We Said We Were Only Doing This Once A Month…AND WE MEANT IT
Seriously, though — marketing ourselves and our work is the thing we suck at the most. (We rock at creating awesome new IPs for animated shows and at making webcomics.) You will never know the act of will it takes to do stuff like this.
But this is important! You guys are among our most loyal fans and we want to keep you abreast of what we’re doing so you can engage with any and everything we create…and on that note, we’ll share (as much as we can) a little peek at one of our projects in development so you know we’re not just messing around!
But first, why don’t you guys get to know one of the Massive Chaos partners a little better…
CREATIVE PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: AXEL ORTIZ
Massive Chaos: First, the question that everyone would ask first — What made you want to get into animation…and how DID you get into animation?
Axel Ortiz: What made me want to get into the animation industry…was back in college while attending Art Center College of Design back in the late 1990’s. We had a Art Center alum come visit and give a lecture about working in the animation field…mainly in Pixar where this Alum worked. He gave us a sneak peek on what he was working on…which was the film, A Bug’s Life.
At that point in my young life…I always liked watching cartoons on TV and feature animation…I just wasn’t sure if it would be a path to a career. I had an instructor in my freshman year show my work to Dreamworks Animation.
How ‘DID’ I get into animation? Three months after I have graduated from Art Center…I got a call from a friend working at Sony Pictures TV animation asking what I was doing.
I said, “Drawing, at the moment.” She responded, “That’s great! Would you like to come into office and show your work this afternoon?”
I replied, “Sure.”
I went into the office where the Sony had their TV productions and met with the director. He looked over my work and pretty much hired me to work on the show, Big Guy and Rusty, my first animation gig!
MC: Who sits on your animation Mount Rushmore? Who are the three or four most important people in animation history, as far as you’re concerned?
AO: Oh [REDACTED]…this is a tough one….there’s a lot of awesome talent from the past to current times that I totally dig…that are inspiring. The three I’m listing here are SOME of the many that inspire me…
Marc Davis…one of Disney’s Nine Old Men…was a talented designer, animator and story teller that worked in many classic animated films. He even worked on theme park projects for Disneyland as well.
Chris Sanders, a great draftsmen when it came to his character designs. He also directed some great animated projects like Lilo & Stitch, The Croods, and How to Train Your Dragon.
Genndy Tartakovsky, an amazing animator and director who has created some great animated series…from Samurai Jack to Dexter’s Laboratory. His latest projects, Primal and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal are totally [REDACTED] awesome!
MC: Let’s say you’re trapped in your house, but you only have five animated films and five animated series to watch. What are they?
AO: This list is in no particular order…
Animated Films: Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse, Pinocchio (1940), Tekkonkinkreet, Blood: The Last Vampire, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Animated Series: Primal, Motorcity, Rick & Morty, Star Wars: Rebels and Superman (Fleischer Studios)
MC: What would be your dream IP to work on in animation? (It can be an old cartoon or a book or a movie -- whatever.)
AO: I would like convert Animal Farm (book) into a creepy animated film. (Fun fact: Animal Farm was adapted into an animated film in 1954…a film that was funded in part by the CIA, who also performed some story editing! How’s that for creepy? — JP)
Also, the French film City of Lost Children, I think would make a nice stylized animated movie.
Bonus…would love to do a season four of the cancelled Syfy series of Dark Matter.
MC: If you had to pick one Massive Chaos partner (including yourself) to rep us on Dancing With The Stars, who would it be?
AO: Justin Peniston would totally rock it with them sexy rhythmic moves on that dance floor! (He’s not wrong. — JP)
SO WHAT IS…
…WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
The sad truth is, we can’t share too much about what we’re working on these days, because so much is still under discussion or is involved in a contract or is still in development. It would irresponsible to just come out and tell you guys what we currently have in the works.
But it would also be totally lame if we didn’t show you SOMETHING…
…remember when we used to tease projects by giving them codenames? Let’s do that again! Let’s start by showing you something from PROJECT TEARDROP.
Next, we have you an image from PROJECT CLEAR! (And yes, the exclamation point is part of the codename!)
This fancy fellow comes straight from PROJECT GREAT FLOOD.
Aw. This cute little guy is supposed to feature prominently in PROJECT ASCENSION.
That weirdo will hopefully one day appear in PROJECT CANARY.
I have decided, as I type this, that the bunny girl is a part of PROJECT BLOCK PARTY.
Lastly, we have an example of what we’ll be doing with PROJECT TEENAGED SLACKER. (Sure, that one’s a little cliché, but that’s why I picked it — and it’s not like we’ll use these names anywhere but in this newsletter!)
It would a lot of fun for me if I could tell you more about these things, but I just can’t. I can tell you that a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into everything you see here — especially the stuff that has completely changed since this point. Also, whenever you hear one of us talking about our animation development team and so on and so forth, now you know that we’re not just talking out of our hats. We’re making shows and comics.
We’re having the time of our lives…but it’s WORK.
Oh, I forgot something…
I know we mentioned this last month, but we’re that much closer to Hunter Black Volume Two: Five of Thirteen being a reality! We drove to the printer and saw the physical proof — Will even took it home with him. There some changes that we needed to make, problems that were entirely from our end, and the follow up digital proof fixed everything. Now we’re just waiting for the actual printing to be done and we’ll have a bunch of gorgeous trade paperbacks!
We will be selling these bad boys at San Diego Comic Con in a few weeks and sending copies to our top tier Patrons…and after that, we’re looking to run a Kickstarter to do a wider print run. Given the successes of the first trade, we’re looking for new ways to torment me that people will pay to see!
That, of course, makes me think of the next (and final) section of the newsletter.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO SUPPORT…?
Honestly, the thing that Massive Chaos needs more than anything is PAYING WORK. We’re meeting and pitching with some frequency and we have a pretty awesome partnership on a project with a major animation studio — but none of that is paying bills.
So if anyone reading this is looking to hire a team to develop their IP into an animated series, hit us up. THAT IS WHAT WE DO.
However, if you want to support Hunter Black, that’s a little bit easier.
You can always support Hunter Black by becoming a Patron. Your support helps us continue to pay Jacob for his lettering and design work, and it helps us to pay our bills so we can keep making comics.
- For $2/month, you'll get every page a day early
- For $5/month, you'll get every week's pages on the Sunday before, along with commentary from me (Justin)
- For $10/month, you'll get all of the above plus print comics mailed to you as soon as you hit each book's price point, which means TWO trade paperbacks in the first year.
It’s not a bag deal at all and it supports INDEPENDENT CREATORS. In the days of Writers’ Strikes and #ComicsBrokeMe, sending ten bucks a month to support your favorite hardboiled fantasy adventure comic definitely qualifies as a good deed!
