Tuesday, August 22, 2006

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 Lots of Popeye work, including Fleischer drawing theories I worked up, and unpublished Popeye comics.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

3 comments:

Tom Dougherty said...

I just learned the whole link-adding thing for my blogs not 10 minutes ago. Click on the little "Edit-Me"s on the right side of your blog and there is a perfectly easy little how-to there. If I could do it, an inanimate carbon rod could do it.

Love the blog- of course!

Joe Gannon said...

Which Captain Marvel do you like, the 1940s Fawcett Cap'n, or the 60s-70s Marvel Comics version?

wolfboy said...

Jeezuz Stephen, what can I say--you are truly an gentleman and a prince! Your work was not only genius--but inspired me to continue the fight! As for the one comment regarding "weak writing"--I suppose everyone's entitled to their oppinion; although few have walked in our shoes when it comes to being given this amazing opportunity to bring to life one of our favorite characters, by way of TV pilot--but also what compromises that also brings: servicing so many network notes!

Thank you again, my sweet prince!