Hooray!!!!! But.........

Where are the rest? When Classic Media announced the release of the original Godzilla in both Japanese and American formats, they also announced the release of a box set featuring, I think it was, five other films- each given the two disc, Japanese/American, treatment. Amazon was even carrying it, but I now notice that it is absent..... So now it looks like Classic Media is going to play it safe and take each G-flick as it comes. It even looks as though they are going to release their catalog chronologically. So on November 7th we can all rush out and salivate over beautiful releases of Godzilla Raids Again and Godzilla vs. Mothra. Head on over to Sci-Fi Japan to read the Classic Media Press release.


watching: Unbreakable
listening to: American Analog Set

The Turtles are back!

Hey folks, if you haven't seen it already, head on over to the amazing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles teaser page and enjoy the Turtles at their finest! This film, directed by Kevin Munroe, looks to be a great treat for those out there who remember the original comic series, before the animated show lightened a truly gritty mood. I had the splendid opportunity to actually board this teaser trailer what feels like an eon ago. I would have really loved to have been able to go on and board the film itself, however that was the time I got the call from Zemeckis to help board Beowulf....well what would YOU do?
Anyway, here are some screen grabs from the teaser as well as the boards that inspired the shots....I'll soon be posting the full set of teaser boards over at Robot Operator Manuals....I'll let you know.....I still have to add the Monster House comic stuff and sift through about a thousand pieces of art from the movie to add......sheesh.

In Space.......

Hear that? Got it from Myspace....yes it IS the music from the web game "Thou Art Dead".






and that's the main character....tee hee. Now what's this all about....well, it's all about Myspace, and the ingenious way that Monster House is being promoted through it. Personally, I never really gave a crap about myspace. Like Friendster, it seemed to be a big waste of time, and an open forum to be harassed by strangers. Constantly. But here's the beauty part...something like a bazillion people a day access Myspace, and some smart bloke at Sony decided to use this to Monster House's advantage. It's beautiful. Monster House has it's own page, which then links you to Myspace pages for almost all of the young characters in the film- DJ, Chowder, Jenny, Skull, Bones, Zee....even Skull & Bones (the band) and Thou Art dead have their own Myspace pages....and it's not just a few images. These are chock full of art from the film (much of it created by me), and very dense, seemingly personal offering from fictional characters....Skull (my favorite by far) is even head of the Official Thou Art Dead Fan club....with a newsletter and everything! The Skull & Bones page has tour dates! Tour Dates!
You could literally spend hours there taking it all in, and becoming very seriously immersed in the lives of these characters......
so go on over to Monster House's Myspace page and enjoy.....
oh, and here's.......

BlasterPong!

watching: The Million Dollar Hotel
listening to: The Court & Spark

Bookmobile!

If you happen to wander into one of your many local bookstores, you can check out these Monster House books in the kid's section. Wonderful! Since the kids are going to go all loopy over how much they love this film, and with no toys coming out to speak of, these books are great addendums.
First up you've got the novelization, but I've never been much for reading movies after I've seen them, unless they're based on books I haven't read....but it's got a cool lenticular cover.
The 3-D book is just that...3-D. Glasses and all. It includes some choice stills from the film as well as some excellent Chris Appelhans and Khang Le artwork.
Trouble on Oak Street and Dear Diary are fun young reader's books.
And my favorite...Dj's notebook...a pretty good look into the kind of kid we were designing DJ to be. He's obsessed with the house across the street, right down to his scientific method. It's chock full of little doodles and notes we created just as background chaos...never thinking they would be read by the youth of today.....neat.
Oh, and that's one of my Style Guide line drawings on the cover....extra neat!

Fast Food Anyone?

With Monster House hitting the theatres on July 21, the marketing blitz has begun....and weirder than weird is this. Carl's Jr. kids meals and toys. Extremely surreal to see work I've done, and the work of friends on happy meal bags and toys... I've been aware, ever since I did line art for the Style Guide, that I'd be seeing things like this....it's still a shock to actually hold a Fast food pog:
with one of my house drawings on it. No, I'm not trying to toot my own horn here...I just, nobody KNOWS I drew this stuff but me, and I can't get over the oddity of it.
So dig this pog eating Monster House toy. My son Evan loves it. He puts the pog on the tongue and says, "Bye DJ, Bye Jenny, Bye Chowder (which he pronounces Show-der)," then proceeds to ask me, in that repetitive three-year-old manner, to "Let them come out," of the House. Brilliant!

And now in a week or so I'll be able to get the Chowder Backhoe toy (go to Carl's Jr. to see it), which I'm dying to try out, since I had a hand in designing it. The story is, while we were shooting, the producers came to me to ask for a bunch of different designs and ideas for toys, games, books, etc., and this little Backhoe toy was one of them. Although they didn't go with my favorite design, which was little hollow rubber figures of the kids with their squirt guns- you know, your filled them with water and squirted each other with them. Fun right?
It was a fun few weeks...just coming up with stuff...I wish they would do the board game...I liked that one too.

Oh and the little hand-held maze thing was actually an idea my wife, Emily gave me.

So now I have to get these toys....my kid's going to love all the cheeseburgers and star-shaped chicken nuggets.

And coming soon:


More on this and some of the other books next time.

watching: Firefly
listening to: Magnolia Electric Company