Love this old piece I just came across. This was designed for a KIDSCREEN magazine cover (hence the serious amount of space at the top and bottom for logo’s, article titles, etc.) They wanted to showcase my Nickelodeon short “Baxter and Bananas”, and had given me the opportunity to own the cover. Unfortunately, they changed their mind and went in a completely different direction for the front of the magazine, but I still loved this piece. Visually explained the entire concept of the show in one image. The awesomely talented Alex Kirwan helped to create this specific art with me. I was lucky to have both he and Craig Kellman help me with the shows over all designs. I had such high hopes for these characters and truly wished I could have taken it into development officially. The pilot/short definitely had it’s issues but I knew exactly what to do to fix them. Calvin and Hobbes inspired, sure, but they can’t own the entire world of imaginary friends. I too had one growing up, and his brash, brazen, fearless attitude helped push me out of my comfort zone just like Bananas did for Baxter. The show was originally called “Billy and Bananas” - but I was challenged to make the boy name more of a “star” name. Instead of sicking to my guns and keeping it simple, I caved and found another “b” name I liked and just went with it. Unfortunately, when you put all the pieces back together, they didn't work so well. The head of the show opens in a mad scientist lab (I was a huge fan of Young Frankenstein growing up) with a short, squat boy in a white lab coat, speaking in a voice done by the wonderfully talented Candi Milo. The show immediately felt like it was a rip off of Dexter (Candi did that voice, too) and like it was stealing from Calvin and Hobbes. Not at all my original intention, just where pieces fell after making some bad calls. But even though those mistakes reared their head, it was the best part about working for Fred Seibert, he let you make mistakes so you could learn.
Please follow the link below if you’d like to see the actual final piece, and maybe get past the opening bit... there's some fun beyond the opening. Also, Why not enjoy the amazing voice talent of Mark Hamill, too!
Overall, I was very happy with the design, color, poses, and timing, hope you like it, too.
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