Mekano Turbo in Popgun Vol. 4

Here it is, folks - the Popgun website has gone live with info and previews for Popgun Vol. 4, due out February 10, 2010 from Image Comics, and featuring an 8-page Mekano Turbo story (previewed previously right here on this very blog) illustrated by Alexis Ziritt and written by me. Clocking in at 512 pages of comics goodness, and billed as "the ultimate graphic mixtape by today's superstar creators and fresh new talent." I guess Alexis and I qualify as fresh and new, while my friend and future animated project collaborator Jeffrey Brown, who also has a story in this volume, would be a superstar. It's very cool. Pre-order one from your local comic shop, won't you?

EB

Goodbye 38, Hello 39

A somewhat self-indulgent post today. But this is my blog, so aren't they all self-indulgent?

Anyway, it's my birthday, it's gray and rainy outside, and so I thought why not take a few moments to reflect on the last year - which, in many ways, was not what I expected it to be. First, a year ago I was gainfully employed, nominated for several southeast region Emmy awards, and, while I had pretty good idea that the end was coming at GameTap, I also thought I'd pick up something new pretty quick. Boy, did I call that one wrong. Two months later, my unit was shown the door; three weeks after that, I won two of those Emmy awards:
That's me with the statue I took home (the other went with my co-winner Greg Taylor, who really deserves most of the credit for crafting the promo we won for) - it sits on my dresser, a glorious golden paperweight. I'd say that was the highlight of Elliot Year 38, but the truth is, for all the unanticipated difficulty I've had with re-inventing myself as a freelance producer of content - it's a longer process than I thought it would be, and the sorry state of the economy hasn't helped me or anyone - the real highlights are far less complicated and much more profound, and they greet me with a smile every single day...

...my daughter Hannah and my son Sam, who also has a birthday today, turning six, and who will always be the best birthday present I could ever get. Not pictured - because as good a job as we do taking pictures of the kids, we almost never take pictures of ourselves - is my lovely wife, Laura, who really is the most supportive person in the world. Daily reminders that I while I'm going through a period of professional re-adjustment that isn't the most fun I've had on a bun, I have it pretty damn great, and that I'm actually pretty damn lucky.

So, here's to hoping that Elliot Year 39 will see some of the professional things I set in motion during E.Y. 38 come to fruition, including:
-my comic book trailer business, starting with the release of the trailer I produced for Wildstorm.
-some motion comics work; I have some solid ideas for advancing the medium I'd like to put into action.
-Jeffrey Brown's Sketchbook
-a potential non-fiction comic book guide to a casual activity that people enjoy but which shall remain nameless at this juncture, as I don't want to give it away.
-The Package, my webcomic crime novella with artist Alexis Ziritt.
-Mekano Turbo, a comic I'm writing for Alexis.
-Sword-Maiden, a project I conceived of as a comic, but which I'm considering writing as a screenplay.
-a documentary project; we shot the footage for the pilot, featuring comics artist Cully Hamner, now we just need to get down to writing and putting the thing together.

A lot of stuff, all potentially fun, some potentially revenue producing - which would be nice. Most importantly, I have my family backing me up and keeping me hopeful.

-EB
p.s. Just had a birthday phone call with one of my oldest and closest friends from high school, David Sachs. Always great to speak with him - I think life for everyone would be better with a daily dose of David Sachs.

UPDATE: 9:35PM, 3/26/09 - I meant to mention this when composing the above, but forgot, I would guess because my neurons probably aren't firing like they were when I was 29, but other than that, I don't feel like I'm 39. I look in the mirror and I don't see a guy a year away from 40, so it's really hard for me to believe that I've reached the end of my thirties. I know this is a cliche, I know I'm not the first person to say this, think this, write this, but it's the truth. I still feel like a kid. Now I'm going to go read some comics.

Twittering

Yeah, I've got a Twitter account. I don't know why, to be perfectly honest. I've got this here blog thang, and I've got the Facebook for my witty one-line status updates, and wisecracking about other people's updates, so do I need the Twitter? Probably not. How connected does one person need to be? But we're living in a Web 2.0 world, so here we are, with all these digital connection points.

Anyway, I bring it up because tonight I got an email alerting me that I had another follower on my Twitter account, which I had not updated since starting the account in September of last year - and the new follower of Elliot on Twitter is none other than one of my favorite bloggers, a guy named Dave Campbell, currently of The Society for the Advancement of Dave, and formerly of the comics blog Dave's Longbox, now dormant but still recommended if'n you're likin' the comics. Why he's following me on Twitter, I don't know, but it's certainly a pleasant surprise.

So now that I've got three followers - one of whom is my brother - I'm starting to feel a responsibility to update the Twitter periodically. I shall endeavour to do so. And when I spell "endeavour," I shall do so with the British "u." Because it's late in the evening and I'm feeling fancy.

-EB

Happy New Year!

To the 282 visitors from 159 cities in 20 countries who have stopped by here to see what I have to say 877 times since I started watching traffic on September 30 of 2008 - you fantastic people know who you are - best wishes for 2009 from all of us here at elliotblake.blogspot.com.

Which would be me.

Elliot Blake.

Cheers,

EB

Correction

Last week I posted some photos of myself with Scott McCloud at Agnes Scott College, which should have been credited to photographer Gary W. Meek. That post has been updated with the proper credit, and the editors of elliotblake.blogspot.com apologize for the error.

-EB

Photos From My Panel Appearance with Scott McCloud

DECATUR, GA - 9/17/08 (Photos by Gary W. Meek, Copyright 2008 Agnes Scott College)
There I am (above) with comics genius Scott McCloud at Agnes Scott College's panel on The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which was the common reading for incoming freshmen. I was asked to be on the panel to talk about the adaptation of Persepolis from graphic novel to animated feature film. Scott is talking about Persepolis while I sit idly by, hoping I don't come off like a dumbass while waiting for my turn to speak. Seriously, though, as a comics fan and as a writer, to get to be on a panel with Scott McCloud was very cool.

Here (above), I'm pretending like I know what I'm talking about while describing a scene I particularly enjoyed in the book and in the film. I was very impressed by how the filmmakers, one of whom was Satrapi, the author and artist of the book, were able to let go of the narrative form inherent to the source material - a comic book - to fully take advantage of the medium of animation. The scene pictured above is from the sequence in the book where teenage Marjane goes through a growth spurt. It was represented very differently in the movie, but the overall effect was the same. Well done.

Here are the panel participants in a staged post-panel photo opportunity. We're all hanging out by the ashtray - but no one is smoking, except for my shoes. I always think it's appropriate to wear my flame-adorned Chuck Taylors at public speaking engagements (like I've had so many).

-EB

Book Festival Wrap-Up

Well, it's taken me nearly ten days to come down from the high that comes from 1) not having anyone throw anything at you while you're speaking publicly, and 2) having people actually turn out to hear what you have to say. Thanks to Amber Dermont of Agnes Scott College and Tom Bell, programming director for the Decatur Book Festival for inviting me to participate in the annual Writer's Conference, and to my amigo Chris Kelly for pitching in his extremely valuable two cents on the art of writing for animation. Thanks also to Terra McVoy of Decatur's excellent Little Shop of Stories for inviting me to be part of the panel for teen readers - it was a total blast. I got to talk a lot about comics - my favorite medium - and it's gratifying to see that people are really beginning to accept comics as a literary form.

Book Festival Clarifications/Corrections

Two things have come to my attention this week, both erroneous, and as such, require some clarification and correction. First, the clarification:

On the Decatur Book Festival website, the description for the workshop I'm giving indicates that I was a writer on the television show Futurama. This is incorrect. To clarify: I did work on the original 72 episodes of the show, but strictly in a production capacity, as the design coordinator at Rough Draft Studios, the animation house that produced the animation for the show. This is where I cut my teeth in the animation business, and learned just about everything I know about producing a quality cartoon. And while I wish I could say that I was a Futurama writer, I can't, because I wasn't, and I don't want to pass myself off as something I'm not. For anyone contemplating signing up for the workshop because of this erroneous information, I apologize for the confusion - but I still think if you're interested in animation writing, you'll get something out of the event.

And now to the correction: On page 20 of the Decatur Book Festival circular distributed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I am described as "Cartoon Network's Elliot Blake." This is incorrect as well. I was employed by Turner Broadcasting's GameTap, which is a sister company of Cartoon Network, but I've never worked for Cartoon Network. I can only guess that since I'm giving a workshop on writing for animation, an assumption was made that I must work for Cartoon Network. I'd like to work for them, sure. But I don't. Once again, I apologize for the confusion.

Rock on.

-EB

Decatur Book Festival

The line-up for the Decatur Book Festival was announced today, and yours truly is one of the 225 “world-class authors” (their words, not mine) participating in what has become a really big deal literary event here in the southeast. The festival runs from August 29-31, and I’ll be presenting a workshop on animation writing somewhere in that timeframe. More information as it becomes available. Click here to see my profile and (ridiculous) head shot. I’m looking forward to this - it should be fun.

Emmy Night in Atlanta

On Saturday night, I had the distinct honor of being my industry peers and a bunch of people in the television news business at the 2008 NATAS Southeast Regional Emmy Awards. I received an Emmy for Television Advanced Media Excellence, for my work on the Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider series, and a second Emmy for Television Spot Announcement Excellence, for my contributions to a Lara Croft on TNT and GameTap promo. It was a good night for GameTap TV alumni - we were nominated for eleven awards across six categories, and took home five Emmys. After learning that GameTap TV was going away, resulting in our being laid off several weeks ago, this was a nice way to go out: on top.

About the name of the blog....

I know, it's not very interesting. But I'm starting this thing two minutes before I have to leave to pick up my kids. I'll think of a better title.

It has begun...

What the world needs now? Another blog. This one from Elliot Blake.

I'm sure this will crack the internet in half.