Frankenstein's Cat Art Show (completed)

Well, these are the last three paintings in the series of nine Frankenstein's Cat pieces. I've actually had to go back through the others and tweak them a touch. It only occured to me while painting "Halloween" that I'd missed Nine's flies out on all the other paintings. Back I went and added them to each picture. I'll let you know when the prints of these paintings are available, if you're interested, but we're looking to hold an art show mid October at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester, where the originals, the prints, and the Biteneck Beatniks artwork will all be available for sale. Furthermore the art show will be moving to London and the Animation Art Gallery in December.

I've been a bit slack on the old blog lately as lots of work has come in all at once. In addition to trying to wrap up the art show we've been working hard on "RAH RAH", a new preschool stopmotion show that just this week was unveiled at Cartoon Forum in Ludwigsburg. Again, it's with my good chums who produced Frankenstein's Cat, Mackinnon & Saunders, and it promises to be achingly cute and ridiculously good fun for little ones all over. Roar if you're ready!

Furthermore I'm off to MIPCOM in Cannes next month to meet broadcasters and production companies about various new projects, specifically Biteneck Beatniks, which has now changed it's moniker to the more rounded and inclusive: "CHILLVILLE!"

Bada Bling!

Frankenstein's Cat Art Show (continued)

It's been a while since I posted on the blog, but real world distractions such as workloads and family fun have prevented my yakking. Recently managed to complete three more paintings from the forthcoming Frankenstein's Cat Art Show, as shown below:





Three more paintings to complete for the show, now, and am already up to my paint-smeared thumbs in each of those. I'm actively on the look-out for any galleries who might be interested in showing the Frankenstein's Cat art show, in addition to the Biteneck Beatniks. If you're interested or indeed have any recommendations of cool, groovy galleries who you reckon may be interested in this and it's worth my contacting them, please do leave the details here. I didn't realise when I embarked upon the show just how long it was going to take me - possibly this is because when I did the bulk of my Biteneck Beatniks art show I wasn't looking after the kids, but for the last 12 months or so I've had lots of daddy time with my girls, which is brilliant. The only downside is that it doesn't make painting any easier to get stuck into. Swings and roundabouts as my old history teacher Mr Bullough would say.

And talking of old teachers, I was at a booksigning in Waterstones in Ormskirk last Saturday when who should come in but TWO of my old high school teachers to surprise me, Miss Crompton and Mrs Hartley. I've now been advised that it is perfectly acceptable to refer to them as Janet and Rosemary, possibly due to the fact that having a 36 year old refer to them as "Miss" in a childrens bookshop can indeed come across as a little awkward. It was lovely to see them and a huge thrill for me - I remember each of them very well, although it appears that my photographic-memory-armed idiot savant elder brother was the one who really stuck in their minds! Cheers Mark! ;-D Thanks for coming Janet and Rosemary!

Been out and about doing lots of school visits and workshops in the last few weeks too, including a spot at the Showcomotion festival in Sheffield, which was great fun. I've been to two tremendous independent schools, Farlington nr Horsham and Giggleswick in North Yorkshire, to hold talks as well as give away prizes on their end of year awards days. Thank you SOOOO much to Joy Baggs and her staff at Farlington and Mark Brotherton and his staff at Giggleswick for making me feel so at home.


Below are the original roughs for the art show, before I got jiggy with the paints!

FILM REVIEW

And new to Badablingthing....

DIARY OF THE DEAD - a fine addition to Romero's pantheon of zombie tales. Following the POV of a team of college filmmakers who happen to have cameras on a shoot, they end up documenting the events that unfold as the zombies start to eat their way through America. Not up there with the FX budget of Land Of The Dead, but still splendid nonetheless

CLOVERFIELD - I really rather enjoyed this, and it had the same wobbly-cam effect as DIARY, what with being a "home movie" of a giant Cthulhu-esque monster romping it's way through New York. There was plenty there to give you the 9-11 tingles, plus big enjoyment when one of the characters you think is a lead gets smited early on! Bleak ending? Nonsense, for bleak endings look no further than...

THE MIST - I absolutely loved this movie, although it did bum Emma and I out with the ending. But then again, it's a horror movie, and you want a shock at the end. Doesn't come much bigger in my eyes. FX were OK but you can excuse that to a degree as the direction and acting really is top notch from an ensemble who are really on top of their game. What is it with Cthulhu-esque monsters all of a sudden?

What, they're all horror movies? And I work in kids books? Go figure...

Bada Bling!

Annecy and signings

It's that time of year when Annecy awaits the arrival of the short, ginger crayonboy. I'll be travelling out to the Animation Festival next Wednesday, in the company of Qurios Entertainment director Niel Bushnell. Got a bunch of meetings set up with various industry bods to look forward to.

I'll also be doing some signings while out there at the Bonlieu Centre - we'll have Frankenstein's Cat picture books, limited edition art prints as well as my Ron Go Bongo Biteneck Beatniks vinyls. If you're at the festival, come along to the signing at 3pm on Friday 13th (zoinks!)

I'm also going to be judging a Create Your Own Frankenstein's Pet competition with the Warrington Guardian, as part of the Year Of Reading initiative. It's open to any schoolchildren in the Borough so do contact the Guardian for more details if interested - winners will receive a visit to their school from yours truly (fools!) where I'll do some storytelling and animation screenings for everyone.

Red Stick Festival in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Here's Jackie Edwards and I picking up the Pulcinella in Salerno the other week. Note the Lobot-esque headphones that I've handily dropped around my throar like a bit of cyber-bling. Jackie, on the other hand, went for the full on John Motson commentator look, and by jove, i think she cracked it. Haven't got any snaps of the actual award yet, but once I do I'll update it onto here.

Left to right, here's Professor Stuart Sumida, Red Stick Director Stacey Simmons, Dougie Pincott, myself, and Pete "Pedro Diablo" Draper. This was on my first night getting over to Baton Rouge last week for the festival, and it was lovely to spend some quality time with a bunch of old friends. Stuart digs up dinosaur bones for a living, as well as consulting on numerous motion pictures re: anthropology, paleantology, anatomy and physical motion. He has the best job in the world. Official. But you just try bringing up Jurassic Park with him, saying "Could happen..." and watch the fur fly!
Genuinely, I hadn't really been drinking. I'd got off the plane after an extremely long flight. The same, however, can not be said for Dougie...
Graham and Badger in addition on this one - these chaps are the drivers from the Animex Festival, and such is the friendly, familiar nature of both festivals, the two were invited out by Stacey this year. Top blokes.
And the last roll call here - Cliff Cohen from Animaction, Tom Martinek from Industrial Light & Magic, the rest of us as before and on the far right a lovely lady who by all accounts appeared to be a preschool nazi. By her own admission, I might add.

I held a talk on how we brought Frankenstein's Cat to life (so to speak) at the festival, where I got to show loads of clips and early footage, topped and tailed by the finished thing. I followed this up with a character design workshop the next day which was really well attended and I hope proved useful to the participants - it's always tricky with a workshop not knowing the spread of ability within the group, but I was hugely impressed by some of the guys present. Eric and Mike and the other chaps - a pleasure to meet y'all!

And huge thankyous to Stacey and Steve Beck for getting me over once more - I missed Red Stick last year through moving home, but if they'll have me back next year we'll be sure to bring the little ones.

Bada Bling!

Frankenstein's Cat wins Pulcinella Award at Cartoons On The Bay

Just got back from a few days in Salerno, Italy, where Jackie Edwards and I have been attending Cartoons On The Bay, the international television animation awards festival. On Saturday night we were very giddy and slightly gobsmacked recipients of the Pulcinella Award for Best Childrens Show. Hopefully Jackie is able to get some pictures printed up from the camera she took, although judging by her technical wizardry on the laptop I'm not holding out too much hope ;-) If I get some pix we'll whack them up here.

Many thanks to everyone who has worked on the show and helped to make it the fun, fast paced, mad science comedy that it is.

Also managed to visit Pompei round the corner, beneath the shadow of Vesuvius, coincidentally on the day that the Doctor visited it on the Beeb. Awestruck by Pompei, the sheer size of it was breathtaking.

Off to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Wednesday to attend the Red Stick Animation Festival. Looking forward to catching up with old friends as well as holding a talk on how we got the Cat into production and onto the screen, plus a character design workshop.

Bada Bling!

Loved him to bits???

Well, the stinky feline by the name of Nine has completed his run on Childrens BBC in the UK, all 30 episodes having been screened over the last 6 weeks. We've no proper indication yet as to how well it's been received, but I've had a few indicators from the various school visits, book signings and storytelling workshops I've done over the last few months. I've had kids singing the theme tune to me who don't know me from Adam so it seems to have struck a chord. For those of you who may not have seen it yet, do check it out on the BBC iPlayer where they're all being shown.

Frankenstein's Cat has also been chosen in competition for a Pulcinella Award at this year's Cartoons On The Bay festival in Salerno, Italy. It's pretty big news for us as it's probably the biggest dedicated animation awards festival in the world. Competition is fierce but, again, it's just nice to be in the mix.

Animex Animation Festival was it's usual bout of giddy fun and fantastic talks last month. Still recovering now... Also visited Animated Exeter for the first time too, which was a wonderful experience, thanks in no small part to the team who run it down there.

I've a couple of shows that are close to being optioned currently which I'll spill in more detail once the paperwork is signed off on, but it's good news - one's a preschool property and the other is a gothic fantasy live action series for older audiences. I'm also off to Aardman next week to work on a new preschool show I've got in development with them. It's a great opportunity for me to meet up with my old producer from back in the days of Bob the Builder, Jackie Cockle, who is senior producer of preschool at the studio now.

Last bit of news is I'm going to be appearing at the Red Stick Animation Festival in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, next month, holding talks and workshops for all who turn up. If you're in the States and fancy attending the festival, do come along, there are some terrific speakers lined up!

Bada Bling!

FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT premiering Monday 4th February, CBBC, 6pm!

"FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT, FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT!"

"HE'S A MONSTER!"

"A TWIT!"

"I'M A CAT FROM A KIT!"

"AND YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE HIM TO BITS!"

Well, it's here at long last. It's been a long, long road from the first doodles and scribbles I penned on a train journey from Warrington to London Euston in 2000. Since then the Cat was picked up as a picture book by Hodder, optioned as a short film by Mackinnon & Saunders, developed into a 2D flash animated series and now finally appears on Television next week. Along the way characters have been discarded (the Butler, the Cook) and other have been added or developed (Lottie, Egora, Heidi and the Doctor). We've a large cast of colourful, and quite mad, characters populating the village of Oddsburg and it's surrounding wilderness, so I can only hope now that the show is well received by its audience (that's you, that is!)

Big thanks go to all the production teams and broadcasters who've worked on the show, at Mackinnon & Saunders, Kayenta Production, BBC, CCI, 4:21, and A Productions. Special thanks go to Jackie Edwards, Sara Mullock and Thierry Rivard (producers on the show), Alan Gilbey (head writer and script editor) and Raoul and Jane Davies (directors) for helping make such lovely animated shenanigans. And big man love to Pete (Saunders) and Ian (Mackinnon) for believing in my stinky cat in the first place and taking a big ol' punt on it. Big man love hugs to the writers - Ian Carney, Dave Ingham, Myles McLeod, Darren Jones, Lee Pressman and Joel Jessop. Suffice to say the voice artists (Joe P, Keith Wickham, Alex Kelly, Teresa Gallagher and Jimmy Hibbert, who also pitched in with a script!) have done a wonderful job of breathing life into the cast, and I owe them a drink or four...

Lordy, that sounds like an acceptance speech. I'd best go and accept a banana from the fruit bowl as that's all I'll be receiving for the forseeable!

Off on the road this coming week, appearing at Animex Festival of Animation from Wednesday through Friday. I'll be doing a character design workshop on the Wednesday and on the Friday, accompanied by Jackie Edwards, we'll be doing a talk about The Anatomy Of Frankenstein's Cat. It promises to be a hoot!

Bada Bling!

Frankenstein's Cat trailer on You Tube

You can have a wee butchers at this little teaser trailer that's been put together for the show, currently being screened on Youtube!

The show starts in the UK on CBBC in less than 3 weeks time, on February 4th, 6pm, so all systems are go!

Thanks for all the kind words on my own Frankenstein's Cat, Ernie. He's on the mend and the way he's acting you'd never known some nut job had shot him, bar the obvious missing tail of course...

On a purely geeky filmfan note I saw Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, at the weekend and loved it immensely. A worthy follow-up to the splendid Anchorman from Mr Ferrell (avoid Blades of Glory at all costs, Ferrell fans - bag of doodoo and no mistake.)

Somebody shot my cat

So, some turd shot my cat the other day.

Ernie (for that's his name) is currently at the vets, doped up to his eyeballs and awaiting surgery on Friday. He's been shot just where the tail meets the body, he's a fractured vertebrae, has lost quite a bit of blood, and is on anti-inflammatories and pain relief. On Friday they're going to be operating on him, cleaning the shrapnel out (they don't know what kind of firearm caused it yet) and then amputating his poor tail.

Yes, would happily have my hands around the throat of the sick scumbag that did this, but chances are slim. Police will be following up with an investigation, but I personally will be using the platform of Frankenstein's Cat to get a message out there to kids who can get access to firearms, be they BB guns, air rifles or bigger beasts. If it's at all possible I'm going to try and align myself with Cat and Cruelty to Animals charities to raise awareness of this kind of thing. I find it baffling that any sane-minded person could harm, injure or even kill a family's dear pet.

With Frankenstein's Cat starting transmission in February there's a chance I can direct a bit of publicity on this and highlight a very real problem.

Santa's Hapless Helpers online!

The Festive animated short that we've produced with Qurios Entertainment is now live at HD Greetings website. Call by, enjoy, and send it on to loved ones, friends and foes. It's a smaller piece of a bigger project, featuring the Helpers and their various screwy exploits. Those of you who've followed badablingthing since I first started posting will be aware of the property, and the characters in particular. The ambition is that we present this to a broadcaster as a proposal for Christmas interstitials, idents, and potentially a half hour family film.

Terrific work by all the chaps at Qurios and yet again it's been an absolute delight to work with them, long may it continue. The short is 30 seconds long so don't worry about having to endure a mammoth bum-numbing viewing. Just make sure you click on the Helpers link when you get to the site if it doesn't come up automatically.

In other announcements, I'm going to be doing a characters design workshop at the beginning of February at the ANIMEX FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION, as well as a talk with producer Jackie Edwards on how we got Frankenstein's Cat from the book to the screen. Always a pleasure to return there and catch up with Chris Williams and his gang, plus the fellow speakers. Furthermore, a week later, I'm off down to ANIMATED EXETER to hold similar workshops there. Should be a busy fun-filled month!

Bada Bling!

Hark the hairy Jobling sings!

It's that time of year again. Well, almost. Things are busy busy busy in Bling's Workshop...

RON GO BONGO TOY2R VINYL

The nice chaps @ TOY2R, creators of ubercool toy accessory QEE, are close to releasing the vinyl Biteneck Beatniks Ron Go Bongo toys. Should see them in toy and comic shops early in the new year, followed by a green and a red variant to start with.

FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT ONLINE GAME

The clever fellows @ Yamago have come up with an online game for Frankenstein's Cat, as linked here. Though simple enough at first glance, it's actually a rather good memory game that should hopefully amuse parents as well as children.

Frankenstein's Cat Game!

SIGNINGS CONTINUE

I shall be at BORDERS PRESTON doing signings this coming Saturday 8th January, and the following Saturday 15th I shall be signing at BORDERS BIRSTALL outside of Leeds off the M62. I'll be there with plenty of Frankenstein's Cat books to personalize and deface, as well as the first few episodes of the animated series so that audiences can get a sneaky peek preview of what's in store!

The pictures above are from signings in Warrington and this last week @ BORDERS CHESHIRE OAKS. Thanks to the wee ones for enduring having their photographs taken next to a pumpkin-headed author type.

Bada Bling!

R.I.P. Captain Marvel: Mike Gregory

It's been a sad few days in the Jobling household, as my first and only real childhood hero passed away on Monday. Mike Gregory was captain of Warrington Rugby League Club, and also successfully skippered the Great British Lions to two test series victories against New Zealand. A lad from Wigan (our fierce rivals) he played for "The Wire" for 12 years, my formative years on the terraces as a fan.

He suffered from a debilitating form of Motor Neurone Disease, bizarrely linked to an insect bite when he toured Down Under as coach of the Young Lions. He was only 43 and leaves behind his wife Erica and two young sons.

He was the one player that never gave anything short of 100% throughout his playing career, never took a backward step. If only we'd had 12 other Mike Gregory's playing for us we might have won some silverware in my time watching them. My strongest memories of Greg were after we'd been beaten by Wigan @ Wembley and his address outside the town hall, as he rallied the fans and stirred the spirit. The other was his legendary 80 yard try against the Aussies in the Third Test, 1988. Nothing typified sporting heroics like that man and that run. The greatest game, the greatest man.

I've shed a few tears at his passing, as have pretty much the whole of the Rugby League Family, as he touched the lives of fans from all clubs in this most fierce and tribal sport. I know you were a God fearing man, Mike, and you'll be skippering a team up there by the weekend is my bet...

Frankenstein's Cat climbs onto Nickelodeon's lap

Cat finding international homes...

It's been a good week for Nine, Lottie and the rest of the cast of Frankenstein's Cat, as Nickelodeon have picked up the show for six territories - Spain, Benelux, Southeast Asia, Australia, Latin America and Israel. Hopefully we can sort out a North American broadcaster in the very near future. Watch this space, you'll be the first to hear!

Frankenstein's Cat in competition at Bradford Animation Festival 07

"The Wall", written by Myles McLeod, will be in competition at this years festival at the end of this month. The competition looks jolly stiff so it's just nice to be considered.

Also, I'm going to be doing signings of Frankenstein's Cat and other picture book at branches of Borders in the UK between now and Christmas:

Saturday November 9th - Borders Preston
Saturday November 16th - Borders Birstall (nr Leeds)

We're also firming up an appearance at Borders Cheshire Oaks.

Bada Bling!

RESCUE ROOKIES roar into life!

PARTHENON option RESCUE ROOKIES from BADA BLING!

Parthenon Entertainment have optioned the rights to RESCUE ROOKIES from us, a preschool emergency vehicle led property for animation. With the help of uber-talented Qurios Entertainment in the UK we produced a teaser animation earlier in the year that was really well received, especially by Karina Stanford Smith and Carl Hall from Parthenon. You can find more out about Qurios directly from Niel Bushnell's Qurios Blog. Suffice to say we're all tremendously excited to be moving forward on this and have high hopes that we're going to be making a very special childrens show. It features the exploits of Bravo the Police Car, Skipper the Lifeboat, Flash the Fire Engine, Lulu the Ambulance and Birdseye the Rescue Helicopter.

Signing FRANKENSTEINS CAT in hometown

Had a very enjoyable day yesterday, Saturday, signing the newly re-released edition of FRANKENSTEINS CAT in Borders. We shifted close to 80 copies as well as selling out of CHEEKY MONKEY and MY DADDY too. I was also able to show the freshly completed episodes of the TV show which had children and adults alike stopping by to cop an eyefull! Roll on the UK transmission date of January on BBC1 and CBBC. The shows world premiere is just round the corner on France 3, this coming Halloween!

Marvellous MIPCOM

Returned from my trip to MIPCOM in Cannes yesterday and feel both knackered and also tremendously invigorated. I got to meet with broadcasters, production companies and distributors to talk about the new show, BITENECK BEATNIKS, as well as pitch my even newer ones too. Having attended Kidscreen Summit in New York and Annecy in France this was another beast altogether. There were literally hundreds of organisations there, all pitching new shows/properties or searching for them as well.

Meeting with Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, RDF Media, TV Loonland, Teletoon, Cookie Jar etc all left me with a toasty feeling inside and I've come away with confidence high. It's now, I hear, that one has to have the real energy, as initial interest is followed up.

Anyone interested in getting a show off the ground, I heartily recommend going. There's no better trade fair from what I can tell. I'd put some pictures of the place on here if I'd only taken a camera! :-)

Bada Bling

Work in progress

This trio of doodlings are the latest in the FRANKENSTEINS CAT art show series. Obviously we're a way off completion yet but, as with the previous three, I'll try and scan them as I go along to show their development. Am currently undecided about the title on "FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH PART NINE". Quick straw poll from you lovely people if you have an opinion on this - what would look best?

FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH or FRIDAY 13TH? I tried it with roman numerals already and that in itself was distracting. The "13TH" would certainly free things up from looking cramped, but the "THIRTEENTH" ties things in with the NINE below. Sorry if I'm babbling - opinions?

Off to MIPCOM this coming weekend. If anyone will be over in Cannes at said market do let me know and give me a shout and we'll be sure to hook up for a mocha chocca latte ya ya!

Bada Bling!

Biteneck Beatniks on You Tube

HERE!!!

I know a few people had difficulty downloading it from Sardine's website, so try this link to youtube instead, should be available for viewing there.

Frankenstein's Cat art show is effectively 1/3 complete! Below are the first three paintings, still moist with paint I can assure you. These three will be reproduced as art cards to take out to MIPCOM in a couple of weeks, freebies to give away to broadcasters, distributors, production companies, suggestible bartenders and the like. Thereon in I'll hopefully be able to take a bunch of them with me to book signings and the like.

As soon as the 9th painting is complete I'll be able to list pricings for both the original paintings as well as the limited edition giclee prints. Enquiries are, as ever, jolly welcome :-)

Bada Bling!

Biteneck Beatniks teaser trailer ONLINE!!!

HERE!!!!!!

As I believe I've mentioned recently (just a bit) I've been working on the teaser trailer for the BITENECK BEATNIKS animated series. Sardine Productions in Canada are the prod company and while I've been taking care of the characters Ian Culbard has been designing the backgrounds. The end result looks very groovy and we're tremendously pleased with it - we just need to see how things go next month at MIPCOM in Cannes now. As you can see the teaser is now up and running so do take a look.

Thanks to Nik's pestering in my last post, here's some of the work in progress on the FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT art show. This is the way I work, starting with the darker colours that make up backgrounds and then building lighter. Also, you can probably see I start at the rear of the image and work forward through every component through to the foreground. More often than not this means that the characters are the last things that get illustrated, but by that stage it's usually quite exciting for me to see the painting finally come together.




Ahead of MIPCOM we're looking to get some postcards done of these first 3 paintings to promote the show, as well as possibly feature the originals at a CCI cocktail party. Either way I'll be making sure I get a bunch of the cards myself for future promo ops, and certainly to bring along to signings.

Bada Bling!