Kevin Klis, R.I.P.

When you're a child, you hold to this idea that only elderly people die.. But as you get older, you realize that this isn't the case. And as I rapidly approach my own half-century mark, I've begun to lose some very dear friends! One of those, was an artist named: Kevin Klis. He passed away last month at the age of 46, after a lengthy struggle with lung cancer..

Kevin was a couple years younger than me, but we found we had many similar interests. We first met in 1983, when we both attended Sheridan College's 'Classical Animation' program.. As 1st Year students, we were assigned neighboring animation desks. So it's no surprise that we became quickly acquainted. Rather than live in Oakville, we both chose to travel to-and-from college, via the GO Train. Myself, from Scarborough. And Kev from a little further east, in Pickering/Ajax. As a result, we spent most our school days together..

Initially Kevin told me that he had little interest in animated cartoons.. He was only interested in how the program would make him a better comic-book artist. Sheridan had shut down it's own 'Cartooning' program a few years earlier, much to his chagrin..
I had pretty much forgotten about comic-books, myself. But still had fond memories of the ones I once owned as a kid. Kevin was a huge Neal Adams fan! Particularly, Adams' work on 'The BATMAN' title.. Kevin knew where all the good comic-book shops were on Queen Street West. So, when we both didn't have afternoon classes (and sometimes when we did! hah), we'd both agree to make a book shopping junket, before continuing on to Oakville.
I spent most of my money re-buying all of the old comic-books I'd once owned. In addition, we both became pretty excited by the more-adult stuff published in 'HEAVY METAL' and 'EPIC' magazine..

Through some scheduling quirk in Sheridan's 1st Year programming, students were allowed to work on a Group Film. Usually a project reserved for 2nd Year students.. Kevin and I decided that we'd try to make a short film using the characters we'd seen in 'EPIC' magazine: Arthur Suydam's 'CHOLLY & FLYTRAP'..
We came up with a contrived storyline entitled: "The Repercussion"; about 'CHOLLY' shooting a few snail characters. I can recall that Kevin did an amazing Run Cycle, that I did a BG for.. Kevin had taken the time to cel-paint these cycled drawings, using a white oil-based house paint. Shooting it all toplit under the camera, it all looked very good. But in short order, the oils began seeping out of the applied paint. And Kevin found all of his cels gummed together!
I have very little of Kevin's artwork.. But here are a few of Kev's layout sketches from that project:

That's 'CHOLLY' in the last panel, in the cockpit of his flying vehicle.. Kevin added a few tourist stickers. One, from a trip to Florida. And along the dash, ones for Hollywood and Disneyland! hah

By the time we got to our 2nd Year Group Film project, we were a little more serious about things.. Disney-style cartoony animation, wasn't really our thing. We both preferred the Fleischer 'SUPERMAN' shorts.
On top of that, we were both huge Frazetta fans.. In 1983, the animated 'FIRE AND ICE' feature made with Ralph Bakshi, came out.. And a year before that, Milius' 'CONAN' came out.. We still had Frazetta on the brain, so we decided to try and make a film about a gladiator-styled "Pit Fight"..
Kevin not only designed our "hero" character. But had the audacity to sculpt himself a small maquette to help him draw the character from multiple angles! I don't have a photo of the sculpture, but here's what Kevin's model sheet looked like:

Kevin always spent a good deal of time deciding on a character's "name".. I didn't think it was a big issue, but I could tell it was very important to him. Perhaps because his character was a bit Germanic-looking and had long blond hair, Kev settled on: "Kruger"..
I was supposed to handle scenes with our "villain". And was less-interested in what he'd be named. Perhaps that's why we never called him anything beyond: "the Brute".. My designs for "Brute" don't have Kevin's flair, but here's basically what he looked like:

We knew that the amount of work involved to get everything finished, would be gargantuan. Even so, we felt like if we could get enough of the film done to show our teachers the "potential" of our project, we'd pass the Review process at year's end. We didn't spend too much time on plot/story. But we knew the sequence of the scenes needed. And the choreography necessary, for what was essentially an animated "fight scene"..
Here's a page of Notes that I unearthed:

I couldn't find any model sheets showing the scale between these 2 characters.. But I suppose it's important to mention that "Kruger" was literally supposed to be about half the size of "Brute". We wanted to establish early on, that the cards were heavily-stacked against our hero! Kev had some great shooting ideas for playing with this sense of contrast.. Here are a few of his layout sketches:

Now somewhere along the way, our production got sidetracked with (what we concluded) was an innovative foray into "rotoscoping" technology.. Occasionally during our lunches, we'd make a trip over to a nearby Oakville mall to go shopping for toys & videos, etc. During one of these junkets, we came across some Fisher-Price Viewers that would allow you to pop in a plastic cartridge and view short animated clips from various studios. I can recall buying a couple Disney ones. I think "Clock Cleaners" was one. Another was about a "Haunted House"..
Having been an avid Super-8 filmmaker in high school, I guess my curiousity got the best of me. And I wanted to find out how the damn things worked.. So, I slowly pried one of the plastic cartridges opened. And was amazed to find that the Viewers used super-8mm clips, in a closed loop. Maybe 30 seconds worth total..
I suggested to Kevin that if we could shoot some live-action reference of each other, portraying the action we needed for our scenes.. it'd be really helpful! I already had the super-8 camera. All we needed was to build a few flimsy props & simple costumes..
Here's a rough tracing of me, from live-action. With the translated animated version of "Brute", for comparison:

Anyhoo, long-story-short.. We actually did shoot all the live-action film in a spare room at the college. And used it all for direct reference. But the time wasted on this ambitious venture, really put us behind the 8-Ball, schedule-wise. Basically, we just envisaged a grand meal that was just a little too big for our plates! But isn't that what college kids do best?.. Imagine & Dream..
While our teachers admired the scale/scope of our ideas.. There simply wasn't enough finished animation footage available to assess, for them to allow myself and Kev to graduate to 3rd Year. To our great disappointment, we both would have to repeat our 2nd Year.
Halfway thru my "repeat" year, my interest in animation was waning. I dropped out to work at a comic-book shop in Toronto. Kev continued on, and eventually graduated the program. Later on, I helped him get a job at 'Andromeda'; a comic-book distributor. Eventually, he'd return the favour and get me a Layout Test opportunity at Nelvana. Where in 1989, we both got our start in the Animation business, working on their "Beetlejuice" cartoon series!

In 1995, I began working as a Freelance artist, under my own company name. Kevin continued on at Nelvana; but would often "moonlight" doing work for the same studios I worked at. We remained good friends, though I saw him substantially less than I once did. I know he had many other friends too, as attendance at his funeral clearly attested.
Kevin was always a friendly and helpful guy. If there was a bitter side to his personality, then I never saw it. On top of that, his artwork was always top-notch and superbly executed. I've seen a lot of fellow artists "hack" out work; especially as they got older. I never saw evidence of that with Kevin. He took pride in everything he commited himself to. I will miss him, very much..

Modern Masters 15: Mark Schultz

Hiya Folks!

Another LONG hiatus from the ole Bloggy-wog.. Apologies, once more.
If you've been following Suzanne's blog,-- then you have probably already surmised the reasons for not posting so much.. One big (tiring!) word: "Renovation".
I did manage to find some time to purchase this week's 'JUSTICE LEAGUE: The New Frontier' 2-disc DVD release.. Watched it, and enjoyed listening to Darwyn Cooke's commentary on how he felt the whole "adaptation" thing went over, too.. Suzanne suggested I should definitely "do a Blog post" on it.. But I'm really not sure what to say about it yet. So I thought I'd go in another direction..
Actually, a LOT of great books have been coming out, lately.. Including last week's beautiful 'Alex Raymond' hardcover.. But I wanted to highlight the most recent Volume (15) in TwoMorrow's MODERN MASTERS series of trade paperbacks, featuring: Mark Schultz. I'm not a huge fan of the way this series chooses to showcase artwork. But the interviews, are generally very well done. And this one, is no exception..
Back in early Nineties, I was out of the Animation business for a brief spell.. Having totally burnt-out on doing their Layout work.. I chose to go on a self-imposed hiatus from Nelvana, where I'd been working.
I can't remember what I was doing instead, now.. Probably a bit of comic-book retail work at either 'Dragon Lady' or 'The Beguiling'..
But when I heard thru the Grapevine that Mark Schultz' 'XENOZOIC TALES' comic-book had been optioned as an Action/Adventure cartoon thru Nelvana.. I got my Portfolio back together & made a trip down to the studio, to see if I could possibly get some work as a Designer on it..
Luckily, Ted Bastien thought I'd work out okay.. And for my first-ever "Design", Ted assigned me the (daunting!) task of drawing up an Establishing Shot, featuring the cartoon's Main Location: "The City In The Sea".. A kind of crumbling cityscape that'd been retro-fitted with hydraulic tubing/cables & stone bridges.. Slightly over-run with fast-growing vines/prehistoric plants.. And with Pterodactyls, nesting in the upper echelons, etc.
Not having ever "designed" anything for Animation before.. I simply followed the models/templates, already established in Schultz' comic-book.. There were literally TONs of Location Designs that needed to be completed. Here's another example, of a Reverse View:

It was a pleasant surprise to see that Mark Schultz was quite involved firsthand, with the cartoon's production.. He had partnered up with 'Galaxy Films', to ensure that as much of his comic-book's appeal, would translate into the cartoon episodes.. Understandably, he had final-say on all 'Character Design' details.. And would occasionally send along Notes, that he felt would be helpful or interesting to us..
Here's a series of Sketches he fax'd us, featuring a character named: "Lashard".. I think we'd originally Designed him with some kind of metal skull-plate, 'cuz he'd had some kind of horrible disfiguring accident? And Mark Schultz wanted something a little more natural & subtle-looking, that still retained his hawk-ish appearance..
Here's another unpublished Pic he faxed us, that doesn't appear in the MODERN MASTERS book.. I guess he imagined ALL Canucks were Hockey-obsessed? I'm a Baseball man, myself!
Schultz actually came thru the Design studio, about mid-production.. I can't recall the exact date. But I remember that he brought writer Marv Wolfman, with him. As Wolfman was responsible for some of the Episode scripts, I think..
The brief meeting we had with him, was pretty anti-climactic.. He was congenial & polite. But the Nelvana producers couldn't wisk him thru our workspace, quickly enough.. Heaven forbid, an Artist should take time to talk to other Artists?!!
They were probably fearful that we'd soon get around to complaining about Budgets & Schedules, like we always do?.. hah

Ted Bastien knew that I was a big fan of Mark's work. And he used to tease me incessantly about how "my Hero was coming!".. Oh, brother! After he finally showed up,-- I found this devastating cartoon hanging over my Drawing Table:
Ted was good about trying to feature all of the members of our Design crew, into some of the episodes themselves.. I think Ted drew himself, as a Truck Driver. I remember that Kurt Lehner was a kid hanging off the back of an old Fire Engine. And for whatever reason,-- Ted thought that I'd make a perfect generic "MoleMan".. Featured in an episode where a Mining crew had to excavate below the foundation of "The City In The Sea"..

As you can see,-- Ted's got me in what he called my Rich Dannys "uniform".. Baseball turf shoes & my traditional "soup hat" with the letter 'R' on it! haha The other big bruiser almost looks like it was supposed to be fellow Designer: Leif Norheim.. But I don't think so.

The "Cadillacs & Dinosaurs" cartoon, was a memorable Job for me.. A fun project. And essentially, Nelvana's first real attempt at a genuine Action/Adventure cartoon. I think it worked out well, for a variety of reasons.. Not the least of which, was working with a realistic Budget & Schedule..
A year later, most of us began working on Nelvana's "Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S." series.. Cranking out an equal number of episodes. But, on half of the same production schedule. I think it fared badly, as a result.. Oh, well.

That's all for now.. See ya!

Nelvana monkeyshines..

My entry into the Animation business, began in '89.. I passed a test to become one of the Layout Artists on Nelvana's popular 'BEETLEJUICE' cartoon series. I continued doing Layout on crap like 'BABAR', etc. But Layout, is incredibly intensive work.. And I sooned burned-out on it.

In 1993, I heard that Nelvana might be adapting Mark Schultz' 'XENOZOIC TALES' comic-book into an animated series, entitled: "Cadillacs & Dinosaurs".. And as I'd heard that Design was a much lighter workload than Layout,-- I thought I'd apply for any positions that might still be available..
Long-story-short, I got the job.. And began working with a very small (but very talented) group of artists: Ted Bastien, Leif Norheim, Mike McKay, Kurt Lehner, Koko Maung, and Franc (Francisco) Reyes, among others..
Design, was (is) very different than Layout.. There was a lot more day-to-day kibbitzing & kvetching, than I was used to.. People had the time to throw Gag Drawings around, back-and-forth. And even though I stank at drawing them, myself.. I got quite a few, tossed in my direction. And thankfully, had the foresight to save most of them..

Ted Bastien, was our Design Supervisor.. A very talented artist, that basically showed me what Design was all about. I definitely learned a lot from him. And because our Final Artwork required very-finished linework.. I was also able to teach myself "inking", at the same time!
In hindsight, I suppose I was something of a whiner & complainer. I can get frustrated when a Production isn't running, the way I think it should. And Ted, (of course) picked up on this! Here's a couple of funny drawings that he did of me:

That's Ted, peeking around the corner.. And me, complaining about Ray (Jafelice) who was our Director on "Cads & Dinos".. I was an early fan of Dan Clowes' 'EIGHTBALL' comic-book, too. And I used to bring them into work..
Ted seemed quite taken with the David Greenberger 'Duplex Planet' 1-pagers, that appeared in that comic.. The writing of these strips, were based on the verbatim (and largely incoherent) ramblings of the Retirement Home citizenry; where Mr. Greenberger worked his Day Job.. Hence the obtuse "Run like a Goddamned Deer" comment.. heh

Another guy (who wasn't on our crew) that liked to poke fun at others, was: Dave Thomas.. Later, he turned out to be a quality Storyboard guy on shows like 'DOG CITY', etc. He always had a very dry wit & killer sense of comedic timing..
He seemed to like to draw me with a bullet Head & Body.. I guess the 1st one, was intended to be me as a "Simpsons" character? I dunno.. The color scheme makes me think so, though.

Mike McKay, was another dry wit.. Later, he would go on to be a much-in-demand Effects Designer. Which meant, a lot less Drawing for him to do. Mike is the guy that coined one of my studio nicknames: "Two Dawgs" Dannys.. All because I had the temerity to eat 2 whole hotdogs for Lunch, one afternoon?! Didn't seem like a very Big Deal, to me.. But I guess it was, to him! heh
He also also got a kick outta calling me "Dick", rather than "Rich".. Hence, the following caricature:
Ted Bastien musta liked the sound of that.. 'Cuz while we were working our way thru the "Cads & Dinos" Production schedule, he concurrently worked on his own pet project: a comic-strip, featuring different members of our studio crew.. I think that Mike McKay was a bit put-off to find out that his sole cameo in the strip, involved being portrayed as a derelict vagrant -type, that me & Ted (as the main Detective characters) ran over with our old-school Sedan? haha

The big hulking dude crashing thru the wall of Blayne's (Burnside) Variety store, is none other than Pat Rowsome.. He wasn't on our crew. And I didn't really know him, all that well. But Ted loved drawing him as a raving sociopath. And he was definitely the so-called "Villain", in his storyline..
I can recall watching a Super Bowl game at Pat's house once, with fellow friend: Rob Walton.. I dunno where Pat is, now.. I heard he got married to a girl named Sheryl.. And (I think?) may be now working in Ottawa..
Speaking of Rob Walton.. He did this killer Gag Drawing of Pat & myself, facing off against each other.. Rob liked to call it: "Clash Of The Titans", if memory serves? I found the joke a lot less funny, after Rob explained to me that I WASN'T necessarily being portrayed in Perspective, here!! heh
Even so, I think I could still give "The Pat", a run for his money..

"Clash Of The Titans" was (I believe?) inked by virtuoso artist: Goran Delic.. A Serb import to Toronto, that I didn't really get to work with fully, 'til we both began working in Design, on Jim Lee's 'WildC.A.T.S' cartoon series..
At that time (around '94, I think?), it wasn't uncommon to see me schlepping my way into work (up Atlantic Avenue), most mornings.. Wearing my usual "uniform", ably illustrated by the following Goran ink sketch:

I recall him saying: "Here you are, Reetch.. Now, you are truly a WILDcat!!" heh
Those that know me, realize that the outfit continues to be 'de rigeur'.. I still like my coffee, t-shirts, and jeans.. And though the Doctor's Bag isn't nearly as pristine as it once was.. It continues to carry all of my valued Field Guides, Layout Notes, and reams of Animation Paper.. Cintiq & Sketchbook Pro, be DAMNED!!

A little insight into some of my Nelvana Daze.. Hope you likey?
Talk to y'all laterz!