Monsters University

With Brave debuting to the tune of bagpipes worldround this Friday, it's time to roll out a preview of our next little film: 

I may have majored in Animation when I went to school, but I had a minor in Scaring. Anyone who participated in Fright Club at CalArts may remember those days. Now all of my practice stalking my friends through the CalArts cubicles finally pays off!

2 days...

Last Day of AM/PM Class

Last night was the final class of my third semester teaching at the Academy of Art University. 

Brave's director, Mark Andrews, was our guest lecturer. Fresh from finishing the final cut of the film, Mark gave a talk on the slings and arrows of filmmaking and the story process. I think it's safe to say all of the students came bounding out of the lecture, their cups brimming with a fresh serving of inspiration.

We asked our class to bring in scenes where a character experienced victory, to celebrate the end of a successful term. This scene, in particular, fit what Paul and I put our students through and the vindication of passing our class.

The clip warranted a final whiteboard sketch.

As you may know, we have a tradition of bringing a dessert to class. This week it was my turn, and I wanted to send my class of in the most decadent chocolaty style.

Congrats to our class, and all you film students out there who are wrapping up a semester of hard work!

37 days...

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...

CHADES CHALLENGE XL:
ABJECT COLOSTOMY BAGS

Easily the most disgusting Chades Challenge to date. I thought a Christmas spin on the subject would up the appeal a bit. I was wrong.

My second attempt was a full embrace of the potty-humor.

If you have any colostomy designs, let me know and I'll post them below. Or you can join me December 17th for the new challenge, in honor of NASA's latest discovery, CHADES CHALLENGE XLI: ARSENIC MONSTERS.

Meanwhile, in the gaming world...

The Dandies (my gaming group, derived from "dnd" to "dandy") tried out a new game last night that we can all heartily recommend. The game is called Cosmic Encounter, and comes from the 1970's. Apparently there've been dozens of editions released throughout the ages. Every player is assigned an alien race who starts with five worlds. Here's Chris with his foppish feline race, the Traders.

The goal is to colonize five of your opponents' worlds (the more players, the more worlds in the game universe), and the first to five colonies wins. With 75+ races, each with different abilities, every game is guaranteed to be a different experience. Races can ally with an alien invader (victorious defenders get to build colonies), or ally with the native defenders (victorious defenders may regenerate previously defeated warships).

My race was the Spiff, whose ability was to crash land one invading ship in the event of a severe loss, to insure colonization. I loved the race for it's obvious homage to Calvin and Hobbes, and loved even more that I won the game without a single colonization on my home worlds. The moment called for an extra nerdy photo-op.

So for all you nerds who love strategy board games like Risk or Dominion, Cosmic Encounter would make a great addition to your Christmas List. But don't take my word for it, check out this review by fervent Scottish nerd Robert Florence.

22 days...

Satan's Cess Pool

No, Satan's Cell Pool is not a new name for my blog. It's a white water rapid that I blasted through with some friends this weekend. I'm proud to say that courageous young lady getting launched off the front of the vessel is my girlfriend, Sarah. She will be missed.

I had so much fun, I had to sketch it the next day at church. And, yes, my sketchbook is always with me at church. Jesus gives me some of my best ideas!