Click here—————————————————————–>kevvie metal- drinking 2

Happy New Years!  Sorry the new one is late, but it’s hard to edit a podcast about drinking when you’re hung over from ringin’ in baby ’12.  Featuring Tombo and Bluesman Brian, an interview with folk artist Whispers & Whiskey, and a little game called worst drink. This will probably be the last Kevvie Metal Podcast for a while, while I make some comics and figure out my life plans.

Click here for the—————————————–>Kevvie Metal War on Christmas Special!

No Co-hosts, no Christmas songs, it’s a little different this week!   Featuring some of my fave tunes, and an appearance from Dave the Landlord, this one’s full of Bah Humbug spirit.

Here’s the Money Episode!———————————————>  Kevvie Metal- Money

Co-hosted by B-Money and Tom Swerve-o, this one’s a looong one!  Several games and silly discussions, plus some of our favorite fiduciary tunes.

Click here for the new Kevvie Metal Podcast———————>kevviemetal podcast- weather

Should be smaller file size/easier to load, thanks to those who brought that to my attention.  Co-hosted by Bluesman Brian and featuring an interview with my bro, recording artist Unkle Funkle.  We talk storms, Ben Stein, rain, my mush-mouth, wind, and some other stuff.

Here’s the Stars episode, co-hosted by Bluesman Brian, featuring Creepy Compliments (EXPLICIT), an unusually good mood for Kevvie, and some outdated political coverage.

Click Here———————————————————>kevvie metal podcast- Stars

Coming Next Week- The Weather Episode, with Bluesman Brian and a special interview with Unkle Funkle!

my first couple tests using layers to animate in Photoshop.  Walk Cycles copied from Preston Blair.

Click here for the Monkeys Episode—————————->kevvie metal podcast monkeys

Co-hosted by Bluesman Brian, featuring Freestyle Haiku battle, a call-in contest, and the infamous ‘change-purse-assault-after-beastie-boys-concert’ story!

I’ve been on a quest to watch all of the Disney classically animated features for the last couple of years, and since being back in Portland, I’ve made tremendous progress, thanks to the multnomah county library.  I don’t think I was seeing any for the first time (many I watched on a loop as a kid), but it had been the first time in at least twenty years for some.  As an adult, I find new appreciation for the craftsmanship, and the number of talented people working together to produce a seamless whole.

Now, let us be clear, Disney is a shitty company.

They make things harder for artists by limiting creative rights, lobbying to change copyright laws in their favor, and aggressively litigating anyone they find has been co-opting the most ubiquitous brand in the world.  Ub Iwerks created Mickey Mouse, in all real sense of the word.  Floyd Gottfredson, Carl Barks, Don Rosa, and countless others had to sign Walt’s name to their drawings. They bought Marvel, and used their combined legal might to crush the latest attempt by the Kirby heirs to get some percentage of the profits from characters Jack Kirby created.

BUT their films are the standard for animated films, and really, for kid’s entertainment as a whole.  With all that out of the way, here’s the films that struck me lately.

Pinocchio (1940) was Disney Studios’ second,and in my opinion, best animated feature.

Disney’s first film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) was widely heralded as pioneering in the field, and a technical marvel.  It is also one of the hardest to sit through.  The saccharine levels are high when Snow White trills about love, in between smooching the horde of squirrels and birds that follow her.  There’s some good stuff with the woodsman in the forest, but then we have to watch those grotesque dwarves prance about.

Maybe it’s a guy thing, but give me Pinocchio any day.  The backgrounds are perhaps the most beautifully rendered in any Disney film (and that’s saying something).  Gepetto’s workshop, with it’s endless moving clocks and toys, must have taken years alone.  The characters are cartoony, and that weird rotoscopey look that is so prominent in Snow White is used only on the Blue Fairy.  And the villains are scary as shit.  Anthropomorphic foxes selling you to slave traders and giant whales swallowing you whole is pretty potent stuff.

Throw in the voice and personality of Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket, and the fact that all of Disney’s primary “Old Men” animators were there as young men still cutting their teeth, you got yourself a movie.

I’ll admit the sexy goldfish is weird, but Snow White had way more of that kinda stuff.

Sleeping Beauty (1957) is seen as a high mark in Disney design.  Illustrator Eyvind Earle was allegedly given unprecedented control of the film’s overall look, in the role of color designer and Background Artist.

The background paintings for Sleeping Beauty took much longer than the average animated cell background, and other team members were not happy with their lack of influence.  But that movie is beautiful, it hangs together more cohesively than most animated features, undoubtedly because of Earle’s level of control.

The animation of the prince riding his horse is considered one of the finest examples of a very hard movement to capture.  The medieval story elements meld perfectly into the modern-art-inspired, angular style of the film.

It also has a great looking villain, and bonus fact: Chuck Jones worked on this film!

For Tony Millionaire’s recent response to the Disney version of Winnie the Pooh, check this out.

and if you like this Disney behind the scenes stuff, chcck out the book, Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, and the documentary film, Waking Sleeping Beauty

Now there’s probably not a studio in the world that can compete with Disney’s claim for supremacy.  But if there is, it’s Studio Ghibli.  For the amount of time they’ve been around, they have produced a variety of highly entertaining, spectacularly drawn features for audiences of all ages.   Next post I’ll write about my Miyazaki marathon, where I watched Castle of Cagliostro, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away all in a row.  Thatsa whimsical-a meatball!

Watching all that Miyazaki did get me sketchbooking again, and I’ve got some ideas which you’ll be seeing very soon.  Gotta get my scanner from Seattle.  Long story.

Visions of the Aporkalypse has come and gone.  I printed a bunch, but gave away or sold all of them.  I’ll post any additional printings on the blog.  Rob Clough at High/Low also just reviewed the anthology here, pretty lukewarm, but good exposure nonetheless.

In other news, I graduated from the Center for Cartoon Studies, went to John Byrne’s house, and moved back to sunny Portland, OR.

In front of CCS with my Diploma, drawn by everyone’s pal Aaron Renier.

Art Spiegelman was present with his wife, speaker Francoise Mouly.  He was nice enough to sign my copy of Maus and talk comics for a few minutes.
In other news, I’m employed again, working for Portland Public Schools as a substitute in Special Education.  Interesting work!  I’ve also been recording episodes of my new Podcast: The Kevvie Metal Podcast ,

a music, comedy and internet show where I talk to friends and creators.  I’ve been lucky to get some pretty great guests so far, and there’s some exciting ones in the works.
I’m gonna be back updating more frequently, stay tuned.
Oh, almost forgot.  Here’s some of my favorite new comics to check out.

The Wolf                     by Tom Neely If you don’t know Tom Neely, get on board, fool!  A really amazing artist with surreal, beautiful and often horrifying imagery, framed around metaphorical and poetic stories.  A stunning new volume, available at finer comics and book stores, and from Tom.  He’s a great model of an independent self-publisher, and a nice fellow, too.

Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010             by Michael Kupperman

Michael Kupperman is hilarious.  His Tales Designed to Thrizzle Collections are also highly recommended, and laugh-out-loud funny.  His new book is a mix of prose, illustration and comics, telling the continued tales of America’s favorite humorist.  The art is more stripped down than the laborious style in Thrizzle, but carries the same level of humor, channeled through the voice of Twain.

Congress of the Animals                           by Jim Woodring

One of the great COMIX masters, Woodring is a master of both normal and giant novelty nib pens.  Another trippy tale featuring Frank and the other citizens of Woodring’s startling imagination.  A visionary master of black and white balance, I recommend any and all Woodring works.  The Frank Book was recently rereleased by Fantagraphics, and that’s a wonderful tome.

So until next time, happy trails!  Check out the Kevvie Metal Podcast if you haven’t yet.

But you know, I’m hanging in.  I just wrapped up two new pages for Visions of the Aporkalypse, which is looking pretty awesome, and should be available very very soon.  Also putting in more pencils for the Life Skills draft I’m working on.  I’ve got some (a lot of) drawing and production ahead of me, but I look forward to getting it done, and having this moment with my comics again.

Probably won’t be posting a whole heck of a lot until I wrap it all up.

And, hey, another thing.  I just wanted to express my sorrow over the untimely death of an old friend, Chris Goshorn.  My deepest condolences to his family and friends.  Chris was one of the kids that played in punk bands at my high school, a group I gravitated towards and eventually sort of made it into, my first real community of creative peers.  He was very talented, but also humble, kind, and welcoming to me in a way that wasn’t exactly par for the course in high school.  I haven’t seen him in years, and now that he’s gone, I’m truly saddened and miss him.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned.