Zub Tales

I received a copy of LORE & LEGENDS, the history and art of D&D 5th edition by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer, arriving in stores on Oct 2nd.

It’s an incredible tour filled with great anecdotes and illustrations. Surreal to see my books and face in the mix, a tiny piece of Dungeons & Dragons’ illustrious history.

There are a lot of memories wrapped up in the pages of this book. A decade of development with many colleagues who have since become friends.

And, a silly point of pride, I’m the only “Z” listing in the index. 🙂

Win the Battle, Lose the War

After several friends recommended it, I recently watched Jurassic Punk, a documentary about Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams, the Canadian animator who pioneered a ton of 3D animation and special effects technology that changed the face of moviemaking for better and for worse.

The story of Steve’s innovation, rebellion and self destruction is compelling stuff, but also quite sad. The same qualities that caused him to buck the system and develop groundbreaking visual effects also put him at odds with the corporate hierarchies and social relationships that run Hollywood. He proved his technical skills in the battle on a few key creative projects (The Abyss, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park) but couldn’t win the war when it came to handling people – colleagues, friends, or his family.

When I was at Sheridan for Classical Animation we heard a lot about Spaz – the rockstar party hard computer animator blowing up the way things used to be done who could not be stopped. Almost thirty years later, he absolutely made his mark but it cost him almost everything. The recent scenes of Steve bitter about his place in film history battling severe alcoholism are a far cry from the confident take-no-shit genius of his youth.

As I watched it all play out in the documentary, my opinion toggled back and forth (and I’m sure that was by design). I could see Steve’s impressive ambition and tenacity, but it also seems he would’ve been an unbearable bastard to work with.

Creative industries are about results, but your ability to stay relevant and keep creating in a corporate environment also requires you to be a good communicator and collaborator.

Internet Dead Zone

Going through my ‘Art Tutorials’ bookmarks to find a few gems to post here and I realize many of the hundreds of helpful art links I’ve saved over the years are now defunct – dead URLs or empty images.

The internet giveth and it also taketh away.

It’s a good reminder of why I encourage my students to gather their own digital ‘scrap file’ of tutorials they find that are helpful to them.

I have thousands of art tutorial images saved and organized into folders curated to my needs and taste, the digital equivalent of old school filing cabinets of reference images in an art studio.

Assume stuff online is transitory and back-up ref material, just in case.
You won’t always have access to the things you want to keep.
Future proof it for yourself.

Links Aplenty

You’re reading this newsletter because you want to keep up on what I’m up to but I also want to direct your attention to people I think are creating great work or generating interesting discussion. Here’s a round-up of some good stuff from collaborators, friends, and other folks who have recently caught my attention:

• Jamie McKelvie’s rundown of North American comic art template specs is right on point and worth adding to your reference pool.
• Rachel Stott’s artwork is an absolute knockout. If you’re not following her on your social media of choice, you’re missing out!
• Ed Brubaker’s newsletter is well worth following, and his latest thoughts on the terms “IP” and “content” are deeply in line with my own.
• Matt Rosenberg’s ‘Ideas Don’t Bleed’ podcast has a great series of interviews that cover a cross section of comic creators and other creative people.
• Speaking of interviews, John Siuntres’ Word Balloon podcast is still great and there’s a deep archive of interview material from some of the biggest names in comics.
• Howard Tayler is running a Kickstarter campaign for Schlock Mercenary Vol. 18: Mandatory Failure. Howard’s brilliance and consistency has made him a mainstay of sci-fi and webcomics culture for good reason. The entire archive is well worth checking out.
• Steve Tassie is bringing back Grave Robbers From Outer Space, a fun B-Movie-themed card game that originally launched back in 2001. My friends and I played the hell out of it when it first came out and I’m excited to snag the updated version. Make sure you jump in before the campaign ends.
  

That’ll cover it for this week.
Jim