Random Updates And Stuff!

Well, hello, again! It's been a while, but making a lot of progress... Finally finished up the café scene about a month back after working on it on and off for about five months... We also had the fortune of getting some cameo appearances from Michigan music favourites Jen Sygit and Sam Corbin, who play "themselves"...



And some guest artwork from Lanie McCarry for the "geisha" scene...



So anyway, it's still a ways off, but it's getting closer by the day... Soon you'll be able to meet Ibbie & Ipsa, denizens of the Ecuador Café, whose dialogue I traveled all the way to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to record!



And you'll get to learn all about the mating habits of exotic Ecuadorian birds...



And then there's this guy...



All this and more, soon, dear friends, soon... Until next time, here's Janey with her tearful farewell...

Teaser Trailer #2!

Mystery! Intrigue! Et Cetera!



A regular update to follow soon...

A Swingin' Time At The Ecuador Café

Wow, long time away from the blog! Ah, well, that can only mean one thing... Getting lots of work done on the cartoon, and in the end isn't that better than blogging? But I figured I owed an update to you, the loyal fan(s?)...

It's been slow going, but chugging along. Picked up a guest animator for one scene, recorded some cameo voice appearances, and also filmed a partially live action opening segment with Holly, complete with black hair...



But mostly been working on a fairly crowded café scene lately, which is taking longer than expected... But it does include the return of The Pawns of Love, briefly featured in our previous cartoon Samson & Delilah, as the house band, who have apparently added to their line-up two singing flappers. (Both voiced by Jenny.)



And for those old school Some Town fans, look close at the poster in the background and you'll discover Frat Dad's side career as a bullfighter...



Anyway, I guess that's it for now, gotta get back to work. I'll leave you with Grim, Juan, and the Eclipse...

Punchin' The Clock

It's been on Facebook for about a couple weeks now, but here's the "Punchin' The Clock" sequence from the film... (Although you might have to be my "friend" to view it, still not sure how this works...)


Took a break for most of the week between Christmas and New Years, but now back at it, working diligently and such... Here's a few screenshots from the scene I just finished of the Limbo Depot...

I wanted the train station to be much more crowded, but golly, it's annoying drawing tiny people over and over. Maybe I'll pull a George Lucas and go back in twenty-five years and add a bunch more digitally. Maybe throw some Ewoks in there as well...

And although it's not exactly related to the cartoon, the first four albums by The Vermeers are now available online at this lovely website. If you like what you hear, you can download tracks for low, low prices. (Well, I suppose you could still do that even if you don't like what you hear, but why would you wanna do that?!)

Anyway, hope everyone had a good holiday season. Here's to 2011---The Year Of The Cartoon!

Tourism In The Afterlife

Grim's just like anybody else, her job's just a little more interesting. (Although admittedly, not to her.) However, she does tend to prefer Earth as her vacation destination...


(background painted by Melissa Grosberg)

Sorry I haven't updated like I should, but I suppose you'd agree that it's better that I spend the majority of my creative time actually working on the film rather than blogging about it. Soon I'll post the credits and soundtrack list, et cetera, which includes some surprise special guests.



The drawing pile as of last Tuesday. It has since grown an inch or so...

The Epic Origin Story!

Howdy, friends! Welcome to the first production blog for Even Death Gets Lonely Sometimes. I hope you'll find this blog informative or entertaining or at the very least not boring and horrible. (Maybe just boring, or just horrible, but hopefully not both.)

So what is Even Death Gets Lonely Sometimes? Read on, dear reader...

The first discussion about this particular project was during a set break at a Pinky Lee show at The Noggin Room in early September 2008. I discussed two ideas for concept albums with Holly. The first was a medical rock opera called Take The Bandages Off. The second seemed to pique her interest a little more, especially when I told her who I wanted to play the titular role. The story of the Grim Reaper, as a woman, gets a vacation every thousand years. However, on this particular vacation, she falls in love. Tentatively called Death Takes A Lover for a brief time, we began discussing what would eventually become Even Death Gets Lonely Sometimes that week, deciding to split up songwriting duties. In no time, she wrote Grim's Vacation.



It was then that I knew we were on to something. I hurriedly wrote Limbo (1,000 Miles) and the race was on. Our first collaboration was The Decision...



On October 12, in the midst of production of Samson & Delilah, our previous album/film, we recorded the full band version of Grim's Vacation with The Vermeers. Several months would pass before we would write more, due to Samson & Delilah taking up most of my creative time, but throughout 2009, we would write whenever we could. October/November of 2009 proved to be a productive time period, with recording sessions being resumed and most of the songs getting laid down on wax. (Or whatever the colloquial term might be.)

We continued to record and write, and eventually in June of this year, like Samson & Delilah before it, I decided to convert the project from a concept album into an animated feature. (Hence this production blog!) The summer was fairly busy with live performances and other things, so I worked on it whenever I could find some free time, which wasn't super often, but luckily, as it always goes in Northern Michigan, everything shuts down after Labor Day, so it was then that I was really able to start getting into it.

So that brings us about to where we are now. I'll get into who did what and who's all involved in this project and plenty of screen shots and other goodies as these blogs go on, but for now, here's the first sneak preview:



Well, that's it for now! I'll probably be back with an update about once a week, so stay tuned!