We just inked a cartoon deal for TV!!

I JUST signed a TV deal with an amazing production company who does live action and animated programming for television all over the world. I’ve been a member of this forum for a year, and I see a lot of posts about how to make the dream come true, and there tons of people with various opinions on how it works… just thought I’d post my story to give inspiration and insight on how I made it happen.

I graduated with a BA in Studio art 14 years ago. After college, I realized I needed a plan to make a living and managed to get myself into commercial art where I worked in publishing and product/fashion design to make money in the corporate world. In my spare time, I always worked on my own projects on the side, from painting, to cartoons and comics, and whatever fell in between. I started to learn about the world of licensing from my day job and thought maybe I could turn my artwork, with my authentic/autobiographical edgy point of view, into a business. My sister, a former publisher and national sales champ, decided that we should go into business together. She would handle all of the business, and I would do all of the creative. I was honored to work with someone who was a sales genius and a successful business pro. It was totally the perfect match.

We did the International Licensing Show in 2006 and showcased my artwork separated into three brands, one of which was our character property. I had prepared a style guide to show, and we made displays and mock ups of our art on product. We met a lot of awesome people at the show, including a really cool person who was from a major Canadian production company.

About 6 months after the show, my sister and I decided we just had to turn our characters into an online cartoon. It was so obvious. But I didn’t know how to animate, and we couldn’t afford to hire anyone. I decided I’d have to learn, so I immediately signed up for a class in Flash Animation at SVA. When I thought I learned enough to pretty much start doing the cartoon, I dropped the class. Between what I learned in the classroom, books that I bought, and trial and error, I was able to make Episode #1 of Lucky Hijinx, billed as a punk rock Martha Stewart meets Veronica Lodge. My sister and I wrote the script together, and I did all of the sound with my husband’s skype headset and Garageband. It was DIY in every sense of the term— little punk rock how-to animated shorts totally made by some chick in her apartment. We uploaded it onto our YouTube channel and MySpace page.

In preparation for the International Licensing Show for 2007, we made a sneak peek of Lucky Hijinx’s Episode #2 to show on a big screen TV in our booth. My sister (slash biz partner) kept in touch with our contacts. She sent the links to our online cartoon to her contact from the Canadian TV production company, and also informed them that we would be showing the sneak peek at the show. They booked an appointment with us and came for a meeting at our booth at the show. We learned more about their company, what they would do with our property, and shows they have done/are currently working on. They rock! Like seriously rock and are major players in the industry... we were totally honored that they took the time to meet with us, and we were hoping that we could do something with them.

After the show, my sister kept in contact with them and discussed the possibility of a deal. We also kept working on the cartoons and released Episodes #2 and #3 on the internet. Fast forward a few more months, and we just signed our deal with this incredible Canadian production company (we are HUGE fans of their work—they do amazing programming for television) to turn Lucky Hijinx and the rest our our characters into a half-hour episode TV series. We plan on making this announcement official and public very soon and will be sending out a press release.

The reason I’m posting all of this is because I am a firm believer that in order to make your dreams come true, you really need to just dive in and do it yourself… and partner up with someone else who has the same vision and opposite talents. That’s what worked for us.