We’ve talked about a few ways that we might work together, and what I think we’ll land on is a TCL.org section within his magazine for at least one issue (# of pages to be determined, format of the section, how the url etc. is to be displayed to be determined). Both TCL.org and myself will be credited for the materials and we’ll get some sort of plug in there for the site, but it will be tasteful also so there won’t be explicit watermarks all over the images.
This will involve me sharing some of my own personal materials with him, and I still need to get comfortable about basically “giving away” the images of my exclusive collection pieces. And so decisions about what I"m willing to have him publish will be mine to make alone. I still reserve the right to pull the plug on this at any point if I’m not comfortable with how we wants to do this, but knowing James I think we can make it work.
By the way guys, if you have any ideas about features, articles etc. that you think should find it’s way into James’ magazine why don’t you post them here. He asked if I could include a writeup about the pieces that I’ll send him, and so we have an opportunity to share ideas with him.
One idea I had is to compare The Sword of Omens with The Sword of Power, seeings as that I have some excellent images of Lion-O’s weapon (lol).
Mark this is outstanding news! I think all of your comments are correct with regard to your material and what you’re comfortable with James featuring, etc., as far as I’m concerned if it pertains to Animation Art, my own personal feeling is that it’s something for you & James to hammer out between yourselves.
I can think of a number of ThunderCats-related materials that would be great to include in the magazine, my head is positively buzzing at the thought of it, LOL! I’m a bit pushed for time to jot this stuff down at the moment, but I’ll try and get these ideas down within the next day or so!
I’m so glad I contacted James about this now as it seems that this will benefit us all if it happens! Be sure to keep us updated Mark
and if anyone needs any help at all on anything they submit (should this deal happen) I’m always here to lend an hand. Just a shame the magazine is animation only as I’d love to contribute to a toy guide supplement, check list etc..
I think your UK Thundercats article is worthy of inclusion Chris, but I know anything you write will be cool for sure!
Your best bet will be to start with ebay for futurama animation art. I don’t really search out Simpsons, Futurama or Family guy stuff generally, I just had to have this one cause it was T-Cats.
I’m also keeping my eye out for a pencil of Cheetara on the can… but no luck so far!
I got this one at a local animation art store here in Toronto. They do have some futurama stuff, and they’ll usually negotiate a bit with you too…
Really what someone needs to do IMO is like a “potted history” of ThunderCats, incorporating the following elements:
The development of the show (brief explanation of who created it, and talk briefly about Rankin-Bass) - this could serve as a “lead-in” to the Animation Art illustrations, with talk about where it was animated and what company did the animation work…
What the show was about, a brief run-down of the main storyline…
How long the show ran, how popular it was, what sort of impact it had…
Maybe talk about the comparison between TCats and MOTU (leading into the Sword of Omens/Power Sword comparisons).
What do you guys think of these ideas?
As for the UK article, although I agree it may be of some interest, in a way I think what’s needed is a whole fresh article that talks about TCats in general and not the UK in particular, although I’m extremely flattered (and rather embarrassed, LOL!) that you guys think it would be worthy of reproduction in a magazine like James’! :oops:
I’m waiting for James to give me some clarification on what he sees the objective of his magazine as being… so that whatever we propose goes into it, “fits” his objectives for the mag.
I’m not sure if he pre-supposes that people know about the show or not, not sure if his main focus is the animation art, or the show and characters…
Looks like James’ goal with the magazine is to focus on animation that went into the shows of the 80s. So we can do some talking about the show in what we send over, but it will have to be very high level and mostly it’ll be character specific.
The over riding assumption should be that anybody who buys his magazine is somebody who’ll know about ThunderCats (how could you not if you’re into 80s animation?)
The animation itself and how it was done etc.. isn’t really my thing so I doubt I can add anything to this if I’m being honest. I’m not that knowledgable on this sort of thing However if we do character stuff I’m happy to help there.
I won an awesome piece of T-Cats history today on ebay (the second pic), it was used in creating the famous ThunderCats artwork that you saw on all the merchandise back in the day. It’s not the original painting (just a stat copy done in 1983 or so), and it’s not the final copy that was actually used, as the costume colours changed slightly before it was finalized.
It is however a key piece of history for that artwork, and is logo free which could make a great short comparison piece in the magazine. What I have in mind is comparing the draft painting (the first pic) that is owned by another collector with my new piece. I could write a short piece about the interesting differences.
Superb stuff, Mark! I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
As far as the text-based material for James’ magazine is concerned, I’m wondering whether it would be best if you wrote the stuff - firstly because as you’re the one liasing with him and so have the best idea of what it is he’s after, and also because if James wants to talk about the animation process and that whole side of ThunderCats you’re the most knowledgable of the team in that area. I’m certainly happy to assist if anyone wants, but I wonder if you may be the person able to speak with the most authority on the subject(s) that James wants to cover…?
One final question, Mark - will you be hosting that first pic (with the early character designs) in the Animation Art Section? My reason for asking is that there’s a small “Note of Interest” I’m planning to add to the Episode Guide page for the episode “Spitting Image” that references the colourised version of that piece of artwork, so it would be good to be able to link to it when I write it!
I actually don’t intend to host that piece just yet. And that’s because I’m in the process of trying to buy it from the owner. If you could wait before referencing it in that episode I’d appreciate that also.
Cheers,
Mark
Oh and yeah I intend to write the blurbs to go with the images, reason I was posting here is to just get ideas for what we could use in the mag, but I think I’ve got enough ideas and material now to send James a proposal of how it could all look.
That’s fine, although if you could LMK as soon as it’s OK to reference it that would be appreciated - I would say that I have also seen the colourised version of that artwork elsewhere on the Internet (it might even have been in the gallery of another Animation Art collector, via one of the links in your section), but if you think it could jeopardise your chances of securing that piece then obviously that’s cool, I’ll wait for your go-ahead.
Mark nice stuff. I saw that second pic on ebay also and was tempted to get it (along with the silverhawks one the seller had). Im just strapped for cash with picking up some foreign thundercats toys. Im glad someone on our site got it as it looks pretty sweet.
Maybe I missed this but could you explain or give me some background on the first pic. I have never seen the characters look like that before.
Thanks
Hey Matt, that first painting was done before the ThunderCats costumes and designs were finalized. If you take a look at the first page of the ThunderCats pilot episode materials you’ll see that was a rough version of this painting. So it was never actually used but that painting was intended for the merchandise and promotional materials.
However if we do character stuff I’m happy to help there.