#18. A Conversation with Jerry Beck

JA: So let's start with your time spent at The School of Visual Arts in New York City; tell me about your time and experiences with the school, and what eventually led you to being connected to Leonard Maltin as a research associate for his book, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons?

JB: I only attended SVA for a year, took cartooning classing with Sam Gross and animation courses with Marty Abrams and Gil Miret. Met Tom Sito there. At the same time I also took a night course in animation history taught by Leonard Maltin at the New School for Social Research. Although I loved to draw, I soon discovered that I was more interested in the history of animation than actually doing it. And besides, in the mid-1970s there was very little work for even the most talented artists.

When I first took Leonard’s class, it was a “for credit” course and cost over $100 to enroll. There were only ten students in the class. Leonard and I became fast friends – and the following semester he changed the format of the class to allow anyone, via a cheap $5 single admission price to attend each lecture/screening. I became his assistant and the class ticket taker. I also instigated the idea that Leonard do a book on animation history – a companion to his books The Disney Films and The Great Movie Shorts.


JA: Being involved in the research for a book exploring the history of virtually every Hollywood cartoon studio, what memories stand out most for you during this time, and how did being involved change the course of your career?

JB: The biggest memory was spending every afternoon for over a year at the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library, digging through trade journals to compile the basic filmography used in Of Mice and Magic. Will Friedwald was assisting me then. I had met Will at a Disney history class (taught by Gene London) at the New School. I think I was 21 and he was 14 or 15 years old when we started compiling information. Working with Leonard Maltin then was a great experience for me. He was my mentor and I was certainly interested in following in his footsteps.

JA: In 1989 you released Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons; You have stated that Warner Bros. only wanted a reference guide with nothing negative being mentioned. How did Clampett, Jones, and Freleng go to bat for you for that project?

JB: In 1980, after Of Mice and Magic had been published, Will Friedwald and I decided we wanted to the filmographies in that book to have plot synopsis. We quickly put the Warner Bros. filmography together and sent it to a super small academic publisher (Scarecrow Press) and they sent us a contract. That first book, The Warner Brothers Cartoons, came out in 1981 and is still available! It has no illustrations and loads of errors. And lots of opinions, both positive and negative. Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones and the other Looney Tunes directors had gotten copies of it and loved what we had done. I wanted the book to have illustrations and be a bit more professional, so I spent a few years trying to get Warners to allow us to redo it. Jones and Clampett put in a few good words for us with the current regime at Warner Bros. Animation. That opportunity came in 1988 – and the revised edition, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies came out in 1989.

JA: You have taught courses in animation at UCLA, AFI, and SVA; tell me about your experiences as a teacher, and have any students in particular stood out to you as someone we should keep our eye on in the industry?

JB: A couple of people who took my courses are working in the business, so I must have done something right. I enjoyed teaching, but I hated the “work” part of it – grading papers and such. I love talking about animation and showing films. My favorite course was one I did at UCLA where each week I invited a friend to come down and show off whatever project they were working on at the moment. It was 1992 and I had Eric Goldberg presenting the Genie from Aladdin, Bruce Timm showing Batman the Animated Series, Bob Jaques with rare Ren & Stimpy footage, and on and on… all before anyone had ever seen this stuff publicly.

JA: Let's talk about your time as Vice President of Animation at Nickelodeon Movies; what were your thoughts on the films being turned out, did you have any involvement with Vanessa Coffey, and what relationships had you formed with the creators of the Nicktoons series?

JB: I didn’t really have any business relationship with Vanessa Coffey. I was hired to be VP of Animation for Nickelodeon Movies, which was a different division from the TV group. I was there before they produced any theatrical films (I started in 1994) and my biggest accomplishments were initiating The Rugtrats Movie, developing The Stinky Cheese Man with Lane Smith (never produced), and trying to revive Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle and Tom Terrific. I also pointed the company in the direction of Jeff Smith’s Bone. When Gerry Laybourne (who had hired me, and was the visionary behind Nick’s golden age) left the company, the direction of the animated features went from being innovative to simply making films based on the television series. That wasn’t what I wanted to do. So I left when my contract was up.

I became friends with most of the creators of Nicktoons series – several of them are still personal friends. The ones I didn’t know then, I got to meet, or interview, when I did the big coffee table Nicktoons book (which came out in 2007).

JA: What are your feelings on the current work being done in mainstream animation for both film and television in comparison to independent work being done on the Internet?


JB: For some reason, television animation seemed to stop being interesting within the last five or six years. The last good new innovative shows were Spongebob Squarepants, Teacher’s Pet, and Invader Zim. Everything since then seems the same, been there, done that. I have high hopes for Pen Ward’s Adventure Time (for Cartoon Network). Pixar is leading the way in feature animation, though I was encouraged by Dreamwork’s Kung Fu Panda and the films from Sony Imageworks. I think Nina Paley’s independent feature, Sita Sings The Blues, is a great accomplishment (and incredibly entertaining). I have not seen anything produced for the internet that breaks new ground. Though I love Xeth Feinberg’s stuff. I crave new and different things.

JA: Your book Nicktoons is as much fun to look at as it is to read, complete with the book jacket being filled with green slime; how long had the idea to produce a reference for Nicktoons been floating around in your mind, and have you thought about writing any books focusing on specific companies such as Spumco or Klasky Csupo?

JB: The idea for the Nicktoons book actually originated at Nickelodeon and I was asked to be involved. It was a great honor. I recorded much longer interviews with all the principal creators. An interesting factoid was that almost all of them were destitute when they got the call that their show was picked up for series. I guess that’s a prerequisite for getting a show on the air.

JA: Tell me about your cartoon Hornswiggle that is set to air on the Nicktoons Network this December, and also about Frederator Studios.

JB: When I was at Nick in the 1990s I tried to get the studio to revive the Terrytoon characters like Mighty Mouse and Tom Terrific. (Viacom owns these characters). When I left the studio, I maintained a relationship with MTV Animation’s Abby Terkuhle and we spent two years developing Heckle & Jeckle. After that I tried again with Fred Seibert. After doing a new Tom Terrific pitch, I switched gears and tried to pitch Silly Sidney, about a neurotic elephant with a 50s modern style. He was created by Gene Deitch. After a year of meetings, in which each month I’d come back and tweak the concept per Fred’s instructions; after I had pitch boards, an approved director and an approved writer aboard (I had written the original script), Fred said “Yes” with one change. For a variety of reasons, it was suggested I change Sidney to another animal! Long story short, I changed the elephant to a rhino and his name to Hornswiggle. Everything else about the project stayed the same. Once we got the green light, the whole process was very smooth and one of the greatest experiences I ever had.

JA: How did you become involved with Frank Conniff for "Cartoon Dump"?

JB: I am a huge fan of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. When I was a VP at Nick I used my executive superpowers to meet people I wanted to meet – Like Stan Lee and They Might Be Giants, etc. I met separately with Joel Hogson and Frank Conniff after they left MST3K to see if they had any ideas that could be good Nickelodeon animated movies. I ended up becoming very good friends with both – I even introduced Joel to his future (and current) wife! Frank loved my Worst Cartoons Ever screenings at the San Diego Comic Con. Two years ago, after I finished Hornswiggle, Frank and I decided to meet regularly (usually brunch at Jerry’s Deli in Hollywood) with the purpose of re-developing Hornswiggle. Those brunches instead hatched the idea of Cartoon Dump – a demented kiddie show that might have showed the really bad cartoons I was celebrating at Comic Con. We pulled together the first podcasts and we did a live show, open to the public. That first show was such a huge success, we were asked to perform it every month at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood. We are still doing it an year and a half later! We’d love to sell the show to Comedy Central or Adult Swim one of these days. We’ve been too busy to pitch it to anyone. But one of these days.

JA: There is an endless amount of information about your past projects online, so let's look at the future; What ideas at this moment are floating around in the back of your mind as ideal dream projects for Jerry Beck?

JB: My wish list? I want to do a Worst Cartoons Ever book. I have several new ideas for books about Looney Tunes. I’d love to get involved with Cartoon Network or Warner Bros. Animation. And I’d love to produce another cartoon – or Hornswiggle. I keep hoping that Cartoon Brew will grow into something big. I hope to get other classic cartoons on DVD. I’d love to run a retro-cartoon channel, a TCM of animation.

JA: What are some examples of cartoons you would include in your book?

JB: The cartoons I include in my Worst Cartoons Ever lectures (and forthcoming book) are ones that are so bad, they are unintentionally funny. For example, the works of Sam Singer, whom I dub the "Ed Wood" of Animation. His most famous production was Courageous Cat (which was created by Batman's Bob Kane), but his prior work - Bucky and Pepito, Pow Wow the Indian Boy, Sinbad Jr., and his "masterpiece" Paddy the Pelican - is pathetic. For example, Paddy is in black and white, and it's pretty much a set of animation cycles, in pencil, post dubbed by a pair of actors who seem to be channeling Amos n' Andy, who were instructed to keep talking throughout the film. It's a hilarious mess!

JA: You were once quoted in an interview saying that, "I'd like to see video games innovate the art form, but I doubt that will happen"; do you have any desire to contribute to that area of computer animation?

JB: No.

JA: If you could sum up your career for me in one word, what would it be?

JB: Supercalifragilisticexpealadocious!

#17. A Conversation with Tara Billinger

JA: So you are only nineteen years old and are already involved in Tokyopop, Slave Labor Graphics, and Dumm Comics; at what age did you start drawing, and also, at what point did you know that you wanted to make a career out of your art?

TB: I first started drawing at about the age of three or four. I distinctly remember my family being visited by my brother's friend, who drew a picture of Bill the Cat for me. Seeing the drawing being formed in front of my eyes fascinated me and I immediately tried to duplicate it—enjoying the process/struggle of transferring what I saw in my mind on to a piece of paper. From that point on in my childhood, I was in constant search of what I call "pencil euphoria" -- always having a pencil and paper in my hand. I knew I wanted to be a professional cartoonist. I spent hours upon hours in the local library, reading everything I could get my hands on that was related to cartooning and art. I always had a sketchbook at hand and I've been stabbed so many times in the legs for keeping pencils and pens in my jean pockets. Watching cartoons gave me the drive to pursue it as a career, I'd sit there and watch them for hours on end not just because I was a kid but because I was so fascinated by them. Thinking "Wow, I want to make something as good as this" or "I want to learn how this works". My mom was always there to support me with my art career and that always helped during hard times. She always had a feeling I would be destined to contribute to this field. I love that I had support to take my art future since a lot of the time people looked down upon the subject as a career. I never got negative feedback about it so I just kept drawing.

JA: At seventeen you were awarded with The First Place Congressional Award for the 35th Annual All-State High Schools of Utah Exhibition for a pencil and computer drawing that was featured in the United States Capitol Building for one year; what was that drawing of, and what was it like to be so widely recognized for your work while still in high school?

TB: The piece was called Moment and it had a passenger grieving in one of the stalls of a public train. I still remember the meaning of that one, my mom was in the hospital at the time who was recovering from being in cardiac arrest, so I felt the same way as the person in the picture. It was a very rough time for me but my mom and I pulled through. The event was an incredible experience, I'll never forget it. Arriving there from across the country and visiting the White house, man, it was such an honor! There was a student from each state at the ceremony, being a part of the best of the US student body for that year was just too much to take in. I was glad I could make my art teacher proud, he's one of my heroes. There were taxis, tours, fine art, lawyers, body guards, more lawyers, and we didn't get to shake hands with the President but they got the next best thing for the occasion....Miley Cyrus. Either way, all of it was just a treat and I couldn't be prouder to know that my work was displayed there. That's something a lot of people can't say in their lifetime. I have a candy dish they gave me from the White House and the portrait hangs in my dining room with all the Washington DC postal stamps. It still feels like a dream.

JA: Let's talk about Adora Gone and the Electric Elephant; where did the idea come from, and how did you get involved with Chris Reilly?

TB: Chris got the idea for Adora Gone by a novel made in the early 1900s called The Electric Elephant. Its such an old book that I think it isn't in print anymore. Adora is about a 16 year old bubbly teen who works two jobs, one raking leaves at a pet cemetery and the other flying around in a huge robotic "Electric Elephant" equipped with technologies that its, long since deceased, creator predicted that the rest of mankind would not catch up with for ten thousand years. The story is really great, trippy and there's lots of twists and turns that unravel at the end. There are some aspects from the original story that intertwine with Adora throughout the novel, sorta concluding what the original book left out. It's really interesting how Chris wrote it and it's really fun to illustrate. I knew Chris for about two or three years before he approached me to work on Adora, mostly by email and comic con meetings. Then his book The Trouble with Igor released in 2007 and I did a little pinup drawing of Igor and posted it somewhere on an interview he did at the time. He found it months later and gave me an email back asking if I'd like to do a comic project with him. I happily agreed, and before Comic Con 2007 we made a ten-page short story pitch for it and shipped it off to Dan (publisher and editor in chief of SLG). At first, we thought Adora got bumped, but then we received a call from him five months later explaining to us that he not only wanted to publish it but he wanted to edit the book himself, which he hasn't done since The Haunted Mansion. Both me and Chris are very honored to have him on board with the novel. I'm excited about the whole endeavor, not only am I the youngest comic artist working at the company since Jhonen Vasquez, but I get to work with such talented people who've been working in the comic industry for more than eleven years. It's quite an experience and I'm very grateful to take part in such a fun project.

JA: You also recently contributed to Dumm Comics with your Dr. Scoops series; how did you become involved with that group, and what has your experience with them been like?

TB: We chatted a bit online but met through a panel for El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera at San Diego comic con a couple years ago, we kept in touch ever since. I just love working with them! Being a part was an experience I feel very lucky and fortunate to have. They're all so extremely talented and inspirational and I have huge amounts of respect for all of them. It feels like I knew them for ages since I've been watching shows and shorts they worked on in the past, and hopefully in the future we can work together in the animation industry. We still keep in touch and Scoops will have another doctors appointment on Dumm real soon.

JA: Do you have an all-time favorite comic?

TB: Oh man, I never have a favorite anything. I can never choose! I actually haven't read too many comics since I started working on Adora, go figure, but at the time I've been into Hellboy, my good friend Ben Roman's book I Luv Halloween, Get the Freebies and of course Dumm Comics. I watch more cartoons than I read comics these days but I try to balance them out. Not doing a very good job though.


JA: You will be attending SVA for college, majoring in Animation; what is your idea of the ultimate dream job after graduation?

TB: My dream job is just one where I can be confident and happy in what I'm doing. Working with amazing people and contributing in something big would be fantastic. I love learning new things to help improve my art, and having fellow employees, friends and artists aiding me in the process would be the best. People have told me I'd end up in character design, storyboarding, or some type of character development for animation. But working in any field in the industry will be an opportunity to learn, grow, and connect for whatever comes next. I'm looking forward to the future and what it holds for me.

JA: Who working now in the industry inspires you as an artist?

TB: That's tough, right now, I'd have to say the people down at a.k.a. Cartoon working on Ed, Edd n Eddy, I've been interacting with them for years now and they've always inspired me. I'm looking forward to the movie! Then there's everyone at El Tigre, Sandra, Jorge, Eric, Shawn, and all the Dumm crew who worked on the show. They have all been wonderful towards me and it feels like I've been a part of the show without even working on it. They put a lot of heart in El Tigre and I really admire that. I just know I wouldn't be where I am today as an artist if it wasn't for those shows. They led me to so many magnificent people and friends. Like one big happy family, how animation should be while working on a show. Jorge and Sandra actually contributed pinups for Adora, I couldn't be more thrilled about that. Other shows I've been keeping an eye on are The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Mighty B! and SuperJail! Those are all very unique and it keeps me wanting more which is refreshing considering TV has been very very bland for me lately. Other than that anyone who's in the industry inspires me, just because I know how difficult it is to get your foot in the door. Especially how the industry is constructed these days.

JA: I love your first piece for the "Dia De Los Muertos" Halloween collection; tell me about your other pieces for the collection. What do you do at home to celebrate Day of the Dead?

TB: Thanks so much! My other pieces will be focused on things I've done as a kid to celebrate the holiday. It will consist of digital and traditional paintings. Six for the Day of the Dead and a few for Halloween. The Day of the Dead celebrations are very close to Halloween time, October 31st but the customs have different origins, and their attitudes toward death are different. In the typical Halloween festivities, death is something to be feared. But in el día de los muertos, death — or at least the memories of those who have died — is something to be celebrated. So I hope people don't get confused by the pieces I'm doing for both holidays. I love both holidays! My family and I usually throw a family party where we take the time to pause and think of those who have died and to use creativity in putting together an altar or even a shelf with photos, favorite momentos and offerings of flowers or food. My favorite food and craft idea for Day of the Dead is the making of Sugar Skulls. I always love making those as a kid. I celebrated the holiday in Mexico with relatives when I was very young and hope I can do it again someday.

JA: You mentioned that you will be working on some small animated projects in the future, along with coloring and designing backgrounds for an upcoming short; what projects are these that you are involved in?

TB: Most of them will be small animations by me, walk cycles, short motion clips, and interactions between characters and objects. Others will be shorts I have a few in store for the future. One called Does Not Compute which is about a little robot girl who wants to learn how to love but thinks she needs an actual human heart to achieve the experience. She then goes off on a mission to get one only to find a cow heart to take its place. Sometime in November the Production of Zach Bellissimo's short Sunday Night Fun will go under way, then on I'll be coloring and designing backgrounds for the toon along with a voice cameo but the others I can't say too much about.

JA: How would you describe your style using only one word?

TB: I wouldn't! Again, I'm so bad at deciding. I'd probably have to create a word to describe my art.

#16. A Conversation with Bob Camp

JA: You have been nominated for multiple awards, including 2 Emmys, for your achievements in animation. Let's start with your work in the 80s; how did you become involved in Thundercats, and what was your experience like trying to grow as an artist during this period of animation?

BC: I was living in a Tribecca loft with a bunch of other comic artists. Jim Meskimen, a comedian, actor and cartoonist moved in with us. He had been working at Rankin Bass doing character designs for Thundercats. He was moving on I guess to focus on his improv and acting work and reccomended me for the job. I did design work on several series for Rankin during this period all in different styles. Everything from props to characters and BGs. During this period I picked up any kind of cartoon work I could so I was able to develop many different styles. At this same time I was doing comic book work for Marvel comic strips, National Lampoon, and movie parodies for Crazy magazine.

JA: After your work as a character designer for Silver Hawks and The Comic Strip, you worked in the animation department for DiC on The Real Ghostbusters; what pressures were involved in working on a series based on such a popular movie franchise, and what were your feelings about the animation DiC was producing?

BC: That show was a breeze for me. Before that I was acting as an entire design crew for multiple shows. This was just one show and I sat next to Bruce Timm having a blast drawing monsters and ghosts all day. I learned a lot just watching Bruce draw. I called him the human sewing machine because of the speed at which he drew. I was ok with the animation DiC produced. It was a job and I lived across the street and got to hang out with funny artists all day. At the time it was an ideal situation for me and many of the people there during that period are big shots in the industry now.

JA: After The Real Ghostbusters you became involved in another DiC production, Beany and Cecil, as a storyboard artist; how did you become involved with the series, and was this where you met director John Kricfalusi?

BC: Yeah, the first person I met at DiC was Jim Gomez and he introduced me to John and Lynne Naylor.

JA: Voice actor Billy West, who would later voice Stimpy in The Ren & Stimpy Show, was also involved in Beany and Cecil; what kind of feedback did you recieve recreating the Bob Clampett series, and at what point did the idea come about to break away and do something original together?

BC: I didn't know Billy at that point as I wasn't invited to the recording sessions. I thought his voices were great though. I got very little feedback on my work there. John was staying in his office most of the time. I did get lots of inspiration from Eddie Fitzgerald at that point. He was directing on the show. The layout crews were mostly people from Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse. They had learned the fine art of doing whatever the hell they wanted from Mighty Mouse. It was a cartoon free for all. After John fired Eddie, his crew continued to layout cartoons without any supervision. I remember we showed a cartoon to the lady from the network. The last scene was Cecil singing his song in the water while Beany floated up in a wash tub. Cecil snorted Beany up inside his nose and shot his clothes back out of his nostril. The woman screamed and John and I took off running and hid somewhere like kids that'd broken a window with a baseball. One day someone went around and told everyone to leave. No notice. I went out and got hammered with some people. Everyone else stole everything that wasn't nailed down.

JA: You also worked as a storyboard artist on Tiny Toon Adventures; did you work with Eddie Fitzgerald on the series?

BC: Yeah I worked with Eddie. I learned a lot about drawing funny from him. The crew on that show was amazing. Lots of heavy hitters. I shared a cubicle with Chris Reccardi. Lots of prankster mayhem going on. The show was frustrating for a lot of us though. We were told it'd be like Termite Terrace and the cartoonists would have control to make real cartoons like Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones. Such was not the case.

JA: Tell me about your involvment getting Spumco and The Ren & Stimpy Show off the ground; what role did Vanessa Coffey play in helping getting the show on the air?

BC: John and I shared an office in Hollywood with Jerry Beck before there was a Spumco. We were picking up any freelance we could. We didn't even have any furniture back then. Jerry was partnered up with Carl Macek in Streamline pictures and they were distributing Japanese animation. I'm fuzzy on the details but Carl and John went to Nick and met with Vanessa. John pitched ideas he had created with friends in college in Canada. One was called Your Gang, kind of a parody of Our Gang. Ren Hoek and Stimpy were just a couple of characters in the pitch. They said that they wanted just the dog and cat and they made a deal to make a pilot. Vanessa had everything to do with getting the show on the air. She doesn't get enough credit for that.

JA: You worked in just about every area of production for The Ren & Stimpy Show: from writing, directing, storyboards, BGs, character design, voice actor, and much more; tell me about your life during the peak of the show's popularity at Nickelodeon.

BC: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. 'Nuff said.


JA: When Nickelodeon fired Spumco from Ren and Stimpy production, you took over the responsibilities of the show under the newly developed Games Animation; what was this time like for you with the loss of John Kricfalusi, in what ways were you pressured to change from the way Spumco did things, and what feedback were you recieving from Nickelodeon once the ball was rolling?

BC: At first it was terrible. It was frankly a very tough decision for me to make. As you know there were lots of hard feelings about all of that. Things improved as we got into production, actually producing cartoons and meeting deadlines. We weren't really pressured to change anything. There was always the constant changes from Broadcast Standards and Practices but that is always part of the process and had nothing to do with John or Spumco. There was always tension in and around R&S. We were mostly rebelious funny a-holes and the studio never really understood what the show was about or why it was so popular. I think they were happy when it was over.

JA: After Ren & Stimpy ran 5 seasons, you went on to work in features; tell me about your time spent working as a storyboard artist for Looney Tunes: Back In Action, and the work you did for the abandoned sequel to Space Jam.

BC: Yeah. I like doing feature work. Looney Tunes: Back in Action was OK. I got to work with the great director Joe Dante. I wasn't too fond of the script but I got work with some fine artists including the famous animator Eric Goldberg. We did that on the Warners lot which is always fun being in the middle of a big hollywood machine like that. We tried to get Space Jam 2 off the ground but Michael Jordan didn't want any part of it.

JA: You also worked as a storyboard artist for Blue Sky on both Robots and Ice Age: The Meltdown; what was your experience like at this studio, and also, what are your thoughts on today's feature animation being produced?

BC: It's always great to work on a big feature like that. Being surrounded by hundreds of talented artists is just fantastic. Of course being part of a huge production can be frustrating at times but I just remind myself that I'm lucky to be able to do what I love. It's still a lot of fun. I think the animated features being produced now are way better than they have been. Lots of great new directors and stories. People have gotten out of the idea of trying to make counterfit Disney movies. I wish that there were still traditionally animated features being made in the US. The idea that CG films are the only ones that people will watch is so much crap. It's all about story and character.

JA: Do you have a favorite cartoon of all time?

BC: Tex Avery's Deputy Droopy. Hands down.

JA: So what can we expect to see next from Bob Camp?

BC: More film storyboards. I'm creating lots of new properties that I'm pitching around. Check out my blog. I'm putting up old drawings, new ones and the occasional theory.

#15. A Conversation with Brigette Barrager

JA: At 24 you have already graduated from CalArts with a BFA in Character Animation, worked for both Disney and Pixar, and have been compared to both Mary Blair and Friz Freleng; what was it that originally inspired you to start drawing?

BB: Well, there's nothing unique about having the impulse to draw, because all children draw and like drawing. I think what sets artists apart is that they continuously indulge the impulse, far past where they should have already "outgrown" it. In my case I don't think there was ever a start, there was just the fact that nobody ever advised me to stop. This is the part where I have to give credit to my parents, because they never even so much as suggested that I couldn't grow up and be an artist if I wanted to. They let me draw on the walls and hoard art supplies and bought me sketchbooks and helped me dye my hair blue. I just kept drawing and drawing, drawing in the margins of my homework papers in school and dragging a sketchbook with me everywhere. The idea of having an actual career in art started manifesting during high school when everyone around me was deciding which UC-something-something to go to and what Honors classes they would have to take in order to pursue their careers in Infinitely Boring. My parents didn't argue with my ideas about art school either, they expected it. I think when I graduated from CalArts it was like I was fulfilling my destiny in their eyes, like "Yeah, the kid did good! We did a good job!" I have my degree hanging on my studio wall. It DOES make me feel accomplished, and it looks really official!

As far as being compared to Mary Blair is concerned, I don't know about that. Mary could paint better than me even if she was holding the brush between her toes. Honestly, I'm a little tired of hearing that comparison. People throw the name "Mary Blair" around like it has some finite parameters, as if the name defines only one particular personal style, but if you actually take a close look at her body of work there is a LOT of variety. It is far from "flat" and "graphic" is way too general a word to describe anything well. Sorry if that's a little rant-ish, but I can't help it!

JA: Tell me about your time spent at CalArts; what challenges did you face in the Character Animation program, what was your final project, and how has school helped prepare you for the art world?

BB: The biggest challenge at CalArts, for any student there, is just choosing how to use your time. Just like any college, nobody is going to hold your hand or harp on you if you don't go to class and do your homework. It's just that at CalArts your homework is an animation test or drawing assignment or a paper about the social implications of rap music and skateboarding for 20th century mnemonics. The biggest, number one big deal in the Character Animation department is getting your student film done. From the first day class is in session instructors are already talking about it, giving you the due dates and the time limits. Then there is the problem of not just completing a film, but actually making it good, which is harder than it sounds. You have to become really conscious of how you're using your time in order to get everything done. What that means really is that you live in your work space for several months and don't really do anything else but try to finish the film, while still taking classes and trying to pass them. There were lots and lots and lots of nights where I only got 4 or 6 hours of sleep just so that I could keep up, and forget about taking the weekend off. It's like a self-induced cartoon boot camp! But of course, it's totally fun and you're surrounded by people experiencing the same things. It's great.

My fourth year cartoon was called Captain Scratchy Beard. It's about the captain of a cruise ship and his daughter, and it's set in the 1920's. Their ship is attacked by a sea monster, and although she tries to warn him that they are in danger he is blissfully preoccupied until things really start to go awry. All my films were really personal, and this one was no exception. During the summer after my first year at CalArts my dad was diagnosed with cancer, luckily, a really treatable form, and I'd spent a lot of nights wondering what I would do without him if worse came to worst. This film was my own little manifestation of relationships, stress, tragedy, recovery, cartoons, 1920's costume, cats and barf sound effects. I think I'm making it sound more epic than it really is. I've been thinking about putting it up on YouTube, hopefully that will happen soon!

I think the best things I got from school are fairly intangible. The relationships I cultivated while I was there are totally, utterly, completely priceless. My school friends are my best friends because we experienced so much together. CalArts does something that I think gives its students a little edge, too: it encourages you to really think about what you're doing, to put a little intellectual spin on what you may have thought of before as only funny drawings. Being able to really understand what you are doing from the ground up is an indispensable skill.

JA: What were you involved in during your time spent interning at Pixar?


BB: Pixar dreamed us up a fake project to work on, so that we could take the work we did with us and use it in our portfolios, which was very nice of them. The project was Hansel and Gretel, so we tried everything that the art department would usually do: character designs, environments, color keys, prop designs, beat boards, a little bit of everything. We had mentors to help us out, mine was Robert Kondo, and we got to sneak peeks at upcoming productions. I spent a lot of time hanging around in the story intern room and sneaking into the sculpture room to bug Greg Dykstra. Harley Jessup took care of us art interns, too, and he always came by to give critiques and advice. There was free cereal!

JA: You also had an apprenticeship in Visual Development with Disney; tell me about your job and your experiences working for the company.

BB: At first my job I was doing backgrounds for a short (that has since been shelved), so I had to learn how to paint in the style of Melody Time era Claude Coats, pretty much. I got to take a shot at designing some characters for Prep and Landing and Rapunzel, too. I have to tell you the honest to goodness truth, which is that I wasn't at all happy there. There was a strange aura of stale fear that just hung around in the hallways. It seemed to me that for most, not all, people the number one priority was just to keep their jobs, which is not exactly an attitude that fosters creativity. My brain kept telling me that it was a fantastic opportunity and that I needed to suck it up and do my best, but my gut kept telling me to quit punching myself in the soul and leave. That said, I don't regret being there at all, and I know a lot of people who are really, truly happy there. It just isn't where I belong.

JA: Tell me about your involvement with Swarovski.

BB: We got involved with Swarovski during our fourth year at CalArts. "We" is me and my long time partner in crime and the future Mr. Brigette, Sean Jimenez. Swarovski was fixing to make some animated commercials to help sell its new line of crystal tchotckes (you know, like little animals and stuff), so some reps came to CalArts and they struck up a deal: have your students do some unique, fresh work for us and we'll offer them an opportunity to hang out in Austria and make us a cartoon. Sean and I didn't get the offer to come out and make the film, but Swarovski did like our work a whole lot and they invited us out to Austria last December to do some design and story work. We were out there for two weeks, and it was completely amazing! We didn't have a whole lot of free time, but what we did see was awesome: castles, snow on the alps, medieval buildings...we actually ate in a restaurant that was 600 years old.
Sean went back to Austria last April to art direct the next series of ads, along with our friend Courtland Lomax, and he was gone for a whole three months. I came out during the last two weeks of June to work on the model sheets. I definitely like Austria better in the summer, even though there are terrifying thunder and lightening storms all the time. Right now I'm working on the background paintings for the new ads. I can't show any of it yet, I signed a paper of secrecy, but the films will be online before the holiday season. You'll see 'em!

JA: Do you have an all-time favorite cartoon?

BB: Ugh, what a hard question. I seriously thought about this for hours. I don't know if I can just have one! Dexter's Lab is the first thing that comes to mind, so I guess that's my all-time #1, but it's followed shortly by any Donald Duck cartoon, chased after that by Powerpuff Girls, and then my mind skips over to all the excellent independently animated shorts I've seen, like Fran Krause's Mr. Smile and Jesse Schmal's Sub, and then I remember all the hours of my life I've spent watching Looney Tunes, and how great Samurai Jack is, and how I am glued to Futurama every time it's on. I guess when it comes down to it I never outgrew watching cartoons, period. I'd still rather watch Spongebob than a sitcom.

JA: Name one artist that everyone reading this interview should check out today.

BB: Evaline Ness. Look it up!

JA: You have mentioned that you get very little sleep working at night to pay for the personal work you do during the day; what work do you do now, and what is your most recent personal project?

BB: Sometimes there's just not enough hours in the day, and you've got to push through into the wee hours of the night to get something accomplished. Right now I'm working on a series of illustrations to make into prints for the Alternative Press Expo, as well as finishing up BG's for Swarovski. I've got a lot of ideas and not enough time to make them happen! My newer work is more on the fluffy side, more decorative and whimsical, which is a place I haven't allowed myself to go in a long time. I would really, really like to do a graphic novel in the future, and a children's book or two. At the moment I have a big stack of frames on my desk that are waiting to be painted and filled with art, so I guess that's really my most current project.

JA: What one word would you use to describe your style?

BB: Just one word? Hm. Phantastmagorical.