Happy Hallowmaween my friends, fairweather friends and frenemies alike. May it be creepy, cooky, mysterious, spoo- alright, you get the idea.
Halloween, by sinister coincidence, tends to occur the same week as my birthday practically every year - thas'sum scary shiznit, yo. Typically I like to meld the two into one week-long alcolohol'n'sugar fest, and this week I've been particularly spoiled.
Midst my hedonism I found some time to throw together a piece on one of my favourite UK animators, stop-motion nightmare-weaver and fellow Pattonophile Robert Morgan. After a lengthy podcast interview last year in which we discussed his BAFTA-nominated Bobby Yeah - a Lynchian, Svankmajerian and Quay-ier-ieran stream-of-consciousness masterwork - he's produced another new film Invocation for this year's Random Acts scheme. Combining live-action with his fittingly gruesome signature style, the short is set to debut tonight so tune in to Channel 4 at 00:30.
To find out more you can read the article and watch my exclusive video interview from when we caught up in Annecy earlier this year:
The full interview will be included as part of an upcoming Skwigly video special, so watch this space for more on that before the end of the year.
Hi everyone, I hope you’re having as happy and joyous a day as I! I’m pleased to report that the latest Skwigly podcast is now up. To date each episode has been more satisfying than the one that came before, and after the awesomeness of Podcast #3 this one would have to be pretty special to top it. Fortunately, thanks to a very impressive guest roster, that seems to be exactly how it’s turned out!
As Steve and my respective work schedules have been ricockulously busy all through July we didn’t get time to record much by way of our chattier segments, so this one’s fairly interview-oriented. Which ain’t no bad thing.
Firstly there’s Steve’s interview with Ant Blades of Bird Box Studio, who has been knocking out some fabulous short-form animated masterpieces that have proved to be huge online hits of late. These include “Sketchy Guard” and "Chop Chop", although my personal favourites are “I’ll Get the Ice-Creams” and especially “Dinner” (because it puts me in mind of the adorably stupid little dogs in my life).
Steve also talks to Jonti Picking of Weebl’s Stuff, something of a Flash animation tour de force who has been going strong for a decade and counting. Sort of like our nation’s Homestar Runner.
I myself have an interview with Robert Morgan, someone who I’d been itching to talk to for years as he’s one of the most visually inventive stop-motion animators out there. I saw a bunch of his films at a Watershed showcase a few months back, including his student piece “The Man in the Lower-Left Hand Corner of the Photograph”, which won me over instantly for A) sharing a title with a particularly obscure Mike Patton track and B) evoking a good-years-of-David-Lynch sense of unease I hadn’t felt since, well, the good years of David Lynch. It’s hard to explain why being made to feel uneasy is actually kind of desirable, I imagine it’s down to the majority of film and TV out there leaving me completely unaffected, so any emotional response grabs me pretty tightly by the short’n’ curlies. By which I of course mean my facial hair.
Morgan’s latest film “Bobby YEAH” is no exception, with an added layer of unexpected but very welcome absurdist humour. It was made pretty much entirely on his own, which is an impulse I have monumental respect for and, given it was nominated for a BAFTA this year, I also find it pretty inspirational.
Closing this month’s episode is my aforementioned John Kricfalusi interview, or rather some of it. With the Kickstarter deadline approaching I wanted to make sure to get the word out , so part one focuses on “Cans Without Labels” and the backstory of George Liquor, with some brilliant industry musing and “Ren & Stimpy” nostalgia thrown in. I’m still ecstatic that I was able to talk to the man and he brings a fantastic energy to the podcast. Part two will go into some of his other projects, including his work on “The Simpsons”, the ill-fated “Art of Spumco” coffee-table book and a rather heartwarming tale of Bob Clampett’s ‘hormones’. So until then, here’s Skwigly Podcast #4!
Skwigly Podcast 04 (01/08/2012) - Ant Blades, Robert Morgan, Weebl & John Kricfalusi by Skwigly Animation Podcast
As always you can direct download or simply subscribe on iTunes!
