Stan Lee's 'Time Jumper' and intro to the "motion comic"

Disney announced they were purchasing Marvel 4 billion dollars. The ink wasn't even dry when I got a call from the Special Projects division to do a series of model sheets (turn-around poses and facial expressions, etc.) for a joint Disney/Marvel project called 'Stan Lee's Time Jumper'. (To find out more about 'Time Jumper', Click Here.)

They gave me a series of visual development artwork of the characters to use as a jumping-off point.

Seeing that I was in for a challenge as I would be going into territory I've never gone before, I figured I should do a research trip to the comic book store. In this case, it was 'House of Secrets' on Olive Ave. in Burbank.

I spent the afternoon there discovering how much comics have changed since I remembered them as a kid. I was being re-introduced to a familiar but yet strange new world. I bought a few books on drawing style for modern-day comics called 'Drawing Crime Noir for Comics & Graphic Novels' and 'Drawing Cutting Edge Anatomy' by Christopher Hart. They were really helpful.

Through researching, I discovered several classic illustrators such as John Burns and Robert McGinnis and became inspired by their work as well. And so began my "crash course" into graphic novel illustration!

Over a three week period, I did several pencil and pen & ink sketches pictured below:

































I showed these to the client and they absolutely loved them! I actually got an applause!

When my peers at work would come by to visit and chat, they'd see what I was drawing and they thought I was doing freelance during work hours. Nope, this was legitimate!

Now, I wasn't done yet. I had to clean-up the drawings. In the comic-book world, they call this stage, "inking". So I went to the local art store and bought me a pack of vellum paper and tried out ink pens. I found the ones I liked and went to town!
























Now...about the motion comic....

the client asked me if I saw the show. I had seen what I thought to be, what we would call in the animation industry an "animatic" but it turned out to be the actual show.

It was then that I was introduced to the revolutionary new product called the "motion comic". It can best be described as a moving slide-show.

Words don't do it justice, you'll have to Check It Out for yourself!

The show is available on iTunes. You can download the entire series for $7.99.

Actually, this motion comic-thing isn't new. Back in the 80's, a progressive rock band called The Alan Parsons Project made a music video called "Don't Answer Me" in which the style resemble the motion comics of today.