JaMiE BaKeR: fallout

The recent tribute for Dan Lee, which was a combination book-launch and gallery-show, was well attended. Here you can see Derek (surrounded by jealous pals) proudly showing off a piece he bought by Ronnie del Carmen.

For more pictures and information about the show itself you can read Ronnie and Enrico’s reports.

And of course, if you want to buy a copy of Dan’s Book you can find out all about it here.

Michael May, a kindly reviewer from Comic World News had this to say about the latest Rocket Rabbit comic:

Rocket Rabbit #1
Written and Illustrated by James Baker
I’ve been waiting for more Rocket Rabbit since I reviewed Nerve Bomb Comix #0. It was such a fun, fresh take on superheroes. Baker has finally continued what he started and has lost none of what made Nerve Bomb such a joy to read. The banter between Rocket Rabbit and his hot creator The Professor is still playful and Baker still has a knack for creating genuinely funny super-heroes and villains. Even the one-panel throwaway characters are clever and silly; whether because of their names (Escape Goat) or their costumes (Hog Wild has a hog-head shaped mask with eyeholes in the pig’s nostrils). And the great thing is that this issue’s throwaways may be next issue’s focus. A small character in Nerve Bomb called Jack Ass (a donkey who switches personalities whenever anyone invokes one of his other names – Smart Ass, Dumb Ass, Lame Ass, etc.) coordinates all the evil-doing in this issue. Super-hero parody is always a tricky business, but Rocket Rabbit isn’t so much parody as just really enjoyable, really funny, light-hearted, sci-fi super-heroics.

It’s gratifying when at least the first review is a postive one, because it makes it easier to take the ensuing bad ones. After all, goofball silliness isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.

Luckily for me Michael May has a sense of humour every bit as silly as my own. He also gave me a thumbs up for my first comic which made my day at the time.

Here at Nerve Bomb comics we have only one guiding philosphy, one MANIFESTO from which all springs forth and, such as it is, it is this:

“Sometimes the silly thing is the right thing to do.”

Exhibiting at comic conventions these last few years I have made a new type of friend, namely friends who I only get to see when I’m at a convention, and who I keep in touch with via email for the rest of the year.

I made one such pal last year when I (and Rhode) shared a booth with SAM HITI, a mighty talented fellow from Minnesota, and the creator of last years Indy comics sensation TIEMPOS FINALES. I got to hang out with Sam in San Diego again this year because we had booths that were side by side.

Sam sent me some preview pages of his next book which is called DEATH DAY which were pretty bloody tasty, but unfortunately (though understandably) he doesn’t want those pages shown around while he is still figuring stuff out. HOWEVER I’m happy to say that I can share with you this super Sephilina drawing that he recently sent, in an effort to cheer me up, which it did. thanks, Sam.

For those of you that may not have seen his work before I highly recommend that you seek out his books. Nobody else in comics can build atmosphere with their panels quite like Sam… It’s like READING a spaghetti western.

In Sam’s online store there is actually a DEATH DAY PRINT for sale that will give you an idea of what that next book will eventually feel like. Plus, you can buy, direct from the artist, copies of Tiempos Finales and this years book EL LARGO TREN OBSCURO. He also has some beautifully drawn and lavishly printed Mini comics there too, so please check him out.

You can see even more pinups of the same character drawn by other artists here.

I just heard some very bad news this morning. Joe Ranft, the original, and many would say the best, “Head of Story” died yesterday in a car accident. It is really very sad indeed.

Many of the best animated films of the last few decades bear his stamp. The NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and TOY STORY, to name some obvious examples. The mighty animation force that is PIXAR, has become what it is today due, in large part, to Joe’s considerable talent, and his genial stewardship of the other talents that work there.

I first met Joe in Taipei Tawain in 1986, at the CUCKOO’s NEST studio. He was part of a team of young artists puting the finishing touches on THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER. I remember him and the other guys from that group really having a passion for what they were doing, in contrast to the jaded weariness of most industry guys I met in those days. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to work with Joe directly at that time because I was involved in cranking out some truly attrocious Saturday morning cartoons elsewhere in the building.

A few years later, we did briefly work on the same project at COLOSSAL PICTURES. This was just prior to his going to work on the NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. But, after knowing him socially for years, my first chance to really work WITH him came when I did some storyboarding on CARS, a project where Joe was head of story.

Being a Head of story on an animated feature is, I think, one of the toughest jobs there is in animation, because it requires so many rare qualities in a person. They have to be passionate about their ideas, but be able to let them go at a moment’s notice if they aren’t in sync with the director’s vision. Some have the talent, but not the people skills… or that all-important ability to work with others. Some have the personal skills, but just don’t have the talent, or the ability to inspire those around them. I think this is a very difficult balance to strike for most people, but not for Joe Ranft.

I can say that I very much enjoyed working with him at PIXAR on CARS, he ran a very easy going and collaborative story team. Many OTHER creative leaders that I have worked for lead by making you feel inadequate, and that you have a long way to go, but Joe had a way of making you feel witty, smart and capable, and as a consequence his crew wanted very much to rise to the level of his confidence in them.

As cliched as this may sound to anyone who didn’t have the great good fortune to know him, it is true to say that you’ll never hear a bad word about Joe Ranft. Which is all the more remarkable when you bear in mind the length of time he has worked within an industry that has more than its fair share of easily bruised egos. For a man to have worked at so high a level for so long, always pushing for better quality and yet never pressing anyone’s buttons… well, he is truly an inspiration to those of us who believe that talent isn’t synonymous with prima donna behaviour.

Joe Ranft will never be replaced, but nevertheless, we should all try our hardest to be just like him.

Here are some other peoples’ fond rememberences of Joe:

Ronnie DelCarmen
Enrico Casarosa
Ted Mathot
Cartoon Brew
Disney Blog
Animation Nation
Hollywood reporter

You can read about the man in his own words in the interview with Joe that was posted on the PIXAR website back in January 2002.

If you are a longtime reader of my blog you may remember my earlier post about Dan Lee, the much-loved and multi-talented Pixar character designer who died earlier this year after a long battle with cancer. Or perhaps you’ve heard of him from other sources, or seen his work in those wonderful “Art of” books.

Even away from work he was an avid sketcher, banging out hundreds of drawings of people he had seen in the street or in cafes. So a group of his friends and family members have put together a book of Dan’s sketches titled “IN YOUR FACE” which will be launched later this month on the 25th of August at the Canvas Gallery Cafe, which was indeed the spot where many of the sketches themselves were done. You can read more about the upcoming book launch here.

Additionally, the next SKETCHCRAWL will be held in his honour on August 27th, the weekend following the book launch.

As promised, here is the follow up to Herval’s Sephi pinup. These are some more PIN-UPS of Sephilina, by a variety of super talents, that I have collected. Click the images below for a bigger version of each pic.

1st Row: Louis Gonzales, Rhode Montijo, Ted Mathot

2nd Row: Chris Lensch, Ronnie delCarmen, Ed Reynolds.

3rd Row: Unknown, L. Frank Webber, Unknown.

I got most of these from a SQUID GIRL thread at the DRAWING BOARD, but in some cases I forgot to write down who did them, (so if you know who did the uncredited ones, let me know please!).

Plus, I have EVEN more SQUID GIRL pics that I will add later, so stay tuned.

When I recently bought some books from HERVAL, this great Sephi sketch was inside the front cover.

Because I have the bad habit of flipping art books from the back, I didn’t realise that he had done this neat pic for me until I’d had the book for a week!

I have some other pinups of the same character (Sephilina the NAUTI GIRL, AKA Squid Girl) by other artists that I’ve been collecting, and you can see them here.