the time, if I’m happy with something I drew, I will put it up on my Deviant Art page. I invite you to wander over there once in a while to see if I’ve put up something new. Here’s my latest drawing:
I’m in the process of teaching myself to paint again. My current goal is to build a “development art” portfolio. With the industry going to mostly digital, most of the drawing jobs are behind the scenes in the development process. In order for me to continue drawing for a living, I need to step up my skill set to be able to do development art as well. To this end, I need to just produce as much art in that vain as I can.
PODCASTS
More Podcast for you to try listening to. This time, it’s some Cartoonista podcasts:
We had the studio Halloween party last Friday. Overall it looked like it wasn’t going to be much fun. The studio has so few people the party almost looked deserted. Things pick up when the costume contest began. Suddenly the party got really fun. Lots of cool costumes, including a group of people who dressed up as the cast of Gilligan’s Island (Ship and all).
As far as the rest of the work week, not much to report. Just churning away at scenes. Today I’m going to be staying late to make up for the fact that I’ll need to come in late tomorrow. Outside of the party, it hasn’t been too eventful
FAMILY
Taking another break from the trip to Disneyland story to write about Halloween.
I don’t like Halloween. I’m not into dressing up and I’m not into going to parties, so Halloween does nothing for me. That being said, I had a great Halloween this year. Perhaps the best one I’ve ever had. Why? Because of my kids.
We didn’t know what we were going to dress the kids up as for Halloween. On Friday at daycare, they had gotten their faces drawn on so that Munckin looked like a dog and Dante looked at like a cat. Munchkin really enjoyed that. So much so that when I wiped the paint off later, she got very sad. After that, we knew what she was going to be for Halloween. Dante was not so attached to the cat idea. He really didn’t seem to care one way or the other.
On Saturday, we made our way to some Halloween stores where we bought some paint and a tail for Munchkin’s costume and figure out a costume for Dante. He didn’t want dress like a monkey so in the end, we dressed him up like Superman. When I showed him the costume we got him, he laughed out loud.
I had fun painting Munchkin’s face. All I did was paint a white eye patch around one eye and then I painted her nose and put some “muzzle” lines around her mouth. She looked great. Alesha later did her hair to look like floppy ears. When we put on her tail, she shook her hips to make her tail wag. She was having fun being a puppy.
We met my parents, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my nephew Paolo in front of a library where the stores in the area where doing a trick or treating event. There were tons of kids and parents everywhere and we saw all kinds of costumes. Little Paolo and his mommy were all dressed up like 50s greasers; even down to Paolos converse sneakers. He was very cute.
Once we met up, we went Trick or Treating. This is where it just became super fun for me. Dante was too little still to really enjoy what was going on. He had a good time but not in the same way that his sister was having fun. She was really into it. It was a joy to see her go up to get candy. She’d been watching Halloween cartoons for days and, for her to actually be doing the Trick or Treating that the cartoons showed, must have been the best thing ever.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the group was up to the task of taking the kids Trick or Treating for long. After, about an hour an a half or so, we had to call it quits. The ordeal was too tiring. We all went back to my brother’s house, hung out and had dinner there. That was fun too. The kids ate candy, played and ran around. Meanwhile we watched Looney Toons talked about them and other things. It was fun.
We had to leave at 7:00pm though because my brother had to wake up early the next day. Still, it was a great day.
Well, I just thought I’d plug it again. Especially since the latest podcast has a Halloween theme and a Looney Tunes theme as well. Which is a strange coincidence since watching Looney Tunes was part of my Halloween.
Raul goes into some interesting stories that Bill Melendez told him about working at Warner Brother on Looney Tune cartoons, back in the day. Check out the podcast.
ART
Nov. 20-22 is the CNT Animation Expo, here, at the Burbank Convention Center. It actually sound like great fun. It’s like a little Comic Con but only for animation. Some of the best artists in the industry will be giving talks over their area of expertise. Many of the major studios will also be recruiting there. It’s a great place to get connections and network. It’s also only a block away from Starz Media/Film Roman, where I work. I really want to go.
The only thing I don’t like about it, is the cost. If you didn’t sign up before Oct. 31st, you have to pay 70$ to get in, in order to participate in any of the panels (which is really, the best reason to come). Otherwise, you just pay 25$ and you get the run of the show floor.
If you’re interested, CLICK HERE to get to the website.
Before I begin, I just wanted to ask you to leave a comment if you like what you read or if you like a specific thing I do. I tend to just write about what I feel like writing about but I like knowing what you like to me writing about or would like me to write about. I’ve only received one or two comments in a long time and maybe it’s my fault for not responding more often to comments but it also seems like no one is out there. Thanks.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Crazy work week this week. I was given an enormously complicated section late Friday. I had to combine three scenes into one long pan scene. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it wasn’t for the fact that I had been given many more scenes besides this one to finish. The pressure came because I only had Monday and Tuesday to really work on the scenes before I was to move on to another crew.
I worked on and finished as many priority scenes as I could get to before I got to the big one. When I finally did get to it (on Friday near the end of the day) I discovered it was a technical nightmare. I had to figure out a way to use the original scenes’ artwork with the main scene I was combining them with. It took a very long time just to get all the artwork to be the right size. Then I had to add acting as well as separate the characters so that animation cycles could be made out of them and figure out all the camera movements. This took me all day Monday and by the end of the day, I still wasn’t finished. On Tuesday I went back on the scene and started hacking away at the last of the scene. I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to get it done. To my surprise, I did. It took me 20 minutes to export the artwork so that it could be edited into the reel. This usually takes seconds, or at the most, a minute or two. I had finished with hours to spare.
This allowed me to finish working on all the other scenes I hadn’t gotten to that were of lower priority. I needed to get those scenes done before 3:00 pm because at that time, I need to be at a story reel meeting for my next crew. That, and the fact that it was almost time for me to leave work because I had gotten in early and I was not approved for overtime. I managed to finish those scenes with 15 minutes to spare and I felt very relieved and good about myself when I finally left work
When I got into work on Wednesday I checked the reel to see how the big complicated scene played out in the end. Turns out the director must not have liked the way it looked because he had re-separated the scene into five scenes. I felt VERY frustrated.
Sometimes a scene has to be tried out before it can be seen to not work well. I just happened to have worked on one such scene.
After our walk through Mini Mouse’s house, we made our way to Donald Duck’s boat and Goofy’s house. We all took a small break in Goofy’s house while the kids played with all of Goofy’s things. They had a blast playing on Goofy’s piano:
We were all hungry and needed a restroom break so after leaving Goofy’s house, we made a restroom stop and then made our way to the Toon Town food Court. The options were very limited. The food was not very good either. The entertainment, on the other hand, was great. Goofy decided to take a break for a few minutes, by going into the Library (as in back stage) when he came back out, he did so with much fanfare. He was trying to do a cool dance but kept messing up and having to go back inside in order to come back out and try it again. After three times of doing this, he managed to pull it off. His big finally was semi-standing on his head. It was pretty impressive for a guy in a big suit and mask:
To be continued…
ART/PODCASTS
So, if you’ve been paying attention, you’d notice that I was writing a lot about board games a few months back, and then it slowly drifted to writing a lot about Role Playing games. This is because all my free time was spent listening to podcasts, reading and thinking about these things. Mostly because of the podcasts though. There came a point a few weeks back where I ran out of game podcast to listen to and I began listening to the non game podcasts on my ipod. Some of the podcasts I listened to were illustration related podcasts like:
Ninja Mountain Scrolls podcast (a very funny group of sci fi and fantasy illustrators that give you a taste of what being a freelance illustrator is like) and
W.I.P. (similar to Ninja Mountain with a different group of people. Very enjoyable). This lead me to listen to the
Escape from Illustration Island podcast (interviews with people who have illustration friendly resource sites for artist), which in turn lead me to listen to
Chris Oatley’s Artcast, (podcast about a fellow artist in the animation industry. He still has the fire that I once had when I started in animation. Listening to him has helped me find that fire again) which pointed me to both the
Big Illustration Party Time podcast (two illustrators who are trying to work on their own comic on the side) and the
Art and Story podcast (two other artist who talk about the process of creating their own indy comics) as well as the very inspiring
Steve Silver artcast (an animation character designer and caricaturist who loves to draw. He’s one of the best in the animation business and I was really surprised to discover he had a podcast).
As the gaming podcasts lead me into an obsession with games, the art podcasts has lead me back to my first love, art. When I listened to gaming podcasts, I often wished I could game more or even create my own games. I found no one wanted to game with me and I didn’t want to put in all the work I needed to do to create a game. On the other hand, listening to art podcasts, has inspired me to start drawing again. This, I can and will put effort into since it directly ties in to my work life and because it’s fun. If you suddenly start seeing a little bit more effort put on the artwork on my doodles or if you see the cartoons come out less often in place of some other kind of illustration or drawing, it’s because this is really where my mind is at right now. I kinda want to keep it there for as long as possible.
FAMILY
I got Munchkin a used ($15) Dora the Explorer video game about half a year or so ago. She loved it but she wasn’t old enough to figure out the controls. Not only that, but the game would often not even load on my old PS2.
A week ago I was talking with my brother-in-law Michael and he told me that he got a CD/DVD cleaner and it helped his old X-box play games that wouldn’t load. I bought a CD/DVD cleaner last weekend and used it on my PS2 and my PS1. Now all the games I load into the systems work. I put the Dora game in for Munchkin and she started playing it again. Surprisingly, she was able to navigate the game better then the last time she played it. She figured out how to move the character around the game world. No small feat for a three year old since the game is in 3D (ala Mario 64). She also listened very carefully to what the game needed her to do and she began to do it. She started to problem solve the game’s “problems” and came up with the right solutions. It was amazing.
Now she plays the game for thirty minutes to an hour before bedtime. She really enjoys it and I’m amazed at how good she’s gotten at controlling the game and problem solving.
ART
My friend Larry Whitaker has put up his demo reel up on Youtube. Take a look and please leave a comment for him at the Youtube site. He’d really appreciate it:
Got the show we were working on done. I worked a bit of overtime, which wasn’t so bad. The show looks good. I saw it yesterday morning. We were really cranking away on Monday and Tuesday. I felt I little bad about leaving “on time” Tuesday, but they weren’t going to pay me if I had stayed. Also, I needed to pick up the kids from daycare on time, so I couldn’t have stayed anyway.
Wednesday I started helping out on a different crew. This will be only for a few days before I’m put on my new “official” crew.
Minnie Mouse’s house was next door and we saw she was at the door getting her picture taken with kids. Munchkin wanted to go to Mickey’s house first though. She was very excited. The Kids had fun going on all the furniture and playing with all the cartoony props. I thought the house was the main attraction. I didn’t realize the house was part of the line. There were so few people there, that there was no line. While playing Munchkin suddenly began asking:
I’d been at this house before but for some reason I didn’t remember meeting Mickey Mouse or getting my picture taken with him. I didn’t realize at the time that we would actually see him but I started getting the hint the farther into the house we went. We finally made it to the room where there where showing “trailers” of Mickey Mouse movies.
It was all we could do to keep Munchkin still once she knew we were going to see him. She wanted to see Mickey reaaalllly bad. She just jumped around anxious.
Soon the moment of truth came and we made our way “back stage” to see Mickey. They opened the doors and we walked in.
Munchkin went stiff when she saw Mickey. Rather than drag her to him I picked her up and told her to say, “hi,” and give Mickey a hug. Which she did, like a good little trooper. We then got our pictures taken with him.
Afterward, we left the house. I think that must have really broken Munchkin from her fright of the characters because seconds after coming out of the house, she declared she wanted to go meet Minnie Mouse.
I was recently able to buy the whole first season of The Spectacular Spider-Man on DVD from Amazon, really cheap. I was not able to follow it on TV since I’m really bad about watching TV in general. I’d rather buy or rent the DVDs of a show I’m interested in and watch it at my leisure.
I put the show in and sat down to watch it with Munchkin one night after Dante was put to bed (it was past his bedtime). We were blown away. Me more than her. I had seen two full episodes a while back when I became aware of the show and I thought it was great but, now that I’ve seen the entire season, I must say that, it’s the best Spider-Man animated cartoon I’ve ever seen. It’s fantastic!
It’s as well written as my current favorite Spider-Man comic, Ultimate Spider-Man but it’s somehow much more true to the original source materials while still keeping it contemporary. Also, I love the design of the show, which was established by Sean “Cheeks” Galloway. I met him once in Portos in Burbank when I went out to eat with Paul and Tommy. We saw him there and recognized him so we introduced ourselves. He’s a really nice guy.
In any case, if you haven’t see this show and you like Spider-Man or are interested in what the original Spider-Man comics felt like when you read them, this is the show. It made me want to take out my old Spider-Man comics out and re-read them all.
It’s not looking good for our crew so far. We’re very far behind on our work. Looks like I’m really going to have to go into focus mode if I even stand a chance at finishing all I need to do this week. I’m probably going to be working over time. I guess that’s okay, I need the money.
COMIC BOOKS
I really felt like drawing something different in a different style this week. The Disneyland strip story will return next week. In the mean time, I have other news.
My friend Raul has just self published a comic book. I was fortunate enough to read it and I thought it was great. It’s really entertaining and it cracked me up. I few years ago I was looking around for funny comic books. I wanted to know what one looked like, (that wasn’t a Simpsons comics). I asked the guy at the counter if he knew of any. I asked him if he knew one that actually could make you laugh at loud. He showed me the one he liked. I bought it.
It wasn’t funny.
I was looking for a funny book because, at the time, I was thinking of writing a funny comic short story. Well, I wish Raul‘s comic had been around when I was looking for a comic because his made me laugh out loud. It comes across as a “serious” comic and it is in a way, but it has so many jokes and fun banter between the characters that you can’t help but laugh. Fun stuff. I highly recommend it.
I liked it so much, it inspired me to draw some fan art for it. So this is my drawing for the week:
Pick up Raul‘s book Codename: Sparrow by clicking below. (You can even get some sample pages to look through.)
WEBSITES
Does the drawing below look familiar?
It should, I drew it for this very blog when I reviewed Paul Nowak‘s book The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnut. Paul liked the drawing so much, he asked if he could use it on a t-shirt. I said, “yes,” and, “Ta da!” here it is. I own one already that Paul was good enough to send me and I LOVE IT. IT’S SUPER COOL! Impress your friends kids. Buy one today! If you do, I’ll get a little something as well. Yay!
Comments Off on Things are coming to a head on this current show. A small break from the Disneyland story to stretch my (drawing) legs. Uncle Chestnut T-shirt.
Started up on a new crew with yet another new director. Well, an old director who is new and unfamiliar with the new process (for info on the new way we are creating shows now, please read the Simpsons post on this older article I put up). Whenever we end up with a director who hasn’t gone through this process before, it always has growing pains. The crew he has, meaning us, has been working with the new process since the season started. Sometimes the directors actually listen to us and take our advice on how to approach a show. Sometimes they don’t and try doing things that are not quite as efficient only to discover their mistake on the last week when they have three acts left to finish in five days.
I’m not quite sure which type of director we have this time, yet. I hope it’s the former.
Off we went to Toon Town to see Mickey Mouse’s house. We passed by the Alice in Wonderland Tea Cup ride and Munchkin immediately wanted to go on it. No one else was in the mood for it though. We told her we would do it later, which I fully intended to do, but we forgot and never got back to it.
We made our way into Toon Town and took in the chaos. We saw Goofy there, but we didn’t try to get a picture with him just yet. The kids mostly wanted to get in the cartoon cars that where scattered all over Toon Town. This turned out to be a bad idea since Munchkin drove her car straight into Goofy’s house and we got in big trouble.
Alright, so I’ve been writing A LOT, these last few post, about getting Dungeons and Dragons or Dungeons and Dragons type games online for free. Well, I won’t say I’m done doing that just yet, but I will change the free game to something else this week.
This week, I’m going to be writing about the role playing game (rpg) Spirit of the Century.
Spirit of the Century is a Pulp rpg. What does that mean? Well, it means you’re not going to be playing a dwarf who fights a dragon to get it’s treasure. Spirit of the Century is a game that tries to simulate putting you in pulp stories from the 20s and 30s. Instead of defining what pulps are, I’ll just name examples of pulp characters/stories:
Tarzan
Doc Savage
Sam Spade
The Shadow
John Carter of Mars
The Spider
Conan
The Cthulhu Mythos
Zorro
Dr. Fu Manchu
Solomon Kane
Captain Blood
Kull
…and more recently, some popular movies that are “pulp influenced”:
Indiana Jones
Hellboy
The Mummy
Hellsing
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Star Wars
If your idea of fun is foiling the plans of an evil Nazi super ape; discovering lost civilizations, deep inside the center of the earth, sometime after World War I, with your trusted automaton or doing detective work dressed in a mysterious looking outfit in order to stop the a sinister plot from Dr. Politically Incorrect Evil Chinese Stereotype, then Spirit of the Century is the game for you. It’s a pick up game system. This means you can play a game in an evening and be done with it that same session or maybe in two and it’s all over. It’s a very unique system that has gotten a lot of acclaim and you can get it for FREE.
You can get the rough draft of the game HERE. This is a rough version of the game and is not the final book which comes illustrated and has examples. Still, if you’re broke like me, this is the next best thing. Check it out. If you really like it, you ought to buy the book.
If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.
Had a lite but hectic couple of days. Miss out on a few days of work because Alesha got really sick. She felt so back Wednesday night of last week that she asked me to take her to the hospital. This was late at night and we ended up staying up real late. This caused me to miss work the next day. I managed to finish what I needed to do but I wasn’t able to make up the hours. Still, we got everything we need to get done, done.
I started a on a new crew yesterday. It’s back to the pressure cooker that is my job. I hope no more emergencies crop up.
After the traumatic events of the Princesses rides and a short bathroom break, the next two rides went off great. We stood in line for the Dumbo ride, which I had never ridden on myself. Dante was very excited to get on the ride and was trying to get over the fence for his turn while we were still in line.
and after that, Munchkin insisted that she and I go on the Carousel.
Alesha got very hungry around that time so we ate at the Pinocchio themed restaurant near by (the food was awful and expensive). The plan after that was to head off to Mickey’s Toon Town in order for Munchkin to finally get her wish of going to Mickey Mouse’s house. I took out the map and tried to explain to Munchkin how to use it in order to get to where we were going in terms she could understand.
“First we’ll go by the Big Scary Whale, then we’ll pass by the Annoying Water Ride, then well be at MICKEY MOUSE’S HOUSE! Say it with me…”
Well, having put up a lot of free Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) type role playing games for a few posts, I thought I might as well put up some official D&D 4th edition stuff up as well. If you’re curious as to how the new version of D&D plays, as opposed to it’s older incarnations, you can try out the D&D “Test Drive”.
By Clicking Here you can go to the download page where you can download:
Quick Start Rules.
The entire Keep On the Shadowfell adventure for free (originally sold in stores for 40 to 50 bucks).
A free Eberron adventure from Free Rpg Day, written by creator Keith Baker.
A limited version of the D&D character builder computer program, that allows you to make characters up to 3rd level.
If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.
Tuesday was our big deadline for the show we were currently working on. I had been assigned two more scene midday Monday that I had not gotten a chance to start. I had till Tuesday to finish but they really wanted it done by, at least noon. It was doable so I wasn’t really worried.
On the way home though, with the Alesha and the kids (we carpool) as I was three or four miles from home, some person on the freeway pulled up beside me, honked and pointed at the back of our car. I wasn’t going to take any chances and decided to get off the freeway to see what the guy must have been pointing at. It turns out that my right, back tire was going flat. It had a hole in it. If I didn’t do something quick, we wouldn’t make it home.
Now, normally I would have just changed the tire BUT our car is a Honda 2008 CRV and it has a special key to take the tires off plus the antilock breaks turn off when you change the tires AND all the tire sensors stop working also. I didn’t feel comfortable changing the tire of such a fancy car. Don’t ask me why, I just didn’t. So I made the crazy decision to go to the nearest gas station, put air in the tire and try to make it home. From there I was going to the dealer’s to get four new tires put on the car. I was suppose to have done it a month and a half before, since the tires where already in bad shape, but I couldn’t afford it. This forced me to do it even though I couldn’t afford it this time either. The plan worked out well and I managed to pull it off. I dropped off Alesha and the kids, put more air in the messed up tire and drove to the dealership.
What does this have to do with work? Well, since I got the car to the dealership so late, it wasn’t going to be ready until the next day. This meant we only had one car, mine, and it’s a stick shift. Alesha can’t drive stick so this meant that I had to drop Alesha off at work. This would make me get to work later than usual and it also meant that I would need to leave work, earlier than usual to pick her up. This on deadline day! Needless to say it was stressful.
I managed to finish everything though, so in the end, it all turned out alright.
After we entered the park, we made our way past the first Disney character of the day, namely, Goofy. We asked Munchkin if she wanted to go meet him but she freaked out about it so we kept moving.
I told everyone about what I had imagined we would do once we got the park. One of the things I really wanted to do was walk through Sleeping Beauty’s castle, since Munchkin is such a fan. Unfortunately, we had told her that not only would we see where the Disney Princesses lived, but we had also told her we would go to Mickey Mouse’s house. She was kinda more interested in Mickey’s house than anything else.
Another thing I really wanted to do with the kids was go through the Snow White and Peter Pan rides, as well as explore the little Sleeping Beauty Castle walkway. I thought it would be fun for the Munchkin to “live out” some of her favorite movies.
Unfortunately the Snow White ride was misnamed. It should have been called, “The Wicked Queen ride” because the whole darn thing was about the Wicked Queen and Snow White only showed up ONCE at the start.
The Peter Pan Ride should have been called “Peter’s journey into darkness”. Munchkin was more worried about where Dante and Mommy were than anything else.
And the Sleeping Beauty’s castle walkthrough should have been called “Maleficent’s Haunted Castle” since Maleficent was the main attraction of the thing and it was so dark and scary inside.
Munchkin’s reaction to all these rides had been exactly the same, namely, scared out of her wits. So far, her adventure in the Magic Kingdom, was not so magical. I’m not sure she’ll ever want to watch those movies again.
Meanwhile Dante was completely un-phased by the whole thing.
To be continued…
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Just found your page about Italy! Loved it! Lived in Italy a couple of years; just doing a YouTube video about how to get to the Sistine Chapel. Your sketches brought back so many memories (especially the “Metro at Rush Hour” type).
Dear Luis,
Very interesting and thoughtful blog. If you are interested in Catholicism and boardgames you might appreciate “Vatican” the boardgame I designed. It has been selling worldwide and we have gotten very favorable comments
Sincerely,
Stephen Haliczer Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
Product Designer
The College of DuPage Press
Hey! I’ve been trying to call you for a couple weeks! I should have checked your blog sooner. I thought you might have had the baby by now! Congrats! Call me ya bum. My number…unlike yours… is the same xxx-xxx-xxxx.
im doing a piece of it coursework and wondered if i could put your
“computer stoopid” picture on it.
I would acknowledge where it came from beneath it and in the bibliography.
If the answer is yes then could you tell me the artists name too?
thanks. keith.
I just came upon your Nephilim skeleton debunking image….very interesting.
I wish we could have met at Comic Con to discuss certain issues. Nothing that
I would want to discuss openly here.
If you want to discuss something privately, you could always e-mail me. The address is up there under the “Hi, Welcome!” about the top commentators. It’s luis(at)luisescobarblog(dot)com.
Can you give me permission to use one of your illustrations for a tee shirt. I really want to wear “there must be some way to plug this keyboard into this game” – It’s how I see the world.. and you explained everything I want to tell the world in that one illustrzt8ion.
Gina
Yes, Gina. You can make it into a shirt for yourself off of that cartoon. I’m flattered.
I’ve been thinking about making shirts off of my little cartoons but I’m not sure which ones to do. Outside of an occasional cartoon that really hits home for someone, I’m not sure if they would sell.
Hi Luis,
My name is Phil and I came across your site while looking up information about animation and voice-over work. I’m a huge fan of the Simpsons & Futurama and a big Billy West fan (Ren&Stimpy, Futurama, Ect.). It is truly amazing to me how so many individuals come together to create these animated cartoons and the quality of the end product. I’m curious from your perspective how much work you have to re-do sometimes because of the networks and the way they censor some of the work that is being done. Best of luck to you in your projects. – Phil
You’d be surprised Phil. The biggest censors of the show are the writers themselves. They often pull back a joke they think is going too far. Sometimes, some of the jokes are funny too. It’s the artists that end up complaining about it. For example, there was a joke in one of the Halloween shows that all the artists thought was really funny. It was the show where Homer goes back in time on his toaster. In one of the futures he comes back too, he finds himself married to Patty and Selma. He discovers this when they show up waring lingerie. They looked really nasty, with their flab and hairy legs. When we saw it, everyone roared with horrified laughter. It was crazy. For some reason, during the re-write, they cut the gag because they thought it was too much. It was very disappointing. They didn’t even put the scene as an extra on the DVD.
It does. Thanks for the reply Luis. That gag actually would have been hilarious! Too bad it didn’t make it. I wonder if some unnecessary second guessing happens though because the writers feel they may be going over the top? (If that’s possible.) I know there is that fine line that writers and creators have to walk probably not only with the content of the show that’s created but with the networks as well. At least from what I understand in reading interviews and seeing convention interviews. Storyboards I think really help to set the tone of an episode and I bet it probably helps to justify many of the ideas that get spun out during the writing sessions of the writers. You all do great work on the show and I’m going to continue reading through your website. Thanks! – Phil
Hello there. I was researching nephilim for a report and I foung your blog. Its too bad those pics were all frauds. If they had been real, it would have been amazing.
After I read your stuff on the pictures I hung around a little, and read your “about me section”.
I am merely curious, so if I overstep a boundary, please feel free to tell me so.
I was wondering, sir, since you state that you are in fact a roman catholic, weather or not you believed in the deity of Jesus Christ?
I myself am a Christian, but I research other religions and alternate sects of my own. You could say its a hobby. In any case, if you find my inquiry impolite, I am sorry. I mean no offense.
Heh, no Christine, your question isn’t impolite. It’s good of you to ask. Too often people just assume things about Catholicism without asking.
The simple answer to your question is, “Yes”. Catholicism, teaches that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
The slightly more involved answer is as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (the official book that explains all that the Catholic Church teaches) in paragraphs 446-451 ( http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1H.HTM ) states the following:
446 In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by which God revealed himself to Moses,59 is rendered as Kyrios, “Lord”. From then on, “Lord” becomes the more usual name by which to indicate the divinity of Israel’s God. the New Testament uses this full sense of the title “Lord” both for the Father and – what is new – for Jesus, who is thereby recognized as God Himself.60
447 Jesus ascribes this title to himself in a veiled way when he disputes with the Pharisees about the meaning of Psalm 110, but also in an explicit way when he addresses his apostles.61 Throughout his public life, he demonstrated his divine sovereignty by works of power over nature, illnesses, demons, death and sin.
448 Very often in the Gospels people address Jesus as “Lord”. This title testifies to the respect and trust of those who approach him for help and healing.62 At the prompting of the Holy Spirit, “Lord” expresses the recognition of the divine mystery of Jesus.63 In the encounter with the risen Jesus, this title becomes adoration: “My Lord and my God!” It thus takes on a connotation of love and affection that remains proper to the Christian tradition: “It is the Lord!”64
449 By attributing to Jesus the divine title “Lord”, the first confessions of the Church’s faith affirm from the beginning that the power, honour and glory due to God the Father are due also to Jesus, because “he was in the form of God”,65 and the Father manifested the sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and exalting him into his glory.66
450 From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion of Christ’s lordship over the world and over history has implicitly recognized that man should not submit his personal freedom in an absolute manner to any earthly power, but only to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Caesar is not “the Lord”.67 “The Church. . . believes that the key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of man’s history is to be found in its Lord and Master.”68
451 Christian prayer is characterized by the title “Lord”, whether in the invitation to prayer (“The Lord be with you”), its conclusion (“through Christ our Lord”) or the exclamation full of trust and hope: Maranatha (“Our Lord, come!”) or Maranatha (“Come, Lord!”) – “Amen Come Lord Jesus!”69
Luis – my name is Luis Escobar – every now and then I Google my name just to see what pops up. Well – I often come across you. No doubt – you have discovered me too. Anyway – sure there a ton of our Luis Escobar’s out there but I thought that I would just say hello and let you know that you have a cool name. BTW – I am the third Luis in four! Grandpa, Father, me and my son. Louie’s all around!
wow – that was fast – I am a photographer, distance runner and high school cross country coach. I live in Santa Maria California. Married with three kids. Your work is great. You are very skilled. I will take some time and learn a little more about you and your work. Very cool. Well – I am off to a work with one of my running students. I will look forward to talking with you a little more in the future. Luis
Howdee Luis, if you are a real Christian then i would suggest you to do some research on your big boss (Matt Groening being a 33rd degree mason).
Loads of subliminal messages in the Simpsons, and occult symbolism.
(Even 9-11 was announced).
Greetings…. (Peace be upon you)
I would like to present to you all the sciences related to cosmogony together with its rules as per its identity which is something not similar to any of the other things and is out of any and assimilation according to the following point of view:
1. The theories of on cosmogony lack the fundamentals of the origin of things as they are mainly based on incidence and on the unseen.
2. The cosmic extension that has been taking place is the result of the range of vision through using the telescope and any other instruments because the thing being seen is determined by vision and this is one of the universe laws.
3. Knowing the within secrets of man will uncover secrets of the universe as the apparent entities of existence are of six kinds: the perspective (what is being seen), the tangible world (what can be touched and felt), what can be weighed, what can be heard, things that have flavor and things that have smell. These, in most cases, are overlapping and are counted six in number.
The origin of all entities are bare pictures of materials, void of force and readiness; it shines in debate and is complete when read. The investigation of scientists is restricted to this reading (capability and liability) where the material is with all its atoms, energy and speed and this alone is useless compared with its radiance.
The first cosmic law is that nothing can be determined unless established with what is contrary to it. And things are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract and both are the same according to law.
The origin of radiance is the brain and by saying this I do not mean perception but the simple core of it. By formulating this equation the truth becomes uncovered.
The subject is highly complicated and can only be clarified by word of mouth or by arguments.
So, what do you have to present. (show)
بعد التحية :-
أود أن أعرض عليكم جميع علوم نشأة مفردات الكون وقوانينه وفق ذاتيته التي هي شئ ليس كباقي الأشياء خارجه عن حد التعطيل والتشبيه حسب النظرة التالية :-
1/ أن نظريات نشأة الكون تفتقد لأصول نشأة الأشياء وتحيل على ألصدفه أو الغيب .وكذلك استغراق البحث في الأفاق لم يأتي بغايته إلا بقدر ربطه بالوعي الإنساني.
2/ التوسع الكوني الحاصل هو نتيجة المد البصري من خلال التلسكوب وغيره لأن المنظور أليه يثبت بالبصر وهذا أحد قوانين الكون
3/ معرفة أسرار بطون الإنسان تكشف أسرار الكون حيث أن مفردات الوجود الظاهر على ستة أنواع (المنظور أليها ). (الملموسة). (الموزونة). (المسموعة). (ذات طعم). (ذات رائحة). وتكون في أغلب الأحيان متداخلة .وأصل الأشياء كلها صور عارية عن المواد . خاليه من القوه والاستعداد . بمناظرتها تشرق وبمطالعتها تتم . وبحث العلماء ينحصر في هذه المطالعة (القوه والاستعداد) حيث المادة ودقائقها وطاقتها وسرعتها وهذا وحده لا جدوى منه بقدر إشراقها . . وأصل الإشراق هو العقل ولا أقصد به الإدراك أنما هو )جوهر بسيط درأك محيط) وبتكوين هذه المعادلة تنكشف الحقيقة .
الموضوع غاية بالتعقيد يوضح بالمشافهة والجدل فما هو عرضكم ؟
توضيح:-
* أود أن أبين بأن وسائط الإدراك هي الحواس ألخمسه + تحسس الوزن.
* إما أحوال الإدراك ( تصوراته أي المعاني التي يلبسها ) فهي ستة أيضا ثلاثة وخلافها :-
1/ الحياة والموجود ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحياة هي الماء.
2/ الحركة والسكون ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحركة هي الهواء.
3/ الانفعال والسكينة ولها صور فمثلا صورة الانفعال هي النار.
* إما مراتب نفس الإدراك إي نفس ألصوره فهي خمسه:-
1)الجماد 2) النبات 3) الحيوان 4) الملكوت 5) الإنسان وصور ذلك كثيرة.
*** وكل هذه الصور تندرج ضمن تصورات الإدراك .منها ظاهره ومنها كامنة إي لم تظهر لحد الآن . والتوسع الكوني الحاصل هو ظهور لبعض هذه الصور الكامنة.
*وأروع إبداعات الإدراك هو العقل (جوهر بسيط درأك محيط ) ولكل واحده تفصيلاتها الوظيفية.
ووظيفة العقل هي ربط كل الصور المذكورة أعلاه بعوالمها الحسيه ألسبعه. وعالمنا هو العالم السابع وفق نمطيته الحسيه. وتجري آثار العقل على كل الصور الكونية فتصبح محسوسة وفق قوتها واستعدادها التصوري.
قد لا يفهم الموضوع بشكل جيد كونه لم يطرق بتاتا
I’m doing some onsite interviews at Mystic Dragon’s Festival of Books. Would you have time to talk with me about your work and “The Art of Draw Fu”? at 4 pm on August 15th? Please let me know (and your “Black Terror Kid” comics, along with your comic about your trip to Rome, are really fun!).
. We were to pick a book to be “sworn in” on. That was pretty funny (I chose the Spider-man comic). But our swearing in was pretty darn silly too. I was going to pick that moment to do a cartoon, but it turns out the whole thing was caught on video, so I’d just put that up instead:
Luise,
That is a great illustration of the Podcast Expo. Sorry you did not make it to the Mass.
God bless,
Fr. Jay
Just found your page about Italy! Loved it! Lived in Italy a couple of years; just doing a YouTube video about how to get to the Sistine Chapel. Your sketches brought back so many memories (especially the “Metro at Rush Hour” type).
Dear Luis,
Very interesting and thoughtful blog. If you are interested in Catholicism and boardgames you might appreciate “Vatican” the boardgame I designed. It has been selling worldwide and we have gotten very favorable comments
Sincerely,
Stephen Haliczer Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
Product Designer
The College of DuPage Press
Hey! I’ve been trying to call you for a couple weeks! I should have checked your blog sooner. I thought you might have had the baby by now! Congrats! Call me ya bum. My number…unlike yours… is the same xxx-xxx-xxxx.
im doing a piece of it coursework and wondered if i could put your
“computer stoopid” picture on it.
I would acknowledge where it came from beneath it and in the bibliography.
If the answer is yes then could you tell me the artists name too?
thanks. keith.
Sure, absolutely, go right ahead. Thanks for asking.
Hi Luise,
I just came upon your Nephilim skeleton debunking image….very interesting.
I wish we could have met at Comic Con to discuss certain issues. Nothing that
I would want to discuss openly here.
Hope to hear from you,
Den
If you want to discuss something privately, you could always e-mail me. The address is up there under the “Hi, Welcome!” about the top commentators. It’s luis(at)luisescobarblog(dot)com.
Can you give me permission to use one of your illustrations for a tee shirt. I really want to wear “there must be some way to plug this keyboard into this game” – It’s how I see the world.. and you explained everything I want to tell the world in that one illustrzt8ion.
Gina
Yes, Gina. You can make it into a shirt for yourself off of that cartoon. I’m flattered.
I’ve been thinking about making shirts off of my little cartoons but I’m not sure which ones to do. Outside of an occasional cartoon that really hits home for someone, I’m not sure if they would sell.
So go right ahead Gina. Have fun.
Hi Luis,
My name is Phil and I came across your site while looking up information about animation and voice-over work. I’m a huge fan of the Simpsons & Futurama and a big Billy West fan (Ren&Stimpy, Futurama, Ect.). It is truly amazing to me how so many individuals come together to create these animated cartoons and the quality of the end product. I’m curious from your perspective how much work you have to re-do sometimes because of the networks and the way they censor some of the work that is being done. Best of luck to you in your projects. – Phil
You’d be surprised Phil. The biggest censors of the show are the writers themselves. They often pull back a joke they think is going too far. Sometimes, some of the jokes are funny too. It’s the artists that end up complaining about it. For example, there was a joke in one of the Halloween shows that all the artists thought was really funny. It was the show where Homer goes back in time on his toaster. In one of the futures he comes back too, he finds himself married to Patty and Selma. He discovers this when they show up waring lingerie. They looked really nasty, with their flab and hairy legs. When we saw it, everyone roared with horrified laughter. It was crazy. For some reason, during the re-write, they cut the gag because they thought it was too much. It was very disappointing. They didn’t even put the scene as an extra on the DVD.
Hope that answers your question.
It does. Thanks for the reply Luis. That gag actually would have been hilarious! Too bad it didn’t make it. I wonder if some unnecessary second guessing happens though because the writers feel they may be going over the top? (If that’s possible.) I know there is that fine line that writers and creators have to walk probably not only with the content of the show that’s created but with the networks as well. At least from what I understand in reading interviews and seeing convention interviews. Storyboards I think really help to set the tone of an episode and I bet it probably helps to justify many of the ideas that get spun out during the writing sessions of the writers. You all do great work on the show and I’m going to continue reading through your website. Thanks! – Phil
Hello there. I was researching nephilim for a report and I foung your blog. Its too bad those pics were all frauds. If they had been real, it would have been amazing.
After I read your stuff on the pictures I hung around a little, and read your “about me section”.
I am merely curious, so if I overstep a boundary, please feel free to tell me so.
I was wondering, sir, since you state that you are in fact a roman catholic, weather or not you believed in the deity of Jesus Christ?
I myself am a Christian, but I research other religions and alternate sects of my own. You could say its a hobby. In any case, if you find my inquiry impolite, I am sorry. I mean no offense.
Heh, no Christine, your question isn’t impolite. It’s good of you to ask. Too often people just assume things about Catholicism without asking.
The simple answer to your question is, “Yes”. Catholicism, teaches that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
The slightly more involved answer is as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (the official book that explains all that the Catholic Church teaches) in paragraphs 446-451 ( http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1H.HTM ) states the following:
Arianism was a Heresy that the Catholic Church fought against that deputed this belief around the years AD 250-336 which concluded in the Council of Nicea. For more info go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism or http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01707c.htm .
Hope that answers your question.
thank you. most people would out-right refuse to answer that question nowadays.
May the Lord bless you, Luis!
Luis – my name is Luis Escobar – every now and then I Google my name just to see what pops up. Well – I often come across you. No doubt – you have discovered me too. Anyway – sure there a ton of our Luis Escobar’s out there but I thought that I would just say hello and let you know that you have a cool name. BTW – I am the third Luis in four! Grandpa, Father, me and my son. Louie’s all around!
HA ha! Yeah, you have a great name too.
Wow! That’s a lot of Luisesesss in your family. Pretty cool. Love your site dude. I’ll link to you.
wow – that was fast – I am a photographer, distance runner and high school cross country coach. I live in Santa Maria California. Married with three kids. Your work is great. You are very skilled. I will take some time and learn a little more about you and your work. Very cool. Well – I am off to a work with one of my running students. I will look forward to talking with you a little more in the future. Luis
Cool. Anytime.
i like simpsons, starting watch becouse my doughter like it
I write comment but strange dropdown
Howdee Luis, if you are a real Christian then i would suggest you to do some research on your big boss (Matt Groening being a 33rd degree mason).
Loads of subliminal messages in the Simpsons, and occult symbolism.
(Even 9-11 was announced).
Greetings…. (Peace be upon you)
I would like to present to you all the sciences related to cosmogony together with its rules as per its identity which is something not similar to any of the other things and is out of any and assimilation according to the following point of view:
1. The theories of on cosmogony lack the fundamentals of the origin of things as they are mainly based on incidence and on the unseen.
2. The cosmic extension that has been taking place is the result of the range of vision through using the telescope and any other instruments because the thing being seen is determined by vision and this is one of the universe laws.
3. Knowing the within secrets of man will uncover secrets of the universe as the apparent entities of existence are of six kinds: the perspective (what is being seen), the tangible world (what can be touched and felt), what can be weighed, what can be heard, things that have flavor and things that have smell. These, in most cases, are overlapping and are counted six in number.
The origin of all entities are bare pictures of materials, void of force and readiness; it shines in debate and is complete when read. The investigation of scientists is restricted to this reading (capability and liability) where the material is with all its atoms, energy and speed and this alone is useless compared with its radiance.
The first cosmic law is that nothing can be determined unless established with what is contrary to it. And things are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract and both are the same according to law.
The origin of radiance is the brain and by saying this I do not mean perception but the simple core of it. By formulating this equation the truth becomes uncovered.
The subject is highly complicated and can only be clarified by word of mouth or by arguments.
So, what do you have to present. (show)
بعد التحية :-
أود أن أعرض عليكم جميع علوم نشأة مفردات الكون وقوانينه وفق ذاتيته التي هي شئ ليس كباقي الأشياء خارجه عن حد التعطيل والتشبيه حسب النظرة التالية :-
1/ أن نظريات نشأة الكون تفتقد لأصول نشأة الأشياء وتحيل على ألصدفه أو الغيب .وكذلك استغراق البحث في الأفاق لم يأتي بغايته إلا بقدر ربطه بالوعي الإنساني.
2/ التوسع الكوني الحاصل هو نتيجة المد البصري من خلال التلسكوب وغيره لأن المنظور أليه يثبت بالبصر وهذا أحد قوانين الكون
3/ معرفة أسرار بطون الإنسان تكشف أسرار الكون حيث أن مفردات الوجود الظاهر على ستة أنواع (المنظور أليها ). (الملموسة). (الموزونة). (المسموعة). (ذات طعم). (ذات رائحة). وتكون في أغلب الأحيان متداخلة .وأصل الأشياء كلها صور عارية عن المواد . خاليه من القوه والاستعداد . بمناظرتها تشرق وبمطالعتها تتم . وبحث العلماء ينحصر في هذه المطالعة (القوه والاستعداد) حيث المادة ودقائقها وطاقتها وسرعتها وهذا وحده لا جدوى منه بقدر إشراقها . . وأصل الإشراق هو العقل ولا أقصد به الإدراك أنما هو )جوهر بسيط درأك محيط) وبتكوين هذه المعادلة تنكشف الحقيقة .
الموضوع غاية بالتعقيد يوضح بالمشافهة والجدل فما هو عرضكم ؟
توضيح:-
* أود أن أبين بأن وسائط الإدراك هي الحواس ألخمسه + تحسس الوزن.
* إما أحوال الإدراك ( تصوراته أي المعاني التي يلبسها ) فهي ستة أيضا ثلاثة وخلافها :-
1/ الحياة والموجود ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحياة هي الماء.
2/ الحركة والسكون ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحركة هي الهواء.
3/ الانفعال والسكينة ولها صور فمثلا صورة الانفعال هي النار.
* إما مراتب نفس الإدراك إي نفس ألصوره فهي خمسه:-
1)الجماد 2) النبات 3) الحيوان 4) الملكوت 5) الإنسان وصور ذلك كثيرة.
*** وكل هذه الصور تندرج ضمن تصورات الإدراك .منها ظاهره ومنها كامنة إي لم تظهر لحد الآن . والتوسع الكوني الحاصل هو ظهور لبعض هذه الصور الكامنة.
*وأروع إبداعات الإدراك هو العقل (جوهر بسيط درأك محيط ) ولكل واحده تفصيلاتها الوظيفية.
ووظيفة العقل هي ربط كل الصور المذكورة أعلاه بعوالمها الحسيه ألسبعه. وعالمنا هو العالم السابع وفق نمطيته الحسيه. وتجري آثار العقل على كل الصور الكونية فتصبح محسوسة وفق قوتها واستعدادها التصوري.
قد لا يفهم الموضوع بشكل جيد كونه لم يطرق بتاتا
Lol been stalking you. You’re pretty good. Not bad for a dad of many. Very talented. Don’t know how you keep up. Chat soon on twitter
An overwhelming desire to keep sane helps.
I’m doing some onsite interviews at Mystic Dragon’s Festival of Books. Would you have time to talk with me about your work and “The Art of Draw Fu”? at 4 pm on August 15th? Please let me know (and your “Black Terror Kid” comics, along with your comic about your trip to Rome, are really fun!).
Yes, absolutely. I’d be happy to.
Great, thank you! Could you email me a contact for you, at the above email link, and I’ll send you more information (and I’m ordering your book now!).