Months later...

I've decided I would avoid posting in this blog until I have news, but that is taking too long. Things continue to move forward. The production team in Paris developed quite a bit of phenomenal art and the people down in LA are shopping things around to networks.

So that's all the news. These things seem to take a ridiculous amount of time and I'm bound by all these non-disclosure promises and the like. Eventually, one way or the other, things will take a dramatic turn.

The waiting is horrible, by the way.

Included are two designs (well, one design with two hats) for a different take on Gloomy, as Victoria the Vampire, youngest and most rebellious daughter of Dracula. We decided to not make such major changes to Gloomy visually, and this will instead be her older sister. I may have already posted these. I don't remember. Ah well.

Time for rest...

Remember when I said things were quite and we had caught up? I lied. We got busy again. Things have been non-stop since France. Both in regards to work and personal lives. Eric and I were both very sick after the trip, and a flurry of rewrites were necessary during said illnesses. Apparently there is a big meeting early this coming week and all the material we had created so far required fine tuning beforehand.

It was exhausting. I feel good though. Other than the lingering dread of being very ill, that is. We have completed four full scripts (with some nice co-writing assistance on one from our friend Chris Brandt) and have about two more halfway completed.

We're lucky the writers strike doesn't affect us. Not just because we're not yet members of the guild, but because of the nature of the project. A few things shifted slightly differently and we could be very out of work.

Now we really do have time to rest. But I don't really like to rest. I prefer being busy. Alas.

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This is an old image. The first back cover to the Super Scary Monster Show comic. But I'm fond of it, and I've been doing some reworking of the Allen the Alien character lately after watching "The Thing". We'll see how well all that cinematic horror and dread translate to cute and irritating.

Once again, the line art is by Eric Jones. But this one was colored by Michael (Rusty) Drake. I miss collaborating with Rusty. We need to work on a new project together.

Phone calls and deadlines...

I received a phone call yesterday. It contained information that was not what I wanted to hear. Not a big deal, necessarily. But it requires me to change my thinking on a few things.

We're now caught up with all the post France work we were assigned. It wasn't alot. The next week or two will be spent in a limbo like state while things outside of our own ability to control spiral as they are wont to do. November will be an interesting month for us.

We're starting to put together the Super Scary Monster Show trade paperback. I should really spend some of my down time working on that.

No mas France!

We're back. The return flight was complicated. We had a connecting flight that failed to account for the fact that we're no longer on the same schedule as Paris for the resetting the clocks an hour back. Subsequently, our flight landed quite a bit later than promised. Ah well, it all worked out in the end.

I'm going to have alot of favorite memories to look back on. Quotes that resonate due to the context or the intent behind the statement. But the one that I will probably always return to is:

"Umm... that's alot of blood."

Indeed. It was more blood than anyone expected in the small Paris hotel room.

I saw some French things while I was there, but I am very self obsessed, and nothing of the sights of France can really compare to a naturally sunlit loft studio full of really high in demand talented people working day in and day out on a project of your own conception.

Enough with my jibber jabber! Here is some more art!



This is Larry. He's a werewolf. If you read my last entry, you know that he is doomed.



This is Evey, the rotten little Witch. I think that she might be conducting a marching band in this image. Not sure on that one.

...

Again, the above images were provided by Eric Jones and Rikki Simons. They think they're so damn special.

More to come soon!

I have no more Euros...

France is interesting. I've been here for five days and I have yet to see a single insect. I have yet to smell human urine at a doorway and I have yet to be awoken by gunfire.

To be fair, I've only seen about two blocks of France. The distance between the hotel and the studio. And really, why would I wander from these two points. I try to explain to our co-workers in the studio that this isn't work for either Eric or myself. This s what we do for fun.

On top of the massive amount of brainstorming and creative work being done in the studio itself, I've written a dozen or so detailed synopses in my off hours in the hotel room. Eric has been writing them as well, but I don't feel like sharing credit right now. He gets all the adulation for his artwork after all. No one ever says: "Hey Landry, nice drawing!". So yeah. it was me. I wrote them. I wrote them all.

To hell with you and your precious "artwork", Eric.

Here's a few of the story concepts (very short version) we've been working on:

1. Frank begins stealing brains.
2. The Devil tries to kill himself.
3. Carl gets ears.
4. Shelly turns everyone into ducks.
5. Larry dies.

Time is too short to post pictures. We've taken many of the studio and of the production team. We also have stacks and stacks of art that we will slowly release into the wild. Prepare yourself for this onslaught! It will arrive in due time!

Je ne comprends pas le français!!!

That's right, folks -- X-Ray Studios has gone international. We've been smack in the heart of Paris for a few days now, having set up camp in the swanky offices of our hosts. We're surrounded by some very talented people who are doing some amazing work, and we're both very excited to see what happens next. Until then, here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to:

• Hours-long "power meetings" regarding story ideas, character designs and sets
• Gaping at the mountain of beautiful art and design work the team has already produced in the last month or so
• Spending the entire work day at the office, producing as much material as possible in terms of both writing and art
• Going back to our tiny hotel room and working some more
• Struggling terribly to simply order McDonald's food, particularly in the sense that I'm trying to sound vaguely like a native when I say "Deux Royale Cheese et Deux Grande Frites". I'm somehow certain that I have failed to do so on both my French McDonald's excursions thus far. Soon enough. Then they'll all be sorry...
  

No doubt some of you understand from the headline of this entry that I don't understand French. Very little of it, anyway. Neither does Landry. That's okay though, because we're working with lots of people who either A) understand and speak English or B) are patient enough to work through both an interpreter and elaborate sign language to get the job done. I'm telling you, there's nothing like a bunch of people waving their arms around, making faces at each other in an effort to collaborate creatively. If only all collaboration was like that... Although come to think of it, half the time it is like that.

The other half, in my experience, involves punching the other guy a lot. I'm trying to restrain myself in our new surroundings, though. We'll see how that goes.

Voice casting...

We leave for France in a couple of hours. We'll be there for over a week working on Little Gloomy for animation, and on Friday we're supposed to discuss voice casting for the various characters. In my head, they all sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Subsequently, we are open to suggestions. Except for Carl and Dracula. We know who should do them.

We've already gone straight to our primary source on topics like this. But we figured we should solicit multiple opinions. We'll probably ignore them all, and instead recommend Arnold. Still, any ideas would be appreciated.

Actually, I don't think anyone reads this blog, so I don't really expect a response. But I'm cross posting this time from the X-Ray Studios Livejournal. Those people like us. They'll respond. Not like you guys and your sullen glares and palpable disinterest. We know you're out there just waiting for us to turn our backs. Just waiting for the moment when we stumble. Then you will strike.

Our plan is to update regularly while we're in France. But we'll be in France and someone else is paying, so we'll see if we actually manage to do anything online at all.