Oddly sexy girl seen at the Macrobiotic restaurant

That's it for this week friends.
Many thanks for the kind comments,
see you next Tuesday.

I'm blogging here!!!

Don't know where the last few posts I created went to...they all seemed to have loaded on my end, but don't appear to be showing up anywheres. Oh well, when and if they do, they're pretty much centered on the minor amount of work I did on the Popeye holiday special, produced in CG by King Features and Mainframe for Fox TV. Wait when you see it. It's nice. You'll see....

concept art...

I should point out that all of this art is copyright, KFS 2006. More development art from the holiday special.

The Sea Hag

Unlike Pappy, the Sea Hag was one of the comic strip characters never adapted by the Fleischer studio. Pity, cuz they would've done an amazing job with her, much better, I'm sure, than these development drawings I did, again for the CG holiday special.

Poopdeck Pappy

Model sheets I'd drawn for Poopdeck Pappy in the Fleischer style. Again, this was for the "Quest for Pappy" special King produced with Mainframe. Pappy was a character adapted from the comic strips by the Fleischers in the late thirties, so I'm guessing style guides must exist on him, but I suppose it was easier for me to simply draw some up rather than search them down.

Unpublished Popeye

These're two pages of roughs for a proposed comic book King Features thought about doing to promote the CG holiday special from a year or two back. I would've loved to have worked on this, but unfortunately, King decided not to do it....

Pilot models 2

Our hero...

Pilot models 1

The Human Puddle, in various forms....

cut scene, unproduced board part 2

Cut scene, unproduced board part 1

Plastic Man, Part 3

Character roughs from unproduced board.

Plastic Man, part 2

Ah, I seem to be able to upload stuff today, albeit not in the order I'd hoped, and honestly, I'm a little concerned about how these scans'll read.
Whatever...some 'early' Plas art from me.

THIS IS A BLOG!??

Oh, MAN!!
I'm having a helluva time uploading art today.
In fact, I can't do it---had a ton of Plastic Man art I wanted to share with ya'll, but
honestly, kids, I gots to run.
Let's reconvene this Thursday, maybe by then I can get post.
Very sorry.
I owe you all money....
Sde

Plastic Man, part I

Plastic Man.
Plastic Man is one of my five favorite superheroes....
........
ahem.
1. Batman
2. Robin
3. Captain Marvel
4. Plastic Man
5. Captain America.
(Thanks for asking.)

If you've been checking Phil Rynda's blog, (parenthetically, I should say that I've not quite learned how to add links to my blog, but I am working on it, and for now go to philrynda.blogspot.com), you'll know that my dearest Uncle/best little brother has posted designs from the Plastic Man pilot, as well as a link to the short itself, airing on Youtube.
Phil also reveals that the cartoon was not picked up by Cartoon Network as a series. Which is a shame, but that's business, and possibly unfinished business at that (I encourage you all to let Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers Animation and even DC Comics know that a Plas cartoon is something you'd like to see). I was indeed the storyboard artist for the pilot and, to those of you that complained about the writing, I suppose I'm as responsible as anyone. And I'd have to agree with you, at least a little, that the story works better in some places than in others. In any event, it was an absolute treat for me to have played a part in bringing Plas to the pilot stage, as well as storyboarding two unproduced cartoons in the development process. Many thanks to Heather Kenyon at Cartoon Network for her support on the project, and to producer Bobbi Page at Warners for her exceptional cool in dealing with deadline woes. Lastly, many many thanks to producer, designer and writer Andy Suriano, whose baby the Plas Pilot was, for asking me to be part of the fun.
Here, I'm posting some of my earliest sketches of Andy's version of Plas, some rough designs from an unproduced show, and
a sequence cut from the same unproduced storyboard.
You likey, you let me know.
Also, lemme know what you'd like to see next on my blog:
I've more creepy children to show you. Lots of Popeye work, including Fleischer drawing theories I worked up, and unpublished Popeye comics. Me drawing superheroes, which is always weird, and lots and lots of Venture Brothers stuff, which I'm super proud of.
Sound off, true believers.
Many thanks,
sde

Nickelodeon magazine editor, Chris Duffy and I pitched a GOTHAM GIRLS mini series called the BIG SLEEPOVER to DC, but it didn't get very far. Even so, I got this out of it; penciled by Pixar superstar Bill (REX STEELE) Presing, and inked by me, I think it's a pretty sweet little drawing.
Friends, I'm having a blast blogging, but I've got to get some work done. Many, many thanks to all my friends, old and new, who've posted here. Please, please continue! And, remember to check back; I'll post new art next Tuesday, and every Tuesday after that. I'm finding some work of mine I'd enjoy sharing with you, animation stuff, unused strips, random art, found items and even pieces I've collected by some of my cartooning cohorts.
Many thanks,
have a great weekend,
Sde

Unpublished Strip

A photocopy of an unpublished strip, created originally for a proposed Sunday supplement of comics and entertainment.
The concept and characters for PET CLUB were Brian Marshal's, but this pretty much reads to me as something I'd written, clearly with help from INSTANT PIANO collaborators, Robbie Busch and Mark Badger.
It's cute.
It reminds me a bit of Jack Kent's work (and for those of you unfamiliar with his classic strip, KING AROO, I highly encourage you to go find an old paperback collection, they're usually pretty affordable). I might draw things a bit differently today, (this piece must be at least 10 years old), but my biggest concern is the story telling.
Now, what exactly is going on in panel six? Who's delivering that line?
Jeez louise, it's fun to find these old strips of mine, but I am a little alarmed at the lack of clarity in my presentation here.

Because Marc C. asked for it.
Kat never received her card, but if you're looking, Kat,
I hope you had a Happy Birthday!

By the way...

I've discovered I love blogging.
I'm going to quit my day job, drop out of society,
and only blog. Ever, from now on.
Thanks,

Space boy, IN COLOR

Based on characters created by Dan Yaccarino.
I think that's how you spell his name.

and, More from the Infinite.

I found these going through my files, and despite the fact that they must be over 10 years old, I'm still proud of my work on them. This is me cleaning up Bill Wray for his cartoon, KING CRAB. The really messed up thing about them is 1) how clean they are...why?!?, and 2) how tiny I drew these. I mean, these were the baby post-its I was cleaning up. Isn't that fucking looney?
But that was how I enjoyed working back then, and Bill and I worked on several cartoons in this manner (In particular, I remember the Sammy Mantis Jr. cartoon for Ren and Stimpy was done mostly in miniature.)

Children, shout outs

a-HA!
Now, these're the drawings I wanted to post the other day.
Always liked them, thought they were cute in a creepy kind of way.
.....
Also, many thanks to the folks who've responded to my posts;
Danny, Jared, Chris George (CHRIS GEORGE!!), Martin (you're
right, Martin, I DO feel both nerdy and self-indulgent now),
a new friend whose name I can't remember, my old chum
Don (congratulations and best wishes, Don), and of course
Pete and Phil.
More soon.
sde

Heh.

Posted that drawing twice.

...okay. Alright. I'm figuring this out. I can do this.
I wanted to post some art today. This isn't quite what I wanted to post, but
whatever, I'll get to the other stuff soon. This is me as Popeye the Sailor
(I draw Popeye the Sailor for King Features Licensing.)
Look at it.
I'll get more stuff up soon, but for now, just
look at this.

My name is Stephen DeStefano, and I am, among other things, a cartoonist. I've been drawing professionally since I was 15, but non-professionally since before I can remember. I'm fortunate to be doing, for a living, exactly what I'd always wanted to do. I am a cartoonist, and I love cartoons.