Mutilator, 1991.

In my previous entry I wrote about the seeds of inspiration that produced a random sketch that would later evolve into a TV series.  But getting there wasn’t easy.  I already had my foot in the door at MTV, thanks to a couple of animated shorts I did, featuring a character called “The Mutilator.”  Part Mad Max, part samurai warrior, Mutilator was a post-apocalyptic bad–ass just trying to survive in a violent, dangerous world.  The crudely hand-drawn films were making the rounds in Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation and eventually landed on the desk of an MTV executive.   At the time MTV Animation was in its infancy and hungry for original content.  They were developing Beavis and Butt-head (another Spike and Mike alum) into a weekly series and the thinking was that “The Mutilator” would become their favorite show (similar to what “Itchy and Scratchy” were to the Simpsons).

The beautiful thing about inspiration is that you never know when it’s going to hit.  Case in point – it’s 1989 and I’m working in the equipment checkout room at NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts.  The room is located in the “basement” of Tish, at 721 Broadway, and it’s where student filmmakers go to borrow the cameras, lights and all the grip stands they’ll need to make their films.

If you work in the basement, you will inevitably encounter the film student who believes that he or she is about to embark on a cinematic journey which will result in the production of a film that is no less impactful than Lawrence of Arabia.  They will approach the check-out counter waving around a sort of arrogance that is normally reserved for royalty while their crew scrambles around them like peasants.  This budding filmmaker, high on the power that comes with being a director, expects that his film is going to be a masterpiece and that his film equipment should nothing short of pristine.

Just some of the comic books I drew as a kid.

I’ve been animating professionally for over 20 years.  Privately, I started animating way before that…but only in my head.  See, growing up I didn’t have a camera, or a light table or a projector.  I also had very little formal art training.  But I did have a rich imagination and a seemingly unlimited supply of note pads.  Oh, yes and colored pencils.  Lots of those.  But most importantly, I had stories to tell.

I was a latch-key kid whose parents both worked and every day starting when I was in third grade, I’d come home and start drawing.  While other kids played outside, I was happy to remain sequestered at my drafting table in my little bedroom in Long Beach, NY.  I logged many hours in that room and it was there that I drew my stories.  This was mostly sci-fi- action/adventure stuff -- some with heavy titles like Beyond the Conscious Mind, New Dimensions and Vortex (all written when I was about seven years old) and others inspired by movies like Tron and Buckaroo Banzai.