Wayback Machine: The Super Kids League!!

No it's not the Justice League, and it sure as hell isn't Teen Titans Go (good grief, I hate that show!!). It's not even the Legion of the Super Heroes but if you guessed if they inspired it, you'd be pretty close!  Ladies and gentlemen, dusted off for the first time in three decades, is an original drawing of some super teens that I came up with back when I was a teen myself... (drumroll please)... THE SUPER KIDS LEAGUE!!

Here they are, as they looked back in 1980-something... Wonder Kid, Inviso-Kid, Colormatic, Thundercloud, and Wombat, just to name a few... my new favorite is the one at the top, center.... Flame Boy (think "Human Torch") with his hand tea-potting on his hip with just the right amount of Fabulosity.... if that's really a word (I doubt it).

I mean, the work is all very derivative... if DC or Marvel had a hero that did something, I made my own version of it.  I actually designed two sets of heroes back then... Laughing Lad (top row, right) was in both leagues.  Of course, for all the things I loved to create, I never really took these works to the next level... I did actually start a comic for Zippy, the borderline inappropriately named boy speedster.  It was to be a secret origin tale where he (and untold others) gained their powers from a tremendous glowing meteorite that lands in the woods behind his house.  He later meets up with Inviso-Kid and become anti-bullying champions.  That book, along with many others, lay filed away and unfinished.  For years, I berated myself for having so many unfinished pieces of work, but I've since learned their purpose.  They were all skill-developing endeavors.  It was a big problem to start a project, only to find that your expertise and style were now much better than when you started.  It would have been too much to go back and start everything over... so I took them as far as I could at the time and moved on.  In the end, I became a better artist.

It just so happened the other day, that I was cleaning house, and as my mind normally does, it wandered on to something a little more entertaining than vaccuming, and it just so happened that these heroes came bubbling up to the surface of my mind.  Suddenly I was plotting out what could be the makings of my next full comic.  One never knows... this is really a good sign.  I did post recently about balance in my activities... the more these things work their way to the surface, the easier it will be for me to choose what comes next!

Oh... so that people don't think I totally, totally abandoned these kids to time... here is a rework I did a few years ago... luckily I had the good sense to file them all together so that I could find them.  I wanted to know what these heroes would look like if I drew them today.  I avoided all manner of "Hollywood rewriting" and instead just drew them with today's skills - minus the hands... I totally admit I rushed the hands to get the below drawing done.  As they came to life on the paper, the pencil nearly ran away from me with excitement to see these guys again after so many years.  I could almost see them animating themselves on the page.  It may be time to reboot Reflex Comics!!

My First Book??!!!

And so, here it is, my first anthology of sorts, documenting 20 years of cartooning the Hairyer Parts Universe.  What??  Twenty years??  Where could the time have gone??

I won't deny that the dream of being published has always been in mind, but doing the work of actually producing a book, when one sets out to do it, is actually a LOT of work.  I actually can't say it's my first book if you count that I've created a handful of comic books ahead of this publication, and I can say first hand, making those comics were a LOT of concentrated, hard work.  That aside, this really is my first softbound collection, a restrospective of sorts.  I actually started editing it about six years ago, and it got shelved for one reason or another.  It was a momentary, passing thought the other day, that I needed some kind of prize to donate to a Mr. Connecticut Bear basket raffle.  I said to myself, "Why not create a Hairyer Parts basket?"  So you know me, I can't do anything with half effort; I decided that any basket of mine was going to need products, and no product like an actual book.  So I went back to my original project, dusted it off, and looked at the date of the very first drawing.

1995.

<Momentary pause>

I first doodled the face that would become the lead character in my bearishly inspired universe on some unknown day in 1995.... which means it's totally appropriate to label the book as a 20th Anniversary Collection.  The strip that eventually became "Hairyer Parts" first debuted in the Northeast Ursamen's "Bears & Hunters" newsletter two years later in 1997, which means the series remained in development for two years.  There was a lot of trial and error in those early years.  When I stop and look at where I started, as compared to where I am now, I realized that perseverance was the key, all along, to making a good book.

It feels a little unusual to put something like this out, directly for sale, especially when I've spent most of my energies working for charitable means.  I pause to remind myself, that aside from the few cartoon prints that I sold more recently, I've never made any money off of my work.  A large percentage of it has been donated to auctions, raffles, or advertising campaigns, all of which have gone on to make thousands of dollars either for charities or community organizations (and I mean, THOUSANDS).  When you look at it that way, if I end up selling a couple dozen books and making a few bucks off of them, I guess I shouldn't feel so bad about it.  There is this other philosophy that gets into how artists need to think in terms of what they are really worth.... it's something I ought to get better at, so in that spirit:

If you've ever enjoyed my cartoons, please go buy my book here!!  Follow the link to get a preview.  Share and enjoy :-)

Priorities....

Sometimes it takes dramatic events to help you gain a better perspective.  Recently a friend of a friend passed away, at much too young of an age.  Our conversation drifted over to, of all things, never knowing when your time is going to come.  My thoughts went to something that's always been on my mind... that I have so many things that I still want to do.  My friends response was brilliant:  then you set priorities.

I remember being a tender young age of 19, and like most young adults, I wanted the world.  My mother was recently single, I was getting closer to finishing my degree in Computer Science.  I was in the middle of a college co-op, when I got the idea that I wanted to do a summer abroad.  I really felt like this was the one time in my life that I would have the chance to do something as crazy as going to Europe for a summer.  Meanwhile, I was commuting to school with an old beat-up 1976 Buick Skylark, and it was really on it's last leg.  So my mother says to me, as most good mothers would, as I'm blabbing about wanting to go to Europe, "You need that car to get to school and work.  Set your priorities."  So what did I do?  I made BOTH the new car, and the trip abroad, a priority.  I used my full-time co-op pay to qualify for a new car loan, and I continued working after the co-op term was done, and banked as much cash as I could.  I ended up with a new car, a two month stay in Munich, and enough credits from the summer to put me within grasp of a double major in both German and Computer Science. 

But... priorities.  I guess I am no stranger to filling my plate, reorganizing, and then filling it up again.  It's not always a winning strategy.  Case and point, Spookybear of 2013, the Heroes & Villains party.  I very much wanted to remain in retirement from my volunteer life while I sorted out what I wanted to do and when.  Of course, I wasn't going to say no when asked for help.  I basically art-directed the whole thing, which ended up with a larger than-life comic book on the walls of the night club, custom animations, a well-photographed ad campaign, and more.  But in the end, I broke under the strain of the work.  Even now, the recovery of my ongoing neck and shoulder issues continues at a slow pace.  I'm getting there, but not as quickly as I'd like.  So unfortunately, my time at the drawing board has been minimized.

Priorities. 

I started this blog as a way to express a lot about who I am as a creative person, but of course, I am so much more than just a creative person.  I try to make some tie-in's as I write and as I share.  But I suppose a year off from the drawing table meant I also ended up taking a year off from this blog.

So what's really important to me?  The art?  Volunteering?  Building things out of plastic bricks?  Throwing charitable bar parties?  Teaching people tracking and how to tie knots?  Making music??

Well, you know.... all of it is important to me.  Maybe the key word for 2015 will be one that I became more aware of in 2014 thanks to a new job:  BALANCE. 

Below is a cartoon I made of our current Mr. Connecticut Bear, which was raffled off at our Lumberjock party at the beginning of the month.  It's also my first real finished piece of work in many months.  Hopefully it will be one of many more to come in the next year.

Giant Robots

Well after weeks and weeks of working on SpookyBear artwork, I am happy to say, I am 99% done and ready for a switch from Superheroes.  It was a noble effort to mash up anime with superfriends, manga with entry-level DC comics... I am not entirely sure if I am 100% happy with the results, but for wall art, it will work, and for that I am glad.  BUT I am ready to move on to other things.

Which leads me to tonight's post.  I finally got to see (or at least hear) all of the Albegas series while working on the above project, which led me to discover more Toei based super robot cartoons, including Voltes V and Starbirds / Daimos.  I am sooo looking foward to finding more of these (I hear Danguard Ace is coming out on DVD soon) soooo... here is a teaser to hold me over until then.  Somebody stitched together the intros to all 80's mecha series.  It looks like it's at least an hour of animation, many of which I have only heard of but never seen.  Voltron is in there, as Golion and Dairugger XV of course, and Robotech is in there too.  Lesser known imports, like Macron I / Gotriniton are in there as well.  It's basically where I am right now.  I am so ready to dust off some of my very early works and bring them forward to completion.  So on that note, have a look:

Combattler V 2012

I love it when I discover new anime, especially new takes on old classics.  My favorites of course are the super robot series, especially those from the Toei animation, the same creators of Dairugger XV, Albegas, and King of Beasts Golion.  But there is one that I wish I had seen as a kid... it's gotten a sleek reboot in the last year or so.... a predecessor to those tapped for the Voltron universe.... Combattler V.  From the still below, you can see it's got a similar 5-member team format to Golion, Gatchaman, and so many others... it's like another flavor of your favorite ice cream :-)

I won't waste much time writing about these clips since I don't know much more about the series other than what I'm saying here, except that I find these to be visually intriguing.  Makes me wish that the ones behind the new Voltron Force series would sit up and pay attention.  It also makes me wish I had gone to animation school in Japan, but that's another story altogether!  So sit back and enjoy these...

It's a Voltron Kind of Night!!

So I'm taking a break from animating the next (and last) footage of the Ursafriends, doing laundry and packing for camp.  I am usually in the habit of putting something on the big screen TV in the bedroom when I am packing, and tonight is no exception.  This time, I was very much in the mood for Voltron, since, the Ursafriends are meant to be an anime-bear version of the Superfriends... but for some reason, I reached for my Land Team boxed set of Vehicle Voltron instead of the Blue Lion boxed set.  I took a snapshot of the screen and uploaded it to Facebook... and of course, doesn't everyone just love the Lions better than good old Dairugger XV a.k.a. Vehicle Voltron.  So I had to throw in that Voltron was meant to be a trilogy (and someday, maybe someday I will finish writing & illustrating that comic) so meanwhile.... here are a couple homemade "artifacts" that show the Voltron that could have been.  Electro-Light Speed God Albegas would have been the third (actually second) installment of the Voltron Trilogy, and you can bet anything that the guy who played Keith (and Jeff) would have taken the lead on this one.... here is a homemade video from Youtube footage of Albegas, redubbed as Voltron II.  Below that is a make believe screenshot of all three robots, as if they were side by side in the Fleet Of Doom movie.  Anyhow... enjoy :-)

  

Sneak Peek of SpookyBear 2013

For the last two months, I have been living on a steady diet of Superfriends, Arrow, and comics in general.  I must totally confess that getting involved with SpookyBear in my first off year was completely selfish on my part.  What cartoonist in their right mind wouldn't jump at the chance to channel the Justice League (with Wolverine thrown in) to a bearish audience??  So the interim result is this video which I am sure a lot of my friends have seen already, but for those who might be following me only on Blogger, please enjoy watching this.  If all goes according to plan, there will be even more to see behind the big bar at the Crown & Anchor at the Saturday night costume party at SpookyBear Weekend itself.  I am very happy with the results of this, and am looking forward to making more animation!  Cheers!!

 

This video can also be seen on the following pages:  Hairyer Parts,  Bears & Hunters - Online Express Edition, and of course, the SpookyBear Weekend page.  As of the time I'm writing this, it was uploaded 5 days ago, and already has 399 views!!  The first showing was last Saturday at the Ursamen member's only pig roast... it was a real crowd pleaser!!

Cell Painting Tonight

Tonight I am painting a new Hairyer Parts Universe cartoon cell. If all goes according to plan, this priceless baby will be auctioned off for charity at the Northeast Ursamen's Out Of Hibernation 2013 in Provincetown, MA next weekend.

FYI, Hairyer Parts Comics now has a Facebook page, at http://www.facebook.com/HairyerPartsComics.  The final image of the cell will be previewed there before being put up for auction.  The entire collection of behind-the-scenes photos of the "making of" the cell will be featured as a permanent article on http://www.hairyerparts.com/ after OOH.

Star Blazers - WCC Animation Comics

In my teen years I began going to sci-fi conventions, and the vendor rooms were usually a treasure trove for fans of anime.  I remember seeing stacks of Japanese books on Space Cruiser Yamato, known here as Star Blazers.  It must have been around 1986 or 1987 when I stumbled upon an English print edition of the "Quest For Iscandar" series of Star Blazers.  I think I went there with hard-earned lawn mowing cash and spent $50 to get all five volumes of these "animation comics" which featured full color screenshots of the television series.  I went home that day with all five volumes.  I knew then I was starting a library of great art books.  I had often figured if there was ever a house fire, I would grab these books and go! I still have them today.

Homemade Voltron Animation

So it's been about a week since my last post... work has been crazy, and this weekend at home has been all about spring cleaning.  As I was pondering what to post, I realized I had hardly posted anything about my favorite cartoon from my teens... and that would be Voltron!  Most people who knew me at the time associated this cartoon with me, mostly because it drove my creativity to new levels... if I wasn't drawing Voltron, I was writing with my best pal Debra.  We had a titanic expanded universe with both Voltrons, plus our classmates as cast members of the show.  So I really cannot leave out the Defender Of The Universe... there is so much I could include about this program.  So when you look at my characters, you are seeing something that is greatly influenced by this 80's anime program, among others.

Every once in a while, I dabble with animation... I am by no means an expert, but I don't let that stop me from trying things out.  A few years ago, I wanted to recreate one of the original clips of Lion Voltron swinging his sword back... not the one you saw in every episode, but one that would have been seen in one of the early episodes.  I heavily referenced the original animation to get this done... I quite literally reverse engineered it.  The final result contains about six frames (the original production would have used many more), each had to be digitally stitched together and then colored.  The lens flare was added later.  Check it out... enjoy.

Hairyer Parts reboot

For the time being, I've disconnected most of the old Hairyer Parts website as I'm retooling and reworking the Hairyer Parts Universe into "Hairyer Parts Comics".  For the time being, I've set up a slideshow of previous work as a placeholder until I can get more of my newer work finished and uploaded.

Baseball & Anime

Back when I was president of the Northeast Ursamen (as if it were so long ago), Daddy Mike and I came up with an idea for an event to take place in Boston on a regular basis, called "Spring Training".  Knowing how much the Red Sox are loved in that city (and by many of us in other parts of Southern New England), we gave the party a Red Sox theme.  I mean, on any given night a game is happening across town at Fenway Park, you can see the game on big screens in pubs of all sizes, including The Alley, arguably the best bear bar in the Northeast, so throwing a Red Sox themed party at the Alley was a perfect formula.  So we needed an image for the poster, and after having done "Butch & Bruiser" and the "Nut & Bolt Party", I set out to do "Spring Training" but Hairyer Parts-style.  People often compared the finished product to Jason Varitek, though truth be known, I worked from a drawing of Youkalis to get the job done.

So I knew that baseball has been big in Japan, but it never occurred to me to look into baseball manga.  I think I was aware of one show whose name escapes me... so for kicks tonight, I put in the words "anime" and "baseball" into a Google image search, and found all sorts of great images.  This one particular article I found from Otaku USA gave a whole mini-course on baseball subjects in Japanese cartoons.  Do check it out.  It made me smile to think I may have been on to something when I did that "Sprig Training" drawing... now four years old!

Hatsune Miku

An old friend of mine and fellow anime fan posted this on my Facebook page today. It's Hatsune Miku, a "singing synthesized voice application" with a computer generated personality to go with it.  She's gained a certain amount of popularity in Japan... according to Wikipedia, there are 100,000 songs written for her, and now she is a character in a manga series.  For more info, visit Wikipedia.

Hairyer Parts - 2004 Auction Poster

Hard to believe it's been 9 years since the last Ursamen Valentines Day Auction which featured all sorts of creative talent.  These events were geared towards raising charitable funds for those who received HIV & AIDS services from the Springfield VNA.  These events raised easily over $1000 at a time... with my own handmade cartoon cels bringing in hundreds of dollars.  Following this period, I entered a life of public service, first for the Northeast Ursamen as newsletter editor for two years, then the independent scouts for another two years... then back to the Ursamen for four years as President.... so here is a flash back to 2004... this poster showcased the cel that was to go up on the auction block later that month.  The poster itself hung on the wall at York Steet for the Northeast Ursamen's 2004 Superbowl & Chili Cookoff party.  Happy Superbowl 2013 everyone!

First "Hairyer Parts"

"Hairyer Parts" is the bear-centric comic that I created specifically for publication in the Northeast Ursamen's "Bears & Hunters" official newsletter.  My cartoons ran for 10 years before my volunteer commitments forced me to suspend production.  The series was originally a single-panel strip which eventually was relaunched as a multi-panel color strip.  My characters also found their way into several promotional posters for Northeast Ursamen events, including Butch & Bruisers Boots & Boxers Party, Nut & Bolt Party, and Spring Training.  With most of my major commitments now behind me, I'm looking forward to giving the Hairyer Parts Universe a "hard boot" and putting it back out there.  For now, here is a look back at the very first few HP comics.

Daft Punk - One More Time

This video, and several others from the album "Discovery", were created by anime legend Leji Matsumoto.  His other works include Yamato/Star Blazers, Galaxy Railways, and Captain Harlock.... his style is recognizable and comes thru in this video.  The entire album was animated into a DVD called Interstella 5555.

Vehicle Voltron by Toynami

I REALLY want this!!!

Vehicle Voltron by Toynami

Yamato 2199

My favorite cartoon from elementary school days, above all, was Star Blazers.  I would willingly get up every morning at 6am to watch it.  I would even use my tape recorder to get audio copies of the show, and I would draw it incessantly (flashback illustrations forthcoming).  I've spent the greater part of my adult life collecting everything of the series I can, on DVD, imported books, and domestic comic book form.  I am totally thrilled that it's getting a second live in Japan right now.  The story is being retold, with 21st century production quality.  Check it out.

Hairyer Parts

In the spirit of trying things out, I created a Google+ page for my cartooning site, Hairyer Parts.  It's been so long since I've edited that website, it's really time for a hard reboot of the Hairyer Parts Universe.... with my 4-year presidency of the Ursamen at a close, and a very major project at work winding down, I will finally have some free time coming soon.

Mobile Upload

Symin, my purple-haired scientist.