Kleenrz- Filthy (2012) Part 1

I was pretty excited when Kenny Segal first contacted me, and seemed serious about producing an animated video. It had been a couple of years since I'd done a full length animated piece, as I'd found myself doing much more motion graphic, design animation, rather than full on cartoon. The other key component of this project was that the Kleenrz consisted of the aforementioned Kenny Segal as well as Self Jupiter who hailed from the legendary Los Angeles  group Freestyle Fellowship.

The idea behind 'Filthy' centered on a team of 'Cleaners' whose job it was to clean up grisly crime scenes, using some rather unique gadgets. One crime scene in particular ends up being haunted and coming back to life. I had 3 months to finish.

Once we nailed down budget and time frame, I was anxious to get started, as the production would  coincide with the birth of our son. In fact, most late night I spent animating would be shared with nursing my infant son, Sawyer back to sleep. Staying up late wasn't such a problem anymore.

I got started on the character designs which, required a bit of back and forth. Self Jupiter was designed to be a squat, rotund character, while his partner Kenny Segal, taller and lanky. Kenny quickly informed me that the statures of the two were actually reversed, Self Jupiter being almost 6'3" and Kenny being 5'8". I quickly obliged with some revisions......to be continued

Magneto & Titainuim Man

My brother had brought home an record once by Paul McCartney & Wings. The LP Venus & Mars featured a track called 'Magneto & Titanium Man'. I knew it was too big of a coincidence that the title was named after Marvel Comic Book villains.

It turns out Marvel Comics noticed as well, and were pretty excited. Paul McCartney went as far to invite Jack Kirby (who's daughter was a huge Beatles fan) to the US shows, and commissioned him to design some back drops that featured the band as superheroes.

Knights Of The Turntables

One of the first southern California turntable acts were the Knights. This had to be one of the first time anyone ever took the turntable seriously as an instrument, and you can definitely see them as a predecessor to the Scratch Piklz and ultimately Turntabalism as we know it. Here's a clip of them on a local show called Night Fresh.

The Swastika

Probably one of the oldest symbols, and for some reason, one of the more fascinating. Just for the sole reason that something attributed to life and prosperity for centuries, all of the sudden turns into the symbol of fascist genocide. An association that will hinder it for hundreds of years to be sure.

It's interesting to me how much of corporate  culture seems to still adopt this motif (arguably, it's been a bit obscured) and it may be a stretch to call these an outright 'swastika' but it may make you see these logs a bit differently.

Mike Ploog 2

A few months ago I wrote a post regarding Mr. Mike Ploog. An amazingly diverse illustrator who's work has spanned the world of comics, books and film. The post actually garnered a bunch of responses of note.

Since I watched it again recently as a late night halloween screening, I was inspired to post some more of Mikes storyboard from The Thing:

Inamel (Still) Lives!

Box artwork that never was. The Inamel figure was in the works for a while, but juts never saw the light of day. His dreams of conquest would never be realized, sadly.