Base14

In the last two weeks, Duck ♥ Teslacoil has been accepted to another two film festivals: the 2009 Savannah Film Festival and the 2009 California International Animation Festival. While the latter may sound impressive, the Savannah Film Festival is by far the biggest festival we’ve been accepted to. We’re talking eight days of nonstop filmmaking mojo. And of course, it’s extra special to me since it’s right in my backyard. No doubt I’ll be there - all week long. Both are coming up soon: CalAniFest will be held September 27th in Riverbank, CA and the Savannah Film Festival takes place October 31st through November 7th, right here in Savannah, GA. Exact show times will be added to the site as they are announced!

Yesterday marked the three-year anniversary of the debut of the comic strip Rightfield, the most ambitious comic franchise that Base14 has ever undertaken. Featuring the comedic exploits of Sam the Human, Phil the Platypus and Glitch the Robot, Rightfield was designed to follow well-developed characters through a major story arc, giving readers more than just a daily chuckle. On August 21st, 2006, the following three-panel cartoon was published in nearly 20,000 copies of the Purdue Exponent Newspaper.

This was at best a crude beginning, and as a comic artist, I was still feeling my way into the art form. But working to publish five hand-drawn strips a week meant that I would rack up experience quickly, and the quality of the strip steadily improved. By the end of the Fall Semester, the strip was consistently demonstrating solid craftsmanship and concepts.

The story continues after the break. Continue Reading »

Time for an super-exclusive, all-inclusive recap of the West Coast premiere of Duck Heart Teslacoil! We had the honor to show at the 2nd Annual Feel Good Film Festival in Hollywood, CA. This show was extra special because of all the plush treatment provided to us filmmakers. Opening night on Friday was spectacular! Celebrities present included Patrick Warburton, Andy Dick, Elaine Hendrix and Carlos Mencia.
I also got my own all-access pass and walked the yellow carpet, pausing for photo ops and interviews with the press. Then, after the screening of DHT Saturday night, I did a Q&A session with the evening’s other directors in front of the entire theater audience. It was loads of fun. We had our share of scares though; the DVD the projectionist had wasn’t working, and I had to run back to my friend’s house to burn a new copy! Lesson learned. Always bring backups, kids.

Just in time for all you back to school hipsters, we present the Base14 tee! I did two prints to please the main Base14 customer base. One is a dark gray shade on black and the other is the classic white and orange logo on dark gray and green. As always with Base14 apparel, screen printing was done by hand. This was an exclusive first printing, but if you’ve all been very good this year, there’s a good likelihood that we will have some for sale. Please comment if you have any other color preferences.

Just a friendly reminder to everyone that Duck ♥ Teslacoil will be showing in Los Angeles this Saturday at the Feel Good Film Festival. The show starts at 6pm at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, in the Rigler Screen Theater. Tickets are only $10 and that includes three other films along with Duck ♥ Teslacoil. Plus, it’s the Feel Good Film Festival, so you know it’ll be super fun.

In fact, if you find me before the show and I’ll give you a free ticket! It’s like a leprechaun game. See y’all there!

This past weekend was the conclusion of another rousing session of Journalism Workshops at Ball State University. While I haven’t been to the workshops for a few years now, I still like to reminisce about teaching InDesign to high schoolers and consuming an unhealthy number of ICEE drinks from the Atrium cafeteria. Of course, nothing paints a better picture of the ’shops than a classic cartoon I made back in 2006, entitled Teen J-Squad.

An obvious take off of Teen Girl Squad by Homestar Runner, Teen J-Squad was originally intended to serve as an “edutainment” video to illustrate various graphic design concepts to my students. However, it quickly devolved into a cascade of absurdities and slap-stick humor. Still, the jokes contain a surprising amount of commentary on the culture and politics of high school journalism. So in honor of its three-year anniversary, I’ve uploaded a somewhat “remastered” version of Teen J-Squad to YouTube. Enjoy!