The Abominable Charles Christopher

On the way to CTN-X a few weeks back, we received a message out of the blue from one of our favorite artists – Karl Kerschl. He wondered if we were interested in contributing a guest strip to support his phenomenal Eisner Award Winning webcomic: The Abominable Charles Christopher. Once we finally picked our jaws up off the floor, of course we said yes.

Abominable is a remarkably unique and genuine body of work. Karl continues to present a masterful balance between humor, action, and heart ache to the audience — all while creating breathtaking illustrations week after week. The expansive cast of characters create a world you simply want to spend time in while digging deeper into the story’s mysteries.

Above all else, Karl hits every Wednesday, never missing a beat. This is a feat of super human proportions and we truly wish we could steal a shred of his power. If you haven’t started reading, you owe it to yourself to check out one of the best strips out there — web or otherwise. And don’t forget to pick up the first collection here. Making comics is one of the most challenging jobs in art!

Thanks for the awesome storytelling Karl!

CTN-x Wow.

When we headed to the conference we didn’t quite know what to expect. We heard amazing stories from previous years but nothing could have prepared us for the grandeur of this show. Our schedule was packed pretty tight and we jumped in head first.

There are lots of shows across the country throughout the year with plenty of talent and panel talks. Yet none celebrate the art of the animation industry in this way. In depth discussions and intimate creator group sessions combine with an onslaught of remarkable creative talent from wall to wall. It’s rare in life when you can talk to one of your heroes. Now imagine meeting dozens of them day after day.

And that’s where CTN-x truly shines. You literally can’t walk ten feet without bumping into engaging talks about art, design and the industry in general. We had the supreme pleasure of talking shop with countless friends both old and new: Francisco Herrera, Tony Bancroft, Florian Satzinger, John Nevarez, Jose Lopez, Leonardo Olea, Kent Melton, Jake Parker, Ty Carter, Kohl Glass, Doug TenNapel, Steve Talkowski, James Gurney, Terryl Whitlatch, William Stout, Sue Nichols, Phil Allora, Willie Real, Stuart Ng, Colin Geller, Britney Lee, Peter de Seve, Rachael Mark, Wayne Medina and the list goes on and on. And many thanks to Tina Price for inviting us to this crazy carnival of art. We’re already looking forward to next year.

We also wanted to thank all the kind folks who came out to our talks. This was a new experience for us and you all made us feel right at home. And many thanks to Tony for keeping us in check on stage. And to the students, we’re jealous that we didn’t have a show like this while in school — soak it up!

Finally, we’ll leave you with a glimpse of madness — a climactic collaboration sketch during our last dinner in Burbank. Yeah, like we said.

Wow.

CTN Expo!

November 18th through the 20th,

Our Schedule:

Friday the 18th:

Dive into the Deep End with CreatureBox

-We’ll be discussing the ins and outs of how we got started, starting CreatureBox, and our thoughts on the current landscape for character design.
Time: 2:00 PM-3:15 PM
Location: Screening Room
Moderator: Tony Bancroft

Live Digital Drawing Demonstration

-We’ll be demoing a few crazy little critters and taking questions. Stop by and heckle Dave!
Time: 5:00 PM-5:45 PM
Location: Main Stage Digital Demo

Saturday the 19th:

Spotlight Signing Station

-We’ll be signing copies of our current Sketchbook, so please come by and check it out.
Time: 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Creator Conversations

-We’ll be going over what it takes to get yourself ready for a career in character design for video games, comics, TV and film.
Time: 4:00 PM-5:45 PM
Location: Parlor 123

Sunday the 20th

Breakfast with Pros

-Hungry and want to chew the fat, sign up for this intimate meet up where we can talk about anything that comes to mind over a cup of Joe!
Time: 9:00 AM-10:AM Daily Grill

Panel Discussion

-We’ll be discussing the process of developing creatures with fellow panelists James Gurney, Terryl Whitlatch and William Stout!
Time: 2:30 PM-3:45 PM
Location: Panel Room
Moderator: Sue Nichols

Demos and Signing at NYCC

October 14th through the 16th, we’re gonna be demoing from 12pm-2pm with our good friends over at the Autodesk booth #838! We’re really excited to start our annual Handshake Tour! There’s a lot of people we can’t wait to finally meet. If you have time, and you’re at the show, come on by!

We’ll be continuing the Handshake Tour out in sunny California at CTNX if you can’t make it to the east coast. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Thoughts, Scribbles + Madness: Vol. 3

We’re back….well…almost. We’ve been ear deep in getting this year’s book together. The files have been magically transported to the printer and we hope to see the results soon. But in the meantime, we have a couple loose ends to tie up, so we’re heading back into the trenches. Hopefully we’ll arrive unscathed soon enough! Onward!

Contest Prizes AWAY!

We think for the most part, when we set out to do something, we’re a pretty well oiled machine. We are wrong. “Hey let’s do a contest,” we said. “Let’s forget to get everyone’s emails included with the submissions so its easy to get in touch with the winners!” We obviously didn’t think it all the way through. So, after digging and cross referencing all known data about the the three finalists, we have successfully sent out the prizes to the enigmatic, but deserving winners. Thank you very much for your patience with us.

For the rest of you who entered, or thought about entering, here’s a quick look at the bounty. We’ll have more contests down the line once we can get our heads above water. But for now, we are going dark with the posts so we can finish up this years book. We’ll be back soon, but if you feel like saying hey, we’re still around.