Just a quickie...

I thought I'd let you all see how that comission of Wanda turned out.

A little bit of self promotion...

...yeah, as if this is the first time I've used this blog for self promotion. Actually I was asked to give an interview and thought that not only would anyone coming here might like to read it, but you also might like to check out the blog where it's posted. It's called the Designer's Depot.



And since you were kind enough to return here again I thought I'd let you see a commission I finished a short time ago.

Mazel tov to the Rat!!

Though I'm not completely surprised I am glad I was wrong about my fellow members of the Academy and they did make Ratatouille the winner of Best Animated Feature. Congrats to Brad Bird and everyone at Pixar that worked on it. Also congrats to the Best Animated Short Peter and the Wolf and everyone else that received an Oscar this year.

Terminated...

That's right - my gig on Termninator Salvation has finished. It was a hectic three months, but interesting as this was my first live-action storyboard job (and hopefully not last). It was surprisingly not all that different then a job working on an animated feature with some elements of TV/DTV storyboarding thrown in as I already mentioned. But that might have more to do with the writer's strike going on at the same time. At least, that's what the other board artists said. The big difference is the speed at which we had to get things done - which is why I felt it had a lot in common with TV/DTV boarding. One of the other big differences that I noticed was the fact that whatever was boarded had to have some foot in reality at all times. Whether it was due to location, the physical realitues of what a camera can and can't do, FX budgets and a host of other minor things when working in animation absolutley anything is possible and the only restriction tends to be schedule and budget to a much lesser degree. But on the other side some concerns in animation - like number of characters on screen - are not such a big issue in live-action. As time goes on I'll probably post more about the differences between live-action and animation boarding, but right now I'm still processing it all in my own head.

So now the big search for a job begins and I do seem to have some possibilities. I'll let you know where I finally end up. Though it's not like I'm just sitting around. I'm still working on a couple of freelance jobs as well as trying to catch up on some commissions (thanks again to all of you who have been so very patient).

The other thing I'm working on - the big secret project - that all of you have been trying to guess at (unsuccessfully I might add) is still a possibility, but is also a long shot though I've got great faith in the project. I've seen a lot of interest in it, but finding the right studio, company, person to take that final step has been dificult. Originally I didn't want to disclose what the project was because of some superstitions about revealing a project before it was picked up, but since that hasn't seemed to help I might reveal it after all. I'll have to think about it.

Since I still get a lot of questions concerning X-Men: Evolution I'll answer them now for everyone. I do not know when season 4 will be released onto DVD. Wolverine and the X-Men is not a continuation of the XME conituity and I do not know when or on what network Wolverine and the X-Men will broadcast. I suspect most of you will know that before I do.

And now tonight is the 80th Academy Awards and I'm curious to see if the films I voted for (especially Best Animated Film) actually win. My guess is that the film I voted for Best Animated Film, Surf's Up, will not win and that it will be a toss-up between Ratatouille or Persepolis. I give the edge to Persepolis and not because I liked it better - I didn't - but because it seems to be an important film in the way that Crash, Babel and Happy Feet did. But in my opinion none of these were important films in the way Academy voters thought.

Another thing I'd like to point you all to is a fairly new blog put out by an old friend of mine, Tina Price. She was right there at the beginning of the CG movement at Disney and has quite a bit of history to share with everyone and is worth checking out if for no other reason to see me slimmer and with less gray in my hair. It's also a place where other animators and artists can post their memories and thoughts. It's called Drawn 2gether and I think you'll enjoy it.


Well since you made it through that long 'catching up' I think you deserve something a little new. This is a detail from a commission I finished awhile ago.

Finally -- a breather!

Sorry about the long delay since my last post, but I've been busy and it's taken me a wee bit to get my equalibrium.

Besides the usual chaos of the holidays, I've also started a new gig and it's different in many respects then what I've done in the past. I'm helping to storyboard for a live-action feature...Terminator 4. I think the official name is Terminator Salvation. It's taken me a little time to get my legs under me, but the further I go along the more I realize it's not too different then storyboarding for an animated feature in many respects. What's mostly different are the people (all of them seem great) and the process is somewhat different.

Anyway we're off for this coming week, so I'm hoping to get a jump on a couple of freelance gigs and several commissions as well.

I also appreciate all your well wishes concerning the 'secret' project that I'm pitching. Hopefully after the new year that will start to move forward again. During December very little starts to happen in this business and the town starts to shut down until after the first. Some of you claim to have an idea what it is...I'm curious if you do and how you figured it out. You can just e-mail me to help preserve the secret...

Here's a rough for one of the commissions I've been working on...

It's amazing how popular those Evo girls still are.

Peak Oil - How Will You Ride the Slide?

This is a video put together by an old friend and colleague Bruce Woodside. I thought it was well worth sharing with everyone.

Just in case...

...you didn't notice I set up a PayPal button for my new Sketchbook over on the right. I also added buttons for overseas purchases.

here's another little taste...

This is a one of several pitch/presentation designs I created for a new Mask TV series - the show never went too far from what I understand. Hopefully it had nothing to do with the art...

Ooops...

I've just been notified that my original plan for the temporary way to sell my new sketchbooks won't work as I thought it would. Apparently there isn't a place to notate that you want my 2nd book when you click on the PayPal icon for my 1st book. So let's go to temporary plan B: just go to PayPal and use my e-mail address steve@stevenegordon.com and fill it out for $20 (assuming you want only one) and indicate that it's for E&A 2. Hopefully by this weekend I will arrange something a little more permanent.

Don't forget....

Bidding ends Sunday! There's still lots of good deals to be had - including my drawing....

Most Excellent News!

It seems odd to have such good news while most of Southern Cailfornia is burning - including the town of Running Springs that we used to live in (for 11 years), but I do. Actually two good pieces of news.

A little more than two weeks ago we finished the first draft script for the feature project I've been hinting to all of you and I sent it to the famous writer, whom I optioned it from, to get his blessing. Despite my confidence that what we had written was a really good first draft I do admit to starting to get somewhat nervous as time went on. Did we take too many liberties and change too much?...did we leave something out from his book that he really liked?...did we take it in a direction that interfered with some of his other writings?

Well, this morning I received an e-mail, via his lawyer, that he approves our first draft. Needless to say I was pretty damned excited and relieved. So, now I can move forward and send it to all the studios that have shown interest in it. Rest assured it went out pretty damn quick. Now I just have to wait to see what type of reaction we get from the people with all the money....

I apologize for still being a little cagey as to what the project is (I'm not usually superstitious -ptoo, ptoo, ptoo), but about this I am a wee bit. I thought I could at least show you an image that my good friend, Francesco Francavilla created and my son, Eric painted. If you're ambitious there is some info floating around out there - if you know where to look...

The other good news I have is that the new books have arrived! It'll take me a little time to setup a special ordering system for them, but in the meanwhile you can use the other PayPal order button and just indicate in the notes section that you want to order Expressions & Attitudes 2. They sell for $20 within the US (just like the first book) and I will try to include a sketch inside - for as long as I have time to do that. If you want it shipped outside the US let me know and we'll figure out the price.

For all of you that are threatened by fire our hearts go out to you and please excuse me for my moment of joy.

Wonder Woman Day 2007

Just a quick update and a promo for a worthwhile event. Woman Woman Day is good chance to bid on some great artwork by some world class artists (including one of my personal favorites Adam Hughes) and to do some good for a couple of charities. I contributed a piece last year and was asked to do so again this year.

As the first non work-related drawing I've done in a long time it seemed like a good way to get my feet 'wet' again. Hopefully you'll all check out the auction 0n Oct. 28 and bid on some nice art...hopefully mine included.

I'm Baaaack!!!

I know it seems like forever since I last posted and I want to thank all of you for sticking it out and still checking in to see if I'll ever get off my lazy ass and post again. I'm shocked at how many of you did stick it out waiting for me. I don't know that I would've, but I'm kind of the easily distracted type of guy - as if you couldn't tell.

As, I'm sure you all assumed, my day job has been keeping me busy beyond almost anything else I've ever done before. But I think the results will be worth it and everyone should be thrilled when they see the show. That job is now coming to a close and I should have more free time ahead of me, but hopefully not too much. At least I might be able to make my wife happy and clean-up my desk at home. I'm starting to look around for the next gig so if anyone knows of anything - I do windows!

In the meantime there's lots of news to share. As I said earlier my day job, Wolverine and the X-Men is wrapping the first season post production and it's looking good. The publicity poster has made it to the web (I'll let you find that on your own) and there seems a lot of positive reaction to it). One of the things that has also kept me busy has been working with a writer on the first draft to a script of a property I optioned and we should have that first draft wrapped within a few days and sent out to all the people that were interested in funding the film. the script is turning out to be really good -really, really good - especially for a first draft. Hopefully the author I optioned it from and the studios will think so as well. If things go well i should be able to be less vague in the very near future. I will tell you what I told the author when I was asking for the option on his book. "This will not be your daddy's' animated film and it will have more in common with EC Comics and Anime films like Graveyard of the Fireflies and Akira then anything done in this country yet".

If this happens this could be my next gig, but I suspect I'll have to find some work in the meantime - maybe some storyboards or some presentation and design work (actually a studio has already contacted me about doing some presentation/design work for a new show, but that's still in the early stages of discussion).

More big news: after a huge misstep in publishing my next sketchbook, it should be available within a couple of weeks. My original printer had gone out of business and I had to find a new one so, on the recommendation of a friend, I went with a new printer and I got nothing but delays and excuses from them even to the point where I couldn't even get them to respond to my e-mail or phone calls. I stupidly gave them a deposit when they asked for (thankfully via PayPal) and finally had to ask for my money back (thank you PayPal) - and finally I did have that money returned. Word to the wise: never give a printer a deposit until they've at least sent you a proof. So, in the meantime, the original printer of my first book (Dreamweaver Press) went back into business and I just looked at and approved the proof the other day. So it shouldn't be long before I get a couple of boxes of books. I'll keep you updated.

Anyway thanks again for all of you sticking it out with me and I promise not to wait so long between posts and, though I'm hesitant to promise, I intend on trying to post at least one new drawing a week if not more often.

I also thought that since I'm starting receive the Academy screeners I might also include a few mini-reviews for the films I watch - especially some of the more obscure ones. But I will not give away any suggestion of how I might eventually vote.

With that in mind I saw Once. It's a small film that my wife and i both thoroughly enjoyed. It took a few minutes to get used to the accents, but it was worth the effort. I reminded me a little bit of the commitments and maybe that was just because of the location or because it involved struggling musicians. The music was wonderful and a couple of the songs found their way onto my I-Pod. The main actor's (Glen Hansard) voice and singing style remind me of Cat Stevens. The story was not typical -as is the case with many small independent films - and did not end the way I expected it to, but it was definitely satisfying.

Well, that's it for now...hopefully I'll be back soon.

Still trying...

I realized I had started a little late with putting my new sketchbook together for SDCC, but it still seemed as if there was enough time when I remembered how quickly they were turned around last year. Unfortunately I didn't count on the original printer going out of business (or so I was told) and the new printer having problems with weather and their equipment (I'm not sure what could've happened...did they have their equipment outside?)

Anyway, at this point it doesn't look very likely that the sketchbook being ready in time for ComicCon is a likely, but since I wasn't planning on setting up a table and selling them there I guess that's not a serious issue. I was hoping to have them available for Bud Plant to sell though, but I guess they'll have to sell them through their website instead and I'll also try to sell them from here as well. I'll let you know when they're available.

In the meanwhile here's a look at the cover (I hope...)

Despite not having anything to sell, my family and I will still be going to San Diego this coming week and wandering around the convention for awhile. I'll try to connect with as many friends and fans as possible, but anyone who has ever been to the SDCC knows just how difficult it is to locate anyone there - even those with tables or booths, but I'm hoping for the best.

Just a brief update: I'm still knee deep in work on Wolverine and the X-Men - all is going well and I'm positive fans will be thrilled when they see this new incarnation of the mutants - and I thought I'd clarify again that I am currently NOT working on any of the DTVs for Marvel/Lionsgate. My directing chores on Wolverine made it impossible to do what I felt was necessary to accomplish what they wanted. I assume sometime in the future that will probably change and I'll let you all know at that time.

The Latest...

...well, sort of.

Although I'm still real busy (getting tired of hearing that? so am I), I've found a little time to put together my second sketchbook. I'm hoping it'll be ready in time for this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego, but I'm not counting on it. Either way it'll ba available through this blog and, I'm assuming, Bud Plant. I'll keep you all informed as we get closer to July 26th.

Speaking of the SDCC, this year I decided not to setup a table, but to let the professional sellers do their thing and do what they do best that way I can wander around and just schmooze with everyone.

I was hoping I might have some big news by this Comic-Con concerning the 'special' project I'm developing, but it won't be this year - maybe next? These things always take longer than we hope. We're getting closer all the time...

...in the meantime here's a sample from the new book to whet your appetite (I hope)...

Kudos!!

I'm still really busy right now, but I definitely wanted to give a big Mazel Tov and cogratulations to Chris Miller, Raman Hui, Aron Warner, Andrew Adamson, Jeffrey Katzenberg and to all of the great film-makers that helped make Shrek the Third a huge success (as if they're actually reading this blog...).

I like to think that it probably wouldn't have been such a big success without the big push my HarperCollins Children's books gave it...don't worry I'm just kidding. But if you're interested you can purchase these books via Amazon through the links on the right.

just a quick update....

...for those that are interested.

I'm still very busy these days with my directing duties on Wolverine and the X-Men. In fact I'm so busy that I had to remove myself from doing character design for the Marvel/Lionsgate DTV that I had started on. It was a job I had wanted to do, but I felt I just couldn't devote the necessary time to the project. Maybe sometime in the future I'll be able to rejoin them on a different DTV.
I still can't divulge any secrets about W&XM, but I can just about guarantee that all X-Men fans will be more than satisfied. Besides plenty of info seems to be leaking out from the voice actors and IMDB.
I wanted to give a public congrats to an artist I admire and a friend of mine, Sean "Cheeks" Galloway, for landing the gig of character designer on the new Spiderman show. He's got an awesome amount of talent and they really made a great choice - I wish him the best of luck!! You saw a little bit of that talent on Hellboy, but hopefully you'll be able to see even more on Spiderman.

Well, that's it for now - it's time to get back to editing my latest show, but in the meantime I'll leave you with one of my sketches from one of my 4+ HarperCollins Spiderman3 books (available at a store near you or through the links to the right)...

The Book Look...

This coming Thursday, April 19th, I'll be involved in a book signing sponsered by CTN (The Creative Talent Network) and held at the Van Eaton Galleries in Sherman Oaks. I'll be signing copies of my sketchbook and many others (most biiger names than myself) will be there as well. So if you're in the neighborhood come on by and say "hi".
To find out more about the event you can click on the Book Look logo above.

I'll et you know how it all went after the event and maybe even tell you about how I used to own a gallery.

I'd also like to say "thanks" to all those who had some kind words about The Condor and also to alert you all to the fact that my HarperCollins books for both Spiderman3 and Shrek the Third are available at bookstores (and grocery stores, for that matter) as well as at Amazon if you click the link to the right.

I'm starting to put together materials for a second book that I should have ready for sale in a few months - I'll let you know more as soon as I do.

It's kinda funny...

Yesterday Stan Lee presents: The Condor was on Toonami (and released on DVD 3/20) and I've been following along some of the message boards discussing it with amusement - okay, not really discussing it so much as slamming it.

I'm the first one to admit it's not a great film by any means and it suffers from several problems - mainly the small budget and short production schedule, but what I find really amusing is the slant some of these critics take on how some of the characters might be negative stereotyopes. What's really funny is these same critics don't recognize the fact that we also broke several stereotypes. The lead character's parents (both Latino) are wealthy owners of a bio-robotics laboratory and they are both smart and sophisticated as is his best friend Sammi (also a Latina). Yeah, I know, Sammi's another type of cliche - she's the typical girl that he should be with, but is too stupid to notice. I agree that some of the other Latinos are stereotypes, but for Southern California they aren't so much stereotypes as actual people you could meet on the street. Since we felt they were balanced out by Tony, his parents and Sammi it sure didn't feel like we were picking on the Latino community.

And actually one of the more intreresting things about this show is that any Latino that has seen it (that I've heard from) actually likes what we did. As ShadowGUN stated on one of the forums discussing Condor.

One of the other stereotypes that is often pointed out in these 'critiques' is Valeria being a sexy Asian. I never realized that this was a negative stereotype, but I doubt it'll offend too many Asians -especially since in the story she much more than eye candy and is the owner of a sports publication and turns out to be more than all that by the end of the film (I won't ruin it for anyone who still might want to buy the DVD). Her grandfather makes an appearance at the end of the film and he does seem to be more in the Fu-Manchu mode of stereotype, but since the implication is he's part of a bigger plot and organization we felt it worked for what we wanted. Frankly, he isn't anymore of a stereotype than the grandfather and many other characters in the Jackie Chan cartoon - maybe less.

The other complaint by many is the stereotypical voice acting and how there are doubts that many of them weren't even Latino. Due to the limited budget we originally went to Vanmcouver, BC to do our voice recording and to be honest there isn't a huge latino acting community up there, but wherever possible we did use Latinos to create these voices - though many of their names are not typical Latino.

I'm not trying to imply this is the Citizen Kane of animated superhero films - far from it, but I think it's no worse than many of the other current crop and better than some. And if you're interested enough in still seeing it (shameless plug) you can click on the button over to the right...

Anyway, I think I've defended this enough -- how about a couple of attitude and expression sheets from Stan Lee presents: The Condor (I created these expression and attitude sheets though the original designs for these characters came from Dan Haskett)....

...and if these aren't interesting enough for you...here's a Lara Croft I did sometime ago (I don't think I ever showed it here or anywhere before)...

Busy, busy, busy...

Yep, I've been mighty busy lately - but why should you suffer, right? So even if I don't have something new to add (mainly because most of my waking hours are actually made up of things that I can't publicly discuss) I will try to at least post a pic or two. Like this commission I finished awhile ago of the Goblin Queen....

and this one I did for a warm up for the Spiderman 3 books for Haper Collins which are available for pre-oerder at Amazon - just use the links to the right.

I also wanted to let everyone know that the Direct-to-DVD I directed last year, Stan Lee presents The Condor, will be airing March 24th on Cartoon Network and available for pre-order now (once again the link is over there on the right).

Also one of the films I saw while a member of the AMPAS Feature Animation nomination committee was Paprika and I gave it extremely high marks and though it didn't make the cut for the final three you now have a chance to see this really great film made by Madhouse in Japan. The most unique thing about this film is that my wife, who usually can't sit through anime, really enjoyed this particular film.

here'a a link to the trailer...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/paprika/trailer/

More from storage...

It's been a couple of busy weeks and I've had little time to post as I planned. I started a new job as one of the directors for Marvel's Wolverine and the X-Men working with my friend Boyd Kirkland who is the new producer of this series. Before you ask this is in no way a continuity with X-Men: Evolution and I will NOT be doing the character designs for this show. But I am doing design work for one of the next Marvel direct-to-videos that I cannot reveal the name of because it hasn't been announced yet. So needless to say I'm pretty busy these days.

I'm also still working at trying to get funding for that special project I mentioned in earlier posts (or alluded to since I really didn't give any specifics about it).

Anyway it seems appropo to continue discussing my work with Ralph Bakshi right after my rant about mo-cap and it's relative merrits. Especially since his use of rotoscope and roto-photo seemed to garner the same nasty reaction from the animation community as the recent use of motion capture seems to be getting. Especailly since I found a lot of this stuff in storage recently. I'll skip over the "Hey, Good Lookin'" and the "American Pop" years for now - especially since I hadn't saved anything of value from those films - and skip right to "Fire and Ice".

In Lord of the Rings the rule was to slavishly follow the live-action except for the animation of the faces which were obviously more broadly designed (by Dale Baer) then the live actors. Then on American Pop the rule was to follow the live-action EVEN in the faces which were mostly designed to look almost exactly like the live-actors (by Louise Zingarelli). I can only recall one design that was a little broader than the actor and this was certainly the exception. I often caught flak during AP because I would often push the acting, but that's another story.

On Fire and Ice we given the freedom to use the roto-scope in a more traditional approach (i.e.: like Dsiney) and change timing, play with poses and only use what worked from the live -action as well as having to create better acting than we were given by the live actors.

These are examples of how we had to change faces and proportions of the live action...(yes, that's Ralph standing in the background behind Darkwolf).

These are some of the construction sheets created to show the animators how to alter the actor into Larn.

A Brewing Controversy...

My next post was actually going to discuss more of my past work for Bakshi, but I guess in a way it does sort of connect to what I'm going to blog about instead.
I usually don't get into too much opinion on this blog (which surprises many that know how opinionated I can be) because I usually just use this as a place to connect with fans. But recently I've seen a lot of other bloggers and animation people arguing about the validity of the films that have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Film.
Just to be clear those films are Cars, Happy Feet, and Monster House.
The cotroversy that I'm talking about (or everyone else is talking aboout) is whether Motion capture animated films should be considered animated films and be able to compete with a non-motion caoture film like Cars.
Originally there were going to be 5 noiminations, but due to the fact that there needs to be 16 qualified and submitted films and the 16th one this year was disquailfied due to not enough animation the amount of nominations dropped down to 3. This controversy may never have reared its head if there were 5 nominations because there would have been a good chance that the other two nominations would have been similiarly animated in the same manner as Cars.

I've already posted on a couple of Blogs comment sections (like the excellent Mayerson on Animation and the Animation Guild's Blog) so I'll crib from my responses on those to start.

As a voting member of the Academy I feel very determined that certain things shouldn't be accepted in many categories. Such as Andy Serkis being given a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Gollum - at least not without the animators getting honored as well - anymore than Paul Newman should be nomnated for Doc in Cars. In this case I wouldn't think of disqualifying either of these films anymore than I would a film that was completely rotoscoped and hand drawn (such as some of Bakshi's films or Bluth's last couple of films or large chunks of several Disney films). These 2 nominated films still needed animators to work on and as any animator can tell these 2 films weren't strictly motion-captured. Motion capture, when used properly (like both Monster House and Happy Feet - IMO), is just a tool more along the lines of rotoscope was for even Disney on Snow White and too many films since to list. Though if the film had absolutely no animators actually working on it (I don't know if Scanner Darkley falls into this category or not - though it did qualify for nomination according to the board) then in my opinion it probably shouldn't.
I tend to avoid the phrase "slippery slope", but this definitely qualifies as one in my opinion. If these films had been disqualified because they used motion capture as a tool (like rotoscope has been used since Snow White) than do we disqualify poorly animated films? or films animated by subcontracted overseas studios for a small budget? or films that use too much roto-scope? There might need to be a line drawn, but this isn't where it should be.

Well, that's my 2 cents. Next post I'll get more on track and show some Fire and Ice rotos and how we traced them and really didn't animate that film...

pay attention...

Don't ask questions...just mark your calenders and do what you need to do (you can also click the banner to find out more).

Something from the past...

Happy New Year everyone... a little late , but still well-intentioned.

Recently I needed to clean out some stuff from my storage unit (how many boxes of unused VHS videos does one person need to store?) and decided to also go through some of my old wprk boxes. I found some stuff that I think some of you might find interesting. At least I found it interesting.

Here's a Roto-scope frame from the first film I ever worked on - Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings. If I recall right this scene was never used, but I thought it was a great shot that showed some of the main characters and the actors that mimed their parts. Just like in regular animation the voices were recorded by actors (including John Hurt as Aragorn) and then the 'roto-actors' would act/pantomime to the recorded voices that were played back for them. It sounds awkward, but worked remarkably well.

Underneath is a drawing I did myself many years ago of Aragorn, Boromir and Gandalf based on this roto. This was probably towards the end of production and I'd been animating (sort of) for awhile. It doesn't look too bad considering how little I knew at the time...

Happy Holidays...

...to those of you who have already enjoyed your holidays and to those that are about to.

Just a little update...

It's nice to hear all the positive reactions and interest in 'the project'. This time of year not much usually happens as far as decsions go so we're hoping that something will happen in January. In the meanwhile I thought I'd share another commssion. I assume everyone will recognize Power Girl.

I've never drawn her before and I knew very little about her except what I saw from Adam Hughes. My drawing is not nearly as good as any of his, but whose are. AH! is easily the best artist working in comics today. And it 's not for the obvious reasons...I love his faces

an update...

Well, a lot has happened this last week or so .... and hopefully a lot more will happen soon as you'll read down below.

For the last month I'd been testing for the position of Character Designer on the latest Marvel/Lionsgate direct-to-video. Normally I abhor testing - mainly for the reason that I've never received any actual work for taking a test. And, even though they finally decided to pay me for the final test, my record remains in tact. True to form I didn't get this particular job and, needless to say, my plan for the future is to stick to my guns and never take that type of test again - especially if it's unpaid. I could go on and on about how I feel about these types of tests, but I won't bore you with that...especially when I have something much more positive to talk about.

I mentioned earlier that I had optioned a book with the hope that I could get it financed for a feature animated film.....well, for the last 3 months my producing partner and I have been going around to various studios and pitching the project. Most of the pitches have been going very good and all the reactions have been positive, but nothing concrete had developed - yet.
Now I'm not the best pitcher in town (quite an understatement), but this project comes in with such a big name - the author's - that it virtually pitches itself. I've had my friend, Francesco Francavilla, do some beautiful presentation drawings and I've put together a description of how I want to handle the film and this is what we go in with. We also go in with a positive attitude and view the studio as a partner in our endeavor and not the enemy.
The reason why I bring this particular aspect up is because a thread on a forum I frequent was started by someone who was proud of his antagonistic attitude towards those that he was pitching to. If you're curious about reading about it a friend of mine discusses it on his BLOG - just scroll down to the topic "More Nonsense". He pretty much states my opinion and he has a link to the original forum if you're that interested. (Stay a bit and check out the rest of his blog while you're there - he's putting together a really unique film and it's an interesting read).

Anyway back to the update: last week we had a pitch with a studio that went even better than expected - it seems we have the type of film that they've been looking to produce. In the parlance of the biz "it was a slam dunk". Hopefully in a short amount of time we should hear more and I'll keep everyone up to date as much as possible - without jinxing it too much that is. We also have other studios that we're still talking to just in case...you never know.
So you can see why I'm not too broken up about losing the character design gig. That was actually just to keep me busy and my hand drawing - especially since for my project I intend on hiring others to do the design work.
I'll show you this one piece by Francesco just to whett your appetites a bit, but I doubt anyone will be able to guess what it is.


Clearly it's not your daddy's animated film....

A few more scenes...

Recently Boyd Kirkland gave me a CD full of art I did on X-Men:Evolution - it contained a lot of stuff I had some how lost before I was smart enough to back everything up. It had quite a few scenes of animation including scenes I'd animated of Kitty and Rogue dnacing from season 1 (our homage to Buffy) , some more dancing from "A Walk on the Wild Side" and a couple of walk cycles and even an FX test for Cyclops. All of which I've now added to the Animation section of my web-site.

Also a 'No-Prize' needs to be awarded to Blaze Rocket! Blaze Rocket's sharp eyes caught this image on The Ultimate Avengers DVD

and correctly identified the Alpha Team member third from the left on the top row (though my hair isn't quite that white - yet). Besides yours truly the team also includes Curt Geda (top left) and several other UA crew members.

Speaking of which, I also had a little fun with some of the photos in Bucky's house. This one was based on my parent's wedding photo - though the photo of Bucky with President Truman was based on a photo I found on-line.

Wonder Woman Day - Oct 29th

Recently I was asked to create an original piece of art for a charity auction in honor of Wonder Woman Day. It seemed like a very worthwhile cause (it supports shelters for battered women and children) so I did just that and I wanted to make sure everyone here took a moment to look at all the wonderful art created by some great artists. I'm humbled by being included in their comapany. You might want to even bid a few of them...


...And don't forget to also check out Romeo & Juliet:Sealed with a Kiss opening this weekend. Here's a list of the theaters.
If you can't make it to a theater then just go on-line and buy a ticket for Saturday ;)

Living the Dream...

I know I usually just talk about me and promote events in my life, but I thought it would be nice to stop staring in the mirror for awhile and talk about someone else for a while.
An old friend of mine, Phil Nibbelink, has done something most of us in the animation industry only dream about: making a feature film single handed! Can you imagine making a 78 minute film all on your own? I can't even fathom it.
The name of his film is Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss. It's a retelling of the classic Shakespeare play using seals in an underwater setting. Not only has he completed this amazing feat, but it's being released Oct 27th! I know Bill Plymton (and probably others) have done this before, but I suspect that this might be the first time it is a more typical family film and not an 'art' film.
I met Phil way back when while I was at Disney's during the Black Cauldron (boy, is that ancient history) when he shared an office with Andreas Deja. He is mostly responsible for the great Gwythaint chase in that movie. That sequence still stands heads and shoulders above most animated action sequences in my opinion. I consider him not only a friend but to be one of the animators that have had an influence on my own growth as an animator. Unfortunately I don't have much call for animating these days, but I'm glad he's figured out how to keep doing what he loves.

He animated it all on Flash and painted the backgrounds with Painter and from what I can tell from the trailer it doesn't look like typical flash, but looks like normal 2D. He recorded the dialogue in his basement studio using himself, his children and friends for the voices. Hmmm...He never called me for a voice..oh, wait...I can't act...maybe that's why.

He drew around 112,000 drawings (mostly on ones) using a graphics tablet - except for when he used a program called Moho for some limited shots and crowd scenes.
I've known many animators over the years who have dreamed of doing this and some have even started the process, but I don't know many that have actually been able to see it through to the end and then manage to get it released to theaters.
I don't know about any of you, but I'm going to go to a theater and support this with the hope that this could happen again.
If you're so inclined also here's a list of theaters that it's going to play in.
And here's the web-site for the film for more info and a trailer.

What's new...

Well, now that the is Kurt staright or Gay controversy has died down and I've actually hit a slow spot in my freelance I thought I'd update everyone as to what I've been up to.

I'm on the downhill side of the Spider-man 3 books. My son is in the process of painting them and they're looking even better than the X-Men 3 books. I'm just starting up a set of books for Shrek 3. Besides catching up on some commissions that's about it for me art-wise.

The really BIG thing I'm working on is a project where I've optioned a book from an extremely famous artist with the intent of getting it made into an animated feature.Even though I have the option I'm a little hesitant to disclose too much info on this yet - maybe it seems like I'll jinx it (?). Anyway me and a fellow producer are shopping it around to several studios right now and hopefully I'll have some real concrete news about it soon. This will be the first animated feature based on one of this author's books - though it's certainly not his first feature adaptation. I guarantee you that this particular film will span several genres and fan bases and should please anyone who is a fan of fantasy, comics, animation and of this author. Have I teased you enough?

In the meanwhile here's another convention sketch....it's of Rogue in the Savage Lands

A little clarification....

In my last I answered a question that really threw me. It was the one concerning all the Gay fan pairings of characters. My answer seems to have caused a little stir over on the Marvel Forum so I felt I had better clarify my answer a little before it gets misuderstood futher.
I said we felt Kurt might be Gay. That doesn't mean we ever played him as Gay or implied in anyway he was Gay. To be honest I doubt everyone thought this way - but I know I did. As to his incarnation as a priest in the comics we had no interest in using that aspect of him whatsoever - as far as I knew.
The other concern was a flip comment I made about Risty and Rogue. This is where the clarification really comes into it. Mystique was Gay so that would make Risty Gay - we even had some fun with using purple as her main color and her earring, but it was all subtle enough not to be claear to anyone too young or not in the know. Did it appear a Gay character was hitting on Rogue? Yes. But was Risty/Mystique actually hitting on Rogue? No. She behaved as many mothers might behave, but when those concerns are translated into those of a same-sex peer it can appear as if there is more to it than that. Especially since we were able to keep Risty's secret for so long. My comment about a possible weird relationship between Risty and Rogue was probably a mistake. It was a joke and probably not a very good one...oh, well.


Next time I'll bee more careful with any jokes - I've got a very dry sense of humor that my wife tells me isn't always clear to others... ;)

A 'few' questions...And answers

A young lady, Blaze Rocket, sent me a few questions and instead of just e-mailing her back the answers I thought I would post them here. I hope she doesn't mind, but this way I've got fodder for a new post too....


BR: Will there ever be a "How to Draw" for any Brotherhood members? I`d love to see Wanda or Pietro, and I know plenty who would be interested in one on Toad. Freddy would be a good one, as drawing "larger than life" characters isn`t something that most people get instruction on. A drawing tutorial for Mystique that simply said "see all above" would make me giggle. Oh! And the Professor! Wheel chairs are hard! That`s my personal reasoning as to why the she`ar hover chair come into existence. Somewhere along the line, someone said "Screw wheels. I`m giving him a hover chair."

SG: The "how to" pages that were put up on my web-site weren't created specifically for this web-site, but were created for the show for the overseas studios to use. Due to the limited amount of time that I had at that time - between creating new models for every show and directing a third of the season's shows gave me very precious little free time. So I usually only made these construction sheets for characters we were very concerned about going way off model. The main good guys. I know that may not seem fair to all you fans of the brotherhood and other bad guys, but we had to make a call as to where to focus my energies. Though on the bright side I am adding a Blob walk cycle pretty soon to the animation section - hopefully that will satisfy you somewhat.

I also hate drawing wheel chairs and other props like that, but unfortunately we felt that it was better for the show for him to be in a more standard wheel chair than the hoover-type chair. I did cheat a little though and based it on the one used in the movies.

In interviews, it`s been stated that the new recruits got the short end of the stick, as it were, in that when an episode needed "tightening," their "B" stories were the first to be cut. Will any of these "B" stories ever be shared with the fans of the show?

When a script is being created often things are cut and added to make the script better for a variety of reasons. I doubt any of these B stories will ever re-surface - mainly because I doubt anyone could remember them.

In the "future vision" Professor X gets at the end of season four, were these teasers actually based on stories that the Evo team wanted to do, or perhaps had plans to do and weren`t able to... Or were they just teasers, perhaps a nod to those fans who also enjoy the comics?

To my knowledge the next season's shows had never been seriously discussed (this usually only happened after the next season was green lighted) and these visions were created as just a way to wrap up the series for the fans - and ourselves.

If, miracle of miracles, Evo was revived and renewed for another season (or four, so long as we`re dreaming), would you and the rest of the creative team return to work on it?

Anything is possible...but I seriously do not believe there is any chance of the show coming back after being cancelled so ong ago at this point. Unless DVD sales are huge (like Family Guy) I wouldn't hold my breath.

Between DVD extras, in-show statements, and statements made on former WB web-pages, there`s some confusion as to the proper ages of characters. How old, exactly, were the characters of Evo supposed to be? Minus Logan, as that would just be cruel.

We never determined specific ages other than the obvious ones. Kitty was young enough to just be learning to drive in season 2 (if I'm remembering right) and Scott and Jean were seniors. Most of the characters were discussed in more general terms. Like so-and-so was in their 30's or so-and-so is younger than Kurt, etc.

Realizing and taking into consideration that Evo was a kids show, was there ever any sort of family back story or time line developed for the Maximoffs and their daddy? Specifically...
The last name "Maximoff" seems to indicate that at some point, Django and/or Marya Maximoff were involved. Were they?

If there was any discussion then I never heard it or was involved.

A DVD extra states that Pietro is an Eastern European exchange student. Any truth to that?

That's news to me.

Storm says that Pietro and Evan have been competing since they were babies. Is that a literal statement or figurative?

That's also news to me.

Magneto looks to be about 12 when he is rescued by Captain America and Logan. How old then, would he have been when Pietro and Wanda came about?

Hmmm...let's just say that Magneto led a very active senior life. Actually we never discussed this concern.

What happend to Magda, the Maximoff mother? Was Anya ever considered? What about Polaris?

These things were also never discussed to my knowledge.

How old were Pietro and Wanda when Wanda was institutionalized?
Who`s older- Pietro or Wanda?

Pietro was probably 8 and Wanda was probably 6. But I could be wrong...

Do you have a favourite character in Evo? A favourite to draw?

As I've mentioned before my favorite characters were Rogue, BoomBoom and Wanda. Mainly because I think the new concepts we created for them were so unique and different then the comics. My favorite to draw would probably be the easiest to draw...Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Todd.

You`re obviously aware of Evo`s on-line fandom. What are your thoughts on the homosexual parings that crop up- usually Lance/Pietro, Amara/Tabby and Kurt/Todd?

No, actually I wasn't aware....and I'm not sure I want to explore those ideas too far. As far as who was Gay or not we subtlely tried to indicate that Mystique was living at one time with Destiny and raising a child (Rogue). We also tried to indicate that Risty was Gay (Mystique in disguise) and she was flirting with Rogue - which actually leads to a very weird situation on it's own merit. Some of us also kind of felt Kurt might be Gay, but that was never addressed in any way on the show.

What are your thoughts on such things as fan sights, fan fiction, fan art, and fan flicks?

I think they're all good fun and help to keep the shows alive. At first I was a little shocked at the amount of them, but it did help us understand what type of impact we were actually making on the fans. I'm sorry to see some of them disappearing - but I guess it was bound to happen since the show has been off the air for some time now.

What advice would you give to an aspiring animator?
What was your education like?

Things have changed quite a bit since I started in the business, but I would suggest that anyone interested in the industry should learn CG, as well as drawing and to learn other aspects of the business like storyboarding. And study film - not just animation.

My education was mostly on the job. Though in retrospect i wish i had gone to school once you start earning money it's very dificult to take time out to go back to school.

So...all the questions are answered --somewhat and I've added another post. Not a bad morning all in all...

Running late...

I just wanted to post something quick for those of you who have ordered sketchbooks and posters...I just wanted to let you all know that they will be coming, but I've been extremely busy with deadlines and now I'm going out of town for a few days. Just be patient and I'll guarantee you that they will show up at your homes soon. Just hang in there.

In the meanwhile, here's another sketch I was commissioned to do back in San Diego.

It's Jean Grey dressed as a queen of the sea - or something. I swear this is actually from a comic. I think it was Byrne arc. The guy had reference for me to use....

Posters available...

Sorry if it seemed to take a long time, but I finally came to the decision to make the SDCC poster of Rogue available for the same price I was selling it for at the convention - $10. BUT that will only be for the continental US. If you want it shipped elsewhere it will probably be more a little more and we can discuss it on a case by case situation.
If you want one just pay via PayPal to my e-mail address: steve@stevenegordon.com and make sure you indicate that you're paying for the poster.

A sigh of relief...

Sorry it's taken me so long to post about the Comic-Con, but the minute I got back home I was immediately swamped with deadlines for the SM3 books I'm working on. Last night I finally met the most urgent of those and now I can finally breath.
Anyway, it's about time I mentioned the Con...Whew....that was one long weekend. I had a great time meeting many fellow artists that I'd only corresponded with and greeting a lot of appreciative fans. It was very interesting being at the Con from the other-side of the table. This was the first time I participated in that fashion and it was very different. Once again I want to thank Senti for sharing his booth with Francesco and I. He's a great guy and quite an artist. You should check out some of his stuff...http://www.sentiart.com/
I also got to meet Francesco Francavilla in person for the first time. We've worked together and have corresponded for about 2 years and finally were able to look at each eyeball to eyeball - or something like that. This guy is amazing and if you haven't heard of him yet you soon will. You can check him out at http://francescofrancavilla.com/
Despite how busy I wasI did find a chance every now and then to wander around and pick-up a few sketchbooks, but not as many as I would have liked. I also drew some convention sketches and hopefully I'll be able to post them soon enough.
here's one...
I'm sure all of you have heard that this year's con was bigger than ever and it was estimated that 125,000 fans filled the convention center. It sure felt like it. I haven't decided whether I'm going to do the booth next year or not...I might just wander around and see all the sights and enjoy it that way...I'll have to think about it...

And away we go...

I'll be leaving for San Diego in just a little bit. Hopefully the traffic will let up some by the time we hit the 405. Either way I'll be driving for at least 3 hours - probably closer to 4.

For anyone interested I decided to bring along some original sketches to sell as well. If you're in the neighborhood remember to swing by and say "Hi". I'll be in booth #4609.

Next week I'll report back on how it all went...

Because so many asked...

...I thought I would let everyone know that after the convention I will try to make the poster shown below available for sale over the internet. I will have to look into how to best ship it and ways to keep that cost down, but as soon as I know I'll let you know.
Thanks for all the interest....kinda makes me feel good.

Good SDCC news...

I haven't mentioned anything concerning what might happen at the San Diego Comic Con because I didn't want to jinx it. But it's confirmed...I will be sharing a booth at SDCC this year after all. Senti of Skelanimals and http://www.sentiart.com/ has generously offered to share his booth with Francesco Francavilla and myself.
We will be at booth #4609 near the Illustrators and Fine Artists section. It might be a hair crowded, but it sure beats walking around the convention and trying to sell my sketchbooks out of a backpack.

Now I can finally breath a little easier...especially since I went ahead and had some posters made just for the Convention. I was originally toying with finishing the John Carter of Mars picture, but not only was I running out of time, but after some feedback it seemed not as many people as I would've thought even knew anything about the book. So I decided to go with a new drawing of a character that had caused a legion of fan-sites to sprout up. I hope you'll agree I made the right choice.
What I'll be doing is selling the posters (and signing them) for $10 each or if you by a sketchbook I'll include a poster for just an additional $5. They're 18x24.




I'll also try and do as many sketches as I can and I might even take some commissions - time allowing, of course.

Hopefully I'll see some of you there.

Heroes Con

I wanted to let anyone living in or visiting the Charlotte, NC area know that my good friend Francesco Francavilla (the artist of The Black Coat and other comics - as well as the master of my web-site and the designer of my sketcbook) will be at the Hero Con June 30 to July 2 - Friday to Sunday of next week selling his sketchbooks - and he'll also have a few of my sketchbooks to sell as well.
Here’s a link: http://www.heroesonline.com/con-indie.htm and here's a link to Francesco's web-site: http://www.francescofrancavilla.com/ . It's well worth a look and you might just become a fan of his.
This is a drawing I did awhile ago of The Black Coat. These are really fun comics - they're a kind of a cross between the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh and Batman.

A Gathering of Gargoyles...

As promised, Saturday I sat on the panel at the Gargoyle convention, A Gathering of Gargoyles. It went pretty well - although the panel participants almost outnumbered the audience. Well, not quite - but almost. It was intimate and very casual and it was good seeing some my friends Boyd Kirkland, Frank Paur, James Peters and Gary Hartle again. They're all great guys and it was fun catching up with them.
Afterwards I participated in what is called a Mug-A-Guest...I'd never heard of this type of thing before, but it was an even more intimate way to meet with fans and answer some of the questions that wouldn't have been appropriate at the panel.
I had a good time and if asked I'd be glad to participate again.

What do I know...?

...we'll soon find out.

This Saturday, June 24th, I'll be participating in a panel discussion at the Gargoyles Convention. The panel is "Adapting Stories & Characters from Comics to Film" and starts at 12:30PM. I'll be there with Frank Paur, Boyd Kirkland and a couple of other artists. The panel will be 90 minutes with a 30 minute signing to follow. I'm not sure how much I'll have to contribute, but hopefully I'll won't just sit there like a lump staring at the audience.

It'll take place at The Hyatt Valencia (near Magic Mountain) 24500 Town Center Drive, Valencia, California 91355

I'll also bring along some sketchbooks to sell - of course.

Coincidence...?

I keep tabs on some of the comic/animation news web-sites and I happened to come across a photo of Jean Grey/Phoenix from X3 and it reminded me of when Boyd and I were doing research for the HarperCollins X3 books. We had to go downtown to Marvel's offices and make sketches from their set and publicity photographs. We weren't allowed to make copies or take photos so we had to sit around for hours sketching and making notes. I guess they were afraid we'd post something on the interent - though it wasn't long before Fox was posting the same images (and better) all over the internet themselves. But not in time for us to incoporate into our books accurately, of course.
Oh well, but that's all beside the point. What caught my attention immediately was their costume for Phoenix. I thought it was an interesting take on her and then I realized it looked kind of familiar. I pointed it out to Boyd and that was the last time I thought of it. Even while watching the movie in the theater.
Until I saw this photo on a web-site. I guess it was the torn pants that reminded me of my initial reaction. It's not a very good photo, but I think you'll get the point.

I included images of Wanda as she appeared throughout X-M:E and in the last episode as an adult...I guess I should be flattered that someone working on X3 was a fan.

Also I hope you've also noticed that I moved the link for my SketchBook to the bottom of the web-site and included a little image of the cover to help remind you of what the PayPal button is for.

Bad News...

Well, after months of calling and getting told they're working on it and they were just trying to figure it all out and missed self-imposed deadline after self-imposed deadline I finally got an answer and found out that the table I was counting on would not be available. Apparently, even though we applied before the deadline, I was told that only those that applied by mid-January would get tables - and it sounds like some that even applied over a year ago didn't get what they asked for.
Oh, well, I'll just have to try earlier next year. In theory.
This year I'll explore other options, but for now I think I can assume I won't be selling books at SDCC. So if you want one the best way to get it is to go through this web-site. Sorry. Maybe next year...?

Brisk sales...

Wow! I'm so jazzed that there's been such a big response to my little sketchbook - and very surprised. Thanks everyone!
It's a good thing that I have some free time right now so I can spend a little extra time adding a sketch to the back page.
Several people asked about shipping to Canada and I responded to them individually, but I thought it might be a good idea to post the info here as well.
Just add $2 more to the purchase price. But you won't be able to use the quick-click button I set up (I'm only so computer literate), but just go to PayPal directly and e-mail the payment to my e-mail stevegordon@adelphia.net
Here's another little tease for all of you...

...and thanks again, everyone.