John K. posts
Posts: 181
Files: 70
Brik Blastoff 5a - Sturtevant Styvesant
In the 1970s I thought it was weird how TV cartoons portrayed non-white races. They basically just took their stock white characters and colored them slightly darker so as not to offend anybody - as if having non-white features were inherently offensive.I had recently just discovered the old Hollywood black cartoons that were extremely exaggerated caricatures of famous Jazz Musicians and for Brik Blastoff came up with a character that combined th...
Brik Blastoff 6 - Comet, Dik Diskusting
I basically lifted this cow design from a french cheese company.Here's a drawing Tom Minton did of Dik.
Brik Blastoff 4 - Steve
In the pilot of Brik Blastoff of the Outback it is revealed that Brik's Rocket Rangers have been posted on Ganymede for their whole lives. They have never encountered women before. When Brik is assigned with some new cadets he meets women for the first time and is confused by them because they don't look manly enough to be rangers. They have funny proportions which baffles him. In a fit of creativity he names them 'Steve' and '...
Brik Blastoff 3 - Nit Hoatzin
I think Nit was originally just an odd doodle I drew with screwy eyes. I thought if I made her into a character she might add some alien spice to the Brik Blastoff show pitch.The show was developed for me to pitch it to the Playboy channel, which is why there is some partial nudity. Here are some doodles of her from a few years ago.I got her name from watching an old nature show that featured a primitive bird called a 'Hoatzin'.They showe...
Brik Blastoff 2 - Brik and Jimi
In our story bibles we usually start off by giving a brief personality description of our main characters.After each description we follow with some model sheets showing various expressions and poses.Brik has a teenaged sidekick, Cadet Jimi. The design for this Jimi character was created at a car racing event where I was working as a caricature artist. While I was drawing someone's caricature this very funny looking guy walked by and I droppe...
Brik Blastoff of the Outback
Around 1980 I created some characters for a science fiction cartoon I wanted to make.The main character was Brik Blastoff, captain of the space police. Brik is the universe's most manly man. He was patterned after Kirk Douglas. As you can see, he is very intense. He is constantly having to suppress his inner emotions. This requires the utmost discipline.Sometimes his inner emotion is so strong it can't contain itself and his clothes burst...
HB Atom Ant 7 - the origin of 'Flesh-Colored' Eyes
In the mid 1960s cartoon studios stopped coloring eyes white. Instead they just painted the whole face including the eyes in caucasian 'flesh color'. this continued through the 70s and 80s and it was always a mystery to me. In this Atom Ant story I decided to come up with a logical reason for it.
HB Atom Ant 6 - MMA skills
to be continued...
HB Atom Ant 5 - Beamatron
I think the villain Beamatron was actually from HB's The Impossibles cartoon, but I thought he would work well in this Atom Ant story. He had a really cool voice that we used to imitate when we were kids.to be continued
Hanna Barbera Atom Ant 4 - Called to Duty
To be Cont...
Hanna Barbera Story Bible 3 Atom Ant Blessed Event
To Be Continued...
Hanna Barbera Story Bible 2 - Atom Ant's Double Life 2
to be continued...
Hanna Barbera Story Bible - Atom Ant Story
A few years ago Adult Swim asked me to develop a Hanna Barbera anthology series that featured many of their early characters. Here is a story Richard Pursel and I wrote featuring Atom Ant and his secret identity.My story outlines evolved over the decades. On Ren and Stimpy we wrote our outlines with text only. After awhile I started adding rough sketches to my outlines because when I had gag sessions with my co-writers I always drew sketches of m...
Ted Bakes One
Here's a couple cels from my first professional cartoon. It was animated by Lynne Naylor and me. Jim Gomez assisted the animation and Bill Wray painted the surreal backrounds.We did it around the end of 1979 and early 1980 for a cable show called 'Channel Zero'.
Cartoon Cavalcade 8 - Dave the Time-Tarsier
This concept was developed in the early 80s and added to the 1985 Cartoon Cavalcade story bible.I was fascinated by our primitive relatives the prosimians (pre-monkeys) and especially the Tarsier. I thought it'd make a good cartoon character with its huge bulgy eyes and ignorant expressions. They can also turn their heads backwards and I assumed this would enable it to travel through time.Dave has 2 sidekicks, Buster Bee and Ken the angry bab...
Cartoon Cavalcade 7 - Your Gang Story Premises
It is customary in Storybibles to include short premises of the types of stories the characters are in. Here are some from the Cartoon Cavalcade bible.This photo was the original inspiration for Ren.
Cartoon Cavalcade - Fake Characters
I had pitched Ren and Stimpy as its own show to the Saturday Morning cartoon shows in the early 80s and the executives all thought I was crazy. It was just too weird for them.So in the mid 80s when Lynne Naylor and I were were creating a pitch presentation for Cartoon Cavalcade we added some typical 80s kid characters to "Your Gang" to kind of take the edge off the more extreme characters like Ren, Stimpy, Bobbyloaf, George Liquor, Slab &...
Jeena The Jungle Girl
Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I got locked out of the site for about a week for some reason and just now was able to open it again.Here are some more recent drawings of Billy Bunting's girlfriend.There's another post below that I forgot to publish last week. Cartoon Cavalcade 4- format.
Cartoon Cavalcade 4
Here's another article I thought I already posted. It's the format of Cartoon Cavalcade.I took the idea from 60s DC comics. They used to have some stories they labelled "Imaginary Tales" as opposed to their regular superhero stories which really happened.
Cartoon Cavalcade 5 - Billy Bunting
A little later in the year that I created Ren and Stimpy (1979) I also created a little bird character called Billy Bunting of the Apes and his human girlfriend Geena (sometimes spelled 'Jeena'.)This concept made it into the 1985 Cartoon Cavalcade story bible. Here are a couple color presentation boards from about 1980.
Cartoon Cavalcade 1 Ren and Stimpy
I thought I had already posted this but it seems to be missing so I'm uploading it again.
Cartoon Cavalcade 3 - Format
In the 1986 story bible Ren and Stimpy were just part of a show that featured 3 main character groups. Ren and Stimpy were part of 'Your Gang'. There were 2 other series: Billy Bunting of the Apes and Dave the Time Tarsier. The show was sort of a throwback to late 50s and early 60s TV cartoons like the Huckleberry Hound Show and Rocky and Bullwinkle.Ren and Stimpy were the characters I most wanted to do but I had pitched them to Saturday ...
Cartoon Cavalcade 2 - Kids
Shortly after I created Ren and Stimpy - also in 1979 I came up with some kid characters who interact with them.
Girls: Pretty and Not As Much So
Here are some girls I've been working on. I seem to have some trouble drawing funny looking women because my natural instinct is to draw them cute.
Fire chief Turns Into Animation Mogul
I found these layouts from Firedogs 2 where the fire chief becomes Ralph Bakshi. It starts with the chief having a funny feeling inside.His brows get bushy, his nose widens and flattens and his lips thicken up.He grows a 5 o'clock shadow and widens.His body begins transform. His big chest lowers slowly at first.Then his jacket bursts open and out dumps a magnificent newly formed belly.It recoils and bounces a couple times.It comes to a stop.T...
More Jetsons
I always thought the Jetsons Show had great raw elements; great character designs and voices, a funny concept and beautiful backgrounds. I think they could have pushed it further though especially in the animation. The first season of the Flintstones had some very funny and stylish animation, but the Jetsons seemed to be animated in a very mild conservative style.I think Elroy was a funny character but felt he should eat more.Jane was quite the m...
Art Show Coming Up
I've been doing some marker art for a show coming up starting on February 23rd. Here's some of it in progress.I will be there for the opening on the 23rd so come visit if you can. It's from 6 - 10 pm.there will also be cels, backgrounds and other assorted production art on display and for sale.
