"Moanday's Child..." - Halloween 2015

A little something I drew for Halloween this year =)

Happy Halloween 2014

What with there being pre-school shows based around skeletons or adorable 'Little Ghosts', something similar along the lines of this might not seem too out of the ordinary... ;)

Hope everyone has had a safe and fun Halloween!

Ruby Gloom

Ruby Gloom started out as a franchise by American company Mighty Fine, who delivered a stationary line of pencil cases, key-chains and posters with the titular character as its "mascot". Despite its suggested "goth" theme, Ruby sounds a little more upbeat, having been described as "The Happiest Girl In The World" in merchandise bios - and when an animated adaptation was produced by Nelvana in 2006, it became more so.

Usually, cartoons based on franchises can go either way. Sometimes good, or sometimes very, VERY bad...but for Ruby, what they did with the uniqueness of the concept made for some very pleasant viewing.

As one may guess from the designs and settings, a lot of the characters are based on the familiar line-up of monsters we've all seen before - skeletons, ghosts, Frankenstein's Monster, cyclops - as well as animals associated with the same theme like ravens / crows, bats and black cats. However, the characters are anything but monstrous; they each have their own individual quirks and foibles that make them stand out and which they happily play off one another. They're more "human" than "monster" in short, and viewers will find little aspects of each that they could relate to in themselves. Case in point with Skull Boy, whose purpose to discover who he is/was puts an intriguing twist on self-discovery.

The show itself is anything but scary - it's definitely "cute" with a layer of light-hearted darkness somewhere in-between. It may obviously not be everyone's favourite, but having watched its entire run from beginning to end, I found myself taking a fancy to it over time. Beautifully animated, well-written and with a cast of characters who don't outstay their welcome.

Judging each performance also, the voice actors clearly had fun playing their respective roles. Amongst the cast involved, Sarah Gadon makes Ruby ever so innocent and cheerful, Scott McCord nails Skull Boy's awkward but friendly nature, Adrian Truss makes Poe the Raven a perfect theatrical ham, but it's Emily Hampshire who shines through as the unlucky and melancholic Misery...who has a surprisingly cool singing voice when asleep.

Handfuls of DVDs have been scattered across the globe since Ruby Gloom first aired - Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Australia - but I'm sure it'll be a while yet before fans are able to find a complete DVD box set.

Now feel free to contradict me here but I think, in my opinion, that this series would have appealed to both boys and girls - girls would like the "cuteness" of the characters while the boys would find the monster theme "orsum". Or perhaps they would be more drawn to Frank and Len's rock-and-roll performances throughout most of the episodes. It just has this strange sort of balance that would draw both genres together without making anyone in the show appear inferior, clichéd or pushed aside regardless of gender or character. Each are given their own time in the spotlight, which is great for this sizeable cast.

Whether it was Nelvana's intention or not from the business side of things - by encouraging Mighty Fine's merchandise to the forefront next to DVD sales - it's still a nice example that not all shows with a female lead automatically makes it "girly". Least we forget, Kim Possible and the Powerpuff Girls also buck the trend there...!

SEASON 1 PLAYLIST

Visit the official Ruby Gloom website!

October Works 2013

Halloween is a-coming once more...

Mike Pearse - A Nightmare on Bash Street!

Just in time for Halloween, here's one of Mike Pearse's "extra l-o-n-g" stories from 2000, featuring the Bash Street Kids.

With no disregard at all for David Sutherland's long-standing career, what I love about Mike's Bash St. comics is how he injects more character to the kids - Spotty became a loud-mouthed practical joker, Sidney a cocky wannabe, and even Plug displays intelligence amongst his ghastly features. All different and perfect for character interactions to play from.

In fact, considering how many extended stories Mike has penned for the Bash Street Kids, I wouldn't be surprised if these were considered his favourites to work with, next to The Three Bears!

The Muppets - "Once A Year Day"

Halloween comes but once a year - the Vile Bunch know how to celebrate their special day as only they know how in true Muppet fashion!

Getting Grizzly (Again)

Never mind preparing for Christmas - October is Halloween Season!

So in the run-up for October 31st, here's a few episodes of Honeycomb Animation's famous Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids series - featuring Revenge of the Bogeyman, winner of the Children's Choice Award, 2004!

Don't forget to Bookmark the Grizzly Tales Blog for news on the latest animated series on Nicktoons, as well as a chance to buy and download audiobooks of Jamie Rix's first four books!

Happy Halloweenie Ev'rybody!

OK, so it's been a while since I last posted - trust RL to get in the way of process yet again XP - but considering that Halloween is fast approaching, I thought it a chance to review a lesser-known animated Halloween special that many US fans might well be aware of:


Sort of like a prequel to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", this - like many Dr. Seuss animations at the time - were brought to life by DePatie-Freleng Studios (Pink Panther, the Ant and the Aardvark, Tijuana Toads) and all penned by Dr. Seuss himself (alias Theodor Seuss Geisel).The story revolves around Whoville and on a particular time of of year called "Grinch Night" when the "Sour-Sweet" wind starts up, causing a variety of animals to start growling and grumbling, which annoys the Grinch into terrorizing the Whos, who all go into hiding. Only this year a small Who by the name of Euchariah is caught by the fierce wind and blown onto Mount Crumpet, where upon he discovers the Grinch's latest plan for "Grinch Night" and plans to stop him until the "Sour-Sweet" Wind has died down....
While it's not on-par with the success that is HTGSC, Grinch Night does have its moments that have made itself an impact on anyone who happened to catch its first airing back in 1977, and perhaps it being a somewhat "predecessor" to Tim Buton's "The Nightmare before Christmas" - ie; being magical, bizarre, surreal, chocked full of songs and rather psychedelic. Otherwise, it's a pretty good special with its usual Seuss-ness involved.
What's more, after watching it once or twice, I've discovered there is more to this special that meets the eye, with certain tidbits and nods that might go waaaay above the heads of today's youth:


- When young Euchariah Who is caught by the wind, he is making his way to the outhouse (ie: toilet/bathroom) simply referred to as the "euphemism" - which, apparently, is a form of censorship:
"...an inoffensive word or phrase substituted for one considered offensive or hurtful"


- The Grinch's latest plot to terrorise Whoville involves a large wagon full of monsters named the "Paraphernalia Wagon" - which is a definition for a drug, hence the rather psyched-out scenes when within the wagon itself!

- A particular scene involves the Grinch's eyebrows to fly off from his head. Now this was originally based on an idea Dr. Seuss himself conjured up for a stand-alone film, which didn't receive much enthusiasm at the time. So it seemed appropriate for Giesel to make use of this throwaway idea all the same :)
More info on the "eyebrows" story can be read here, taken from the Cartoon Brew blog.

So there's the long and short of this great grinchy tale
Some things may seem odd but never did fail
to keep the minds both for young and for old
a-thinking, a-tinking and shining like gold.
So relieve those times when one asked for a fright
by watching bellow three parts of GRINCH NIGHT!