GRUFF

Designed this guy as the anti-hero contender in MONSTER RALLY -- an overgrown faun with a penchant for speed and full of bad attitude.  Since he's part goat, I thought the name was fitting...

HANNIBAL SEASON THREE BEGINS...

 

The writers room for HANNIBAL season three began on Monday last, hence the posting of my only drawing of a homicidal maniac.

ALL HAIL CHUCK JONES

Before I moved to Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis hosted a Q&A with the late, great Chuck Jones.  I bought a t-shirt to commemorate the evening, featuring his sketch "Nude Duck Descending a Staircase".  While the memories lasted, the t-shirt did not -- but before I pitched it, I cut out the artwork and copied it (hence the thread patterns visible.)

MAKE A TIGER FUZZY

Good ol' Corel Painter program.  Always finding new stuff on there.

Drew the tiger on the left and then "dabbed" it with Painter's sponge and got this phantasmagorical version of the original.

UNUSED MINNESOTA SCRIPTWORKS LOGO

DRAWING COMICS. LESSON #1

Drew this when I was, like seven, and it's clear I didn't know the first rule of drawing comic strips -- write out your character's dialogue BEFORE you draw the word balloons...

HANNIBAL SEASON TWO EPISODE 9 "SHIIZAKANA"

This was the initial sketch I came up with when we writers were putting our heads together, trying to come up with inventive bad guys for HANNIBAL.  I had this idea of a guy in a suit using a dire wolf skull strapped to his head to eviscerate his adversaries -- in stark contrast to the title character's own neat, urbane method of killing. 

For the picture, I started with an old phrenology chart for the human head and added the wolf jaws (cave bear jaws in the episode -- bigger, chompier...) to it.  Colored and "dirtied" it up to make it seem more old-world. 

And yes, dire wolves were real creatures that roamed the earth once upon a time...

CRAIG'S CORONER

These are some photo-phunnies my friend Craig McNamara sent me.  As he explained, these were shot back in his agency days, as illustration references for a layout... and Craig later pasted them together and made a story out it. Old gag, but so is the telephone... and the rich Polaroid highlights and skin-tones.  And that's Craig himself getting the bad news.

CRAZY MONKEYS!

Hand drawn T shirts rule!!  This was one of many identical shirts I drew for a birthday party game for one of Laird's parties.  'Crazy Monkeys' was the team's name, and the red splotches are paint -- no blood sport at a Vlaming kid  party.

BACK TO THE FUTURE I - THE ORIGINAL PLOT!!

 

 

Originally in BACK TO THE FUTURE, Marty McFly and Doc Brown never get their time-travel experiment off the ground.  Their endeavor is halted by Hill Valley Councilman Dick Winston (Craig McNamara), all part of the film's initial backstory involving the city's eminent domain junction against Brown's property.  "Originally we saw this as a taut drama," explains co-writer Bob Gale, "The story of  'an everyman-against-the-powers-that-be'.  The whole time-travel thing, that was just there to steer the story into the courtroom nitty-gritty."  In the original cut of the film, Marty and Doc return home to fashion a legal defense and leave Dick Winston to be gunned down by the Libyan terrorists...

 

If you don't believe it, enlarge the picture and look at the photo caption!

"BUENAS NOCHES, I'M ALFREDO HITCHCOCK..."

Okay, at the HANNIBAL offices, an amazing series of framed 50's and 60's Hitchcock movie posters -- some a giant 4'x6' - adorned the walls.  From the writers room I could see two of them and at slow  moments, I sketched the Master of Suspense.  For whatever reason, I blackened his hair and added sideburns and a moustache, the end result looking less like Alfred Hitchcock and more like character actor Miguel Sandoval. 

60's AD ART?

 

Not really -- this is a doodle I did at work and realized it's in that great sixties style you saw inTV  advertisements that used cartoons.  With my truty, dusty Corel program I fattened up the lines, dropped in the colors and added the very-60's san serif type. 

RAIDERS OF THE LAST LOST CRYSTAL TEMPLE OF THE CRUSADE

 

 

Actually these are all production stills from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ICEBOX, a super-8 spoof we shot during college and all filmed in Edina, Minnesota.  Kirk Mathison was great as a German baddie and my brother Jonathan played the lead character, Louisiana Jones -- professor, archaeologist... and gourmet.

 

 

Watch the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpBeq2OlLHM

 

LOST SCENE FROM 'RETURN OF THE JEDI'!

 

Word has it John Williams composed a stellar rendition of Pomp & Circumstance for this scene which, sadly, was cut from the final film. 

 

Written and rendered by my pal and STAR WARS STRIPZ co-author, Craig McNamara.

NOTES AND DOODLES

 

Whenever there's a lull in a concept call, the pen takes on a mind of its own...

'HANNIBAL' SEASON TWO PREMIERE DATE -- THIS FRIDAY, February 28th!

Instead of an official image from HANNIBAL's second season, I offer this painting I originally did to spruce up my REAPER office walls.   Needless to say, it was more fitting for my HANNIBAL wall.  

 

The second season of HANNIBAL premieres this Friday, FEBRUARY 28th...on NBC.  Check your local listings.  Until then, here are a couple of  TRAILERS sure to whet your appetite:

http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/02/06/hannibal-new-season-2-trailer-mads-mikkaelsen-hugh-dancy-return/
or
http://www.programme-tv.net/news/series-tv/47499-hannibal-saison-2-video/

BUY THE LEGO MOVIE NOW -- BUT NOT FROM AMAZON!

POLAR VORTEX -- THE SEQUEL: FORTIFIED

 

Pull on the flannel plaids, the sheepskin vest and the moose scalp hat and ride these low temps out

TORONTO SUBMISSION

Up in Toronto this week to prep my episode of HANNIBAL and I didn't bring anything to put up.  Pulled this, the latest page from 12 O'Clock Somewhere, to fill the space.

POLAR VORTEX--THE GAME

Trapped in a devastating netherworld of ice and snow, one intrepid robot must find the key to mankind's survival...
                                                   ...temps above zero and a hot cup of Peets coffee.

IF "AMERICAN HUSTLE" DOESN'T GIVE YOU ENOUGH 1970's FOR CHRISTMAS...

/

Craig McNamara, Saint Paul MN native born and bred, found this poster and gave it to me ostensibly because my next-door-neighbor Casey Jones aka Roger Awsumb was featured as a special guest (so was Barry ZeVan the weatherman -- but I didn't know him personally).  I loved the artwork and it was a nice piece from the past.

But then I got to wondering who the host of the parade, this "Super Mayor" was.  A little research gleaned from WFMU’S Beware of the Blog uncovered the following:

“From 1970 to 1972, the city of Saint Paul, MN was led by colorful Mayor Charlie McCarty who won the election as an independent candidate. He was both loved and hated by many for his unpredictable words and deeds, but never failed to entertain.

He earned the nickname "Supermayor" due to his penchant for patrolling the streets of the city at all hours of the night in his hand-picked Lincoln Continental (dubbed the "Supercar") which was decked out in all manner of police and fire radios… [using] the newly modern technology… that allowed him to switch red [street] lights to green while he tooled around town with his driver.

An incident where Mayor McCarty helped apprehend a disorderly patron at a White Castle restaurant was the genesis of a weekly "Supermayor" comic strip by Jerry Fearing in the local paper.” 



CHRISTMAS FRINGE

When I was on FRINGE, this is the card I sent everyone, from J.J. Abrams on down. I didn't watch the series in the last couple seasons, but lemme know if they ended up doing this episode. 

TOYS THAT INSPIRED, #37

When my brother Jonathan and I were kids, the local toy store at Clancy Drugs sold a series of little rubber cartoon figures made of this weird oily rubber -- a medium developed by mistake in some petro chemical lab, no doubt.  The design of the characters -- very Disney-esque -- had a big influence on how I drew animals and the like.  The above picture was found online but we actually owned these two guys back in the day...

THANKSGIVING'S GREETINGS

 

A re-run from last year...

REAPER -- THIS WORK BENCH MASCOT IS NO TOOL!

One episode of the CW series REAPER involved Tyler Labine's character Sock being punished and having to wear the Work Bench store mascot outfit... which ultimately leads to him embracing the job and facing-off with a rival hardware store mascot -- an ambulatory hammer -- and a fist fight that he wins -- only to find it's a retired old lady in the hammer get-up.

 

Above are the ideas I offered for the potential Work Bench mascot costume.  While "Wrenchy-Wrench" was the ultimate choice, I always loved the simplicity of the plum-bob design.

 

UN Havin a Good Time, Comrade?

Drew this during a Minnesota Scriptworks meeting.  Seeing as the Soviet Union was still in existence at the time, it tells you how many moons ago it was created.  The UN proceedings so boring the Soviet delegate is left to the imagination.

ALL THE PAST AND FUTURE HOLDS



A Photo from the LA TIMES shows a city councilman holding a life size cut-out of William Mulholland, the man behind the LA aqueduct a hundred years ago... ah, or is it a hundred year photo of Mullholland holding a life size cut-out of a councilman of the future?

NCIS 'TOONS - ON THE AIR

 

When I was at NCIS I drew these china marker sketches of Abby and Tony and they actually used them in one of the first season episodes.  In the scene, Newbie agent Kate's sketchbook was grabbed and her whimsical drawings of her new co-workers were revealed.  I'm sure that scored some points.  

 

Frankly, I'd forgotten about 'em but someone  reminded me and I found these online.

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

THE FIRST QUESTION EVERY WRITER MUST ASK...

When I  took my first screenwriting class at Film In The Cities in Saint Paul, this question was ingrained in each and every one of us -- that you may have the coolest, high-concept idea but if you can't answer the above question, your story has no character drive.  The above illustration never made its way to t-shirts but we had cool mugs made!