Shhhhh!

hey gang,

sorry for the lack of new posts lately.
there's been a lightning storm of stuff to keep me busy, and things have had me super swamped. however, i'm hoping that verrrrrrrry soon i can announce something verrrrrrrry cool.
verry, verrrry coool and fun.
unfortunately, i can't say just yet. . . but, shhhhh, i can give you a couple "slivers" of a sneak peak . . .

sliver 1. . .

sliver 2. . .


hahaha . . . i know, i know . . . not much there. i'm sorry. but if you knew what to look for, there are clues in this blog post of what it might be . . .

i'll leave it up to you until i leave another sliver of info.

more soooon!
:)
all the best,
m . . .

EMPEROR in "King of the Beasts"

soooo . . . a long time ago. . . BEFORRRRRRE CGI penguins were popular . . . my friend scott sava and i sold a show called EMPEROR to Nickolodeon
and we went into development to do a little short cartoon for them as a test pilot. well, one thing led to another and we finished it about a year or so
ago. it test rather well, but they weren't too sure because looming on the horizon was Dreamworks and their sale to Viacom . . . which owns
Nickolodeon . . . which now has become the place for Dreamworks to develop tv series stuff . . . liiiiiiiike a penguin series based on the penguins in Madagascar.
arrrrrrgh.
anywaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, the rights have all reverted back to us(yea! :) ) and i'm trying to figure out what to do with it now. i'd like to re-imagine the characters into a 2-d world again and then take it into publishing and merchandise imagery of this little Napolionic emperor penguin trying to take over the world from his Zoo enclosure. he's greedy and power hungry and is only trying to remind everyone of who should be first in line . . . him.
;)
he's very much in the vein of daffy duck or plankton from spongebob and i love that, because it gives him a fault that can be used to make him vulnerable and thereby, likeable. he's not perfect and he reminds us of what happens when we get too full of ourselves.
of course, HE likes to remind everyone, including his little brother Ollie, and a crazy squirrel named Eugene, that he is an Emperor penguin for a reason . . . HE should be in charge, and his basic view on everything is very simple . . . . "How does it benefit me?"
;)
sooooo, now that we're looking for a direction and new home for Emperor, it seemed like a good idea to at least share it with everyone. here for your enjoyment is the humble lil' short that we did for them pretty much all by ourselves using each of our companies The Astonish Factory and Blue Dream Studios to produce a 6 minute mini-pilot . . .
Emperor is insulted that his own little brother would rather be a lion when he grows up . . . Emperor decides to explain that just because there aren't any emperor penguins in Africa, it is no excuse for the lions to be promoting themselves as "king of the beasts."
:)

i do hope you like it. it was a lot of work, but fun and also a very good learning experience. i guess we'll see what happens next with the little penguin
that would be emperor . . .
:)
enjoy!
m . . .

kids in the class #9,#10,#11 and #12

here's the last four . . . numbers 12, 11, 10 and nine
seems that this is taking a bit more o' my time.

so, luckily there're no more
kids in the class,
just one of their teacher,
to round out the mass.

enjoy!

:)
m . . .

kids in the class #7 and #8

here's number 7 and lil' number 8
today i gave two, so you wouldn't have to wait . . .

:)
m . . .

kids in the class #6

another of the pics is 'ol numba 6 . . .


:)
m . . .

kids in the class #5

and 5 is here, so give a cheer . . .

:)
enjoy!!
m . . .

kids in the class #4

well here it is 'ol #4,
stepping out onto the floor . . .

enjoy!
;)
m . . .

kids in the class #3

one more from me . . . #3.
:)
i can't stop rhyming! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


;)
enjoy!
m . . .

kids in the class #2

#2 for all of you.
see, i can rhyme . . . :)

enjoy!
m . . .

kids in the class #1

hey everyone,

so at my kids' school, they are having a fund raiser that all the classes are participating in. each of the classes offers up something to be auctioned. soooooooooooooo, since i have so much free time . . . i agreed to illustrate a book with all the kids in my daughter's class all doing their favorite sport and with their favorite animal.
:)
only 'cuz i loves my lil' girl. :)
aaaaand my son too, but he had too many kids in his class so i said no way. heehee
;)
actually they're doing somethin' else, so i get to do this cool illustrated book.

i'm just about done and i decided that i'd share 'em with ya. over the next two weeks i'll post a new image every day so you can see them all done.
i'm really having fun with this and i hope you enjoy all the images.
all the best,
m . . .
here's kid number 1 . . .

Annie Awards part deux

well gang, it was a verrrry fun night last night at the Annie Awards . . .
:)
my wife and i got all dressed up and went to the awards show and saw a lot of friends that i haven't seen in a while. it really was a tremendous gathering of talented folks. and to top it off . . . I WON! wahoooooooo! how crazy is that?! i thank God for the blessing and opportunity. considering i didn't know about the online voting or how it all worked, i had said earlier that it's all in God's hands. i had no way of even voting for myself! ;) Thanks to everyone that voted! and congrats to all that were nominated and all the other winners. there are so many great artists i'm thankful to work with and be around in this industry.

the very cool part of the award too was that the presenters were Harland Williams and
Edie McClurg. Edie is in one of my ALL-TIME favorite movies . . ."Ferris Bueller." she played the secretary "Grace." and Harland Williams was a voice in a short that i did with my good friend Scott Sava at Nickolodeon. so it was very great to have them present my category and ultimately the award.
:)
anyway, it was a wonderful night. i'm very thankful and honored. the nominees i was with are all amazing artists and it was great to be included with them in this category.

a friend was very kind and sent this pic to me last night of me up on stage babbling in front of the audience . . . i actually have a very blurry memory of what happened and what i said, so it was nice to see that i wasn't passed out on the floor.
;)
take care and all the best,
mike . . .

The Annie Awards

well, i just wanted to ask for everyone to keep their fingers crossed this weekend. . .
:)
i've been very blessed and honored with being nominated for an Annie Award for Best Character Design on an Animated Television Series. the nomination is for Juniper Lee and i'm nominated with some really amazing other artists too. . .

Ben Balistreri – Danny Phantom “King Tuck” – Nickelodeon

Mike Kunkel -– The Life & Times of Juniper Lee “Party Monsters” – Cartoon Network Studios

Carlos Ramos – The X’s “Homebody” – Nickelodeon

Eric Robles – The X’s “You Only Sneeze Twice” – Nickelodeon

so the awards are on Sunday night. fancy-shmancy evening attire and all the hoopla. i'm excited to go and very excited for everyone that has been nominated for the evening. it's a great feeling to be included with so many talented people.
so much talent in this industry, its nice to be reminded of everyone that is out there that is working so hard to entertain the world with cartooooons. :)
thanks to all that voted and i'll let everyone know on monday how it went!
:)
also . . . here are a few samples from the episode that i was nominated for.
enjoy!
:)
p.s. and if you want to visit and learn more about the Annies, here's the link to the annie awards :
http://www.annieawards.com/

Spiderman Cover

hey all!

well, i got to achieve a very fun dream of mine. . . draw Spidey officially for Marvel!
:)

recently for Marvel and the Hero Initiative, a hundred artists were asked to do covers for issue #100 of Ultimate Spiderman as a fundraiser for the charity.

you can read more about it here . . . http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=9471

anyway, i was late as usual, but i finally finished mine and here it is. i love drawing Spidey. his shape and poses can be so fluid and full of animation. i did it all in pencil, since i stink at inking. :)
enjoy! i hope ya like it.

now i've just got to convince them to let me do a complete Spidey story . . .
;)


all the best,
m . . .

Another fun Juniper Lee comic story

well, i did some more Juniper Lee comics freelance.
here's the latest story . . . penciled by me and inked by the fabulous Millet Henson. :)
Juniper gets a cold and has to help her brother take down an odd old 50's sci-fi type monster.
i had some fun with this one.
:)

enjoy and all the best!
m . . .

Merry Christmas to All!

well, everyone, i hope you have a verrry Merrrry Christmas!

all the best,
m . . .
:)

my brain wandered off . . .

i realized i wrote that in the last post, and it struck me kinda funny. :)
so i had to scribble up some scenes of my brain wandering off and me and it hanging out together playing checkers and watching old movies late at night.
you could almost look at these with the theme song of "Me and My Shadow. "
:)

i wonder if anyone else has this happen to them.

of course, knowing my brain, these may not be the last of the images of it wandering off onto adventures.


anyway, enjoy!

all the best,
m . . .

posted post-its

found my brain wandering off in a meeting. . .
:)
enjoy!


m . . .

an odd dragon

something fun for a book i'm working on . . . :)
enjoy!
m . . .

Herobear . . . the French Edition

well, we're reallllllly excited that we've finished translating the 3rd volume of the first Herobear story into French. this is the last French volume of the first story arc. it's been so great.
now, the interesting and tricky thing of all this was that Volume 2 of the French version ended in the middle of the original English version of issue 4. which was fine to end on a good cliffhanger. . . except that it made it difficult to start Volume 3 of the French version on the very next original page. soooooooooooooooooo, i created 2 NEW pages for Herobear to be a new page 1 and a new page 2 of Volume 3 so that the original page could flow better from where it split from the original.
whew!
is that confusing or what?! ;) anyway, all that to say that i created TWO NEW Herobear pages that have never been in any of the Herobear books and will only be in the French version. so, because i care about all 'o ya, i thought i'd share 'em here with you. :)
First here they are separately . . .



and here they are combined and fitting in with the Original pages and the new cover . . .


well i hope you enjoy 'em. :)
some of you have asked, and yes we are hoping to get some copies of the French Editions available on the website. i'll let you know when they are available.

as always, take care and all the best in everything,
m . . .

knee and erthall

here's a hairy 'ol caveman design i did for some freelance amongst a bunch 'o other designs. there are others, however, i can only show this one for now.

enjoy!
:)
all the best,
m . . .

More New Ham and Eggs

some more new scribbles of our favorite pig and chicken . . .



even scribbles in my sketchbook . . .
:)


Enjoy!

all the best,
m . . .

New and Old "Ham and Eggs"

sooooooooo recently, i found myself scribbling a new direction for an old group of characters. . . it was a comic strip/cartoon stories called Ham and Eggs.
It stars a happy-go-lucky-glass-is-overflowing Pig named Hamilton and his half brother, a realist-glass-is-half-empty-and-someone-better-not-spit-in-it Chicken named Eggbert. Two characters, with two totally different perspectives, and all of their friends that they live near in the Neckutha Woods. :)
anyway, i'd done some images and thought about doing something with them, but the designs were never quite there for me. i liked the characters that were evolving and their personalities, but the designs didn't make me laugh right off the bat. i wanted them to be funny looking and make you smile just from looking at them, and then you could enjoy the stories even more.
well, here we are a few years later, and i've think i've found my cast. i love where they are and what they look like now! :) and the rest of the gang is coming out really fun too.

so here's the old Ham and Eggs . . .


i like the old ones just fine, but again, they didn't have the immediate response i wanted. they didn't feel funny and endearing to me, so i couldn't quite move forward with anything with them.

now, moving forward, here's the new and improved . . .





now, to me, these feel much more like the personalities and the imagery i've been looking for. i'll post some of the other characters soon too. it's fun when you let something cook for a while and then when you come back to it, something clicks. and this feels like it's clicking. :)

anyway, thanks for letting me babble . . . i hope you enjoy these too. . .i know i am. :)

take care and all the best,
m . . .

New Juniper Lee Comic Story

hey everyone,

well, i found myself doing more freelance . . . :)
i did another Juniper Lee story for the Cartoon Network/DC comics. this one was 8 pages. very fun with "dustbunny" creatures and a "spider-like" creature named Cob.
anyway, here are my pencils for it.
enjoy!
:)

all the best,
m . . .