Tag Archive for 'cartoon network'

Crying in Front of Your Dog and Other Books Too!

Published
by
Phil
on January 21, 2013
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 1 Comment

January! 2013! I’ve got lots of new things to show you and talk about!

The first big thing is that my very first book, CRYING IN FRONT OF YOUR DOG AND OTHER STORIES, is now available for pre-order! I’ve been working on it for a long time and it’s finally coming out this spring. The image up above is just one of many, many pages from the book (colored slightly just for the internet). Here’s a little info about the book from the Grimalkin Press website…

CRYING IN FRONT OF YOUR DOG AND OTHER STORIES by PHIL McANDREW - Over 200 pages of new and collected stories about life, death, love, ghosts, cats, time travel, humans, literature, fear, magic, evil organizations, happiness, television, secrets, dogs, loneliness, house plants, ancient dark rituals, pizza, failure, power, money, nature, government conspiracies, regret, the internet, horrifying monsters, awful jobs, wizards, the ocean, aliens, dads, kissing, crying and teeth.

All pre-orders come with a FREE limited edition print. This particular print will only be available as part of the pre-order deal and will not be available ever again once the pre-order ends.

Okay! The next big thing I have to tell you about is BENIGN KINGDOM!

I’ve got an art book coming out as part of the next Benign Kingdom collection! I couldn’t be more excited. If you don’t know, Benign Kingdom is “a creator-owned publishing project designed to showcase the art of independent comic creators…. the goal is to produce an individual art book for each artist but also manufacture a hardcover edition that collects all four of their individual books in one beautiful collection.”

The image up above is my cover illustration for my art book. The other three artists doing books for this set are Emily Carroll, Gigi D.G., and Tyson Hesse. They’re all amazing and you can snag the entire set of books for yourself or a friend right over here.

The third thing on the agenda is… REGULAR SHOW!

My friends over at BOOM! Studios asked me to draw a variant cover for the first issue of the new Regular Show comics that they’re publishing. I love doing these covers for BOOM! and I hope I get to do more. I don’t know when exactly the first issue comes out, but I do know that my friend KC Green is writing the comics and that is absolutely perfect.

Speaking of comic book covers, the Adventure Time cover that I drew last year was named the FOURTH BEST comic book cover of 2012 by ifanboy.com. Holy moly.

PIZZA SANDWICH & DRAW LIKE A SIX-YEAR-OLD

Published
by
Phil
on October 9, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 0 Comments

Good morning! Maybe it’s not morning as you’re reading this, I don’t know. It’s morning as I’m writing it! Anyways, I’ve got three things for you today!

First thing: last night I put a bunch of stuff up on my website from Pizza Sandwich, the project I had in development with Cartoon Network. Click the image up above to go take a look.

Second thing: I also recently put a little article up on my website, an adaptation of the talk I gave this past weekend at SketchCamp SD. DRAW LIKE A SIX-YEAR-OLD. I’ve gotten a really great response to it so far!

Third thing: I sent a big update out to all my book backers last night with a few complete comics and a bunch more peeks at stuff in progress. Here’s a little peek at some work in progress for the rest of you…

And here’s a page I finished last night and am pretty darn pleased with…

Bravest Warriors!

Published
by
Phil
on September 20, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 0 Comments

You guys! Look! I drew a variant cover for the upcoming BRAVEST WARRIORS comic book series that BOOM! Studios is going to be publishing. It was just revealed, along with some other amazing cover illustrations, over at Comics Alliance. Thanks to Shannon Watters at BOOM! for giving me a shot at doing another fun cover illustration. My cover will be a variant for issue #3. You can click the image above for a closer look.

And check out what arrived in the mail yesterday…

Advance contributor copies of Adventure Time #8! With my variant cover! As I mentioned previously, I think this hits shelves next week.

Pancakes and Chowder

Published
by
Phil
on September 12, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 2 Comments

Hello friends! I’ve been extremely busy! I spent all last week up in Los Angeles! I was up there for work, mainly to do some stuff at Cartoon Network. Before heading back down to San Diego I did get to spend a day painting a picture and hanging out with the film crew at Soul Pancake headquarters (picture above yoinked from Soul Pancake’s Twitter). There will be a video of my painting process online soon! Here’s a tiny peek at what I painted… I’ll post the full image when the video goes up online…

Oh! Also! I just realized that the Adventure Time comic book cover I drew a while back will hit stores this month as a variant cover for issue #8. I have it on good authority that it will be out the week of the 24th. I’m super excited about that.

I recently did another cover illustration for a different comic book. Here’s a tiny little peek at that… I’ll show off the full image as soon as the publisher reveals it…

Another recent thing: I wrote a silly little story, just for fun.

The Clam Chowder Incident is about a person with a dangerously attractive butt (seriously). You can read the whole thing here. I hope you like it!

Hmm, what else have I been up to? I drew some little things for a zine that my friends Becky, Frank, Tyler, and Zach put together. It’s called SPEEDHOG The Hedgehog and it’ll be available at SPX this weekend (sorry, I won’t be there). I’m working on a few awesome freelance projects right now. I’m also trying to finish up work on my own book, hoping to have it finished and printed in time for it to be available at some events in the spring. Here’s part of a scary page in progress…

Okay! Back to drawing I go! I love you guys!

Yes, Even You, George R. R. Martin!

Published
by
Phil
on July 17, 2012
in Comics and News
. 1 Comment

Thank you to everyone that came out for the Crazy Rattlesnake Treehouse Gang comics reading event last week! I think everyone had a pretty good time! I know I did. I’d love to do more readings/events in the future.

The big huge San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone and holy moly, it was a lot of fun. Here are a few of the highlights that I remembered to document…

On Saturday I caught the MAD Magazine panel, which was a lot of fun. The day before the panel I got to meet Ryan Flanders, the art director that I’ve worked with at the magazine, in person for the first time. Before the panel I got to meet John Ficarra, editor-in-chief of the Magazine. After the panel I got to meet one of my cartooning heroes, long-time MAD contributor Sergio Aragonés. He shook my hand and said “So we are colleagues now!”

As someone who recently started working on their very own project with Cartoon Network (and as someone who has drawn Adventure Time stuff professionally), it was exciting to see such a huge Cartoon Network presence at the convention. I got to attend an awesome Cartoon Network party / gallery show opening on Friday. It was really fun and there wasn’t a bad piece in the entire show. I might even go see it again if it’s still hanging.

Look at the size of this gosh darn Finn!

It was also exciting getting to hang out and drink free beers in the secret Cartoon Network hotel suite whenever I needed a break from wandering around the convention. Check out the view!

I got to meet a few celebrities! I got to talk for a couple minutes with George R. R. Martin after he wandered into a party I happened to be at. At the same party Johnny Galecki asked me for a cigarette (I didn’t have any, of course, because that’s gross). I saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt getting mobbed by a big crowd of people and I ran into this guy, standing around in a hotel lobby…

But the best part of any convention is always getting to spend time with good friends! I spent most of my time doing exactly that. Awkwardly pictured below are Evan Dahm, Tyler Hutchison, and Becky Dreistadt.

I wish I’d taken more pictures. It was really great meeting and/or hanging out with a TON of people. There are way too many of you to even attempt listing but I didn’t really meet or talk to anyone unpleasant all week so if you met, hung out with, or talked to me at all you can be sure that I enjoyed the encounter! Yes, even you, George R. R. Martin!

I do want to list some people that deserve a big THANK YOU! Special thanks to David King, Ryan Bradford, Justin Hudnall and Ruby Cougler for working hard and making the Crazy Rattlesnake Treehouse Gang reading event possible. Extra special thanks to David King (again!), Becky Dreistadt, Frank Gibson, Ed Luce, Tom Neely, Malachi Ward, and Kent Osborne for participating in the event!

Thanks also to Evan, Tyler, Becky and Frank for being awesome friends and letting me hang out and use your convention booth as a base camp where I could relax and occasionally charge my phone (and for beers and snacks!). Thanks to Natasha Allegri and Amanda Thomas for being awesome house guests and bus-mates, and for hanging out with me so dang much. Thanks to Falynn Koch for being an awesome post-convention house guest (and for dinner!). Thanks to Pendleton Ward for lunch and for always having good advice for me. Thanks to Shannon Watters at BOOM! Studios and to Gina Gagliano and everyone else at First Second Books for being so gosh darn nice and loading me up with comics to read! Thanks to Jeffrey Rowland and the rest of the Topatoco crew for a nice evening at your Comic-Con mansion.

I’ve got a storyboard to finish, a drawing to work on for an upcoming gallery show and comics to write and draw so I’ll leave you now with one last picture of that super enormous Finn head.

A Powerful Wizard Hires You As An Intern

Published
by
Phil
on June 17, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 0 Comments

BOOM. Another three pages of my book completed.

I just sent a peek out to my kickstarter backers. But if you follow me on twitter you might remember this short story from a while back.

Speaking of twitter! I revealed some big news over there a couple days ago…

I’ve got something in development with Cartoon Network. So that’s a thing I’m working on! To manage excitement: “in development” does not mean I’m going to have a tv show. It means if things go really well I might get to make a pilot episode and if that goes really well then MAYBE there will be a tv show. Whew! I’ve been sitting on that information for what feels like a decade!

ADVENTURE TIME #8

Published
by
Phil
on June 14, 2012
in Comics, Illustration and News
. 4 Comments

Hey! It looks like the cat is out of the bag. I drew a variant cover for issue #8 of the official ADVENTURE TIME comic book series from BOOM! Studios. I suggest clicking the image up above if you’d like a closer peek at some of the finer details. Thanks to editor Shannon Watters for offering me what turned out to be one of the most incredibly fun jobs I’ve had yet.

Adventure Time

Published
by
Phil
on February 8, 2012
in Illustration and News
. 2 Comments

I drew some Adventure Time stuff recently. It was a lot of fun, immersing myself in that world for a bit! I could draw those trees forever. Thanks to Pen and Natasha for providing feedback as I worked on this.

MAD MAGAZINE #510 + LOS ANGELES ADVENTURE

Published
by
Phil
on June 23, 2011
in Comics and News
. 1 Comment

I just spent five extremely busy and exciting days in Los Angeles. And I’m gonna tell you all about that in a minute. First I wanna show you this…

The new issue of MAD Magazine is now out there in the wild, waiting for you to buy it! Issue #510! And I’ve got a comic in there! My first time in MAD! A few of my cartoonist pals are in there too, right along with legends like Sergio Aragonés and Al Jaffee. It’s a gosh dang honor and I still can’t quite believe it!

Okay! Moving on: Los Angeles! What a place! I went up last Friday afternoon and was there until Tuesday afternoon. I stayed in Burbank with Natasha Allegri, one of my very best cartoonist friends. I’ve known Natasha for a long time now, literally since we were both teenagers. We both used to post little journal comics on livejournal. Now she draws comics and works on the show Adventure Time at Cartoon Network and I’m drawing comics and illustrations full-time.

When I got up there on Friday, Natasha met me at the train station. I went with her to Cartoon Network studios. I goofed around and watched cartoons and doodled while she finished up some work.

That night I tagged along to celebrate the birthdays of several people that work on various Cartoon Network shows, one of those people being Natasha. It was an absolute pleasure getting to meet and hang out with so many delightful (and talented) people! I’d attempt to list and link to all the wonderful people I met and talked to but I’d surely forget someone and would feel terrible about it later. I will say thanks to Adventure Time production assistant Patrick Seery (it was his birthday too!) and his brother Chris for driving Natasha and I to and from the festivities and thanks to the incredible John Pham for his wisdom.

On Saturday Natasha and I met up with Pendleton Ward (creator of Adventure Time) and David C. Smith (Adventure Time storyboard revisionist) at Pen’s house.

Pen made me play video games with him. I’m not sure what game we were playing (I’m extremely out of the loop when it comes to video games) but we were working together to kill zombies. I wasn’t that great at it but it was awesome and fun regardless.

We then went to Griffith Park and had lunch at the Griffith Observatory, which was really cool!

A million thanks to David for playing tour guide and showing me around! Afterwards Natasha and I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Pen. We went to The Dresden (one of the bars featured in the movie Swingers) and doodled for a while. Here’s a picture of me, drawn by Pen…

After that we somehow we ended up going to see Re-Animator: The Musical, which was GREAT.

On Sunday I spent the day hanging out with my friends Zach Marcus, Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson. We hung out and laughed at terrible old tv shows. They also turned me on to A Town Called Panic. We watched the first 20 minutes or so of the movie and it was amazing. It’s been on my mind a lot since then. I’ll definitely be watching the rest very soon. Becky, Frank and Zach also took me on a walk around their neighborhood to Secret Headquarters and Vlad The Retailer. Both places were awesome. I picked up a few things at Secret Headquarters to read on the train back to San Diego. That evening we went to a BBQ at our friend Jamie Dee Galey’s house. I hadn’t seen Jamie in years! Thanks to Jamie and his lady Katie for a super pleasant evening and to Becky, Frank and Zach for hanging out and showing me around their ‘hood!

Monday was an extremely busy day for me! This whole trip wasn’t simply for fun. The main reason for the trip was top secret meetings. I had not one, not two, but THREE different meetings with different people to go to on Monday and then another one on Tuesday. I don’t want to reveal anything about any of the meetings quite yet but I will say that both Monday and Tuesday were very thrilling and surreal.

Monday wasn’t just meetings though! That night Natasha and I went down to Hollywood with Thaddeus Couldron (who worked on some my favorite scenes in the Spongebob Squarepants movie and is now working on an upcoming Cartoon Network show). We drank beers and talked about comics and cartoons. After my meeting on Tuesday I spent a little more time goofing off with Natasha in the Adventure Time studios before heading back down to San Diego. Here’s Natasha working on Adventure Time stuff…

One of the highlights of Tuesday was realizing that the new issue of MAD Magazine was out and then dashing out of Cartoon Network and running to a magazine shop in Burbank to see it. I bought two copies even though I knew there would be a few copies waiting for me in the mail at home.

Thanks again to Pen, David, Thaddeus, Patrick, Becky, Frank, Zach, Jamie, and Katie for either hanging out, showing me around town, feeding me, or all of the above. Extra special thanks to the delightful people that took time out of their busy schedules to meet with me (you know who you are)! And most of all a super mega double fancy THANK YOU to Natasha and her roommate Amanda Thomas (who works on Cartoon Network’s Regular Show!) for letting me sleep on their couch and stink up their apartment for five days.

Woo! This post is longer than I intended it to be. Time to go back into my drawing cave to work on MY BOOK! I really like saying that. MY BOOK.

ADVENTURE TIME

Published
by
Phil
on March 31, 2010
in News
. 6 Comments

My buddy Pen has a new show coming out on Cartoon Network REALLY SOON. It’s going to be amazing. My good friend Natasha works on the show too. Pen and Natasha and tons of other people have been working really, really hard on Adventure Time for a long time! I’ve never been more pumped for a tv show in my life! I don’t have cable (or even a tv), so I’m going to have to bike over to a friend’s house to watch it every week.

I actually was given the chance to test for a storyboarding job on the show last year. Things didn’t quite work out with the job, but it was a lot of fun and it was really exciting just to be given the opportunity! Here’s a picture of my storyboard drawings all over my living room floor.