For all of the players out there

Here is some graphic work that I just finished. My very good friend John Tuttle back in New Jersey sent me a simple graphic of a player piano and asked if I could animate it for him. John is the man when it comes to player pianos. It's been a passion of his for decades. PLAYER-CARE.com is the leading on line source for anything dealing with these delicate old instruments. Player Care is the on line epicenter for components, information, scrolls and materials. 

original graphic

Decades ago he was scoffed at by some when he decided that he would make repairing player pianos his  profession. John is one of the brightest men I have ever met, and if I learn nothing else from him it's to believe in myself and follow my heart. He has time and time again been there for me and is always in my corner. Countless accounts from his life that will make a great novel someday. It was a pleasure to do this animated GIF (below) for his web site.

Even if you don't own a player piano, check out his web site PLAYER-CARE.com to learn more about the rare and classic form of entertainment.

Graphic Action

Since I have been an artist supplementing my income through working in the Louisiana film industry it seems only natural that I should try to combine the two talents. Storyboard art is really just a comic to set up the shots for the director and camera crew. Every angle, pan, zoom and movement is drawn out extensively before shooting begins. A film needs hundreds of these drawings done by someone, it might as well be me.

To all of my NOLA film contacts, please forward this graphic to anyone in the industry you know who might be interested in my services.  Thanks.

Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie Trailer

manic self-publicist

Here is my ad for the Quarter Rat Publication, to be hitting hotel lobbies, strip clubs, massage parlors and beer soaked bars across the French Quarter this month. Check out their web site with back issues. Very funny stuff. It's a publication directed toward the locals. Lot's of humor from those in the service industry. Almost a venue for everyone to share the aggravation of living and working in a tourist hot spot.

THE QUARTER RAT

I share the feelings. I drove taxi for five years at night on the Jersey Shore. Yea, like the TV show. When drunken assholes who pay your bills it's like being stuck in an abusive relationship. I am convinced that most serial killers at one time worked in the service industry. Bartenders, servers, cab drivers and hookers, we all know what it's like.

Zaphod Beeblebrox, adventurer, ex-hippy, good timer, manic self-publicist, terribly bad at personal relationships, often thought to be completely out to lunch.

Fine, Don't Answer Me

Nice comic book style artwork. A great song with simple animation.

My Favorite Cartoonists

In no particular order, here are the artists who inspire and influence my artwork.

Gilbert Shelton of the fabulous furry freak brothers. The best written of "underground comics."  

Don Martin of MAD Magazine fame. If a cartoonist struggles with drawing hands and feet, they should study his work. MAD's artist were the best cartoonists of the 20th century.


Chuck Jones - Warner Brothers cartoons. Backgrounds, color and characters don't get better than this.

R Crumb I think most who hail his work do so with out really understanding it.Kind of an Andy Warhol self hype that has made him very wealthy.

Sam Gross,  Gahan Wilson - Playboy magazine's staple cartoonists. Yes I flipped through the magazine to the cartoons first. My first ever rejection letter was signed by my hero Sam Gross when I submitted some gag cartoons to National Lampoon.

Berke Breathed, Bloom County. The first and only comic strip in a mainstream newspaper I ever found worth reading. I'll admit that BiNGE's look is influenced by Steve Dallas.

Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. Some of Python's most memorable bits are the animated cartoons from the show.  Terry went on to direct many acclaimed films and demonstrate cartoonists are under rated. His films just have a completely unique look and spin on them.  I wish he had built an amusement park instead of that horrible Walt Disney.

Ralph Steadman  An illustrator of biblical talent. I was first exposed to his work for Hunter S. Thompson. Deeply disturbed work unmatched by others.

Matt Groening What can one say? I first was exposed to his work "Life in Hell" that ran in the Village Voice back in the 80's. Matt is the Bill Gates of cartooning. Creativity is matched by an incredible business and marketing sense. Hundreds of years from now his work could be used for an accurate account of life in 20th / 21st century America.  Every social and political issue is addressed along with humanity's quirks.

CRUDE

Here it is. Much thanks to my friend Russell for the many hours invested in this project. In the middle of production, he received a call to help out on the special effects for a low budget ghost movie. That gig payed, Binge didn't. Russell still managed to work on both projects.

So here is the first real animated BiNGE project. It was a learning experience for the both of us.

Sneek Peek

I've been promising all three of my fans that there will be a short animated BiNGE episode soon. Well here is the opening sequence. The rest is still being painstakingly glued together to be debuted shortly. So to tease you, here is the opening titles. It's a two minute cartoon, what did you expect, a trailer?



We threw in a Taratino reference, and kind of a slam against cheap anime.

ATTENTION NERDS

Anime sucks. Someone has to tell you this fact. You thirty year olds who have never seen a real naked woman in your entire lives can sit in your parent's basement all night long on line chatting about how great anime is, it won't change the fact. It sucks. Asian culture is based on not stepping out of the box, taking what someone else has invented and making cheap mass produced rip offs. This is the entire Asian cartoon industry. Perhaps a few comic artists have improved and excelled at the craft, but the bottom line is Anime is cheap plotless garbage that should only be enjoyed by the 10 and under crowd. Unimaginative mass produced fluff for unsophisticated tastes who need to be baby sat while mom is on the phone.

When I was five years old watching Speed Racer and Gigantor, I knew even then that it was grossly inferior to Warner Brothers. I would be embarrassed if someone came into the living room to find me watching Speed Racer. Sure one can argue for the "campy kitche" appeal to the early Asian cartoons. The same way one can argue that Pixie Stixs have some nutritional value.

I got thinking about how painfully bad anime is while working on my cartoon "CRUDE." My two minute animation may not be the greatest, however it does involve some work. We needed a quick one second shot of a character talking. To stay on our schedule we decided to employ the cheap trick of focusing on the eyes of a speaking character. We laughed about how entire 30 minute episodes are filled with such ploys. Even funnier, chubby nerds who spend their hard earned allowances on DVDs of this crap to watch with their pants around sweaty ankles.I am familiar with the genre, I was reading HEAVY METAL Magazine before most of you Poke Mon card collectors were born. Perhaps there are a few talented artist who work in the style that deserve respect. The overwhelming majority of the anime is drawn by sweat shop minimum wage nerds who have a pen in one hand and a tiny yellow penis in the other. Drawing nothing but doey eyed twelve year old girls with D cup breasts. Stop praising it.

I on the other hand draw forty year old skanks with fake D cup breasts, the way God intended cartoons to be. This is my opinion, I don't care what you think, NERD!