Happy Halloween!

And Happy Hauntukkah to my BOO!ish friends! My ghoulfiend Heather's birthday is October 29th, and we both love Halloween, so this gave me the perfect excuse to paint something spooky for the bewitching young lady.

Here we are with our Jacques-O-Lantern and Drac-O-Lantern. Drac seems to be suffering a severe allergic reaction to that garlic.

 

Poison Ivy's got a brand new sidekick, and he seems to have some sort of fungal infection.

Anyone can pull off a cool Batman costume, but it takes a real man to rock a Robin. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a stone-cold fox of a Poison Ivy.

 "Holy venus fly traps, Batman!" 

Hope you guys had as much horribly haunting fun as we did this Halloween! Now time to dust off those ugly Christmas sweaters...

0 days...HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Chades Challenge LXXI: British Trick-Or-Treaters

I bet the most popular Halloween costume at Hogwarts is Jedi. With telekinesis and mind control, I'll bet the little witches and wizards make very convincing Force-users!

If you have any British Trick-or-Treaters, let me know and I'll post them below. Otherwise you can join in November 9th for...

CHADES CHALLENGE LXXII:

BOND GIRLS

Colleen "BOO! Who?" Madden

James "Shaken, not Stirred" Trujillo

Austin "Exterminate!!!" Reinkens

 

Zane "The Shropshire Slasher" Yarbrough

5 days...

The Little Spider

A Little Spider skitters along the dusty floor,
Through the haunted manor halls and the banshee's moor,
Because the Spider finds
That the web he winds
Lends grim glee to all Hallow's Eve decor.

 12 days...

The Roaming Spirit

For my girlfriend, Heather, who loves Halloween and traveling. Inspired very much by Marc Davis' hitchhiking ghosts.

25 days...

Pegomastax

Pegomastax ("strong jaw"), possibly a distant relative to Count Orlok and Lestat, has been discovered just in time for Halloween.  Since Pegomastax predates bats, my theory is that he turned into an Anurognathus.

Despite the gruesome appearance, Pegomastax was most likely omnivorous, meaning the most Halloweeny part of his diet was candy corn (which you can use to fashion your own set of Pegomastax fangs).

With massive canines, quills, and a sweet chicken comb, it's no surprise this guy is already generating a lot of paleo-art:

Jonathan Kuo

Life-sized bust by Tyler Keillor

26 days...

This is Halloween

A chill wind, an icy breath. Thus begins the season of death.

31 days...

Pennycandy

The cast of The Scotland Company decks the halls for everyone's favorite holiday. That is, Miss Pennycandy is decking the halls as the men lounge around pretending to be important.

Happy birthday to Xanadu Bruggers, our one and only Pennycandy!

41 days...

Languid Jack-O-Lanterns

Last week, I challenged the Twitterverse to board a four-panel sequence illustrating the theme, "Languid Jack-O-Lanterns." I strayed pretty far from the actual meaning of 'languid,' but the sequence was fun to board, none the less. Enjoy! 

SFX: Footsteps 

SFX: Creaky door

Sally: "Jack, are you okay? I noticed your most recent Jack-O-Lanterns are looking a little...off..."

Jack: "I haven't had much time for pumpkin carving, Sally. You see, I've discovered a new enthralling holiday..."

Jack: "FLAG DAY!"

If you'd like to participate in this weekend's four-panel challenge, the theme is "Tournament Squirrels."

47 days...

Happy House Warming, Kitt!

My buddy and fellow improviser, Kitt, had a house-warming party last weekend and I wanted to give him something special to brighten the walls. Kitt is known for having some of the most amazing Halloween costumes and by far his best has been the Han-and-Tauntaun combo. His tauntaun even had removable guts to warm your hands with. So the gag above was really a no-brainer.

Kitt also has one of those faces that's fun to caricature. He even gained a little notoriety at work for bearing a striking resemblance to the Lao Ming meme. 

 Happy Friday everyone!

42 days...

Chades Challenge LXVIII: Renewed Frogs

The Creature staggered after Flygor, its rotten black lips parting as it croaked, "Riiibbet, riiiiiiibbet." The hump-back dashed under a lab table, but the Creature tossed the obstacle aside with ease, sending flasks and beakers to the ground with a sizzling, smoking crash. What had Dr. Froggenstein created??

Anyone can submit to our bi-weekly Chades Challenges. Just let me know if you created any renewed frogs, and I'll post them below. If not, you can always join in March 30th for... 

Chades Challenge LXIX: Game of Thrones

Jesus "One Zombie Evening" Chambrot

Luke "Chef of Death" Baker

Bruno "Lucky Swarms" Chekerdimian

20 days...

CHADES CHALLENGE LXI: WICKED TREES

Sorry for the delay, I had a tough time uprooting this fella from my sketchbook.

Stubborn little shrub! If you have any "Wicked Trees", let me know and I'll post them below. Otherwise, you can join in November 23rd for...

CHADES CHALLENGE LXII: A MUPPET THANKSGIVING

 John "Bad Seed" Dusenberry

Colleen "Weirwood" Madden

Rami "The Bough that Breaks" Kasim

Austin "Roots of All Evil" Reinkens

11 days...

The Monster Squad

My friends and fellow improvisers, Christian Roman and Don Schmidt, joined me for this year's costume contest. We went as younger versions of the Universal Monsters applying for a transfer to Monsters University. No word yet on the status of our application.

 

Yet another improviser, Kitt Hirasaki, about to get a nasty hickey from Drac. Someone should have told the count that "Nein" means "Nein!"

Super villains unite! Dark Helmet and Magneto were both entirely hand-made. Magneto may be able to move metal, but Drac can move Halloween merchandise!

If you have any pics of your Halloween brilliance and/or atrocities, please leave a comment below! If not, enjoy those raisins and smarties!

0 days...Happy Halloween!

All Hallow's Eve

Why the Hawaiian jack-o-lantern? Why the iron nails instead of bolts? These questions (and more) will be answered on the brand-spakin-new blog for my non-Pixar short film, Nail'd.

Check in for weekly updates and watch as my crew and I navigate the stormy seas of animation!

0 days...Happy Halloween!

The Halloween Tree

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a tradition of giving my mom a decoration for her Halloween Tree (which was made by my brother) every year, for her Birthday.

This year, the card itself was a decoration. Christmas Trees have tree-toppers, so I figured my mom's Halloween Tree deserves nothing less. And what better Halloween icon than the Jack-O-Lantern?

You can see some of the previous years' decoration/presents above. It was my step-dad Steve's birthday, too, so he got some wine with a Halloweeny skull-bottle-stopper.

On the other side of the card was the limmerick:

The witches are singing from brooms in the sky

While every ghost calls with voices on high

Rather than "Boo!"

It's "Happy Birthday, you two!"

Then they dig into their pumpkin pie.

I may just use my mom's Halloween Tree as inspiration for this week's Chades Challenge: Wicked Trees!

14 days...

The Emeryville Horror

At Pixar, no one can hear you scream...unfortunately, everyone can hear you sing. 

Our theatre troupe, The Improvibles, is doing a horror musical this Friday. I know it's supposed to be an entirely improvized performance, but I'm already planning to launch into this song as our show closer. 

19 days...

CHADES CHALLENGE LX: JUBILANT VAN HELSINGS

When you've survived the depths of macabre that Abraham Van Helsing has, there isn't much jubilation left in your soul. Here the professor is, absolutely elated at having rid the world of its last sparkly emo vampire. Abe may not be the kind of guy you'd invite to a party, but he's the first one you want there when you notice one of your guests doesn't cast a reflection in your living room mirror.

If you have any Jubilant Van Helsings, let me know and I'll post them below. Otherwise, you can join in October 21st for...

CHADES CHALLENGE LXI:

 WICKED TREES

Colleen "The Bride" Madden

Guillermo "Van Helsing" Martinez

Lauren "Mistress of the Night" Kvalheim

22 days...

"Persist" on KCRW

My little letter to Willie Downs' Animator Letters Project got some air time this week on KCRW. Check out their website to listen to the whole show, which includes an interview with Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter (unfortunately not related to my portion of the show).

On a completely unrelated note: Happy Birthday, Mom (she's the one on the left)!

My mom loves Halloween, so my brother made a "Halloween tree" for her a few years ago. I've made it a tradition of getting her a new tree decoration each year on her birthday. If you guys have any good ideas for  this year's Halloween decoration, leave a comment! Grazie!

26 days...

CHADES CHALLENGE LIX: FERAL SPIRITS

"He's looking at me, Ray."

Slimer may not be "feral" in the wilderness sense, but he's not your typical domestic specter, either. Really, I'm just excited about the upcoming theatrical rerelease of Ghostbusters. Plus, Slimer is fun to draw.

If you have any feral spirits, let me know and I'll post them below. Otherwise, you can join us October 7th for:

CHADES CHALLENGE LX:

JUBILANT VAN HELSING

 Adam "The Goats with the Most" Rosette

Guillermo "Dances with Wolves" Martinez

Tim "Teen Spirit" Luecke

Austin "Spirit Animal" Reinkens

Colleen "Mad Tea Party" Madden

Zane "Teen Spirit" Yarbrough

36 days...