Tired Of Me Talking Yet?

Janet Hetherington wrote up a nice article for Animation World News based on our interview last week, and it's got a few little details possibly not covered in all the other Secret Saturdays inteviews I've done lately. Anyway, I think it's a good one.

I Heart Coo

Just got back from Kitchener after catching one of the last of this years' flicks in the Waterloo Festival For Animated Cinema, and, wow, Keiichi Hara's Summer Days With Coo was just what I was looking for! A great 'boy and his monster' story with plenty of funny, scary, and tearful moments... like E.T. with traditional legend replacing Science Fiction. It's no secret how much I love yokai (and Kappa in particular) so I went in fairly excited. I'm very happy to say that the film exceeded my expectations. It's impossible to avoid comparisons to Miyazaki considering the subject matter and ecological/ anti-development undertones, but the fact that this film holds up well under that comparison is saying something. From MAP, director Hara says, "Summer Days with Coo is very special to me. It was more than 20 years ago that I first read the original story and a great many things have happened between then and the realization of this film. Throughout my career, the concept has always been in my mind and I am very happy that I have finally had the opportunity to direct it as a film..." Official movie website here with loads of artwork. I sure hope this becomes available on the North American marketplace soon so I can share it with my kids.

It Slayed Me!

I finally saw Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer last night and was utterly thrilled with the funny, gory, old-school monster movie (Rated R, kids). It successfully combines monsters, humour, and psychotherapy... the three things that followers of this blog know have dominated the last year of my life. Watching the film was like closure for me! Kudos to Canadian writer/director Jon Knautz, and the wonderful creature effects by Form and Dynamics. And it was great to see Robert (Freddy) Englund in a campy, yet nuanced, Vincent Price-style role as the Professor/Demon Host! One reviewer described it as Hellboy meets The Evil Dead, which is pretty apt. So if you dig those, and you only plan on seeing one horror flick this Halloween season, Jack Brooks should be it.

Chilling News

Just heard the good news... "The Secret Saturdays premieres on TELETOON on November 7 at 5 pm with that episode repeated on Sunday, November 9 at 8:30 am ET/PT and then
new episodes every Sunday at 8:30 ET/PT from November 16." Get ready for cryptids, my fellow Canucks!

Creature... GOOD!!!

My favourite classic monster is Dr. Frankenstein's creature, as you might have guessed. In fact, I've built a lifesized one myself recently, and not out of paper, either. I hope to get him working (with small scale motion detector stuff) in time for All Hallows... I'll let you know how it goes. Cool Frankenstuff here...

Seeking Hyde

I'm in complete agreement with Kevin McCorry that the 1955 WB short Hyde and Hare is an under-appreciated gem. I quote, "Hyde and Hare is an atypical Bugs offering. In stark contrast to nearly all of Bugs' other cartoons, good does not win over evil. Evil seems to prevail, and the heroic rabbit seems to succumb to it. He falls from grace... He is transformed out of his familiar, noble image and into the look of a ghastly, savage beast." Creepy Halloween animation it most certainly is, and scarier than anything good ol' Gossamer was ever in!

Roy, Oh Boy!

Time to start musing about the Monster Month! I can't think of a better way to kick of All Hallows than with this stunning piece of spine-tingling art by my hero Roy Crane. Michael Price posted a wonderful interview with Crane last year. I liked this little chestnut: "I don’t worry about the violence. It’s good for children to read something about violence to prepare them for this world we live in. What literature doesn’t have violence? The Bible is full of it. And there was that girl who went through the looking glass, Alice, and the Queen threatening to cut off everybody’s heads!"

Secret Messages

Here's a short list of some early reviews for the Secret Saturdays...
The first fan site...
A balanced overview by MakenZero...
How to draw Zak Saturday at Dragoart...
Common Sense Media likes it...
Toon Zone is undecided...
And Racattack has some constructive criticism...

Week of Saturdays!!!

It's finally here! This Friday, October 3rd at 8pm, my new animated series The Secret Saturdays debuts on the Cartoon Network! Bam! Pow! Grrrr! Please give it a peek and let me know what you think, OK? Another little interview here at the Comic Book Bin...

**UPDATE**
The premiere of the Secret Saturdays pilot will have a 'clock' in the lower left of the screen counting down the time until the premiere of Star Wars:Clone Wars. If this bugs you, and you don't want it on your personal recording of the show, please be advised that the pilot airs again right after Clone Wars at 10pm, minus the clock. Another interview with me can be found at either Yahoo News, or at its original source at Newsarama, in case you're not sick of me yet.

Odd and Weird

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? My sharp-eyed daughter was perusing an online game site called Games2Girls when she came across Weirdville, a boring little game featuring a sorry-looking Jetcat knock-off, and quite clearly ripped off from my Oddville comics. I guess I should be either annoyed or happy that someone thought my comics were cool enough to 'borrow' from, but this just leaves me blah. I like a so-bad-it's-good bootleg as much as the next guy, but this is just plain bad bad.

Pressing On

Here's a neat review of the Secret Saturdays Pilot over at Comic Vine. G-Man watched the show with his 5-year-old daughter, and records both reactions. He also raves about the awesome Press Kit sent out by the Cartoon Network (see above), and has set up some sweet character pages. Definitely worth a look...

Saturday Play

Just heard the good news that D3 and High-Voltage software will be producing a Secret Saturdays console and handheld game for Wii, Playstation, and Nintendo DS! Don't get too excited just yet, though... these things take time to get right. I just couldn't wait to tell my Monsterama pals!

Mummy Movie

The new Tutenstein TV movie is ready to rip! From Worldscreen... Tutenstein: Clash of the Pharaohs, the first feature-length movie based on PorchLight Entertainment’s hit TV series, will make its debut on Discovery Kids in the U.S. this fall, with its international premiere at MIPCOM Junior. For more info (and spoilers!), hop on over to Animation Magazine.

Metal For Monsters!

I'm proud to announce my involvement in the cool Metal For Monsters project instigated by Blend Creations, and featuring a horror-ful host of crap-hot creators! From the press release... Having a kid changes everything, even the way you read the newspaper. While taking in the latest atrocities inflicted upon young children throughout the world, owners of online jewelry boutique BlendCreations.com, Vivian Cheng and Eric Jean-Louis, hugged their little "monster" Jack and vowed to do something for his international monster cohorts. And since they are designers, not lobbyists or Peace Corps activists, they called on nine of their talented artist peers to draw their way toward a $10,000 donation to UNICEF. The resulting collaboration is a line of twenty limited-edition stainless steel pendants upon which comic-style monsters are laser etched. Starting on October 1, one hundred copies of each of the twenty designs will be offered for $81 through the website MetalforMonsters.com. Almost 20% from each sale ($16) will be donated to UNICEF. From the renowned to the contented fringe, artists include: S. britt, Stefan G. Bucher of dailymonster.com, Jon Burgerman whose clients range from The Science Museum to Sky, Pepsi, Sony and KidRobot; Anna Chambers; Justin Hillgrove of impsandmonsters.com; Adam Koford, a creator of the Laugh-out-Loud Cats comic; John Martz, editor of the popular illustration blog Drawn.ca; Jay Stephens, creator of the Emmy Award winning animated creation TUTENSTEIN; and Brian Taylor of candykiller.com. Get your mitts on Bathead and Spooklops while they last, and feel good about helping out children in need at the same time.

Insider Info

Aaron H. Bynum wrote the new series up for the Animation Insider... our first official review! It's a pretty positive overview of the pilot, so, thanks, but I do have a couple of quick rebuttals. Firstly, any stiffness or awkwardness can be put down to this being the first time out of the gate, so don't judge us too harshly on that front. And I must protest the criticism aimed at Argost... I think it's awesome and original that he has his own TV show! I'm not sure how that fact is supposed to 'soften' the guy. I mean, how many celebrities or TV personalities are pure forces of good, really? TV is full of corrupting, negative, unhealthy messages, and it's good for kids to question all that. I don't pretend to understand why the public love to follow the exploits of sick, twisted personalities like Britney Spears, but they certainly do! Besides, Argost is a Megalomaniac. A type of personality that would quite naturally crave the limelight and bend it to his own purposes. Frankly, I'm surprised Dr. Doom never thought of it (Though I do remember Lex Luthor running for president). As a creepy celebrity Argost embodies the opposite of 'secret'... he is the public figure with the masses on his side. Trust me, it works.

Me And The Saturdays

I did a little interview over here for Racattack Force. You know, in case you're interested.

Secret Saturdays Is Coming! Soon!

Man O man, am I one proud Papa! The Cartoon Network has finally unveiled my new show, The Secret Saturdays, on their website! Coolest thing? The new game, Code Of The Cryptids. And as Vanhoozer mentions on his blog, this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Aw, Shucks

Josh at Creative Loafing has some nice things to say about comics I did over a decade ago. To be put in the same category as the likes of Evan Dorkin, Ivan Brunetti, Chris Ware, and the criminally underrated Doug Allen... some of my favourite living cartoonists, is almost enough to cure my depression. Thanks, man.

And You Thought I Made It All Up

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you V.V. Argost's Weirdworld!

Shock Treatment

Thank you all from the bottom of my black ol' heart for the emails and postings of support and well-wishes in this difficult time. I'm still in the sanitarium, getting better day by day, and I hope to be back drawing, creating, and blogging sometime soon. I'm very pleased to see that my honesty about the illness has encouraged and comforted others in similar situations. Mental illness, invisible and mysterious, is really the last social taboo, and we all need to work on overcoming that stigma. Nobody goes through life without falling ill physically at least once or twice. The same is true mentally. Don't be too afraid or embarrassed to seek help if you need it.