SR 1 PAGE SEVENTY-ONE

Really like that drawing of Vicious up top there. It would make a cool little statue, wouldn’t it? Even has a fancy decorative base.

There have been very few attempts to make Serenity Rose toys over the years, and it bums me out because I’d LOVE to see my characters in three dimensions. I designed a Sera dolly for my friend Kat to make, but unfortunately she passed away before finishing it (love ya, Kat). A tiny independent toy company once approached us about making Sera statues, and we actually got as far as building this incredible little maquette, but then everything collapsed into chaos, despair, and financial horror. As often happens with tiny independent toy companies, sadly. 

SOMEDAY, though. (Let me know if you know anybody!)

Those little guys with the hats in the corner of panel one are gnomes. They’re referred to in issue two, but this is the only time we see them. Never figured out a backstory for them, so you are free to make up whatever you want!

SR 1 PAGE SEVENTY-TWO

Is there anyone out there that you’d say “just seems like someone I should know?” A friend of a friend who seems to share a lot of your interests? A colleague in your profession who approaches things the same way you do? A minor celebrity you’ve developed a problematic parasocial relationship with?

It happens!

I first heard of Jhonen Vasquez a couple of years before I met him. Me and a couple other CalArts students were in a comic shop near school (Brave New World?), and my friend Pete said, “I know something you’ll definitely like.” We wandered into the back of the store (always the back of the store), and from a bottom shelf he plucked Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director’s Cut.

Flipping through the book, I distinctly remember thinking, “Did I draw this myself in a fugue state?”

This was obviously the work of a person with a brain crawling with the same weird worms that clogged up my own skull. Tim Burton, H.R. Giger, industrial music, H.P. Lovecraft, fast food mascots, highly processed snack foods, it was all there. The same sense of humor, too. And the same bubbling anger.

It was SPOOKY.

I shoved JTHM and Squee! into my skull with all the other spooky brainworms, then got back to making my gothy little films. Somewhere in those hazy animation times I read an article about Jhonen developing a series at Nickelodeon. I thought, “Oh, that sounds right,” and sent Jhonen an email at the address printed in Squee! (Around the same time I heard Tim Burton was developing a Stainboy series and sent him an email, too. Still waiting, Tim!) I didn’t expect to hear anything, didn’t hear anything, several months went by, I finished my second Serenity Rose short, screened it at the CalArts Producers’ Show (the school’s big end-of-the-year presentation), and made plans to head back to Chicago for the summer.

Before I could leave, I got a call in my dorm room from my friend Hye Jung who was interning at Nickelodeon: “There’s a producer here that wants to talk to you.” No way, really? Who is it?

I couldn’t quite make out the name over the phone connection, so I asked her to spell it out for me. She got as far as “J.H.O.” before I said “Oh, shit!” Turns out Hye Jung had taken Jhonen to the Producers’ Show and he liked my film. That’s right, the system worked precisely the way it was supposed to! And thank you again to Hye Jung for the nudge. Who knows if Jhonen would ever have seen the film otherwise.

That old email certainly didn’t do anything. About a year into my time on ZIM I was at lunch with Jhonen and he said, “I was going through some old emails and found one from you? Real weird seeing a message from someone I know before I knew them.”

Then he jabbed his fork directly into my eye and laughed. There was still spaghetti on that fork, too. He didn’t clean it off first or anything. To this day, whenever I close that eye I still see spaghetti.

The laughter will echo forever.

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

Still crunchin’ pencils and planning promo. Gonna be that way for a while!

Did manage to take a break and go check out The Muppet Movie on the big screen for the first time. You know what? STILL SLAPS. So much creativity bursting out of every scene. (I had forgotten how dense that movie is with all-time classic songs.)

Followed that up by watching that new Jim Henson documentary on Disney Ploos. Dang… Can you imagine having that kind of impact on the world? Just by making silly art and staying open-minded and embracing new experiences? What a brain that guy had. This world needs more Jim Hensons. Go be one of those, please!

NEXT WEEK: FLY ME AWAY, SUPERMAN!