Animal Encyclopedia

THE BEST BOOK EVER!

While I was finishing colouring pages of Munch Chunky in between colouring pages of Goblyn, I was digging through my old boxes, and rediscovered my old Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia.

it was a very awesome book that my mom got me and my sister when we were little kids.

some how I still have it after all these years.

it's great! 

it's over 600 pages and has really good illustrations of all the animals, and their family groups, geographical locations, distinguishing traits... all sorts of stuff. it's built like a wiki, which makes sense, considering it's an encyclopedia. haha

seriously tho... I've been going through it page by page every night before i go to sleep, reading about a new set of animals, and finding some of the most amazing and weirdest looking creatures.

it has inspired me to just pic random animals from it, and from reader suggestions that I'm going to draw, in the style of a citizen of the world of Munch Chunky.

just thought it would be fun.

some of these animals are really going to let me stretch my creative muscles.

C:

first one... a shrew

I seriously suggest yo grab a copy if you're into drawing animals, or just like them and want to know some cool facts about them. since this book is now out of print, copies can be grabbed at amazon.

used copies are SUPER cheap...

and i think it's worth it.

Munch Chunky Issue 2a

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------All the stars are lining up and Munch Chunky is really taking shape.

I had quite a bit of fun working on this issue.

I even streamed me making this issue.

even tho I  was using photoshop 6, which is so totally nerfed in comparison to CS3 

(which I normally use to make comics)

it wasn't bad. MC isn't very heavy on the dynamic layers and such.

it's just straight forward drawings, with colour, and a good solid story about friends and adventure.

what more could you ask for?

oh, the link to the livestream videos?

done and done.

--> http://www.livestream.com/smars <--

here's a little embed action for you too.

smars on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

issue 2a back on track.

So after quite an uphill battle finishing the kickstarter video for my other comic Goblyn, I'm back on track and nearly finished colouring the pages for issue 2a of Munch Chunky.

I've been broadcasting on my livestream while i colour the pages. every day from 8am to about 4pm EST

I decided this is what I'll do with Munch Chunky from now on, as an effort to not always be in my cave like the bearded hermit I am. and just cause I thought it might be fun for you.

I'll answer questions if anyone actually shows up.

but considering the time frame. I'm not sure if anyone ever will.

oh well. still gonna' do it! XD

Watch live streaming video from smars at livestream.com

you'll get spoilers if you care about that sort of thing, but I'm only colouring right now... not lettering.

that comes last, and I will probably stream that as well. or part of it at least.

I'm loving getting to draw all these animals. I love how strange and diverse the animal kingdom is.

you can really find some weird animals out there.

and while I tend to not stray too far from the core animals people are all familiar with.
I do have plans to get pretty exotic once Bojo and the gang get their adventure underway.

well, I hope that more people will come to like MC and the characters, I know it's still in it's proving ground stages, but I have very big plans for it and I hope you'll stick around for all of them.

as soon as I get everything set up behind the stage, I'll be adding and updating a World Databook section, about all the characters and such to the world of MC.

for now, i should go and pencil the last pages of this issue before I get too tired.

cheers.

Munch Chunky Issue 1b

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so, introductions to all the major protagonists of the series have been made.

rivalries have been set in stone.

now that, that's out of the way... 

we can really get this avalanche of adventure 

rolling over people and causing all sorts of chaos fun.

this issue definitely went over my 50 to 55 page rule.

but I really had to get the rest of this part of the story out.

so... justifiable self rule breaking?

idk...

the set up for the entire series is always the tallest hill to get over.

everything else from that point is just letting the story flow through you.

time to flow.

live, love, & eat fruit.

Munch Chunky Soundtrack...

So back when I was trying to do Munch Chunky as an animated series, all by myself. 

(a foolish endeavor if ever there was one)

I had created an actual musical score to run in the background of the episodes.

Most of them were each of the main characters themes Bojo's theme, Turtles theme, & Diddles theme, or remixed variations of those.

but then I realised i couldn't do the animated series the way I wanted in the time allotted to me.

but I still had the soundtrack, and the need to express Munch Chunky in music.

when I see this art I hear songs, and I've been building a little library of those songs for a few years now.

I'm not proud of them all, but most make me very happy, because they capture the spirit of Munch Chunky 100%

from Munch Chunky issue 2b on, with each new half issue ex. 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, and so on... I will add a new track from the Munch Chunky OST collection on my Mobal Sute Bandcamp page. 

you can listen to them and if you like them, download and collect them.

I've added an original sound track section here to listen to the OST tracks that are being uploaded to Bandcamp.

I just thought it would be fun to share a bit of the music I hear when I work on Munch Chunky.

live, love, & eat fruit.

Munch Chunky Issue 1a

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So I’m finally going to tell this story. 

Not in the way I had wanted to a few months back 

(which was animated) 

but the way I had originally conceived the project in 2001, as a comic book.

I learned a lot about storytelling and pacing when I decided to make Munch Chunky into an animated series. 

I could get away with things that would fall apart in a comic book scenario. 

Because of that, I had to change the beginning of the story 

and the way it plays out for the comic.

Another of my problems was my limitations in animating. 

I only know how to animate so many things, and I often hit walls 

I couldn't get around. 

In comic book form I hit a lot less walls with the images being fixed. 

It’s hard to explain, but what it came down to in the end wasn’t the expense of animation, 

but the time. 

I’m able to commit the same amount of time to the comic form as the animated form, 

but i yield more story from it, 

for my effort.

and ultimately I just really want to tell my stories, 

and I can’t let the process of building the body of that work be 

the part that breaks down the ability for the story to be told 

consistently and fluidly.

Trongo Bongo

Trongo Bots.

I've been drawing these goofy looking mech suits for so many years.

I'm a big mech, super giant robot enthusiast. seriously.

I spent a huuuuuge chunk of my childhood reading watching stuff like Voltron, Tranzor Z
(or Mazinger Z if you want to be a purist about it) and yes... of course, Gundam.

 but of all the mechs and robots out there i say that i was most influenced by Shirow Masamune's Appleseed manga series when i was a kid, which was filled with all these wonderful personal sized mechs he called landmates.

Shirow would used these really great organic shapes that often reminded me of insects, and that just pulled me in further into his magic. seeing smaller, one man, personal mechs was a revolution to my mind, and I immediately was drawing personal mechs in everything I created.

with Munch Chunky i wanted to continue with that tradition, but since MC is a lighter more fun story i didn't want the designs of the mechs to be too overwhelming.
Since the series is about things like food and adventure, i wanted them to be very organic and bouncy in shape.

for me, they had to have a look of functionality without being to visually complex. I wanted them to look like they could run around, while still looking funny, but not absolutely cumbersome.
Silly, but still kind of cool. like the G generation SD Gundam model series.
C:

they're also made this way so that i can customize each one for a new rival team at the drop of a dime and without the design really slowing me down.

they all have the same basic shape underneath, and then i start slappin' on all the extra bits that make them fun and flashy, as I go.

i did decide a while back that some teams would customise their mechs to the extent that they would have very specific advanced functions only used by that team.
it's all regulation of course.
ha ha

live love & eat fruit.

cute animals...BIG, BAD, ROBOTS

just sharing a couple of designs for some of the secondary background charas in issue 1b of Munch Chunky.

(they're fairly loose sketches, but still comprehensible i think)

the tryout sequence is full of lots of random animals driving around in big hulking robot suits.

i did think for a while to have everyone's suits reeeeeally customized and unique, but it quickly became a headache. 

i still slip into fantasies about how much fun it would be to have a bunch of cool designs and weird shapes for all the different suit. but then i snap out of it with the reality of how frustrating it would be to keep up with all those varying shapes. so i standardized the base shape of the Trong Bot suits. 

and from there, they can be customized by the individual as they see fit. 

So i still get a good bit of variation, while still being able to not lose myself in the details.

i'll show some of those different yet similar Trong bot designs next post.

till then.

live love & eat fruit.

CHARACTERS

♦ PRIMARY CHARACTERS ♦

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Major Primary Characters  

• Bojo
• Diddle
• Turtle

Minor Primary Characters 

• The Mints
• Rory
  

♦ SECONDARY CHARACTERS ♦

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Major Secondary Characters  

• Mr. Bittermint
• Kimodokin  
• King CoCodile   
• Mango Tango  

  Minor Secondary Characters

   

• Martyn

  ♦ TERTIARY CHARACTERS ♦

♦ INCONSEQUENTIAL & UNNAMED CHARACTERS ♦

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• Mr. Jyandwidile
• Gronoss 
• Horacio 
• Unnamed Baboon Headhunter
• Koba

  

♦ ORGANIZATIONS ♦

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• CoCo Cell Corp.
• Trongo Ball League
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♦ CREATURES ♦

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• Ixia
• Ice Golem

♦ OTHERS ♦

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