Thread Killer

I recently posted here in the blog about the lurking notion that I'm a thread killer at one of the forums I frequent. It pretty much stems from the apparent security blanket that is my low artistic self esteem. It pretty much looks like self pity, and I'm constantly aware of this, so I have to poke fun at it.

At the forum where I believe myself to be a thread killer, one of the more prolific posters started a thread related to me yesterday, and managed to be complimentary about it. I won't get into the conspiracy theories this spawned, but my wife and I got some good laughs out of the places I went with it.

My goodness I'm a nut.

I've been writing more and drawing less, and I'd like to get in the habit of always including a drawing with a post here. The more I think I have something to say, the more in danger I am of being completely full of various kinds of organic waste fertilizer (horse poop comes to mind). So pitchers should be the mainstay here.

Peace out.

New Directions

I'm thinking of firing Shorty and Noodles. Also thinking of firing their loyal scooters, Mac and Retro. This wouldn't be an event in some kooky short that I'd write and take six months to work on in my spare time, but an unceremonious end to their participation in Cartoon Thunder.

Why?

I just feel like it's time for something fresh. Mix that with a few tablespoons of "I don't really think my target audience is into it anyway". I've also come up with an idea that, for me, is more compelling to work on. And I still won't have time for it, but I'll give it the ol' college try anyway. The new idea still involved motorcycles, but not as thinking, feeling, talking characters. Just as something to get down the road on.

I still don't think very many bikers will be interested, but I think I've abandoned the idea that what I'm doing is going to pop and be something to look for at bike rallies. I think my style is not edgy or sexy enough. I've finally been drawing some cartoon babes lately (mebbe I'll have a post of that sometime soon), and something of that nature might bring on more audience, but I have to think through how I want to represent the other gender. I may do some stuff for t-shirts or postcards, but I don't see it being profitable.

I may be speaking too soon. The Hollister t-shirts I made didn't sell very well, but the event was littered with t-shirts and various vendors of crapola. So I may try a few more designs and see how they do in non-rally circumstances. Maybe a swap meet or two. And as much as I personally don't like to wear black (too hot in my climate), I'll may to design for black shirts, as that will be the real test of my market.

But I feel mostly finished animating the Shorty and Noodles thing. It will take me some time to get the new deal started, but I'm excited about it. I won't even share any of the art right now.

Feels weird.

Numbers, statistics, viewers, who cares...

A few months ago I tried Google Analytics on Cartoon Thunder. I first heard about this from my mom, who runs a site called NapaLit (it's about literacy, not getting lit on Napa Valley vintage booze). I've been using a free application from Yahoo to analyze my log files, but it isn't very flexible and doesn't really give me any useable information.

Google Analytics, on the other hand, shows me a great deal of information, so I recently installed it here at the Blog. In addition, I use Feedburner to track subscriptions to my Podcast Feed.

I've gotten some interesting data that makes me sure I'm a complete nerd, or at least I am thinking about going over to the Nerd Side. I can see where my traffic is coming from, how much of it is new or returning traffic, and I can track "goals" to work on driving my viewers to some kind of a sale or end result.

Here's a few interesting facts:

• In the United States, a great deal of my traffic appears to come from Houston, TX, Philadelphia, and the SF Bay Area. I have contacts and friends in these places, and it appears that these friends are spreading the good news of Cartoon Thunder. Might help if I create some sort of fan mailer to help my friends spread the good word. I may also use this information to push shirts in these areas, or to create graphics aimed at those locales.


• Abroad, Germany looks like a hotbed of Cartoon Thunder and lightening. When I say "hotbed", that means that May 12 and July 14, 2007 I've had 94 hits from 36 cities, and these are almost all new viewers. Not really an actual "hotbed", but it looks neat on a map.


• My podcast gets pretty regular traffic from Itunes in the US, France, and Japan, as well as occassional visits from Spain, Australia, Austria, and India. No idea what to do with that.


• This should freak you out, especially if you're from NOLA. In something like five days of data from this blog, I've got one person in Lousiana who has visited 23 times. Googgle tells me I've got 23 visits from New Orleans at 0% new, which means it's all the same person. Cool! The good news in a Big Brother 1984 type way is that's all the info I get--I don't know who they are or where else they're going on the net. Whoever y'are, thanks for coming along! Conversely, at the Cartoon Thunder site itself, I've got 5 visits between May 12 and July 14, 2007, and only 5 of these are from NOLA, with two of these being from the same person (80% new rate). Compare this to my visits from Houston, TX, where I've got 45 visits in the same amount of time with about a 98% new rate.


• This one is sort of fun. I'm a member of a particular animator's forum that has some seriously hotshot, veteran, and talented animators around. I'm pretty sure I'm the lamest artist there. I've gotten a lot better since joining the forum around four years ago, and I've been helped in my improvement by several particular artists there, as well as encouraged by several others, including the head cheese at the place, who teaches animation. But somehow I've decided I'm a thread killer because often after I post in a thread it dies right away, like I went in there and passed gas or something. Today I posted there in a thread (that has since had several other posts) including a link to my discussion about Ratatouille (which I can spell now), and found through Google that I actually got a couple of hits out of it. Now my wife tells me I should participate more. I guess I'll actually find out if I'm stinkin' the place up or just taking the natural death of a thread personally.

The interesting thing overall is that I'm finding out about where my traffic is coming from and how much of it is repeat. Maybe later put out a list of where's hot and where's not so you, my loyal readers and fans and friends, can get the word out to these states that appear to be heathen to the Cartoon Thunder way of life. The other interesting this is that my wife has actually told me that my blog is interesting. I'm pretty sure that if anyone thinks it's boring, it'd be the love of my life.

If this isn't the most boring thing I've written in this blog, I'll eat a bug, maybe an earwig, since I've eaten one of those before (in high school, for five bucks).

Ripped off again!!

Dang it!! I should be rich by now if these fools would only stop stealing my brilliant ideas

First it was Cars, then it was Wild Hogs (yeah--how'd that rip you off Rupert?), and now this crazy (and sorta funny) thing with Own Wilson and Jack Black.

What this is is a link to a 30 minute pilot featuring Jack Black as Jack Austin, asstronaut, and Owen Wilson as a talking motorcycle. If you're a Repo Man fan like me, it also has the guy who played Lite in the 1984 film with Emilio Estevez.

You'll get the idea in about three minutes and probably want to watch the rest when you have time.

My legal team is assembling even as we speak. You may be asked to testify in the civil proceedings.

Here's the link to the YouTube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lWgXDOAJ5s

Oh wait, it was a 1999 pilot for Fox. I think their legal team will be after me now..

My sketches from Hollister '07

BMC Choppers

I don't know how I left this out of my rally report, but it came charging back to mind today when I found my new BMC 2XL t-shirt, courtesy of Rick from BMC.


I was hanging out near the BMC trailer and bike display Saturday morning getting warmed up and doing some quick sketching. I was drawing the BMC bikes because I just like the way they look, and my bet is that they handle great and go fast.


While I was sort of squatting there with my sketchbook open, this burly dude comes over and sez to me, "You drawing that for me?"


I wasn't really sure what he was getting at, but it occurred to me that in previous years I've asked permission to draw builders bikes. No idea why I had a lapse of my own self-fashioned etiquette this year. Two thoughts came to mind. The first was something like I dunno why you'd want one of my drawings, it's going to be pretty far from what I'm looking at. The other was does he think I'm "borrowing" the design?



The sketch is close and not completely lame, but visibly flat in a few places like the gas tank. It looks like I was having a tough time with perspective again. Mebbe next time I'll go back to the first bike I sketched after a few hours of drawing and do it again...

I handed him one of my infamous (literally, not famous) postcards and handed him one and explained that I'm just a cartoonist practicing my skills, and I really liked the bike, which is from their Hooligan line. We trade names, he was Rick, and I told him I'd bring him a shirt. He suggested we trade, so I came back later with one of my shirts, also infamous, and we made the trade. I'm actually not sure he wanted my shirt, but I'm pretty stoked to have one of his.


The Hooligan is easily my favorite BMC bike. It has old school lookin' full black fork boots, a sporster style gas tank, rigid frame, wide front end, 21" front wheel, spoked wheels, solo seat, and a slick custom rear fender. Go to the BMC website to check it out. It's actually got a decent price tag on it. If you buy one, tell 'em Rupert sent ya. Mebbe I'll get another t-shirt out of it.
The sketch is close and not completely lame, but visibly flat in a few places like the gas tank. It looks like I was having a tough time with perspective again. Mebbe next time I'll go back to the first bike I sketched after a few hours of drawing and do it again...

Lessons from Ratatouille

My original plan for today was to travel the 1.25 miles (I think that's 3 kilometers) to downtown Hollister to dig more rally, take more pictures, and draw some choppers and people. I wasn't so inspired, though, so I decided to make better use of my time by spending the day with my wife and son. We went to see Ratatouille.

I really enjoyed it and would love to see it again. Just on a plain old how'd I like it and how'd I feel level, I give it high marks. The animation work was fabulous, the art direction and quality was high--suprise, surprise, Pixar--and that certainly didn't hurt.

I also managed to get a few other nuggets from the experience. It could easily be that I've heard or read this stuff someplace else, so I don't claim to be original or unique in any of these thoughts. However, they're things I want to hold on to as a learn, so getting them in writing (izzat whatcha call this?) is good.

First, I've noticed some folks out there taking notice of the fact that Pixar has been bringing back the pre-movie short for some time, the short animated film before the movie. This is brilliant on a few levels. I realized not long ago that the previews before a movie often have the effect of making me forget what I came to see in the first place, or effectively blowing away my frame of reference for what I should see, hear, or expect next. I'm not sure if I'm easily distracted or if this is what they mean to do, or if it happens to anyone else. No idea. I'll assume it's on purpose.

With a preview, there's a clear commercial benefit to this--they magnify the impact of the feature by shifting my attention elsewhere, but they also show me something that makes me start planning to come back in July a year from now.

With Pixar, however, they take this level of distraction into their own hands and take me on a trip they designed themselves. Who knows if there's any thematic connection, or if maybe they're reminding me that for the next couple of hours, Pixar makes the rules for reality.

The other thing I got hip to and hope to find a way to adopt in some small way in my own work, is the idea that taking the viewer to a childhood experience through a character in the film--child or adult--evokes a particular emotional response that likely varies from person to person. In Ratatouille this is done powerfullly by the visceral and visual flashback to childhood by one of the characters. I'd say more, but I find Spoiler warnings irritating. At any rate, if I can pull that in somehow, it will make my work mor emotionally meaningful. Nice thing is, I think it can be done in a number of ways.

Finally, I got a couple of ideas for what I hope to be my next short, Hopped Up Chopper, that both simplify the story and allow for more fantastical and comical delivery in getting to the meat of the story. Something very visual, more contrived and less contrived at the same time, probably more natural feeling, and lots of fun. I think I'll do some improv and act it out myself and see what happens.

Rally Photos

Wow, what a corporatized retail scene this rally has become. The truth for me, however, is that I'd rather be out riding anyways (which I haven't been in some time), so no matter how you slice it, the whole rally scene has never been for me. For a better review, ask someone who actually digs big rallies, parks their bike for 4-8 hours at a stretch while they peruse the wares being offered.
I should also be grateful this thing exists, or I wouldn't see my artwork displayed like this:

And here's a selection of some of my favorite things:

I did a little sketching, but not as much or as developed as I've done at a few past rallies. I realized I have a tough time drawing a bike that's in front of me, but I do alright (or well, even) when I draw some 'toony bike and rider that only lives in my head. I'll add a few tomorrow. Time for bed.

The rally is here!! The rally is here!!

A little different than usual, but so was last year. And I actually haven't been inside the rally proper yet, but have gone past it and around it repeatedly today in my errands promoting the Cartoon Thunder Empire. It feels a little like a street faire, and parts of it probably are a lot like that. But heck, if a biker rally isn't a street faire, a celebration of pavement on the pavement, nothing is.

You can find Cartoon Thunder shirts at Thunder Road, the Paicines General Store, and also at the Mandego Apparel table next to World Famous Johnny's. A few friends have told me that they saw my shirts on the display. Weird.

Yesterday I wasn't even sure I'd have shirts, and my overactive imagination had a variety of sinister scenarios worked up about that. I managed to keep that to myself and got my shirts on time today to label them and distribute them. Tomorrow I hope to do shipping on the ten or so that I'm mailing to my handful of fans (they're actually just supportive friends) across the country, in Alabama, Virginia, Texas, Nebraska, and more. Kinda nice, really.

My main goal for tomorrow is to get downtown and do some drawing. Normally I set up and try to work up a composition of some merrit; just in case someone looks over my shoulder, I like to have something impressive. This year I really don't care. And I'm sure nobody really gives a hoot what I'm doing, actually. Rome wasn't built in a day. My main goal is to get a lot of quick sketches in, some thumbnails, some rough animation, even, of bike maneuvers, and for a change, get some people in there.

I'll try to post some photos and some sketches tomorrow night.

And if you're new to Cartoon Thunder, stick around, pipe up and say something. Outside my two good friends Kdog and JK, I have no idea who else is reading this stuff. Mebbe I'll change my settings to allow anonymous posts...

Bringin' it home

Every year the block I live on has a big block party for the Fourth of July, complete with about six jump houses, a major barbeque, music, and a big raffle. There's really something for everybody on the block, and lots of people have their extended families over.

This year I donated some Cartoon Thunder stuff for the raffle, including a framed and signed poster (could be worth big bucks when I'm famous or dead), a couple of t-shirts, and a pack of postcards bearing the soon to be famous Hollister graphic featuring Shorty's escort.



I joke around about being world famous (or not) but the truth is there's lots of people who believe in the success of Cartoon Thunder more than I do. Putting the raffle prizes up, I was thinking it might be like getting picked last for kickball. Before that sounds like me and my pity pot, that's also my sense of humor talking. Anyway, I was one of the first prizes picked.

Here's the proud winner and potential Cartoon Thunder fan. I didn't get his name, but apparently I got his attention. Thanks for diggin' the work.



Later I got some chalk and doodled on the street with my favorite collaborator:

As always when getting an image started, I worked rough and fast at the start, getting a loose but not too bad image. Some other folks created a real piece of art up the street that looked like an oriental tattoo. I wish I had a picture of it as it was truly an amazing work done by I think three people. Anyway, here's mine: