The Only Physical Proof I Have That Proves My Birth Father Actually Existed...

END TIMES is...

END TIMES is:

·       Conceiving

·       Designing

·       Outlining

·       Thumbing

·       Scripting

·       Drawing and Fleshing out

·       Paneling

·       Paging

·       Pencilling

·       Inking

·       Compositing

·       Binding

·       Self-Publishing

·       Promoting (online, with press statements, twitter, press releases, news articles, adwords, and social media)

·       Selling

·       Profiting

·       Living and Starting All Over Again

Screenwriting - Comparison. American Animation Screenwriters vs. Japanese Anime Screenwriters

Pros and Cons

JAPAN:

Pro: In anime you're guaranteed a beautiful finished product.

Con: As a screenwriter, your creativity and imagination is limited, For in the words of Thomas Romain himself, as far as writing goes,

"putting the story in images is the work of the director, not the screenwriter. Japanese scripts are very light on description, only dialogue. You're not writing a novel. A script is a guideline for the director."

There you go. Literary description by screenwriters only exists in the good old US of A. What I write is a new American tradition. Description-Heavy, Novel-Like Scripts. Because the Japanese and French-Japanese do not bother. All the better reason to CONTINUE writing script WITH heavy description.

AMERICA:

Pro: You can write as much description and be as novelistic as you want, according to Jeffrey Scott, teacher of animation writing in the chapter of his book How to Write For Animation, about description.

Con: A lot of American Animation Looks overtly simple and not complex enough to match the literature of the script most of the time.

Con: Most American scripts don't use much description either, they cover the action and motion through storyboards and don't leave a lot of it up to the writers. Leave description to the novelists, right?

Want to find me online? Google It.

·       J.M. Matthews

·       Art: Manifested - The Art of J.M. Matthews

·       END TIMES by J.M. Matthews

·       StreamWave Media

·       ActionToonTV

Google the above phrases to find me and my work online.

Whereabouts Unknown: Prelim and Pre-Production Notebook List

Lined Notebooks

• Novel, Fiction and Raw Story Folder
• App and Business Plan Notebook
• Co-Pro(duction) Notebook
• Script and Screenplays Notebook

Black, Hardcover Pre-Binded Notebooks

• Sketchbook & Illustration Notebook
• Comics and Thumb Layout Book

Please Note, Regarding the matter of the ActionToonTV Trinity Blood marathon premiere.

Probably going to have to push back the Trinity Blood ActionToonTV.com premiere until July at some point. Not sure if I'll make a more official press tweet on the ActionToonTwitter account (@ActionToonTV)

The Joys of Turning 30 as an Artist-Writer

I'm a manga-ka, and To be honest, I don't feel like I like or trust young manga and anime fans. My so called peers who are half my age. They're too young to know any better too young to realize the ignorance of the statements they make about American culture online, and too young to have any actual life experience.

Interview: Anime Insights: Advice I got on Screenwriting and Anime, from Correspondence with Thomas Romain....

The story: I ended up corresponding with Thomas Romain (Basquash!, Code Lyoko, Oban Star-Racers) through email, online, from his home in Tokyo, Japan right around the Satellite studio, where he's worked on his most recent projects, Space Dandy and and Nobunaga The Fool, with the likes of Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) and Shoji Kawamori (Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell, Aquarion)

I decided to be generous and share his advice and wisdom he wrote for me, with a large public

Here's what Thomas (the Eurasian co-production anime Master had to say to me about my script he briefly looked at, and he bigger picture of anime employment in general, which I wrote. It's the first script I've ever written for theatrical or television release.

Hi Joseph,

 

I actually am quite busy because I'm flying to Paris with Kawamori. I don't know if you heard about Japan expo but it is the largest anime convention in Europe. I have a lot of things ot prepare before leaving Japan.

 

I got your script.

I opened it but didn't read it yet.

 

Thank you for all your questions too. It could take a while to answer to it properly.

Let's say I consider myself very lucky. Savin had hard times but for me it was very easy. But you know, more than a creator/ writer/ director, I'm a designer. I draw every day and more than writing (which I do not and I'm not interested in so much) I communicate my ideas by drawings. Most of the time I put myself under directors who order me designs. And only on rare occasions I had the opportunity to act more as a creator. Like on Oban or Basquash. But even then it was about creating a visual world. That's why I'm not the best person to give his opinion or advice about writing. Moreover, I'm not fluent in english and I cannot express myself with all the possible nuances.

 

But there is some advice I can give you at this point.

First, before the script, you need a document which explains what your project is. Concept, universe, main characters, target...

Then, if people are interested, you'll send them a script next . You should do that with your project too. Because it takes time to read it and people won't do that at first. You need to appeal them with a light project pitch.

Secondly, just by watching at your doc, I had the feeling that it had too much descriptions. Putting the story in images is the work of the director, not the script writer. So stick to the dialogue, the emotions of the characters and don't write large blocks of description of the action.

Japanese scripts are very lights, no descriptions, almost only dialogues. You're not writing a novel. A script is a guideline for the director.

On the contrary, you need some descriptions for the project pitch. How is the universe, what do the characters look like? etc...

 

And, about working with japanese. There is 3 possibilities. All are very difficult.

 

First option : because famous in your own country. Japanese will then be interested in working with big names....Not easy!

 

Second one, bring money on the table (not necessarely yours of course, but money you got from investors you managed to convince).  

 

Last one : become japanese... in a kind of way. Speaking japanese is the first thing. It is impossible to work with them without that. And that's a way of showing your motivation and gaining their trust.

 

Savin choose the second option (outside producer), I choose the third (inside staff member).

 

I strongly recommand you to make american young writer friends and get experience from them. Go see the studios. Ask them how they work. Integrate the system. If you manage to evolve to a professionnal level, japanese may open their doors to at least some discussion. You need to go step by step, learn the job, get experience. I won't be able to help you a lot at this point

 

Best regards

 

Thomas

Gestures - And the Liability of Perception Thereto

I've done a LOT of GESTURES. To be honest, and here's what I think.

I've drawn a lot of ink gesture drawings in my sketchbooks. So many as a matter of fact to the point of an alarmingly large amount of people thinking that's all I'm capable of.

To be honest, I don't know if I'm cool with that, with people thinking I'm a worse artist than I am....

All I know is Eastern, or Asian, artists seem terrified of publishing gesture drawings, because they all want to be seen as some kind of perfect, idealized thing.

You draw gestures to mold the form in your mind. Not to mold the form on the page. That's what polish is for.

I remember my initial goals upon being asked, do I wanted to be "The Next Todd McFarlane" (complex, hyperdetailed art) or do I want to be "The Next Jeff Smith" (cartoonishly simple and graphic), in a flash insight, my instinctive answer is BOTH.

That's kind of what French art and Bande Dessinee is and always has been, From Moebius and Otomo to the present day Bande Dessinee scene. A mixture, integration, synthesis, and combination of the Simple design elements or primal and iconic, and the hyperdetailed, dense, and complex layering.

The fact that so many people just assume you can't and never will achieve both is quite discouraging. But if I'm going by my own standard, I am exactly the kind of artist I want to be, wedding simple and iconic, to complex and dense with small textural fillings and details.

The Finished Product of that style, MY STYLE, is  being defined currently, hourly, on a daily basis. Some detail fans don't like simple, and some simple fans don't like detail. To me this rivalry is unneeded, and unnecessary. At one point in the past, I lost touch with this voice upon encountering critics of my style, continually telling me I had to do it "one way OR the other". I don't HAVE TO DO anything.

There's the "Tyranny of the Or" again!

Simple "or" detailed in competing artists and fans eyes. Not simple AND detailed.

The War of Art

Simplicity vs. Complexity

I don't like how the art world has been divided into two rival war camps: Simple and Hyperdetail.

It's all a bit of bullshit. Complex artists can do simple art, and simple artists can do complex art.

I do both. I always have, but I've never understood the animosity and rivalry between the two "parties": until just recently. Especially in the eyes of the anime community and young manga artists and Asian artists in general. That arrogant attitude that proclaims "If it's simple, it's shit". Not true. And now that I've got this figured, I can manipulate its power. Analyze it and exploit it to enhance my stylistic diversity and range. In my sketchbook, the two opposites are evenly matched, but in my comic book pages, it's all overtly and unintentionally simple most of the time. I've got to find a way to even the odds.

The truth is, EVERY piece or sketch is a step forward in my career, regardless of how good or  bad it looks in the beginning. Drawings can be redrawn. And polished, and inked, and revised.

The truth is, I used to draw quite simple, until around middle and high school when I noticed occasional hyperdetailing occur. And suddenly, when people realized  I COULD "do detail", they refused to accept any less from me. While I could understand their motivation and desire for wanting such a thing, I wasn't sure if that was such a good idea. The whole throwing out the baby (or simple art) with the bathwater (revisions and art editing). You can't just pick and choose your style or the quality of art. Art is mystical. Your art chooses you. It's closer to an magic Ouija board than an actual precise technological machine. You never entirely know what the finished product will be until you see it, unlike manufacturing in a factory, where you can know exactly what you'll end up with. My point is, an artist like myself who can do complex AND simple art magic can't and shouldn't abandon simplicity and simple work just because he like complex  best.

Lounge-ing time. A very important part of the Male-Female Relationship Dynamic

Amanda, Nicole. These women stand out from the rest because I actually got to hang out with them, at their place. Just lounging in their den, their apartments. That's how you know you get to share a bond with a girl is when they give you "hang out time". Just lounging about in their apartment(s).

The Colonel

The Colonel

I'm actually very happy with how this one turned out. Not in an "arrogant way" whatever that means to some, but in a "this encourages me to continue exploring my art on paper way". I'm pretty busy this month (June) and June is almost up so I don't know how many more art illustrations I'll finish, if any as I have become pretty busy with other forms of work that aren't straight up drawing and sketching with a pen and pencils. But you'll probably see more art scans from me in July....So keep your eyes pealed for more art, just in case the inspiration does continue.

Do I still Got it?

Yep! Still Got It!

Which one do you want to have, J.M.? ACTUAL ARTISTIC TALENT, or hard work, dozens of pages completed on your project (page and production design layouts)? YOU MUST CHOOSE! NOW!!!

Seriously though. Hi, I am JM. Who are you?

But anyway, new public service anouncement!

I launched my own apps and an online radio station over at groove shark (Spindack's Megalomelody). 

Twitter and Adult Swim Message Board account and Tumblr account (http://jm-matthews.tumblr.com/) are pretty active currently, as is ActionToonTV, the online network I founded.

Hmm. What else is now and new? 

Oh yes! Best part of all.

Have resumed work on End Times. I've started fleshing out the backgrounds of what is nearly every scene of the Pilot Volume Episode First Chapter, based on the 22-page pilot script I wrote but was never able to get represented by an agent over in L.A. which I turned around to use as fuel for my comics page pacing layouts and thumbs. 

Other than that I'm working with a team of developers I hired on a bunch of apps for Google Play with my newly founded App Development Tech Company, StreamWave Media Developers. Once the status of that last one solidifies I'll be more clear on it, but you no how I operate...:

Nothing CERTAIN or MANIFESTED. Nothing ANNOUNCED or PUBLISHED.

Cheers,

JM

Currently Broadcasting Me Internet Radio Station, Megalomelody. I love music!

LINK

YOUR FAULT!!! WHOA! BRUTAL!!

Apps n' Books: Stats...

I'm making a lot of progress with my work.

So far, my books, Art Manifested and END TIMES: One shot, have sold around 77 copies.

And my apps have been downloaded over 450 times.

I'm actually successful now on a small level. Feels good.

See, this isn't a "Gosh golly see how many more friends than you I can make online!" poser contest like it is for some people out there online. It's just business. Business I often don't charge any money for....I find I often won't charge people anything for my product (this is the internet where such a thing is possible after all), and I still manage to do pretty well.

All Color WITH the Black

Here's some oldies but goodies, from my hyper realistic phase, the life drawing phase of my life, which happened around 2000-2001

All were done in a life drawing class

Man of the Coth - Fashion Wizard

G8 Cartoonists Summit: List Time: The Most Famous Cartoonists Ever

The Most Famous Cartoonists in the World
That's a Lot!

[warning: this list will probably be amended, to add forgotten names]

·       Walt Disney

·       Windsor McCay

·       John Lasseter

·       Moebius

·       Osamu Tezuka

·       Katsuhiro Otomo

·       Bill Watterson

·       Tim Burton

·       Todd McFarlane

·       Jhonen Vasquez

·       Hayao Miyazaki

·       Yoshitoshi ABe

·       Jeff Smith

·       Dave Sim

·       Scott McCloud

·       Chuck Jones

·       Butch Hartman

·       Lauryn Faust

·       Genndy Tartakovsky

·       Craig McCracken

·       Bill Plympton

·       LeSean Thomas

·       Aaron McGruder

·       Bryan Konietzko

·       Michael Dante Dimartino

·       Eric Fogel

·       Danny Antonucci

·       Matt Groening

·       Akira Toriyama

·       Eichiro Oda

·       Musashi Kishimoto

·       Satoshi Tajiri

·       Charles M Schulz

·       Rintaro

·       Peter Chung

·       CLAMP

·       Seth McFarlane

·       Trey Parker

·       Matt Stone

·       Alex Toth

·       Yoshiyuki Tomino

·       Yoshiyuki Sadamoto

·       Hiroaki Samura

·       Paul Pope

·       Ralph Bakshi

·       Chynna Major

·       Mike Mignola

·       Bruce Timm

·       Frank Cho

·       Richard Scary

·       John Buscema

·       Jim Mahfood

·       Kris Prynoski

·       Rob Schrab

·       Evan Dorkin

·       Brendan Small

·       Masamune Shirow

·       Friz Freleng

·       Kosuke Fujishima

·       Ted Naifeh

·       Will Eisner

·       Herge

·       Enki Bilal

·       Stan Sakai

·       Ben Edlund

·       Steve Purcell

·       Kevin Eastman

·       Peter Laird

·       Robert Crumb

·       Jim Davis

·       Mike Judge

·       JK Rowling

·       Jim Lee

·       Joe Mad

·       Tex Avery

·       John K

·       Joe Hannah

·       William Barbera

·       Shinichiro Watanabe

·       Leiji Matsumoto

·       Rankin / Bass

·       Thomas Romain

·       Dr. Seuss

·       Gary Larson

·       Ralph Steadman

·       Hiromu Arakawa

·       Naoki Urasawa

·       Alejandro Jodorowsky

·       Glen Keane

·       Man of Action

·       Fung Chin Pang

·       Min Woo Hyung

·       FSc

·       Mamoru Oshii

·       Kasuya Minekura

·       Hiroyuki Imaishi

·       Corey Jackson

·       Henry Darger

·        Alex Grey

·        Edward Gorey

·        Maurice Sendak

I've only written beginnings to my novels so far. But this is one of my all time favorite pieces of Narration and World Building

END TIMES

New Earth

History of The Apocalypse

It is the Year 3007, Earth has just entered Third Millennium, when the End Times War breaks out, ravaging the landscape and society nearly as savagely as The First and Second Earth Wars.

A figure of terror and evil emerges in the New-Earth Era. A Nameless Warlord referred to by the government and media as simply “Nosferatu”. Nosferatu becomes the leader of a cultist, Satanic, and terrorist uprising in the New-Earth Era, leaving death, suffering, destruction, and cultural devastation in his wake, where he is strongly suspected to be the Antichrist Figure foretold, written, and read about in ancient international prophecy.

Post-3007, an eventual military and government in numerous countries are established in the wake of the destroyed (Earth 1) Allied World Nations Foundation. The Allied World Nations Foundation II is responsible for the enormous task of assisting the New Earth Builders Society in the transition from Post-Earth-1 to New-Earth.

In the Wake of Earth Wars I and II, and in the Rise of the End Times War, paramilitary United Forces Task Force is established to maintain Law and Justice on New-Earth. The main reason for the Paramilitary Espionage-and-Defense Task Force: It’s name: Shadow Op Seven. Its task is to Defend New-Earth against the threat of a supernatural organized terrorist organization that refers to itself simply as The Fallen, led by the Man With Many Names known to both The Fallen and Shadow Operative 7, as Nosferatu.

Shadow Operative Seven recruits a mysterious and powerful warrior, believed by ancient prophecy and the New-Earth government to be a Divine Warrior who will bring Light to the World one day. His government name: Mono Jubei. He wields numerous weapons, and wears a government uniform that takes the form of a mystical coat. He is believed to be the only warrior powerful enough to stand up to and destroy Nosferatu

Jay's TV Expose, Coming Soon...

Brian Johnston, Viacom, and MSNBC's “To Catch a Predator”, Chris Hanson, Fox News, and the use of American Mainstream Television Programming, (internet) Message Boards, Art Communities online, Blogs, Chatrooms used as a “Political Propaganda Weapon” against the general public by modern day witch hunter neo-Nazi conservatives. Similar to how the Nazis utilized film propaganda in World War II during the 40s. 

END TIMES: COMICS: PRE-PRODUCTION MAKE UP TIME

After a rumor of a hiatus that turn out to be true, I'm hitting the blank pages again.

And END TIMES COMICS pre-production work is actually catching back up to speed, now that there are fewer noisy distraction in my life. Things are less chaotic and unpredictable in my life now,

As a  result the work is going more smoothly.

For instance, instead of finishing only 1 or 2 layout pages, I finished 14 story-respecting layout pages in one day, to be redrawn and revised probably pretty soon.

My emphasis is on narrative and storytelling more than art currently, now more than ever.

Facts, for the FANS that you might not know...

2 years ago in 2012, I worked on and finished the 1st-3rd drafts of a pilot script adaptation for END TIMES, that I wrote entirely  by myself. I contacted L.A. Agencies and never heard  back, so as far as I know the distribution, publishing, and adaptation license and rights to END TIMES are still owned by and belong to me.

I used that pilot script as the basis for the current comic book storyline I am illustrating and adapting to the page (comics page layouts) FROM the page (script/screenplay).

I'm also planning out entire pages at a time with lots of simple roughs as a guide, instead of trying to be all "fancy" and flesh out each individual panel, on the SPOT, which is what I've done with my comic books I've produced up till this time and method. It's ALL about the storytelling and narrative. If you only do 1 panel at a time and not a layout for the whole page, it's more difficult to know where your story is going. Layouts and outlines function as a safety net to keep the manga author on track, and not get lost in the pre-production process too much. SIMILAR to storyboards, but with more overall panels and varying panel sizes...

i am about as far from retiring, quitting, or "giving up" on END TIMES as one author can get...

'Tis pretty ironic to think how lacking my page layout construction strategy was when I first started drawing comics. I constructed my old comics one random panel at a time, which might explain why my early comics look flung together. They kind of were! haha ha.

But now I'm applying strategy and construction to my pages. No panel, or line of narration, dialogue, or page layout proportion is going un-analyzed and unplanned before I commit to it. And once all that is decided....I'm  tending to spend more time on the actual panel illustration process, and more time referring back to my dialogue, action, and scene outline/description in my script. Trying to 1 comic book page without planning and scripting of at least 1 sort or more is a lot like trying to drive on a surface where there's no cement to drive on, because it hasn't been BUILT yet. Not the easiest of methods. But now that I'm aware of it, it's gotten quite a bit less tedious. Everything kind of falls into place with organization and planning.

A comic book first draft needs layouts, thumbs, and thumb layouts for panels and entire pages for the same reason a good script and novel need good scene structure and preliminary outlines. It's just easier and more likely to be finished in a professional manner that way.  

-fin.