A short while ago I had the opportunity to work on the animated TV series Mutant League. I still get emails about the show and I figured I'd put up a few pages on the show and how I got involved. Working on the show was one of the best experiences of my life. A lot of amazing people brought this show to life and many fans still enjoy it today.
It's amazing how long people remember you. When I was but a lad of 19, Hamster
Vice was out and I was touring the country. My editor,
Cliff MacGillvray, is so funny, he makes me seem boring. Anyway, about 10 years
had passed since the Vice era, and I get this letter from Cliff. He says come to LA and he'll
show me how to write scripts for a new TV show he's working on called Mutant
League.
Your buddy, Hunter here, has never been stupid, folks. I had my @&# on a plane
so fast, I may as well have flapped my arms and flown there myself.
I get to California and me and Cliff start buggin' out right away, our first
stop: the famous burger place in LA called In and Out Burger. Aww, yeah, babe.
Gimme cooked animal on a bun, with onions and cheese, and call it love.
After I get all settle in, we fly to LA (Cliff lives an hour away from the
animation studio) and I meet the crew. We eat Chinese food and Mexican food
like there's gonna be no more tomorrow. I look for earthquakes, eagerly hoping
to see how it will feel. I may be smart, but kinda stupid at the same time.
The CEO of the studio (Franklin/Waterman), is not exactly thrilled with the
sample art an overseas animation house faxed over. He holds a sheet up, hot
outta the fax machine and says, "What is this crap? This isn't mutants, it's
crap!"
I literally met the man five minutes ago. I am standing right next to him to
his left. There is a pen and a stack of 8 1/2 x 11 paper to my left. Hmmmm.
What's an ambitious 20-something year old to do? I grab the pen and draw a
sketch. I slide it over casually and wait for the CEO to stop having a rage
attack.
He picks up my sketch, says "now THAT's a mutant...you're the new Art Director!"
I do not pass out somehow, because before I can react, I am working on storyboards
and sketches for episode friggin' 1 ya'll!
So, what the heck did I do on the show? Literally hundreds of
sketches: designing sets, props, vehicles, uniforms, team logos,
sneakers, buildings and who knows what else. But I wasn't alone.
I worked with some awesome artisits!!! Dean, you know who you
are, man!
So, what did I learn from this great time, living in a glass house
(oh, yeah, I stayed at the producer's house, Kevin, on the beach.
No joke, the walls were made of glass. I was born in Jersey City,
so you KNOW I wasn't feeling that at all) along the beaches of
Santa Monica...?
There's life to live out there, folks. Go get you some of it. Take
chances, live your dreams. We get to do this crazy dance called
life one time (well, I'm a vampire, so this really doesn't apply
to me...), so do the robot all day and night. You see a stack of paper and a pen, work some mojo.