The Long Con

Part I of II: Stars, Stripes, and Animators
It's been a whirlwind week of nerdery! Rather than dump all my Comic Con pictures on you in one mega post, I thought I'd break things up into Con and pre-Con shenanigans. It all started Tuesday with the red carpet premiere of Captain America.

Marvel talent manager George Beliard (who gave me my "I am Captain America" cover job) was kind enough to invite Ronnie, Bill, Bobby, and myself to the event. Ronnie and Bill were the first Marvel/Pixar synergy artists, contributing Iron Man covers last year, and Bobby and I had Captain America covers released this month.

Ironically, I had to ask Superman for directions to will call.

The event was a sea of stars and stripes, and these stars travel in style.

The next morning, it was on to the California State Summer School of the Arts with Erik Benson and Emma Coats to teach high schoolers a little something about animation. Erik, Emma and I all share the same CSSSA to CalArts to Pixar path, so we can  definitely appreciate someone like Martha Baxton (below), who has been working to guide young animators into the industry since the Eisner era!

Another stalwart member of the CalArts staff is the cafeteria guy. Ten years since I first strolled through the lunch line and this guy is still working the kitchen! And I still don't trust his taco bar...

Being back at my alma mater to teach exactly a decade after being a CSSSA  student myself was trippy  because I was hit with two flavors of flashback. Like a scoop of CSSSA on a CalArts cone. It's especially weird when artifacts of my CalArts tenure are sprinkled throughout the department, like Pat McHale's poster for our Senior year Producer's Show.

I can't wait to see what comes of this new generation. After personally critiquing all of their sketchbooks, it looks to me like the future of the animation industry is in good hands!

After CSSSA, it was onto San Diego for the main event! But before rampaging into the convention center, I paid a quick visit to my grandparents in Vista to show them the Captain America cover I was bringing to the Con. My grandpa, a fellow artist, was more than happy to accept a copy!

My grandma's casserole was as tasty as ever, though I'm not sure she's as interested in comic art as grandpa.



Stay tuned for tomorrow's instalment of the Long Con where Cap and I will invade Hall H (because we know the H stands for Hydra).

6 days...

I am Captain America

Several months ago, Marvel invited me and fellow Pixarian Bobby Rubio to contribute art to a series of variant covers called I am Captain America. The series depicts Cap as ordinary citizens of all walks of life, reflecting the hero in all of us. My assignment was the "little league Cap", which was just fine by me because it doesn't get much more American than Baseball. The issue is a variant cover of New Mutants #27, which is on shelves now!

The variant's a bit rare (1 in 25 of New Mutants #27 will be the I am Captain America variant), so you may want to call your local comic store ahead of time to make sure they're packing the heat. Here's a look at the progression from sketchbook to final cover:

Below is an alternate concept I pitched to Marvel's talent relations manager, George Beliard (Cap as the coach, rather than a player), and an alternate pose, with a bit more of an aggressive stance.

This being my first professional comics job, I was curious to see how my friends would react. So I decided to film their responses in a series I call Comic Reactions.

My friends Jay and Tim are usually more into games than comics, but I think they really dug my cover!

Sometimes one's art can only be appreciated by fellow artists.


Being a professional comic artist means you're a VIP wherever you go.


I was curious to see the response of my target audience: the chilluns.

I drove up to Sacramento to visit my hometown comic shop, A-1 Comics, with my dad. A bit of a trek just for a comic, but I think you'll agree that my dad's reaction was worth it!

It slowly donned on me that perhaps this was a cover only a mother could love.


Can't wait to see the reactions of other professional comic artists at Comic Con and Trickster! Stay tuned!

13 days...

CHADES CHALLENGE LIV: REJECTED TRANSFORMERS

Carmaggedon, the most dreaded of all Decepticons...at least in LA.

If you have any Rejected Transformers designs, let me know and I'll post them below! As always, everyone is invited to participate. If you don't have anything this week, you're welcome to contribute to our next Character Design Challenge on July 29th. The subject will be:

COWBOYS VS. ALIENS

 Aaron "Optometrist Prime" Evans

Megan "Fox" Dong

Austin "MegaTRON" Reinkens

0 days! Deathly Hallows Part 2 Premieres!

Guest Checks

Now that's rex appeal.

The waiters at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe (Pixar's local greasy spoon) have started a blog called Guest Checks that features nothing but receipt art. I'm a huge fan of this idea, since I like to doodle on receipts for the waiter (okay, usually for the waitress) and I always imagine the work just gets thrown away.

Here's a guest check from the animator who told me about the blog, Aaron Hartline:

And another by friend and fellow Dandy, Everett Downing:

Now if only someone would create a blog for coasters and napkins...

4 days...

Austin Translation Sketchbook

That's right, this blog is becoming a book! Just in case you wanted to pay for what you're doing for free right now. These are the proofs hot off the presses from Edition One Books, who printed my friend Dani's book, Round Robin. I'll be doing a limited run of 200 copies, available exclusively at Trickster.

For those of you who haven't heard about it, Trickster is an art gallery and retail space specializing in creator-owned wares including small run and limited edition books, fine art prints, toys, clothing, etc. 

As you can see, Trickster is located directly across the street from Comic Con at the SD Wine and Culinary Center, and will be open late into the night after the Con has closed. So you can finally have a drink with that Leia in the gold bikini that you lost in the Hall H crowd.

Other Trickster exclusives include the official Trickster compendium (cover by the incomparable Mike Mignola):

The book features art from professional animators, comic artists, and illustrators, all contributing their take on the "trickster" theme. I examined the hoax-trickster in my piece, "The Boy Who Cried Nessy".

Finally, making it's debut at Trickster will be the loooong-awaited Afterworks 3 (cover by the astounding Lou Romano).

Which will feature my short story, Terrordactyl:

Afterworks 3 will be hitting comic stores everywhere in August, but the Trickster and Austin Translation books will be limited run Trickster event exclusives, so make sure to swing by San Diego and pick up your copy!

I'll be there Friday and Saturday, but Trickster is open Tuesday July 19th to Sunday July 24th. So stop by and say howdy!

Addendum Saturday July 9th, 2011:

My friend Jeff posted this on facebook, and I just had to share.

Todd insisted on sharing a booth, and who am I to say no to the creator of Spawn?

7 days...

The Animator Letters Project

Back in May, an aspiring animator named Willie Downs sent me an invitation to contribute to his Animator Letters Project (a hand-written snail mail invitation, no less!).  Willie is planning on compiling the letters he receives into a book, and while he's only gotten a few responses (my buddy Aaron was the first to respond), they're all fairly inspiring!

I wasn't going to post the letter until Willie published his book, but Letters of Note put it up on their site, and I've been getting the most awesome and uplifting feedback from people. So here it is for anyone who needs a word of encouragement today.

If you're a professional animator, please consider contributing to The Animator Letters Project. It only takes a few minutes to hand-write a letter, but you never know who you may inspire!

And in case you can't read my chicken-scratch, here's the transcript from Letters of Note:

PIXAR

May 17, 2011

To Whom it May Inspire,

I, like many of you artists out there, constantly shift between two states. The first (and far more preferable of the two) is white-hot, "in the zone" seat-of-the-pants, firing on all cylinders creative mode. This is when you lay your pen down and the ideas pour out like wine from a royal chalice! This happens about 3% of the time.

The other 97% of the time I am in the frustrated, struggling, office-corner-full-of-crumpled-up-paper mode. The important thing is to slog diligently through this quagmire of discouragement and despair. Put on some audio commentary and listen to the stories of professionals who have been making films for decades going through the same slings and arrows of outrageous production problems.

In a word: PERSIST.

PERSIST on telling your story. PERSIST on reaching your audience. PERSIST on staying true to your vision. Remember what Peter Jackson said, "Pain is temporary. Film is forever." And he of all people should know.

So next time you hit writer's block, or your computer crashes and you lose an entire night's work because you didn't hit save (always hit save), just remember: you're never far from that next burst of divine creativity. Work through that 97% of murky abyssmal mediocrity to get to that 3% which everyone will remember you for!

I guarantee you, the art will be well worth the work!

Your friend and mine,

Austin Madison

"ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!"

10 days...

Happy Independence Day!

Don't let that recession get in the way of you and a good fireworks show! And what better way to prove you're still on the top of the food chain than by eating a bald eagle?

Britain may have the monarchy, but here in 'Murica we can all eat like kings! SFfoodwars.com has the recipe for Elvis Pie, which combines the king's love of peanut butter and bananas (sorry, we didn't have any room for mayo and bacon).

Oh, and make sure to have some Elvis movies on in the background so that the sweet sounds of the king are baked directly into each ingredient.

11 days...

CHADES CHALLENGE LIII: SUPER 8

I'm not sure about you guys, but when I was watching Super 8 (minor spoilers to follow), I thought the cubes were the actual alien. Y'know, some sort of bionic organism. The creature from the train was surely just the advanced organism's pet. Some unruly space watchdog. Maybe the cube-man would reward the kids for helping him by letting them keep his pet. Then BOOM: franchise created. Move over Air Bud, here comes Space Spot!

Anyway, if you have your own ideas about the Super 8 monster, let me know and I'll post them below! If not, you're welcome to contribute to our next Character Design Challenge on July 15th. The subject, which you all chose on last week's poll, is more than meets the eyes:

CHADES CHALLENGE LIV: REJECTED TRANSFORMERS

Aaron "51" Evans

Sara "Babbittlon 5" Babbitt

Chel "Trayn Wreck" Traynor

Zane "Phone Home" Yarbrough

Kevin "Devil's Tower" Danison

On a completely unrelated note, here's this week's Kilt Friday pic. Drawn by my Animated Buzz mentee Patrick Stannard. Thanks, Patrick!
 

Remember folks: if it's not Scottish, it's crap!

14 days...

A Couple Warm-Up Drawings

First, happy birthday to my old friend, the highflyin' Vi-Dieu Nguyen! Hope you have a ball, pal.

Second: the "Name That Trailer Soundrack" challenge!

After seeing the trailer for the new Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, I decided to pose a challenge to my Twitter followers to name the soundtrack in the score. Fifty seconds later, someone identified Elfman's Wolfman theme. I should have known better than to underestimate the wisdom of the Twitterverse!

This drawing went to the winner, Nick Folkman.

Speaking of monster drawing challenges, Chades Challenge LIII: Super 8 is due tomorrow! Everyone is invited to contribute and all submissions will be posted! Let's see what sort of monster you would have designed for JJ's film.

15 days...

Combat Con

Emma Coats and I have an agreement: she makes films, and I animate her production company's bumper for said films. Sometimes we even make a promotional sticker of said bumper for said film (see below).

So when Emma goes to a festival to promote her film, I like to tag along to promote my bumper. Last weekend was the premier of her latest masterpiece, Horizon.

We showed the film at Combat Con in Las Vegas. Since this is the first year Combat Con has been put on, the crowds were...modest, to say the least.

12% of our audience were knights, so that's saying something. He really dug the film by the way, even though he was unable to sit and had to watch the whole thing leaning against a beam.

While we were at Combat Con, we figured we'd get a bit of sparring in. Our visual effects supervisor Don taught a lesson in pain to this haughty knave.

While there wasn't a huge crowd at the convention, the characters that did attend were pretty colorful. I saw this gentleman stomping away from a pulverized slot machine.

After the screening, the Horizon crew wandered the strip for a while and ended up running into a co-worker. Usually, one experiences a different sort of buzz in sin city.

We capped the night off with a round of donations to the Caesar's Palace fund.

Needless to say, it was another knight to remember in Vegas.

If you'd like to check out Horizon (and the gloriously animated production bumper), Emma will be screening the film next month at TR!CKSTER.

16 days...