The Jackalope Boyz Preview is Online!

Yep! You heard right! You can now officially see The Jackalope Boyz preview and see for yourself what we've been wagging our tongues about all this time! You can find it here:
http://www2.warnerbros.com/cartoon/preview_jackalope.html
let us know what you think! Remember, it's just a small preview of even more fun to come!

New Desktop pictures

Here are some new Zaptoons desktop pictures to spice up that same old boring computer desktop you've been using for ages. Admit it- you rarely change the desktop background pictures. Well fear not, click the links below and download the desktop wallpapers. Both are sized at 1024 x 768 pixels to fit most computer monitor resolutions.

A new Ribeye the Bullbarian Desktop wallpaper. This is a scene from our upcoming Ribeye book, 'The Sands of Fate'. To download the desktop, click here. Wait for the image to load- then right-click it (control-click for Mac) and choose 'Save Picture As' or 'Download Image'.

A new Jackalope Boyz wallpaper. We created this image for our Zaptoons 4th of July page this year. To download the desktop, click the image, or click here.

In Windows, you can make an image a desktop background by opening the (.jpg) image in Internet Explorer or Windows Picture Viewer. Right-click the image and select 'set as desktop background' from the menu. For Macintosh (OSX) control-click the (.jpg) image and select 'set (image) as desktop picture.

More Jackalope Boyz pics!

Here's a new sneak peek pic of The Jackalope Boyz!

Here the Jacks have just seen the scariest thing alive! A Blue-haired Nanny!

Here's another one...

In this shot the Jacks have just run into an old friend. Manuel hopes he doesn't backfire!

The film is finished and as Harry said I spotted music yesterday for it. We're going for a Latino mariachi sort of misuc for it to compliment the fact that they are Latin Jackalopes.

Here is also a brief synopsis of the film written by none other than Harold J. Mclaughlin, fay-muss author and internet personality!

So you're running a Museum of Unusual Artifacts, and you need tons of oddball, offbeat artifacts to display. Who are you gonna call on, to scour the world for those off the wall oddities? If you want the job done as no one else can, you'll call the Jackalope Boyz, that's who! Thought to be myths themselves, Jackalopes are half jackrabbit, half antelope! They're bred to be the world's premiere unusual artifact hunters. But don't be fooled by their cute 'n fuzzy charm. When unscrupulous artifact-snatching rivals get in their way, these Jacks kick butt!

Sounds fun huh?

Look for it Sept 13th on Cartoon Monsoon!

Music Spotting and Cafe Writing

Mike worked with a composer to do the music 'spotting' for Jackalope Boyz today. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it, as I had to bring my wife's new car into the Mazda dealership to be checked out.

It took them all day to look it over, and they still aren't finished, so I was stranded in Culver City all day. Of course I had planned to be- so I took my laptop along with me and spent the entire day as a guest of Starbucks, writing several chapters of my new book. It turned into quite the productive day after all!

I really enjoy the chance to set up my 'office for the day' in coffee houses and cafes, especially those that allow one to plug into the power, offer wireless internet service, and don't really mind if you hang out all day. I buy a coffee, bottled water, or some such now and then so I don't have to feel like a freeloading deadbeat. I generally don't like to write in places that get too crowded anyway, so I can set up shop in the table of my choice, and write in a setting other than home. (Which I always find inspiring). Luckily, there's a Starbucks near my house that I frequent on the weekends that rarely gets too crowded, and is therefore a perfect writing location.

Cubesteak Model Sheet

Cubesteak Model Sheet- drawn by Mike Milo, 1996

Sid Ferreira

I just found out tonight that a friend of both Mike and me, Sid Ferreira, that we knew during our art school days in New Jersey was killed in an auto accident about 3 weeks ago. Unfortunately I'd lost touch with Sid since the early 1990's- I didn't even know he was in California, let alone that he was teaching animation at a community college, and working on his own animation projects on the side.

Really, really sad news.

Sid was a fun loving person, always quick to crack a joke and make everyone laugh. He was also a really creative guy, and I remember him as a very skilled drummer. He even played drums on a couple of early Zaptoons projects, such as recording the theme song with us for 'Bingo Beach Party' (1988) -seen on the Toons/Charlie Hippo page. (I remember Sid banging out the rhythm on a crappy little Roland TR-505 drum machine I owned, while Mike played keyboards and sang the backup harmony, and I played the lead guitar -none of it all that well, but we had a blast at it.) Of the three of us, the only one who could actually play an instrument professionally was Sid.


<br /><bgsound src="http://www.journal.zaptoons.com/bingobeach.mp3" controls="smallconsole"><br />
Bingo Beach Party (1988) MP3

I remember he didn't much care for drum machines, as Sid was a percussion purist and great at playing the real thing. However we couldn't cram a full drum kit into the tiny little studio we used at our school, so he had to make due with the tiny drum pads on the TR-505.

I also worked with Sid at a local restaurant/pub in Jersey waiting tables and slinging beer to pay for the threadbare art school lifestyle.

Sid was from Brazil originally, and grew up in Massachusetts. I remember he had a thick Mass. accent- I used to ask him to repeat certain words because I couldn't make out the 'chusetts': "Drive your cah to the pok!"

"Pok? What's a poc?"

"Park!"

Such loss always makes one realize how fragile life really is, and to appreciate those around you that much more.

My heart goes out to Sid's family in their time of grieving.

even MORE Jackalope Boyz!

Here's another sneak peek of a scene from the upcoming Jackalope Boyz debut! In this scene Manuel (with the hat) is telling Arriba that that he shouldn't put The Keytu Yerhart, an artifact they just found, in his mouth! Only 28 days left until the premiere!

Here Manuel and Arriba have a difference of opinion on cleanliness!

Busy Busy!

I haven't posted here in a while- been busy as a beaver writing a new book, editing another one, and doing tweaks of Flash animation fixes on our new short as well.

The wife and I bought a new car finally to replace her aging 1995 Mazda Protege, so I'm glad that's over and done with. We scoured the city to find a deal on a 2001 Mazda Protege that we both liked, and found it for a reasonable price. We're both fans of buying late-model used cars as opposed to brand-new cars- the price/quality ratio is therefore quite nice. Next up, we'll replace my current auto as well, but not for a while yet.

Here's a sneak preview frame from the upcoming Jackalope Boyz toon. This is a scene where the Jacks are rickshawing their way through the Orient, on the trail of an elusive artifact.

Mike and I have been tweaking the animation, and in many cases, Mike has redone a lot of the drawing and animation.

The youngest Jackalope is a baby prodigy named Arriba. He's got a genius IQ. He has no problem quoting Einstein, and yet he's having trouble kicking his binky habit and mastering that whole potty-training thing.

That is all from my neck of the woods. I'm enjoying the weekend and preparing for a long and productive week ahead. I'm hoping to get quite a bit of writing done. Over and out!

Ribeye Model Sheet

Ribeye the Bullbarian Model Sheet- drawn by Mike Milo, 1996

Writing On The Sly

It's official: I do my best writing when I'm technically supposed to be doing something else. When I've got all the time in the world, no prior commitments, nothing else scheduled, and plenty of time to grab my laptop and write... that's not generally when I produce my best efforts.

But when I'm scrambling to get something else done, need to be somewhere else, have such a full calendar that I'm shoving things aside to squeeze room for others- that's when I'm most inspired to write! Maybe it's the rebellious aspect of it. "Hey, I'm writing this, when I probably should be doing something else! Neat!"

Inevitably, when I'm being rushed out the door, that's the time when an idea that's otherwise eluded me will be most likely to strike.

Today I snuck out early and started writing a new book based on an idea I've been kicking around for a few years now. I can't say too much about it yet, but it's a shorter work. I've finished writing Ribeye and the Sands of Fate, so I'm still working off the remaining steam built up from writing that. Naturally I don't actually have all the time I should have, and I'm probably putting a few other things off. But it sure feels great as I love this new project.

More on Flash

Man! Yeah I have to agree, Flash is pretty much all the things I've ever hoped for in a film producing package. One of the greatest things about Flash is that you can make a film in a day if you want and although it might look like crap at the end, it's still a film and you've done it and it's a finished piece of art. I sometimes get lil' ideas that I don't want to spend weeks on but still want to make such as Cirrus and Just Desserts or Monk mischief.

Granted, they're certainly not Feature-quality animation but they were never intended to be either. Just a small idea I had that I wanted to do. Flash makes this possible unlike so many other programs out there. Flash allows you to literally in-between drawings which then lets you worry about just the major frames of film and let the program fill in the gaps for you. Granted, it's not going to do all the work for you but it definitely makes things much easier than the old days of animating every single frame of film like in our old films.

All that stuff had to be painstakingly drawn frame by frame and it took a long time and as you can see, it's not really that good anyway. The great thing about Flash is you can do all that kind of simple stuff and do it a lot quicker too! Say you have a small gag you'd like to see but don't have a big story with a beginning, middle and end. With Flash you can pretty much see your idea within a few hours of work. Flash is also great for learning how timing and kinetics work. With Flash you can instantly see if the action you're trying to accomplish is too slow or too fast and with a few clicks you can adjust that animation to work better.

If you want to see more of how Flash works you can read a few of my tutorials here. Also you can go to Macromedia and download a fully functional 30 day trial of Flash to see how cool this program is! If you ever even thought of animating and want to make lil' films that make only you laugh, Flash is for you!

Flash Forward

Macromedia Flash is the most amazing program! Back in our art school days, both Mike and I used to wish for something even half as useful as Flash. We both used to say: "What if there was some affordable system that allowed you to create animated cartoons right in the comfort of your own home, without exceedingly expensive camera stands, film, and frame-by-frame shot capable equipment!?"

It doesn't sound like much of a request nowadays, but up until fairly recent times, there was literally nothing that fit the bill.

In the old days we were dependant upon an extremely expensive 3/4" video editing deck owned by the art school we attended. This machine was capable of recording separate audio and video tracks, and more importantly, able to capture a single frame of video at a time. Hooked to a camera stand, it allowed us to create pencil test animation. (See main menu-Toons/Pencil tests.) At least we got to animate, but it was near impossible to create anything that looked finished, without going the added (ridiculously expensive) route of preparing finished color art work, IE: painted backgrounds and painted clear acetate animation cels. Such a setup is simply not feasible outside of a major animation studio.

Computers always seemed the logical route, but even these we tend to take for granted today. When I did my first computer animation in 1989, any system that was beefy enough to handle color graphics and animation, was still outrageously expensive. Systems that today would only be suitable as doorstops cost in the neighborhood of $5,000 and up.

Mike bought an expensive video deck in the early 1990's called a Lyon/Lamb pencil test system. It had frame by frame recording, but no flying erase head. Therefore in order to shoot a complete project, you had to do so IN ONE SITTING! You couldn't start and stop shooting animation as you pleased; if you stopped recording frames and started again, you'd get a nasty video glitch between the start/stop points. So we had to do all the animation first, test individual scenes, and then have crazy marathon all-day shoots of entire projects. One glitch or mistake in shooting (which is likely when shooting stacks of animation) would screw up an entire production. It was an insane way to work!

Later on, Mike got an Amiga, and he managed to do some animation with that. I experimented with any Mac or PC I could get my hands on, but for the longest time, creating animation with them was hit and miss.

Flash-forward (literally) to today, and Flash is pretty much exactly what we were dreaming about all along. It's like having the most powerful multi-plane animation stand and frame capture system ever devised, all on your desktop. Keep in mind that most Flash animation you see on the web has to be compromised somewhat in order to keep it a downloadable size, but the program is capable of producing stunning broadcast quality output for film and video. Many new TV animation productions currently in Hollywood are being done entirely in Flash. The beauty of this is that actual in-house animation is returning to LA studios. This is an industry that has since the early 1980's shipped virtually all of its animation production overseas to the orient. The fact that some of this can now be stemmed with in-house Flash production is nothing short of miraculous.

Anyhow, I'm just amazed at how versatile this application is. Anyone who is interested in doing animation should learn Flash. I envy the current young generation that will grow up with incredible tools like this readily available. It'll be amazing to see what the next generations of creative folks do with all the technological advances they are growing up with.

More Ribeye Fan Art!

Why not cruise over to the Ribeye Fan Art page and check out some of the new additions to the growing collection! While you're there why not submit some of your own artwork? Don't be shy!

Suvlaki the evil Wizard

By Megan, Age 6

Writing While Traveling

I should travel more often. My wife recently pointed out to me that I seem to get a lot of good writing ideas when we're on the road somewhere. I always take a small laptop or portable computer with me, and whenever the chance comes up, I'm busy writing.

During a trip we took to Eastern Europe in 2002, I wrote the outline for 'Ribeye the Bullbarian and the Jewel of Baloni' during that trip. There was a lot of time we spent sitting on airplanes, on trains, ferryboats, etc. that was excellent writing time. I did a lot of writing outdoors in a big public park in Tartu, Estonia, and in the Esplanade Park in central Helsinki, Finland.

I simply love to travel to other places, and write there, amid an atmosphere that inspires me in some different way than my home in Los Angeles. I'm a big fan of taking weekend writing sabbaticals, driving somewhere where I won't have too many distractions of home, and writing. I just recently went on a 're-writing/editing' sabbatical in Palm Springs, one of my favorite places to get away.

At the start of 2003, I had to travel back and forth several times to North Carolina and Virginia to deal with a family medical emergency. Though none of it was by any means a trip for pleasure, the good that came out of it (besides seeing my family) was that I did a huge amount of writing during the travel time. Large sections of my first novel were written in hotel rooms in North Carolina, in the air over the country, and in airport stopovers all across the country.

I like to think a little bit of each place I travel shows up in my stories. There are always people to meet and places to see that spark the imagination. I find that the wide-open spaces of the American West in particular can't help but inspire a writer. Every rock mesa, every canyon, every cliff, every painted desert vista tells a story all to itself.

Last summer I was stranded for five days in the Mojave desert. I had gone for a day drive and my car's radiator blew up. (Thank God for both AAA and cell phones by the way). I had to have my car towed 38 miles from the middle of nowhere to the sleepy outskirts of Barstow California, and there I was stuck in a hotel for five days while the parts had to be ordered to fix my car. I always have a portable computer with me, so I spent those five days writing, even though I hadn't planned them. A three hour tour, turned into a five day mini-exile.

Right next door to the motel I stayed in, was a small farm with a chicken coop out back. Just watching those chickens gave me some ideas for an book/cartoon series Mike and I had been kicking around for years called 'The Barnyard Avenger'. I spent those few days dreaming up Barnyard Avenger situations, as well as outlining some other projects. What could have been terrible downtime, turned out to be an unexpected windfall.

Little unexpected things like that are the best forms of inspiration. Naturally, I love the idea of traveling and writing. Even if it's only driving out of town for the weekend, and parking myself in the shade of a Yucca tree somewhere in the California desert and working on a chapter or two, getting out of the house and out into the world is a major inspiration that keeps me writing.