Thursday, December 31, 2015

WHEW!!! What a year!

     At the first of the year, I made the resolution to post 50 original characters before the year was through, and here I am making it in just under the wire. The reason for this resolution was, of course, to motivate me to be more creative in my drawing. Fan art is a lot of fun, but for the most part, doesn't hold much weight on a portfolio. Therefore, I spent the year getting the ball rolling on stuff straight outta my own noggin, rather than the noggins of Jim Henson or Walt Disney.

But, man... those are some nice noggins.

     To wrap it all up, here are some characters that I'm currently developing for a web-comic of some type for the future. They're based on an idea my brothers and I played around with when we were kids, and I've been having a lot of fun shaping it into something new. I'm not going to say when you'll see these guys again. It may be soon. It may be a couple of more years. This, like I said, is to just force myself to get the ball rolling.

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!




Monday, December 21, 2015

It IS a Small World!!

     I recently returned from a trip to the Most Magical Place on Earth, Walt Disney World!! Lo and behold, you'll never believe who I spotted having a good time of their own at the parks... more of those same little robots that hang around my office! What are the odds?!?


     In case it isn't obvious, I modeled each one of these characters after the four different park icons of Disney World. It was an awesome trip, of course, and I blabber on more about it from time to time on this blog. For example, one fond memory I have is of putting my camera on the ground, or a rock, or on top a trash can and taking several photos... of nothing in particular. 

Magical stuff.





Friday, December 18, 2015

Penguin Suits - C-3PO

























     Star Wars - The Force Awakens opens today!! Why are you on the internet looking at cartoon penguins?!? Go watch it! NOW!!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Monday, December 14, 2015

Penguin Suits - C-3PO

     I'm counting down to The Force Awakens all this week with the Penguin Suits evolution of everyone's favorite protocol droid... See-Threepio!
























Only 4 more days!

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Throw It Back Thursday

     Here's some more characters of mine from yesteryear! When I was in the sixth grade, everyone in my class was assigned to write and illustrate a whole book... and it could be about anything! Naturally, mine was a space epic. It told the story of a ragtag group of three space police on a mission to rescue Barney the Dinosaur from the evil clutches of Big Bird and Mister Rogers.

...

Yeah. You read that correctly.

     Barney was all the rage at the time, so there were lots of gags about him annoying people to the point where they'd eject themselves into space. You know, real comedy GOLD! There was also an appearance from the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation because... well, why not?

     Alas, I don't have anything to show from this early writing venture of mine because the assignment was never returned to me. My parents speculated that my sixth-grade teacher, who moved to another town the following school year, kept the book for herself to have when I eventually became famous. It was sweet of them, ...but a little unlikely. 

     I decided to draw the main characters again from memory, so here they are! I didn't include my version of Big Bird, but he was basically a mashup of the Sesame Street character and Darth Vader.

Like I said,... GOLD!




Tuesday, December 1, 2015

More! MORE!!

     Here it is December and I'm STILL talking about my New Year's resolution for 2015! Although I guess you can't really call it a NEW Year's resolution any more. Back in January, I resolved to break away from the fan art somewhat and draw 50 original characters before the year was through. Well, here I am with numbers 37 through 40 with only a month left! 

I guess we'll see how it goes.

Sophie Pup is an upstart bossy teenager that insists on always getting her way.

      Janie Sheldon is the twin sister of Ricky Sheldon. She's an upstart bossy teenager that insists on always getting her way.

Apparently I'm very liberal with the word,... original.

     Glo Gattlen is a headstrong young working girl, looking to make her way in the galaxy as a bounty hunter. Space! That's always fun right?

And finally, the lovable little Gertrude, whom I've mentioned before.

Only 10 left to go! Will I make it? Who knows? Who cares?!?

Monday, November 23, 2015

Match and Chill

     Like many kids in junior high, my best friend Matt and I were fans of superheroes. He liked comic books, whereas I liked the idea of drawing comic books... and so we collaborated on one. There are many aspects of this comic that continue to amuse me but for this post, I'm focusing on one: the dynamic duo of Match and Chill!


     It's probably a pretty common occurrence in the "creative process" to simply throw one's self in the mix, thinly veiled by a different name. This was the case with Match and Chill. Whereas our other characters in the comic had more outlandish and original superhero aspects, Match and Chill were simply my friend Matt and I... with super powers. Chill was as straightforward a depiction as I could crank out at age 13 of my friend Matt... only with unexplainable ice powers. Match was me... the same idea only with fire powers.


     For fun, I revisited these characters back in 2008. The goal then was to make Match and Chill resemble my friend and I even MORE closely. This time around, I thought I'd abandon the concept of the two heroes being our counterparts and stretch their potential a little more in other directions.



     It's unlikely that I'll do anything with these guys anytime soon, but you never know. Maybe Matt and I will collaborate on a reboot! Although without a Social Studies notebook to doodle these guys in the margins of, the concept might lose some of its appeal with me.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Monday, November 16, 2015

Staying Tooned

     Well, apparently I've got a three-part series going here where I mention voice artist Jim Cummings. A couple of weeks ago, I went on and on about how much I love his work and then it occurred to me that since I've been spending all year cranking out "original" characters, I should go ahead and create a character that I'd like to see Jim Cummings play... or rather, hear Jim Cummings play.

And so I did! This is Bozzle Hemingway!


     Bozz, here, is a basically a con-artist... but in SPACE! He flim-flams his way across the galaxy always on the lookout for someone to double-cross. He's a veteran in the whole con-game, and practically a chameleon with any part he needs to play. I figure with a character like this, Mr. Cummings could really spread his chops by giving Bozz a wide variety of personalities for his various roles. Not only that, but playing a character who's playing another character might be a fun challenge for the voice-acting legend.

     So, yeah! All I need now is more of a story, as well as a title, funding, means of distribution, studio access, not to mention a little more talent on my end, and this thing's ready to go! Clear your schedule, Mr. Cummings! I'll have my people call your people!

I guess I'll also need to get some people.

Monday, November 9, 2015

You'll Never See Another Show Like This!

     In my post last week about voice-acting legend Jim Cummings, I mentioned that his first role was that of Lionel in the TV series Dumbo's Circus. This got me reminiscing about the show and so I decided to treat any fellow fans of obscurity out there to my depiction of the entire cast!
Dumbo
Lionel
Barnaby the Great
Lilli
Fair Dinkum
Q.T.
Sebastian
     A live-action series, Dumbo's Circus used large "puppet suits" developed by the late Ken Forsse, the creator of Teddy Ruxpin. Teddy Ruxpin is another property that I like to play with from time to time here on this blog, proving to be another example of how basically everything I like is connected by one degree or another. 

     I wouldn't be surprised if there was something Star Wars related on the show, as well. It's usually how things seem to work out for me.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

My Silly Tribute to Jim Cummings

    The internet is overflowing with lists! You've all seen them. "4 Delicious Quinoa Recipes You Have To Try Before You Die" or… "17 Things That Will Make Every Mother of Three Who Also Likes Cats Roll On The Floor With Laughter!" They're everywhere you look invading your social media like "The 5 Most Tactical Invasions in Recorded History!" They're ridiculous, pointless, and absolutely impossible NOT to click on! Well, now it's my turn!

     I haven't met that many famous people in my life. There are a few people out there, however, that I would love to meet so badly that doing so would lock me up into a silent wide-eyed grin like I was just hit with Joker gas! I’m not going to go into detail on each and every one of the people capable of doing this to me, but without a doubt, the person at the top of that list would have to be Voice-Acting Legend Jim Cummings!

     Sure, if ever I were to meet the great Mr. Cummings, I could probably try to start a conversation with him. You know, like adults do? But instead, I feel that meeting him would probably go down more like this: I'd make a couple of squeaky starstruck noises and manage to say "hello" right before I accidentally introduce myself as Jim, …which, of course, is not my name.

     Maybe it wouldn’t happen like this. I might surprise myself. Who knows? One thing’s for sure though, I would be awestruck! As far as why, well, that’s where my list comes in. In case there’s anyone out there that cares, I thought I’d try to explain my fanboy fascination with the voice-actor while listing out some of my favorite Jim characters that he’s voiced. Of course, there are already several lists out there of Jim Cummings characters, and they’d probably closely resemble mine. Therefore, to change it up a bit, I thought I’d tackle each character in the list with my own artistic spin. This’ll hopefully show how much I love these characters of his in ways that I might not be capable of expressing with words.

Wow! That sounds weird. Whatever! Let’s begin! First up:

Dumbo's Buddy Lionel

     Although I didn't know it at the time, I've been a fan of Jim Cummings throughout his entire voice-acting career! One of the very first television shows that I remember enjoying was Dumbo's Circus, which aired on The Disney Channel back in 1985. In the film Dumbo, Dumbo's best friend was a small mouse named Timothy. In Dumbo's Circus, the role of the elephant's best buddy went to a lion named Lionel. Dumbo's Circus was a live-action show with actors in costumes, so I'm guessing the character was changed to a lion because it was more believable than a human-size mouse. Not that a human-size lion walking around with a human-size koala and a flying elephant is any more believable, but hey… it’s children’s television!
    
     The voice of Lionel was Jim Cummings' first acting gig, and he played it pretty close to the voice of Timothy, sounding almost identical! The show is pretty crude compared to today's standards, but even when I watch some of the clips online and see Lionel bobbing around, his mouth barely moving, and hear that lovable Brooklyn accent of his, a small part of me can't help but want to be best buddies with him also… despite the fact that he's the only character on the show who is, technically, a man-eater. Again,… it’s children’s television!

Ed the Hyena

     I first took notice of Jim Cummings while watching The Lion King on VHS one day. In the film, he plays the voice of Ed, the exceptionally dim-witted hyena who brilliantly grunts and giggles opposite Whoopi Goldberg's Shenzi and Cheech Marin's Banzai. I must have said to myself, "Hmmm. I really like the way that dim-witted hyena grunts and giggles. I wonder who plays him." So, I checked the end credits. I knew I had heard the name Jim Cummings before, but couldn't, for the life of me, place a face with the name. This was because I'd never even seen his face. I had yet to wrap my mind around the concept of voice artists. I recognized Whoopi Goldberg from The Color Purple, and I knew Cheech Marin from Nash Bridges (yeah… I was a weird kid) but Jim Cummings, as brilliant as I was starting to think he was, was a total mystery!

     This was in the late 90's, so I couldn't really look him up on IMDB, or go and Ask Jeeves, "Hey, Jeeves? Who is this Jim Cummings guy?" There was, however, such a thing as a cable channel called Toon Disney, which I was watching some time later and spotted this!


     Of course! These are the end credits to some of the shows on The Disney Afternoon, the lineup of programming that not only instilled in me my profound love for animation, but practically shaped who I am as a human being! Well… okay. Maybe that's a stretch. On second thought,… No! It’s not a stretch! My entire life's goals are aimed towards actually BEING Scrooge McDuck! I loved these shows! A LOT! And Jim Cummings happened to be in every single one of them!
For example:

El Capitán

     By far, my favorite show on The Disney Afternoon was Ducktales. While Mr. Cummings didn't play any of the main cast, one of his characters has always stood out to me as a favorite. It's the sinister old conquistador known simply as El Capitán! Obsessed with reclaiming his lost city of gold, El Capitán manages to stay alive for 400 years from, as he puts it, "sheer will power!" It's a pretty far-fetched concept when you think about it, but then again, so is EVERYTHING on Ducktales! That's part of the fun! CHILDREN’S TELEVISION!

     Jim Cummings gives El Capitán this asthmatic wheeze mixed with a Peter Lorre type of madness that I love! In my opinion, it's iconic! There’s so much there crammed into (in terms of the entire series) such a small part! I kind of wish El Capitán would have reappeared a couple more times, but I guess there wasn't much reason for him to.

Fat Cat

     And then there's Fat Cat, a delightful villain from Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers that, much to my enjoyment, would reappear several times. Fat Cat had the ability to make me laugh while slightly terrifying me at the same time. I once heard Jim Cummings say in an interview that Fat Cat's voice is sort of a mix between Zero Mostel and Dom Deluise. How does he come up with this stuff? Deciding which impersonations of random people to merge into a completely different character is one thing, but then to actually have the ability to do it? And have it sound like something completely original? It's brilliant!

Don Karnage

     But as far as Jim Cummings villains go, there is none better, in my opinion, than Don Karnage! The scourge of the skies, Captain Karnage was a debonair pirate with a King of Siam-like way of always speaking incorrectly. No one dared correct him, of course, which only ensured that Karnage's mistaken way of doing things would continue. I don't know if Mr. Cummings had anything to do with this, or not, but I love how Don Karnage doesn't speak with your typical British pirate-like accent. I'm not sure what the accent is, exactly (Sometimes he sounds a little French. Other times he sounds a little Italian) but he definitely doesn't sound British. I think this is refreshingly unique and just another way that Jim Cummings is able to subtly give one of his characters a little more depth.

Darkwing Duck

As excellent as he was at playing the villain, probably the most famous Jim Cummings character from The Disney Afternoon, (or arguably his whole career) was a hero. I'm, of course, talking about The Terror that Flaps in the Night! The Something-Something that… does… Something! That's right... Darkwing Duck! Darkwing was a character that had a lot of range. He was a dark and shadowy crime fighter, a clumsy goofball, and a loving single father. Not only was Mr. Cummings able to develop a voice that unexplainably sounds like a talking duck, but he was able to take that voice and seamlessly transition back and forth through the different aspects of Darkwing's character! I think this is the perfect example of how voice-artists aren't just people that can talk funny and do really good impressions, but are genuine actors of the highest caliber!

Bonkers D. Bobcat

     I can't talk about Jim Cummings and The Disney Afternoon and not talk about Bonkers! The show followed the adventures of a once famous cartoon star who teams up with a grizzled detective. It was basically the plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and isn't really a favorite of mine, but it is worth mentioning because Mr. Cummings played both of the show's main characters: Bonkers D. Bobcat and Detective Lucky Piquel! As was the case with the great Mel Blanc and Looney Tunes, almost every episode of Bonkers involved Jim Cummings talking to… himself! I find that mind-bogglingly impressive!

The Tasmanian Devil

     Speaking of Looney Tunes, the man doesn't just play Disney characters! Since the passing of voice-acting legend Mel Blanc, the role of the Tasmanian Devil has bounced around to a couple of different artists before sticking with Jim Cummings in 1991 on the series, Taz-Mania. Yes! An entire series devoted to the Looney Tunes character that did nothing but spin, snarl, and spit… and also spin! Thinking back, Taz’s similarly dim-witted grunts and giggles was probably what endeared me so much to Ed the Hyena.
     I loved Taz-Mania, and it's serves as just one example of how I not only followed the career of Jim Cummings every day after school, but on Saturday mornings as well.

Fuzzy Lumpkins

Oh yeah! I'm still going!
     I also followed the man on cable! In The Powerpuff Girls, Jim Cummings played the voice of Fuzzy Lumpkins, a meat-loving hillbilly and foil to the three titular super heroes. I don't really have anything to say about this particular performance of Mr. Cummings'. It was great, of course, as always! To be honest, I just wanted to draw Fuzzy Lumpkins, and so I added him to the list.

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too

     I began noticing Jim Cummings show up more and more in interviews and at conventions ever since the release of Winnie the Pooh. The film came out in 2011, but Jim Cummings has been playing the bear of very little brain ever since the 1980's. I think he plays the part incredibly true to the original slow yet sweet performance of Sterling Holloway. Not only that, but shortly after Jim Cummings started playing Pooh, he also took over for actor Paul Winchell as the boisterous and fun-loving Tigger! This is just another example of the superb job Mr. Cummings does at playing two very different characters opposite one another in the same project.
     Plus, playing the most popular characters from the juggernaut that is the Winnie the Pooh franchise, the work of Mr. Cummings not only appears in film and television, but all across the board! There's Pooh and Tigger merchandise! Theme park attractions! Disney even went and reedited some of the classic Winnie the Pooh bits with Jim Cummings’ voice! That last one was something that the cartoon snob in me wasn't really cool with, but nevertheless, the guy is all over the place! And, he can probably still walk into a 7-11 and not get hassled. I'm not a performer in any sense of the word, but I can imagine that that would be every actor's dream.

Ray

     Last but definitely not least, is my favorite Jim Cummings character!… so far.  In 2009’s The Princess and The Frog, it’s the lovable firefly sidekick Ray that, I think, completely steals the show! In Disney films, I’ve always been more taken with the sidekicks than with the leads. They’re just more fun. Whether they’re the sidekick of the hero or the villain, their main purpose is to make us laugh. We all like to laugh, right? Ray, however, provides so much more! He gives the movie its heart. He cracks us up with his Cajun slapstick, he charms us while singing about his belle, Evangeline, and I’d be lying if I said he doesn’t incite a tear or two, as well.  Yes, the film’s writing has something to do with this but it’s Mr. Cummings’ performance, I think, that takes the character of Ray to the next level. It’s one of the only times I can think of where I felt a voice-actor was deserving of an Academy Award!


     I suppose the main reason I would theoretically break down upon meeting the talented Jim Cummings is because, in a sense, it would be like actually meeting every one of these characters that I enjoy so much. Whether it’s a slightly smaller part, like El Capitán or a more famous one like Winnie the Pooh, Jim Cummings has played the gamut of animated all-stars and, in my book, will always be up there with the best of the Hollywood legends! If I ever do meet the man, I'll hopefully at least be able to muster up a 'thank you' for the huge inspiration he's been for me.

     Now this list, of course, is just a small sample of the great many characters that Mr. Cummings has performed. Who are some of your favorites that I might have neglected to mention? I was going to list them all but then I might end up as one of the "14 Bloggers Who Don’t Know When To Shut Up."

See how I came around and tied it all back together? Nice, right?