chippyandloopus.com

These things are difficult to write. You see, everyone in the webcomics biz says “Never apologize to your audience for missing updates.” This is usually said bay the guys who actually make a living from thier comics and only miss a day, or post late. I’ve missed a month, and before that, my updates were sporadic. To say I’ve been busy at work is an understatement. Directing Tv animation is an incredibly intense experience. My average workday is a 12 hour day. There are many nights I am not home before 10. When I wake up on Saturday morning, the time when I usually do my strip, I’m drained. I sit and stare into space, sipping coffee. It’s a quiet, meditative time without actually meditating. Sometimes I sketch, sometimes I watch extras on recently purchased Bluray discs. Much of the time I just zone out…mind mind wanders, and inevitably wanders back to work problems. I run the animatics in my head, making mental edits, I visualize storyboard fixes. Directing has consumed me. Am I happy? Yes. I find the project to be exciting, rewarding and challenging. We are attempting to create a tv show on a scale and scope that has never been attempted. If we pull it off, it will be amazing. The project, as some of you know, is The How to Train your Dragon tv show for Cartoon Network. I’m directing 7 episodes in the first season, and an as yet undecided number in season 2. We are attempting to emulate the movie in scale, scope, camera style, and emotional content. This is not easy on a tv budget (hell, it wasn’t easy on the budget they had for the movie) but we are committed to trying. Truthfully, I’m having a great time and have never felt more creatively involved and engaged in an animation project in my entire career.
Unfortunately, this means updates on both strips are going two be sporadic. I’ll be on time sometimes, and I’ll be late others. I’ll try to announce new strips on twitter, Facebook and Google+. I will also attempt to be more involved in Twitter even when I don’t have a strip to post. Thank your for your patience and loyalty.
John

Hey all. It’s been a while. My new day job is quite demanding. I thought directing a feature was a lot of work. Well, directing for tv animation is even more demanding, and the schedule is tighter. It’s kind of thrown my personal work and personal life into disarray. Both my strips have fallen behind as a result. I’m about 2 weeks behind on THIS strip and one week behind on K & J. I’m doing my best to catch up, but it’s hard. Unfortunately, I may have to take another week off on Chippy and Loopus, meaning the new episodes won’t appear until the following week, which is the first week of August. Sorry kids. I just need a little breather to get all my life back in order. In the meantime, K and J, which is written by Sara, will resume this week. It’s half the work you see, I can just draw, and the new episodes of that strip are based on the story of how Sara met her future husband, a certain cartoonist who for the purpose of the strip we are calling “Mark”. (pssst! It’s really me! shhhh!)
In the meantime I’ve been ruminating over something that has been bugging me for a while privately, and that is the question of Loopus. In the past year or so, he’s kind of gotten pushed into the background while Carl has stepped forward into the number 2 spot in terms of importance in the strip. This was not planned, it sort of just happened that way. At first, I just let it happen. As the strip has evolved, I’ve needed a confidant for Chippy that is of equal or greater intelligence, someone who can point out the grand flaws in Chippy’s logic and question his often questionable worldview. That character is Carl. Loopus could never do that, he’s just too stupid. So in recent episodes, he’s become comic releif. This saddens me a bit. I used to write whole story lines around Loopus and his affable, almost zen like approach to life. He’s a favorite to many, including my own father. When I asked my Dad why he likes him so much, he said “nothing bothers him. He doesn’t worry about anything”. It is truly an admirable quality. The other thing about Loopus is the he is for the most part absent of malice. He’s not out to hurt anyone, nor is he out for himself. He does provide a certain balance to Chippy’s swing for the fences and damn the consequences philosophy. So, I’ve begun to kind of examine Loopus in my head as I go about my day. I’m questioning everything, and trying to figure out exactly what makes him tick. He’s as dumb as a box of rocks….or is he? Maybe he isn’t stupid. Maybe he just takes a little longer to process things than others. Maybe his thought process is on a different track than the rest of us, so that when he does finish processing, he comes to a seemingly ridiculous conclusion.
Anyway, I’m figuring it out. It’s forceing me to approach writing him in a different manner entirely. Same character, different approach.
We’ll see how it goes. You all be sure to let me know what you think.
Thamks for reading. See you in a bit.
John