Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Chicken Helper





Two pullets what got past the post yesterday, Martin Sal's toothy entry which started the jam, and Rafael Rosenwald's take on throttling poultry as a way to relieve stress. More to come!



UPDATE- added this lil' number to the ones here. Animation and design by Ariel Villaverde. Sound by Ivan Rusev. Really love the look here, thanks for getting me the link Ariel!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Chicken Jam hilites










Ba-Kawk! - Watch more amazing videos here

O.k., here's all the Chickenjam submissions I could find online. The whole evening was a-flippin'-mazing, and the crowd lost it when we screened these, and more than 20 others! I'll have a full report later in the week. Enjoy! And show these filmmakers some love by bloggin' about them or forum posting, Twitter, whatever...they rock.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Marjane needs our help!

Hate to get political on y'all, but there's nothin' for it. By now everybody knows just how bad things are on the ground in Iran following the 'election'. Well, Marjane Satrapi, author and illustrator of 'Persepolis' (go see the movie! read the book!) has started a petition asking the U.N. to get off its ass and do something. Go read it...then sign it. If you've seen Marjane's stuff, you know it's a beautiful country suffering from an ugly government, and the shit they pullin' just ain't right. Thanks. Heads-up courtesy of John Martz over at Drawn!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Chicken Cowboy



Just to remind ya...Thursday's the night of the big TAIS Summer Showcase, so don't be doing nothin' else! In the meantime, here's some southwestern flava'd chicken for ya, courtesy of one Stephen Neary...it's the trailer to his full New York University senior film 'Chicken Cowboy', up on them thar YouTubes for a limited time. Damnit, Stephen, why din't ya send us something for the ChickenJam? You would've been in good company...more on all the excellent submissions later this week. Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer and go see the full film, while you can!

Friday, June 19, 2009

The Mysterious Stranger



Went lookin' for 'Disturbing Animation' on them thar YouTubes, and looky what I found. An excerpt from Will Vinton's 'The Adventures of Mark Twain', a claymation feature film and one of my teenage faves. And disturbing it is...as the kids get a lesson in the value of life from Ol' Nick hisself. Enjoy!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Bad Kitty, Good Cartoon



I am posting this not becuz of the kitty (great design) or the weird, abrupt ending (caught me by surprise) nor the fact that it comes from Andy Coyle, a dude who (up 'til a few weeks back) worked for FatKat, one studio what will be missed.

No, I'm posting this for one reason. Changing channels by whacking the clicker with yer tail. Genius. More to come.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Bryce On Animation...and on, and on



Before I head off for a weekend of vid'ya games and pretzels (and doing the trailers for the Chickenjam...I ain't fergot, Tara) I'll just leave you with this lil' comic gem what I found on Bryce Hallett's website...I feel yer pain, Bryce. Did the Security Guard thing for four freakin' yars. Gave me a lotta time to draw between tours, tho'...more to come next week!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Chickenjam Sponsor: Nemu-Nemu



Here's my entry for the upcoming TAIS 'Chickenjam!' How, do you ask, do I justify this as a chicken cartoon? Nemu (the second pup, Anpan being the airborne pooch) is wearing a silly chicken hat. And the birdie character is named 'Pollo' (Spanish for 'chicken'). C'mon, ain't that enuff? Birdie! Pups! Silly Chicken Hat! What do you people want from me?!?

On to other things. I like having excuses to promote indy artists at TAIS events, which is part of what TAIS is all 'bouts. Last year, we gave away some excellent monsters courtesy of Toronto's own Monster Factory. So when Bryce came up with 'Chickens' as the theme for this year's animation jam, I knew my go-to peoples. (Pollo? See how it all comes together?)

Kimonokitsy Studios is a husband-and-wife team composed of Audra Furuichi (who does the drawrings) and her hubby Scott Yoshinaga (who does site admin, business and co-writes the strip). They've been posting their ubercute anime-flava'd web comic Nemu-Nemu since 2005, and the strip is a big enough hit that Audra works on it full-time. One of the strip's new characters is the small yellow bird named 'Pollo'. Hence my thinly veiled excuse for getting 'em to send us some swag for the contest.

And what great goodies we gots! Signed and doodled copies of their latest compilations, canvas totes with Nemu and Pollo on 'em, 'Pollo' stuffies and signed prints of the strip (featuring chickens) that Audra and Scott whipped up for the Easter edition of the East Oahu Sun...did I mention they hails from Hawaii?

Right now Audra and Scott are relaxing after a grueling (but productive) span of comics conventions and crafts shows (the last being Fanime '09 in San Jose), with the next one being in December. That's it, gotta run and get this batch o' goodness to Tara for safekeeping at TAIS H.Q. June 25th is fast approaching, so mark it on yer calenders. Oh, and go check out them Nemu-Nemu strips...it'll put the smile on yer face. Later!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Beat by Flower Power!



There were only two films selected in the KAFI 2009 web film category this year...my goofy lil' PSA, and this bit of 1930's flavored botanical violence. Guess which won? Man, if I gotta lose, there's worse films to lose to, believe me. Congrats to Phil Dubrovsky and Dale Hayward...plant abuse never looked so good! More on the upcoming TAIS showcase and Chickenjam tomorry...

Into the Labyrinth...plus, nooze!




Some big beautiful stills from Patrick Jenkin's noir homage "Labyrinth", which took 1st place in it's category at KAFI this year. Animated by paint on plexiglass under the camera, Patrick debuted it last summer, and it's been nothin' but kudos since. Nice job! Wanna see it? Come to the TAIS Showcase, cuz it's on the program.

Also on the program is a slew of some of the best animated shorts the board has seen in a dog's age...seriously, it took fer freakin' ever to create a program this year (nice works, Madi and Tara) and to top it all off, we also have 30+ chicken films to look forward to as part of the ChickenJam! I'll be announcing our latest sponsor tomorrow. Meanwhile, take a gander at these stills, and drop by Pat's website. More to come!