Hey, I'm still here. I'm still working hard, still working hard on a comic strip because that's what I do.
But the work is not ready for prime time; in fact it has 97% chance of failing and never seeing the light of day. Indeed, its immediate predecessor , 5 months worth of work-from April to August 2017--will never be shared-anywhere. And while of course there is some inevitable disappointment in that, it's something I accept as part of the process and the necessary task of "getting it right". I fully expect to work another 6 months to a year on this project before it's shown publicly. And even then, it may not pop its head above sea level. We'll see.
"Jetpack Jr." was never right. "Babyheads" was better-in that it was itself, fully realized for what it was, a work of parody and satire. But it lacked characters an audience could connect with, and so it floundered. But looking back on it, I think I achieved what I wanted with the strip-well, at least to some extent.Whether or not I was the only person laughing, I don't know. But at least I was true to my vision, such as it is.( or was.)
But I don't feel "Jetpack" ever found its groove--primarily because the lead character was an empty vessel. I never found the right voice for him. Only at the end, when I started playing around with Trump as a character, did I feel I'd found an interesting lead. But there were problems with that too---I couldn't keep up with every tweet, every egregious act or statement, and it ultimately felt like a dead end.
So, I decided to pull back and retool. The surprising thing is, I've found I don't miss posting.I don't miss the "likes". I don't miss the scramble for an audience, the pressure to be "seen". After awhile, as a cartoonist-- whose job it is to be part of the daily media onslaught-- you grow to think life and work and career are nonexistent apart from those social tools; that you're nowhere unless you're seen on Instagram, FB or Twitter. But the truth is, the work exists independently-- and its failure and success-- as work--can be independent of its visibility. The work comes first. Why share just to share? In the meantime, I continue to write and sketch and draw and ink and photoshop and when I think I've finally got something, I'll let it go and see how it floats. It might be 3 months, 6 months or a year. But-if it doesn't beat the odds, if like most endeavors it ends up a failed attempt at "something", it'll remain beneath the ocean with all those other beautiful wrecks, those decayed treasures of the imagination. Wish me luck.
All things Bella Dilemma,Jetpack Jr.(the comic strip) and other stuff on the mind of cartoonist Geoff Grogan.
Showing posts with label jetpackjr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jetpackjr. Show all posts
Friday, September 8, 2017
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Bella Dilemma or What I did with my Summer Vacation
Ladies and Gentlemen, here she is--in her first -ever film appearance: Bella Dilemma starring in the "Bella Dilemma TV Show Trailer" with music by the Duffy Jackson Big Band from Nashville, TN!
Bella Dilemma TV Show Trailer from Geoff Grogan on Vimeo.
The time off from my strip, "Jetpack Jr." has not all been spent lounging by the pool. Nope, 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week for six months or so has been eating, drinking , sleeping this one minute trailer. Talk about compressing time! But that's what happens when you get older; 15 years goes by like a Summer afternoon.
So why Bella Dilemma, and why a trailer rather than a proper film?
To answer the first; there's a story to tell with that character, and readers of my strip seem to react positively whenever she appears. I don't know, it must be the Bee-hive.
The second: I had a relatively brief amount of time in which to make a film, and a lot to learn, designing and animating the entire project myself. Doing a trailer allowed me to create a broad narrative while spanning a variety of scenarios, all in just over a minute.
And I wanted to try my hand at creating a TV series. "Bella Dilemma" is the kind of series I'd like to see, and I thought there may be others who would find it entertaining as well.
So there's not only the trailer, but a Pitch Bible (with lots of pretty pictures!) and a fully-worked out premise. In coming weeks, "Jetpack Jr." will feature an introduction to the series in an "imaginary" Jetpack story( just like those old 'imaginary" stories in "Superman's Pal"Jimmy Olsen". It didn't really happen--but it did.).
Every pitch starts with a logline, a 1-2 sentence summation of the premise that might get viewers to give it a shot on Amazon or Netflix--and here's mine:
A Hollywood Movie Queen and a diminutive stunt-man in a monster costume, lost in an alternate dimension where every movie is its own reality.
And the premise:
You say you’ve never heard of Bella Dilemma; “World’s Greatest Movie Star”? It’s no surprise really.
Bella Dilemma WAS the “World’s Greatest Movie Star” until one evening, while she slept soundly in the comfort of her Beverly Hills home, a shadowy figure broke in and absconded with her Oscar, after which she woke to find herself on the sound-stage of a world gone mad, where no one had ever heard of “Bella Dilemma” and she was just another stand-in on a Hollywood movie-set. This alternate dimension is the “Cine-Verse”, where all the movies ever made are their own reality and the Oscar is a mysterious Genie-like figure rumored to have the power to make dreams come true. Together with her unlikely companion, Al Z., a diminutive stunt-man in a monster suit and a grizzled vet of many a back-lot, she travels from one movie scenario to another in search of the elusive Oscar, and the life she once had.
That only scratches the surface--and a blog post isn't the place to go into more detail, but suffice to say there are plots written for a bunch of episodes already, a variety of other characters with backstories and the whole bit. So tune in to "Jetpack Jr." in September to see how Bella Dilemma unfolds.
And now that most of the work on the trailer is done, I should have time to post a bit more than I have. There's a lot of stuff left over that didn't make it into the trailer- and lots of drawings-that I'd like to share, and I've kept up with my reading too, so there are books to talk about too!
Meanwhile, I hope you've enjoyed the Bella Dilemma Trailer--and I hope it makes you want to see more! If so, please share it as often as you can and maybe together we can make that happen!
Cheers!
Geoff
Bella Dilemma TV Show Trailer from Geoff Grogan on Vimeo.
The time off from my strip, "Jetpack Jr." has not all been spent lounging by the pool. Nope, 10-12 hour days, 7 days a week for six months or so has been eating, drinking , sleeping this one minute trailer. Talk about compressing time! But that's what happens when you get older; 15 years goes by like a Summer afternoon.
So why Bella Dilemma, and why a trailer rather than a proper film?
To answer the first; there's a story to tell with that character, and readers of my strip seem to react positively whenever she appears. I don't know, it must be the Bee-hive.
The second: I had a relatively brief amount of time in which to make a film, and a lot to learn, designing and animating the entire project myself. Doing a trailer allowed me to create a broad narrative while spanning a variety of scenarios, all in just over a minute.
And I wanted to try my hand at creating a TV series. "Bella Dilemma" is the kind of series I'd like to see, and I thought there may be others who would find it entertaining as well.
So there's not only the trailer, but a Pitch Bible (with lots of pretty pictures!) and a fully-worked out premise. In coming weeks, "Jetpack Jr." will feature an introduction to the series in an "imaginary" Jetpack story( just like those old 'imaginary" stories in "Superman's Pal"Jimmy Olsen". It didn't really happen--but it did.).
Every pitch starts with a logline, a 1-2 sentence summation of the premise that might get viewers to give it a shot on Amazon or Netflix--and here's mine:
A Hollywood Movie Queen and a diminutive stunt-man in a monster costume, lost in an alternate dimension where every movie is its own reality.
And the premise:
You say you’ve never heard of Bella Dilemma; “World’s Greatest Movie Star”? It’s no surprise really.
Bella Dilemma WAS the “World’s Greatest Movie Star” until one evening, while she slept soundly in the comfort of her Beverly Hills home, a shadowy figure broke in and absconded with her Oscar, after which she woke to find herself on the sound-stage of a world gone mad, where no one had ever heard of “Bella Dilemma” and she was just another stand-in on a Hollywood movie-set. This alternate dimension is the “Cine-Verse”, where all the movies ever made are their own reality and the Oscar is a mysterious Genie-like figure rumored to have the power to make dreams come true. Together with her unlikely companion, Al Z., a diminutive stunt-man in a monster suit and a grizzled vet of many a back-lot, she travels from one movie scenario to another in search of the elusive Oscar, and the life she once had.
That only scratches the surface--and a blog post isn't the place to go into more detail, but suffice to say there are plots written for a bunch of episodes already, a variety of other characters with backstories and the whole bit. So tune in to "Jetpack Jr." in September to see how Bella Dilemma unfolds.
And now that most of the work on the trailer is done, I should have time to post a bit more than I have. There's a lot of stuff left over that didn't make it into the trailer- and lots of drawings-that I'd like to share, and I've kept up with my reading too, so there are books to talk about too!
Meanwhile, I hope you've enjoyed the Bella Dilemma Trailer--and I hope it makes you want to see more! If so, please share it as often as you can and maybe together we can make that happen!
Cheers!
Geoff
Friday, May 20, 2016
Time off for some....
If you read today's "Jetpack Jr." at GoComics, then you know "Jetpack" will be on vacation for a month or so--but while he takes it easy on some interstellar beach somewhere in space, I'll be toiling away here at home on another project involving JJ's best pal.
Bella Dilemma comes to life!
Yes, indeedy--I'm working hard on the pitch for an animated TV show built around the babe with the biggest beehive this side of Planet Uterus!( *see my previous post) More to the point--I'm working on an animated teaser/trailer to whet the whistle of potential viewers and TV development execs! Check out this sample:
via GIPHY
This gif is the result of a character model sheet I was doing for Bella( which means drawing her in the round,for those who don't speak the lingo). I got inspired and took it a little farther than intended--but I couldn't wait to see her move. This is only a sample test run--the following piece is a slightly more ambitious bit of animation; a "pencil test" for a segment in the middle of the proposed trailer/ show opening:
via GIPHY
Befitting a geezer of my years, all of this material is old-skool, hand-drawn animation on paper. Exactly the method I learned forty years ago studying animation at PCA (before it was the University of the Arts in Phila.). I'm not entirely a dinosaur, as I work into the project I'm utilizing ToonBoom software to help bring it all together.
If you've read some of my previous posts, you know I've been moving towards animation for over a year now. The gravitational pull has been irresistible-so I stopped fighting. "The project" at this point is attempting to give the viewer a feel for what the proposed "Bella Dilemma" TV show would be like. The theoretical show opening, or teaser/trailer, will take the viewer through the series scenario in thirty + seconds or so; and if all goes well--excite he or she enough to make them want to tune in.
If it's not as complete a view as a pilot episode can provide; certainly it's as much as I can do on my own within the limits of the time allotted to me to work on it. As this is my first animated project in many years, I felt my best chance for success was to limit the scope of the undertaking--and even at just 30 seconds or so, it's a lot; there's so much to do-aside from just animating the characters!
In the next few weeks I hope to post some images of all that "so much to do" and maybe some more animations, and maybe I'll clue you in to the show scenario; it's quite different from the world of "Jetpack Jr." and the Bella you know there.
So-- that's why I'm taking some time off "JJ".
But when this project is done, it's back to the drawing board!
Bella Dilemma comes to life!
Yes, indeedy--I'm working hard on the pitch for an animated TV show built around the babe with the biggest beehive this side of Planet Uterus!( *see my previous post) More to the point--I'm working on an animated teaser/trailer to whet the whistle of potential viewers and TV development execs! Check out this sample:
via GIPHY
This gif is the result of a character model sheet I was doing for Bella( which means drawing her in the round,for those who don't speak the lingo). I got inspired and took it a little farther than intended--but I couldn't wait to see her move. This is only a sample test run--the following piece is a slightly more ambitious bit of animation; a "pencil test" for a segment in the middle of the proposed trailer/ show opening:
via GIPHY
Befitting a geezer of my years, all of this material is old-skool, hand-drawn animation on paper. Exactly the method I learned forty years ago studying animation at PCA (before it was the University of the Arts in Phila.). I'm not entirely a dinosaur, as I work into the project I'm utilizing ToonBoom software to help bring it all together.
If you've read some of my previous posts, you know I've been moving towards animation for over a year now. The gravitational pull has been irresistible-so I stopped fighting. "The project" at this point is attempting to give the viewer a feel for what the proposed "Bella Dilemma" TV show would be like. The theoretical show opening, or teaser/trailer, will take the viewer through the series scenario in thirty + seconds or so; and if all goes well--excite he or she enough to make them want to tune in.
If it's not as complete a view as a pilot episode can provide; certainly it's as much as I can do on my own within the limits of the time allotted to me to work on it. As this is my first animated project in many years, I felt my best chance for success was to limit the scope of the undertaking--and even at just 30 seconds or so, it's a lot; there's so much to do-aside from just animating the characters!
In the next few weeks I hope to post some images of all that "so much to do" and maybe some more animations, and maybe I'll clue you in to the show scenario; it's quite different from the world of "Jetpack Jr." and the Bella you know there.
So-- that's why I'm taking some time off "JJ".
But when this project is done, it's back to the drawing board!
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Stops and Starts
I just finished David Levy's "Animation Development: From Pitch to Production". This book is helpful on many levels, not merely for the next potential Matt Groening, but for writers and cartoonists of all stripes, whether you're working on the next "Rick and Morty" or just slaving away on the next "Jetpack Jr." comic strip. The first few chapters alone, detailing the content necessary for any good "pitch bible", forced me to think, and re-think, character over and over again, as "Plastic Babyheads" gradually transitioned to "Jetpack Jr." this past year. Character is the honey that keeps the flies coming back; whether to comic or cartoon, novel or TV series. Of course, that's no news to even the most inexperienced writer, but artists are most interested in pretty pictures--and so it was a lesson learned late for me. Nevertheless, I worked and worked at it--and put Levy's book aside until I felt I knew who my characters were. That didn't come easy. I didn't start with a defining concept(other than an Earth invaded by plastic babyheads), or the idea of pitting this character against that one. They developed more or less organically as the strip has evolved, and it's taken time to get to know them.
Picking up with Levy's book where I'd left off last Fall, I found the remaining chapters no less educational, and just as challenging. The life of the creative animator/story-teller described within its pages is fraught with ups and downs, loads of disappointments and rare success. Frankly, I finished it feeling defeated before I'd begun, so difficult is the world of television animation development Levy describes. If you have illusions about overnight success, this book will wake you up to reality pretty quick. It's loaded with a lot of insightful information that should help budding young animation developers pitch their ideas and navigate the rough waters of development, should they be so lucky. But it's clear, animation development is not for the faint-of-heart--and if you don't want it badly enough, this book will ward you off the attempt.
Levy might as well have been writing about the world of comic strip development; for while the details differ, the trials are the same. For every Phoebe and Her Unicorn there are hundreds
(thousands?) of strips that never get off the ground, and many more that get to one stage of development but not the next. And every step of the way is fraught with the same emotional highs and lows. It's not for the faint-hearted.
Obviously, the subtext of this post is that I've been thinking of the next step for "Jetpack Jr.", both as comic strip and as animation. In both cases, the chances are slim; realistically next-to-nil, and I know that(accepting it is another thing). At this point in my life, I still have dreams( yes--geezers still dream!) but very few illusions. I work on "Jetpack Jr." because I love it, I'm obsessed with it- it's great fun and, go figure, I have to know what happens to these people.
If I put together a pitch bible, or a submission package, it's not only because I have a hope for success(sure I do), but because it's a learning experience, a creative endeavor in itself. The process teaches me more about the strip, its world and its characters--and makes the strip better. Putting together a pitch, or working on sample animation--can only be a plus for me.(All of the work on character this past year wouldn't have happened if I'd not been challenged by David Levy's book.) Not only will I be creatively engaged in a medium I've always loved and admired, challenging myself to broaden the range of my abilities-- I'll bring my experience back to the classroom, to my students! And... if I'm very lucky, I might make something good, something I can be proud of.
via GIPHY
Jetpack Jr. may never make it to syndication, and it may never be an animated TV show. I mean, get real--right? But there's always the next step--and continually stretching oneself, as a story-teller and as an artist--will have a different payoff.
If I were to let the challenges posed by David Levy's fine book dissuade me from trying, then I never wanted it bad enough in the first place--and the only one who loses in that equation....is me.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
GIF Crazy!
Here are two new GIF's of Jetpack Jr. comics! Be sure to check out the Jetpack Jr. channel on GIPHY.com! Meanwhile, enjoy!
Career Choice:
and "Art Therapy"
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