Gary as Zombie Soul Eater

As I mentioned in my last post, SCOD is about to rise from the grave. To celebrate, I drew this for the latest SCOD fan who signed up for free stickers. This sketch is a complete deviation from all of my earlier ones, and a real treat to send out. You never know what you might get!

In less than 2 weeks I'll be working on "The 13th of Friday" full time. Can't wait. The animated short I've been working on, on and off for the last year, will finally resume production. I'm not even going to promise when it'll be done by, at this point. I originally thought I'd be done by this year's end, but am thinking about additional scenes, so who knows... All I can say is, it'll be ridiculous and hopefully somewhat hilarious.

I've been looking into finally buying my sound equipment, so that I can record character voices at professional quality. I think it's gonna cost me around $900 bucks. The things I do for you people... But anyway, I'm excited about it!

Happy Halloween 2007

Hey SCOD fans! Happy Halloween. Just wanted to catch up with you and let you know we are still here. It's been a while since my last post, but as I've been telling friends... "Yes, SCOD is dead... soon to arise again as zombie soul eaters!" Here's a sneak preview of the long awaited "13th of Friday!"

13th sneak preview #2

Here's the deal: I was hoping to finish the 13th by Halloween but people offered me lots of money to work on something else. What's a freelance artist gonna do? So now, the revised schedule is to finish this thing by years end... OR DIE!!!

The sneak preview scene was animated by a good friend and very talented animator, Matt Lee. I have a few friends who are helping me finish this. I get by with a little help from my friends.

SCOD also get's by with a little help from it's fans. So, those of you who have signed up lately for stickers, hang in there... so busy, but you HAVE NOT been forgotten. And thanks...

Oh, and one more thing... I don't think I share with you the final SCOD theme song. Thomas and I had been working on it here and there for months and he gave me a version that kicks ass! So that's it! It's done. And here it is! crank up the speakers! SCOD Theme Song

Fan Club Sketches

Here's the latest batch that went out in the mail yesterday accompanied by stickers. I'm happy to show the first ever Bambi doodle, done for a very old friend.




And this one below turned out pretty weird. This sketch went to the guy who I consider the first official fan, judging by my records. He's also the first to ask for sticker refills, and the first to get them!

13th of Friday! Preview

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13, HORROR FANS!

Here we are! Another Friday the 13th, and we are still busy HACKING AWAY on our latest short film, "The 13th of Friday!". Boy, it's taking forever! But rest assured, progress IS being made. We currently have a team of five animators who are taking on scenes. Thomas is about to finish the theme song, and we are going to make a special cut-down version for the opening titles/credits to use with all of our short films. We hope to be finished by Halloween. Check out this small preview of the storyboard/animatic.

Latest Fan Sketch

Here's the latest fan sketch! It accompanied the FREE stickers that went out to the last person who signed up as an official Summer Camp of Death! fan. That's right, FREE STICKERS! And yes, you get a FREE SKETCH TOO! Pretty cool, huh?



What's even cooler about this one, is that it's the first ever Sanchez sketch. And he doesn't even have a sticker yet! But I'm renewing my promise to make one, so it's now on the top of the list of 'things to do'.

THEME SONG RAISES THE DEAD!

S.C.O.D. reached another level today when the first draft of the opening theme song was created by none other than Thomas Amason and the Gazillionaires. Thom contacted me about a project he is working on after seeing my Carl Doodle video on YouTube. It turns out that Thom, guitarist of Love Arcade, is not only a prolific song writer and musician, but also an animation enthusiast and creator. He is working on his own cartoon show slated to be voiced by himself along with a variety of music industry talent. It's called The Zoo and you can learn more about it HERE. It wasn't long before I mentioned S.C.O.D. and we soon decided to collaborate, trading work on each other's shows. Thom got together today with Nathanael A+, keyboardist of Love Arcade and music producer of Gazillionaires, and banged out an awesome first version of Summer Camp of Death's theme song! I'm proud to share it with you! Check it out!

SUMMER CAMP OF DEATH THEME SONG VERSION ONE

We already discussed some tweaks that will be made, and I want to write some more lyrics and make it a little longer. But I can't wait to put some images and titles to this song!

On a different subject, I wanted to follow up with the last post. The company that was super interested in S.C.O.D. and asked for a budget became super dis-interested just as quickly as they got excited in the first place. It was a bummer at first, but I'm really happy to have gotten that far. I also now have a budget and schedule to work with. I have always planned on making cartoons for S.C.O.D. independently, and we are getting farther along each day. I plan on doing major work on the show this winter, possibly making it my full time job for several months!

Please let me know what you think of the theme song!

Closer Than Ever

EXCITING NEXT STEP FOR THE SUMMER CAMP OF DEATH!

Hello fans. I'm happy to tell you that we pitched the series to a NYC internet video content site, and the meeting went quite well. For the first time, we were asked to attend a second meeting in a week or so, and submit a proposal with a budget and schedule. I created one this Saturday, and I have to say that it was almost as fun as drawing and animating! To think about the project, and to sit down and figure out just how long it would take, and just how much it would cost, was a very exciting step in our efforts to bring our show to the public. Of course, we're still somewhat far from a signed contract, but as usual, I consider this a great success. We're waiting to find out how appealing the show is in terms of an internal revue, measuring such things as what the demographic is, how easy it is to reach it's demographic, and whether it can attract ad sales, etc. And of course, they still need to review the script, but we're assuming they'll love it!

Thanks to everyone who continues to show support for this idea. With any luck, they'll approve the budget and we can finally make our cartoon! Also, I've had two more fans sign up for stickers, so I've posted the two sketches that I'll be mailing out soon. The first one ever for Derek, and a second of Gary.

Gary Sketch

This quick sketch was done for the latest S.C.O.D. fan who signed up for free stickers. I usually include one for each package.

The 13th of Friday!

Here are the mostly completed backgrounds for the next webisode titled, "The 13th of Friday!". Too bad it's not finished by my loose deadline of today. Until then, official S.C.O.D. fans get a sneak preview. I've uploaded the black and white, animatic rough cut to the site and fans get the link (along with free stickers and other treats). So sign up today!

The Legend of Dr. Hooke

Hello S.C.O.D. fans! Let's catch up on a few things. Check out the image below. Here's a good example of a quick Mell-stabbed-through-the-head doodle.


As you may know, you can sign up to become a S.C.O.D. fan to recieve free stickers. But what you don't know, is that I've been sending all the official fans a letter, packed with stickers and also an original inked doodle. This one above is next in line to be sent to S.C.O.D.'s next official fan. They're fun to do, and I'll keep including them until I get too busy (which probably won't be for a while, so it's not like a threat or anything...). So far, everyone has gotten a Mell-stabbed-through-the-head doodle except for one lucky person who received a Gary-stabbed-through-the-head doodle. If you have not recieved your stickers yet, it might be because you applied without sending some important info like your City and State. Yes that's happened at least one time. No prob. Just resend your info!

Now on to some other fun stuff! The webisode I'm working on now, the latest masterpiece, is called "The 13th of Friday!" which aside from making no sense, is destined to be a cult classic of animated, web, horror-comedy. It is now dubbed 'the first webisode', and what you can currently see on the site are now 'studies'. With that in mind I've finally accepted that the latest masterpiece is going to realistically take another three or four months to finish (ouch!). I know. Sucks. But it's got a beginning, middle, and end, and has several scenes (more backgrounds), a few murders, and some very bizarre sexual situations! So needless to say, it'll be worth the wait!

Also, I had the fortune to meet with another big network about a week ago. Although I didn't feel the meeting went as well as it could have, there is interest in reading my script (cool!). Even though I like my pilot, I think episode two is a lot better. So, I decided to do the hard thing and finish the script and turn that in instead. Now it's finished, which is great, but its become a half-hour show, which the last few networks have been more into, and well, I don't know exactly what I've got. It's like Frankenstein or something. You can make him, but after you electrocute him back from the dead, you don't know what the hell he'll do! I'll do the usual and pass it around to my friends and see what they think. I can say that adding twice as much material in one story allows a lot more characters and a much more complex narrative giving the whole thing a different flavor. I'll probably weigh my friends' critiques and make several revisions before turning it in for review, but I'm hoping it'll be worth it. Episode two is currently titled "The Legend of Dr. Hooke" (a twisted tale derived from the urban legend of the escaped convict with the hook-hand). It's sure to be sillier, spookier, and more retarded than anything to date!

One last thing. I finally met someone over at Fangoria who might be the right person to talk to! Exciting! I've always wondered if they would be into S.C.O.D. and hopefully I can soon find out!

Back from the Dead (almost)

Things started out great. I took my wife to see Evil Dead the Musical on her birthday.


We had a blast! It was really funny and they really hit the nail right on the head. It was a great satire, keeping the true creepiness of the original while amplifying the campy-ness. Then two days later I was puking my guts out with stomach flu. "Huuyeechh!!" It took almost a week to get my strength back. Then my main storage drive with all my S.C.O.D. files on it failed! Ouch!

I thought all was lost but have managed, with a little help from the tech guys at work, to extract and restore my latest animation on the new webisode. I was really down when I thought I'd lost it all. I feel SO lucky to have gotten it back and am very excited to get some work done on it this weekend. It's sure to be the best one yet!

I have a meeting coming up soon, pitching the show. I feel really good about it! This guy's going to love it, I just know it! "I'll purchase 20 episodes, please!" More and more fans are signing up at the website which continues to draw more and more interest. I think Summer Camp of Death's time has come!

While sifting through the recovered files, I noticed this rough of the website and thought I'd post it here. The site has really come a long way!

New Year, New Sketches, and New News

Hello fans and Happy New Year! If you're reading this, you probably know that the Summer Camp of Death! site has been updated with some cool animation on the characters and some more blood-dripping buttons. So go on over there if you haven't seen the new changes yet!

Here are some sketches I worked on over the holidays for the new webisode I'm working on. This one is sure to be the best, and if you look closely, you can see a hint of what's going to happen.




The big push to update the site coincides with another meeting I'm scheduled to have this month with some more folks over at MTV. I know my last post was pretty final concerning that network, yet another door has opened up and has great possibilities. I know better than to get my hopes up, but I'm still excited anyway!