ZUDA GO FOR LAUNCH!

Zuda comics launched today and already there's some pretty interesting entries plus a rather stunning winner in Jeremy Love's 'Bayou'. Zuda Comics is DC comics' web comics site where people on a monthly basis compete to win a year long contract producing a weekly comic for the site. I've been following news on this eagerly since June as it's an excellent opportunity for anyone who doesn't have the chance to attend the US comic cons and DC folio reviews to stick their work under DC's nose and say 'how do you like them apples?' They have rolling submissions 24/7 which is excellent news, and with each pitch/submission creative teams provide 8 pages of art. I'm going to go for it.

BEBOP ALULA

Haven't updated this blog much of late as I have been frantically busy. I'm currently working with Ian Edginton on something special, more about that much later. I'm also going to be submitting six pages of story and art to Zuda.com as soon as its doors open so I've been preparing for that. And I have three commercials on my plate to boot. Oh, and I'm going to be making an appearance at the Bradford Animation Festival this year in a panel discussion to do with storyboarding, which I've just read has sold out! eek!

So, busy busy busy.

'OVER THE HILL' WON BEST ANIMATED SHORT AT THE AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL

More great news for 'Over The Hill'. We won best animated short.

THE REAL DAREDEVIL - via Major Spoilers

Spotted this over at the Major Spoilers, where Stephen Schleicher calls this kid "The Real Daredevil". Seems Marvel need to rethink Matt Murdoch. He doesn't need radioactive substances, just good old fashioned echo location.

Best Video Of The Year - video powered by Metacafe

BITENECK BEATNIKS TEASER TRAILER ON YOUTUBE

Now in glorious YouTube-O-Vision

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE PAINTER X

I have some possible comic book work on the horizon and have been experimenting with painter cross platforming with photoshop and it's been fun. The way I'm working is starting projects in photoshop (which I'm familiar with), blocking out colors, and then opening psd files in Painter and hopping between the two. What I love about Painter isn't so much the brushes, although the brushes in Painter are many and fantastic, rather it's the extended possibilities of manipulation and the palette for mixing up paints (taking me back to mixing up paints on a tile at art college).

I used a little bit of Painter in Grimmwood, but only for the canopy. I hope to use more.

INDIANA JONES AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL!

The title for the new Indiana Jones movie has been revealed. More info about the Crystal Skull itself can be found in the above clip from Arthur C Clarke Mysterious World episode.

As is traditionally the case with Indiana Jones, the MacGuffin is the artifact. What the Crystal Skull is reportedly said to be able to do could be an indication of the movie's plot:

The Maya people said it was used to will death or to heal. And if like an older medicine man or witchdoctor was getting too old to perform a ceremony a young man was chosen and both laid in front of the alter and the high priest would perform a ceremony and the old man's knowledge would go into this young boy and the old man would pass away peacefully and this young boy would get up as a very knowledgeable young man. This crystal skull has tremendous power, but it also gives you a warning that something's going to happen.

Which is all pretty interesting stuff. Could Labeouf be the young man? And could John Hurt, allegedly playing Indy's mentor, Abner Ravenwood, be the old man and via this method passes on his knowledge to young Labeouf? Face it, John Hurt dies in practically every movie he's been in.

BITENECK BEATNIKS TEASER TRAILER!

Here's some of the background art I recently produced for the new Biteneck Beatniks teaser trailer which can be seen over at the Sardine website.

Sardine Productions in Canada did a fantastic job of combining Curtis Jobling's character designs with my background designs. Sardine not only put in some terrific work but an incredible amount of enthusiasm and love for the project so it was a lot of fun to work on.

GRIMMWOOD UPDATED

Now these blogs have labels, I am considering whether to shift all the stuff I have over on the Grimmwood blog (what little of it there is) to here, given how intermittently I work on that project. Anyway, here's 15 seconds of Grimmwood, just to show there's life in the old girl yet.

The wolves are what I call 'spider-weasels' due to the way they move. Their legs move like spider legs and their bodies slink like weasels.

No audio.

Here also are the full backgrounds from the segment ...
Grimmwood and all production work is © 2006-2007, Ian Culbard, All rights Reserved.

SONG FOR JEDI

OVER THE HILL WINS THE McLAREN AWARD AT EDINBURGH!!!!

The animated film I recently produced, 'Over The Hill', won the McLaren Award for New British Animation this evening at the Edinburgh Festival. I AM ECSTATIC!!! Peter Baynton, the film's director, traveled up to Edinburgh this evening to pick up the award!

I'M NOT THERE

Staggeringly, this is Cate Blanchett dressed up as Bob Dylan for the film 'I'm Not There', which is on my 'must see' list. The film, directed by Todd Haynes, focuses on six different stages of Dylan's life and for each of these stages he's played by six different actors, including Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Richard Gere. The film also features David Cross, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Here's a 2 minute clip from the upcoming film which I managed to find floating around on YouTube.

ALIENS ON LIFE WITHOUT THE SOPRANOS!

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

MORE DOCTOR WHO CASTING RUMOURS *SPOILERS AHOY*

News of the World have reported that Joan Collins is set to appear as The Rani, and The Sun claims that Ben Kingsley is going to be playing Davros. I shall eat humble hat if any of this turns out to be true, however, there is an intriguing rumor flying about that the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison, is going to appear in Series 4 in a Multi-Doctor episode.

EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK

VS.

MIKE WIERIGNO

Sadly comic book artist, Mike Wieringo, passed away this Sunday of a sudden heart attack. Wieringo was 44 years old.

John Siuntres of the excellent World Balloon has posted a tribute to the life and career of Wieringo, an interview from 2005.

ANIMATION TREASURES!

Drop what you're doing and go check this amazing blog out.

THE SELFISH GIANT

I love how the selfish giant's castle is sign posted! Thanks to Colin Fawcett for pointing me in the direction of this gem. I rather like the background art and snow and frost and the Wagnerian accompaniment to the arrival of the north wind and hail.... in short, lovely stuff.

THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL

The Little Match Girl was the last film made by Disney to use CAPS,Disney's digital ink & paint system. The film was supposed to be a part of Fantasia 2006 (The Music Project) which was canceled.

It also features the glorious music of Alexander Borodin (String Quartet No. 2 in D Major: Third Movement: Notturno, Andante).