FAREWELL TO THE 3RD ANNUAL CHARACTERFEST

     Alrighty, ladies and gents. It has finally struck midnight here on the wizzity west coast, so that means that the 3rd Annual Characterfest has finally and officially come to a close. And with that, the Characterfest Totally Tubular Textpost Talley rests at:

• 7 posts altogether, which breaks down to:
•  1 intro post (duh)
• 3 character posts (containing 4 characters)
• 3 extracurricular posts (AKA any post that doesn't have a number slapped on it)
• 1 sufficently snappy shindig

So, there we have it. A large portion of me wishes I could've done more characters, given that they are sorta the name of the game here. But to my credit, it is getting harder to just crank out posts now. In past fests I could pretty much just whip up a design, give a quick coloring job, and scan it onto the computer flaws and all. Now that I have so much more at my disposal, I can't exactly get away with that. Regardless of all the statistics, though, I'm content. When push comes to shove, any day where I get to brighten up you guys' lives and do what I've loved for pretty much my entire life is a pretty dang good day to me. Thanks a ton to all you radical readers, new and returning, for participating. Stay snazzy, enjoy giving the heck out of some thanks this week, and look forward to some pretty big endeavours on the horizon around here. I'm serious this time. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've been on the computer so long that I might start smelling megabites if I don't get off promptly. Let's stick with the P&F theme and close this son of a gun out! Hit it!

FROM SAN JUAN SOSO WITH LOVE (SOME SPECIAL CONCEPT ART + AN UPDATE)

     I feel quite bad that I did not prepare any animation for this year's Characterfest. It would've been a nice step up from the usual "post a crud-ton of drawings" format. But while I may not have any animation, I do have a little something quite closely linked to it. Now, I was trying to hold back showing you all this for quite a while, but I don't currently have any character posts to concoct for the 'Fest's last hour, so what the hey. Ladies and gents, Mitch Turley, the star of a little show called "NightOwl"!

Not the most flattering snap of the guy, but he's never been too self-conscious about his looks. It should be fine. For those of you have joined recently, NightOwl is an animated series that I am currently working on. That by itself sounds pretty cool, right? Right. The only snag is that it should've been out approximately a bazillion months ago according to my announcement post. As I said at the start of the day, my time management skills are . . . lacking, to say the least. And this little project is one of the best pieces of evidence to back that up. Granted, making a roughly 15-minute-per-episode animated web series all by yourself at the age of 14 isn't exactly a walk in the metaphorical park. But regardless, I have let a lot of time slip away right in front of me, and that is something I'm gonna have to work on. But for now, I am pretty far along. I did have a finished draft for the first episode, but it eventually dawned upon me that said draft kinda sucked, so naturally I decided to scrap it. However, I do have the show pretty much outlined. I'm in the process of hunting down silver age comic books to devour as research for the show's tone (it's probably the comic era most compatable with the idea of a 22-year-old manchild fighting crime in a zip-up owl hoodie), and I'm gonna be starting the actual Episode 1 script pretty dang soon. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how long it takes, how many hours of Toon Boom I have to clock in, because I am committed to bringing the JC-Verse to life on screen, and I aim to do it in the most spectacular way a 14-year-old can. So, stay patient, my grasshoppers. Ol' Jakey McBloggerstein's got this . . .


. . . I think . . .


. . . No, yeah, I've definitely got this.

#266: The Astonishing Ufo

    Just so all those reading from the West Coast and beyond are aware, it is very much still November 22nd here in sunny ol' California. The party is still most definitely a-pumpin'. We are definitely approaching the end, though, so I should probably whip this one up quick. Presenting Characterfest character number 4: the Astonishing Ufo. You might've watched enough modern sci fi shows and movies to know that for every decision made in this reality, there is a plethora of other realities where that decision was tossed to the side in favor of another. So, on July 5th 1958, in this very particular reality, nothing really happened. But precisely in Dimension #95601, a group of extraterrestrials calling themselves Foreverans descended upon the skyline of bustling New York City. Fearing the effects that a 3rd world war built upon the current US-Soviet tension would have on the rather extraordinary planet of Earth, the Foreverans, using an unexplained energy called Zaraxium, froze time. From then on, utopia was born. Over the course of what would've been 200 years, mankind and the Foreverans made a joint effort to fix the world, wiping away the grime from society and turning it into a new utopia the likes of which no Earthling had ever seen. It was swell, and above all, it was perfect. Until the 201st year, that is. Because in the 201st year, an anarchic horde of militiamen called the Apocalyptos began filtering in from who knows where, reintroducing an ancient human practice to the Utopia: wreaking havoc. The Foreverans sat in their watchtower, eventually all agreeing to take action. By then, however, someone had beat them to it. Gathering every scrap and supply he could find, a desperate scientist named Chip feverishly constructed an android, with a central "heart" that he filled with a finishing touch: a dash of Zaraxium that he stole from the Foreveran watchtower. With that otherworldy energy powering him, the android was able to contort the space that surrounded him, twisting gravity so that he could defy it whenever he saw fit. For all his power, however, he lacked a name. Fortunately, though, the headlines gave him one. So, with astonishing abilites at his metallic fingertips and a surprisingly sentient mind to match, "Ufo" took to the streets to singlehandedly take on the Apocalyptos, defending those in their chaotic path and striving to restore order in the eternally frozen society known as the Utopia. (Wooh. Apologies if that one was a bit rambly. Pretty sure that evolved into a pitch for a movie I might make one day.)

NANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANA

     While I feverishly edit my next character/eat some dindin, here's a piece of decently snazzy Batman fan art I did a while back. I may have already posted it fully-Photoshopped, but I think the unedited edtion looks best. Also, just ignore that oddly fetus-like scribble in the corner.

#265: Doctor Benzod: Psychotic Sleep God

     Sorry for the delay on this one, folks. Photoshop is an unpredictable beast that I am yet to fully tame. Now, time for Characterfest character number three: Doctor Benzod, psychopathic sleep god. Genius can go two ways. It can either a) be used to enlighten others and lift them up, or b) be used to shove others down as hard as possible. You'd think after all these years we humans would've learned to scratch out the ladder option altogether, but alas we've still got a little while to go on that one. However, we're not here today to lement about mankind's incredibly oblong learning curve. No siree, we're here to talk about a shining example of that second option, hailing from the JC-Verse: Doctor Barren Benzod. A brilliant chemist that spent his early years hopping from school to school to find one that could keep up with him, Benzod blew the popsicle stand of high school a year early and got accepted into U.N.D.E.R.O.O. Academy. (That's right, it was only a matter of posts until I mentioned U.N.D.E.R.O.O. again. I could only make it so long.) There he blazed through the first two years of training, aimed for a surefire high-up position in the Weapons Division. Things were looking bright for ol' Barret. That is, until things got significantly darker. Upon entry into his third year, Benzod designed the Hypnos toxin, an airborne poison apple of sorts that can put any person into an indefinite slumber, and its corresponding true love's kiss, a liquid anecdote called the Waker serum. Day and night he spent perfecting it, until one day he decided to make test subjects out of his dormmates. Naturally, it didn't sit well with the professors when they heard through the grapevine that one of their students was putting his peers into controlled comas. After falling from grace, the former star pupil of U.N.D.E.R.O.O. refused to let his experiments be set back. So, in a textbook mad scientist 101 move, he found himself a little isolated island called Karrino, and he pressed onward. Spending years upon years building himself a bona fide fortress of a lab that he named Comatose State (badum tssss), Dr. Benzod continued wittling his Hypnos toxin to perfection, making unsuspecting Sleeping Beauties out of innocent folks that he scammed into vacationing on his island. (Now that I think about it, islands seem to be hotbeds for lunatics nowadays. Might be a good idea for y'all to vacation inland. Just a thought.)

IN WHICH JACOB SHARES HIS FRIEND'S MOST EXCELLENT ART

     Between characters, I would like to display some swanky art from one of my friends, Sophia. Not to be confused with the infamous Sophie, or any of her accompanying personalities, for that matter. Sophia is actually one of my sis's new comrades from school, and I asked her to send me some of her work for Characterfest upon having seen a few of her cartoon doodlings. What she sent is much more than I was expecting. Behold!

#263 & #264: Alvon & Johnny Gargantuan

      Alrighty. My stomach has been replenished with the necessary pancakes, so without further ado, let's get right into this shindig. I present to you my new pair of characters: Alvon and Johnny Gargantuan! Regardless of what you believe, I think we can all agree that in the theoretical circumstance where you find youself on the bad side of the omnipotent, eternally moral, eternally forgiving universe creator entity, there's no two ways about it. Ya dun goof'd, and ya dun goof'd real bad. So, you can probably infer that fallen angel Alvon, who was literally forced to take a skydive sans parachute straight out of the eternal beyond because God was ticked with him, wasn't exactly jazzed with life. Fired from his only job for all of eternity and stuck inhabiting JC-Earth, Alvon spent his days soul-searching, roaming from country to country until he decided to stop by a little joint called Madame Freaky Deeky's Oddity Hut for a show. And it was there that by fate, or coincidence, or maybe the Lord finally taking pitty on his ex-employee, he met Johnny Gargantuan, one of the last nephilim. (Author's note: for all those who are confuzzled over what I just said, nephilim are the giant fallen angel/human crossbreeds that supposedly roamed the Earth until most of them were wiped out via death by flood. Here's a link in case you want to know anymore.) Seperated from his tribe and working for petty cash as Freaky Deeky's resident tall guy, he and Alvon struck a cord with one another. Both down on their luck and armed with their impressive share of holy knowledge, they figured it was about time they put themselved to some good use. Forging and arming themselves with holyforms--shapeshifting relics made of holy energy that are grade-A for fighting off evil spirits-- these two knuckleheads team up as the living world's dual-defense against any demons that try to wreak havoc. They're like the Winchester brothers, only much less . . . unnaturally model-like.

( Even though you can't see it under his jacket, Johnny's suspenders are actually each a bunch of suspenders tied together. The struggles of being 9 feet tall.)

HEY LOOK, IT'S CHARACTERFEST

     As you might be able to infer from the title of this post, I may have completely spaced out and forgotten to advertise to you all a certain BiG HuGe sPeCiAl EvEnT that's been on the horizon for a while now. Put that one in the hall of shining examples of my nonexistent time management skills. But fear not. For while I did overshoot the date of said event amidst my preparation, there was preparation. Some quite dandy preparation, if I am so bold. And as for any gaps I've left in the event's schedule, I'm willing to pull out all the stops to fill. So, sit tight, folks. Because it's time for the flurry of all-day posting that I call the 3rd Annual Characterfest! Now, in the past I've always started off Characterfest with some rad tunes to get the energy levels a-rising, so I don't see why this year should be any different. So, ladies and gents, Bowling for Soup (and my childhood, to be exact)!

AS PROMISED feat. the Dark stinkin' Knight

     In the immortal words of a clown incredibly relevant to this post, I am a man of my word. So, ladies and gents, I give you the full-on 100% cinematic edition of my Batman fan-poster! Odds are I probably put way too much thought and energy into this puppy, but hey, I take my craft seriously. And in this particular case, that craft is producing realistic production jargon. PS, just for the record, the cast of my alternate Batfilm is as follows:

Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, X-Men, Prometheus) as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Ella Purnell (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children) as Carrie Kelley/Robin
Mark Strong (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Sherlock Holmes) as Dr. Hugo Strange
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) as James Gordon
Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) as Alfred Pennyworth
Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones) as Barbara Gordon/Oracle
Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy) as the Mutant Leader
Monica Raymund (The Good Wife, Chicago Fire) as Renee Montoya

#262: The Pixelites

     Howdy pilgrims and R.I.P. unsuspecting Meleagris gallopavo everywhere, because no matter what Target is trying to tell you, Christmas isn't here just yet. It's Thanksgiving time. Before October is too far gone, though, here's a link to the special animated header I made for Halloween, now that I've immortalized it on the Youtubes. Alright, I semi-promised you all a post explaining who the heck the Pixelites are. It's time to deliver. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you . . . well, the Pixelites. (Duh.) We humans have a tendancy to think we're super high-tech and awesome until we look back in a few decades and see that we weren't really that high-tech and awesome. Remember 30 years ago when we thought the future was now because we could make a big dot eat a bunch of smaller dots? Or 20 years ago when we thought we were the big cheese because we could make a plumber's disembodied head stretch nightmarishly? (Seriously, that stuff is Kafkaesque.) Well, as a wise man in a really bad movie once said, "there's always a bigger fish." And as far back as 200 years ago in the bustling Glimmorrian Starsystem, one such wopper of a fish was born. That fish was known as the Pixelite Party, and they had cracked the code to a little something called transpixelation. (Disclaimer: don't go expecting my 9th-grade self to get into the minutiae of how this was accomplished. Okay? Okay.) The Pixelites' founder, bona fide extraterrestrial Tesla Sa'Barritan Basslee, had found a way to bridge the gap between the digital and physical realm and render computerized creations right into the real world--all with a little device he called a Pixofield. This was all dandy, but the reigning powers of Glimmorrius weren't exactly jazzed, and feared that the senator's Enlightenment thinking would severly mess with their more medieval way of life. So, just like that, the Pixelites decided it was time to hit the road. Setting up shop on a barren nearby planet called Klex, the motley alliance of bright inventors, philosophical thinkers and other impressive Glimmorrian minds got to work, and within a century, had gone as far as to line the whole atmosphere with a massive Pixofield called the "Pixosphere." Beings from all across the system began joining them before they knew it, and now, Klex is the hub of the Glimmorrian, a trans-digital utopia where everyone is free to to partake in the high-res spectacles that the Pixelites are capable of rendering from thin air. So, next time we Homo sapiens think of something new to do with a dot or a plumber's decapitated noggin, think twice before y'all get up on your high horses.

(A modern member of the Pixelite Party in their traditional garb, including a fancy-pants pair of digitalized wings.)