#greg colton

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Wonderful screen shot from @technological-nexus @dailylucha on twitter.

I tried so many times to get a story about Flea's spleen through, but every time it got nixed by Kids' WB (not 'Gigante' enough? They took it very literally: A thumb wrestling story concerning The Flea and 'Warty' also had the kibosh put on it for the same reason :)

But after wising up and making the story about an evil medico and his creation, the spleen got its moment in the ML! sun!

The cherry on top is that amazing, inventive, hilarious storyboard by Greg Colton. Nurse Caliente is also his design!

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Mucha Lucha! Episode 33

New phone and printer app, so scanning can be resumed...now where were we..?

Okay, so another erroneous storyboard credit: This was in fact boarded by Greg Colton, who did an amazing job with a very busy script and premise. Wet Sand Animation are credited with animation, but I don't ever recall hearing that name ever mentioned and had to Google them. Turns out they are in Nova Scotia, Canada. Maybe they were recommended to WB by Bardel, who were a mainstay from season one.

'Pinata' is a fan favorite, and again one of our underused characters, La Pinata herself, comes to the fore. I always thought the character was one of our newer creations, but digging through the archives was recently surprised to find out she'd been around since season one. Yes, 'underused' was right!

I was at the storyboard pitch for Poocha Lucha, and to be honest I felt a bit underwhelmed by it. Another board artist, Ricky Garduno, was also at the pitch and he confided in me that he thought Masked Dog's unmasking should have been made more of a big deal. He was right of course, and I should have made more of an effort to implement this. I did however try to get Kids' WB to do a promotion about Masked Dog's unmasking in advance using their online resources, but alas...

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Mucha Lucha! Episode 35

AH, Luchabot you crazy little varmint.

A two-parter boarded by the supreme team of Ricky Garduno and Greg Colton, this was a script-driven episode written by Peter Hastings, who was the story editor for season 2.

It was pretty much Peter's baby - even the robotic tone that the lucha-botted students say their names in was his idea. No-one really 'got' this in the script, but he was on hand at the voice recording session to do an example of the voice and show everyone what his intentions were.

Interestingly how the writers were using the other students at this point, with this one following La Pinata's star turn previously.

Luchabot itself was my design, expertly Flashed by Ms Lili Chin.

I've posted these pics before, but they never get old. Ricky storyboard title below...

4B Pencil, my weapon of choice :) You can tell by the shading.

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Episode 27 - Churro Overload/Mini Mercado Of Doom

I've said it before, and I can't say it enough: A great storyboard with great posing and staging = great animation.  Especially now, when animators are just working directly from the boards without the benefit of the *traditional 'layout' stage to finesse the posing in each scene.

*(Ask you grandfather. Or me).

Nothing is a better example of this than Greg Colton's board for 'Churro'.  Let's face it; it's a pretty standard premise, and on first look we were like...'oh great, another generic script a writer we've never heard of had lying around'.  This is exactly where the series needed a great artist to step up and take control.  Just look at these poses...

We never got too much feedback from WB Animation about the episodes, as the execs were mainly concerned whether or not the network - Kids' WB - was happy.  But this is the first episode that WBA really started raving about the show.  So much so that El Prez himself, Sander Schwartz, requested a copy and was delighted by it.

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Dare To Lucha - Audio Commentary

Here we go! Who dares to watch?

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Storyboard sketches

Some used, some unused, some unseen...but always inspired.

A smattering of talent...Greg Colton, Ricky Garduno, Gabe Swarr

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¡Mucha Lucha! Through the past backwards! Episode 40 - PART 1

Season 3 got off to the best possible start with this episode, which was storyboarded by the great Greg Colton. Working with my outline, Greg pulled put all the stops, even designing Senor Stinky.

As I have mentioned before, the season was supposed to be rebranded 'The Mega Matches', and we were working to this theme for the early episodes in season 3, with the phrase 'Mega' being referenced and turning up in the dialogue quite a lot. The concept gave us a real renewed sense of energy, which is why the first handful of stories are so strong.

It also gave us the confidence to try new things, including leaving our main characters out - Rikochet in this instance - if the story didn't need to service them.

Speaking of which, Jason Marsden debuts as Rikochet and Midcarda, and Dee Bradley Baker is added to the main cast as Senor Stinky.

One of my favorite episodes, backed up with some great animation by Dong Yang studios.

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¡Mucha Lucha! Through the past backwards! Episode 44 (Warning: Contains SPLEEN!)

"Spleen!"

"For Ricardo!!!"

One of my favorites.  I really had to work to get this one approved.  I pitched this to the network as far back as season 2, but they wouldn't go for it.  I tried again at the start of season 3, but they didn't think it was 'Mega' enough.  For the third time I tried it as 'Medico Mayhem' and really didn't focus on the spleen at all in my pitch, and...it worked!

Having said that, it would be nothing without the great storyboarding of Greg Colton.  What makes this episode a bit special for us was the circumstances and timing of it....

One of our other ace board artists, Ricky Garduno, was putting in his customary after hours shift working on an episode, when he was struck down in his cubicle with acute appendicitis and rushed to hospital.  Of course, even someone in hospital is fair game for the humor of animation people, and his get-well card was full of 'sentiments' like, 'get over it and hurry back to work you big faker!'.  Yes, animation people are cruel, heartless individuals.

Greg couldn't resist putting that in the episode where Rikochet and Buena Girl sign The Flea's card.  Also, the rallying cry 'For Ricardo!' was a shout out to his hospitalized friend.

As for Big Worm...I'm credited as a writer, but I don't think this can possibly be accurate.  I may have brainstormed the premise with director Ken Kessel, but I remember nothing about the storyline - which is amazing as one of my favorite artists, Gabe Swarr, did the storyboard.  I'm guessing that Gabe probably took it and ran with it.  Again, I must have been distracted with other stories at the time and this one has slipped into the nether regions of my brain.  Another one to add to my 'must rewatch' list...