Sneak peek at Big Daddy drawings

Hey, gang, my life is now kind of settling in to a boring routine, up in the morning (4:30 am) to do animation, watch CNN or MSNBC, take care of my son Lucas, teach him with online classes, then in the afternoon, I'm back to the animation.  Before dinner we may all go for a walk in the park nearby, then head home and eat dinner.  Maybe I'll watch a film after that, but I'm in bed around 9 pm.

And this routine is the same all week long - no weekends - with no travel to other cities and certainly no gatherings or restaurant meals.  I'm getting serious cabin fever, but I'm also definitely getting a lot of work done.

One of my new projects is really exciting, though - it's a trailer for a feature film starring a great concept band called "Big Daddy".  They're a mash-up band, performing contemporary (well, 80's and 90's) songs in a 1950's rock and roll mode - very engaging and amusing.  (Imagine "Welcome to the Jungle" performed in the style of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", and you'll get the idea.). They've been around for a while and even wrote a script about their adventures, called "Band Out of Time".

And the film itself is a mash-up of genres, both 1950's rock and roll and space-age sci-fi.  If you've ever seen my classic feature film "Hair High" then you know how I love drawing characters from the 1950's, with motorcycles and greased hair and letterman jackets.  I'm so excited, I can't wait.  And I also made a movie about space travel and "Mutant Aliens", so it will kind of be like a mash-up of two of my films, too. 

One of the guys from the band called my studio one day a couple years ago, when I was out of town, and they spoke to my office manager, John H., who recognized the band's name because he collects a lot of cover songs and listens to bands like Dread Zeppelin and Richard Cheese that record popular songs in crazy styles.  Luckily I was already in California, and getting ready to premiere "Revengeance" north of L.A., and so I met the members of Big Daddy, who were able to come see my film there, and we've been talking about working together ever since. 

First, I've been commissioned to create a short trailer to promote and sell the concept to the big boys.  Hopefully we'll soon have enough money to create the whole glorious animated feature: "Big Daddy: Band Out of Time".  Here are some sample drawings I've done for the characters and cars. 

Stay "tooned" here for more news about this project!

--Bill P.