And Now, a Glimpse of My Lesser Known Career and Media Half, My Job As a Screenwriter

Here's an excerpt from one of the scripts I'm working on for my Animation Work on Parallax, the End Times Adaptation. This is what people in L.A. call a spec script. Here's a sample....

I've written about 22 pages of this script or so, so far, enough for 1 episode. I'm quite thrilled with how the first draft ended up. I find my screenwriting tends to linger on a lot of humorless drama like The X-Files or the Sopranos, but also packs in a lot of violence and pitch black darkness. More than should probably be for a commercial animated series. But then again, that's kind of the reason I love my animation screenwriting style. It's unusual for an American animation writer. I'm not interested in writing what traditionally works, comedy, slapstick, and other lighthearted merriment. Tom and Jerry or whatever. I write every animation script as though I were David Freakin' Chase himself....

CREATOR'S NOTES: Why I'm showing off script pages for an un-produced show, bottom line:

You see, I got an AMAZING book from my parents this Christmas. I spent the whole day looking at it today, like at least 5-7 hours just reading the creator comments on his artwork. The Art of Todd McFarlane, which is topping the Amazon Manga Bestseller list. I can see why quite easily. It's one of the most worthwhile book purchases I've attained in recent memory. That book is fucking AMAZING! I always liked Todd McFarlane. Now that I've seen the progression of his career in retrospect in artbook hardcover form, I like the guy, and his art and writing even more. Truly a class act of comics. Unlike some comics artists, McFarlane is a very prolific designer, artist, cartoonist, and illustrator. Then I finally got to one of the final sections of the book, the one where McFarlane explores his prestigious animation career as an anime-influenced pioneer. People think I'm copying Bleach, Ichigo, or whatever. EEEHHHH!!!! You are incorrect sir. I don't read Bleach pretty much EVER. Todd McFarlane is the main guy I borrowed a lot of my style from. Spawn and his animation work with DC Animation veteran Eric Radomski on HBO primarily. Everything from silhouettes to glowing ghost eyes, to cloaks and cityscapes. Browsing through that wonderfully enlightening book The Art of Todd McFarlane offered many insights into not only how McFarlane draws and thinks, but like any good artist biography, analyzes, from the artist's own perspective, What makes a McFarlane TICK exactly. He is a fascinating icon of a man, and I'm proud to call myself a diehard fan. I have been ever since the 90s. There's a lot of interesting material from his formative years. Anyway, back to my point. In Spawn for HBO, when they write about the HBO series, they chose to omit the artwork from the first series, and instead showcase work from the as yet unanimated and unreleased, but seemingly still very beatiful to look at second animated series that's going to be on TV sometime in the future, and I said to myself, well damn. If McFarlane's showcasing his own very valuable upcoming but unfinished project in mid production process, he's the innovator, and artistic role model, not me, so I said to myself, why not. So I decided I guess it IS okay to showcase your project online or in print even if it's not released yet or complete. Granted, I've been showcasing Parallax and End Times for years now online, with lots of writing and artwork, but that's the first time I've seen an established MODERN TV ANIMATION AUTEUR show his work, which means we probably WILL see Spawn: The Animation on TV at some point. Exciting, very exciting.