ETCN: Tell me (and my audience, all two of them) a little bit about yourself and your background:
Let's see. Well I'm 35 years old, I've been working in the animation
industry for a over 12 years now. I've worked as a designer, a design
supervisor, an assistant director, a writer, a creator / director and a
storyboard artist.
I'm married and have three small children all girls who all seem to love
to draw! God help them! I went to Sheridan College, studied animation and
was hired by Nelvana immediately upon graduation. I worked there for
almost 10 years before I left to go freelance. Since then I've worked
primarily as a storyboard artist out of my home. >
ECTN: How did you get involved with Eek the Cat?
Eek The Cat was my first professional job in the animation industry. I
entered at the beginning of season 2. I was hired as a designer. I did a
lot of location and prop clean-up for the first few weeks but soon
graduated to designing locations and props from the storyboards. Mike
Csunyoska was my first supervisor. An amazing artist! I learned so much of
what I know about cartoony design from him.
ECTN: What was it like
working with this cartoon?
Working on Eek was a blast! Back then Eek was seen as the easy show to
work on because Nelvana had other more labour intensive shows going like
Dog City and Tales From The Cryptkeeper. I didn't care I was just happy to
have a job!
That year I remember Mike (see above) always fighting with
our production co-ordinator Carol. Carol wasn't really cut out to be a
design co-ordinator so the crew would always have to pick up her slack
(pulling re-use, doing size reps, cutting and pasteing designs onto sheets
etc) . That took time away from drawing which would always drive Mike
crazy! Their screaming matches became legendary!
I also remember
taking a lot of LONG lunches in bars on Queen Street in Toronto. It seemed
like every other week the crew would take off to celebrate somebody's
birthday, real or otherwise! I think somedays we didn't even come back to
the studio as some of us were a little too hammered to work!
ETCN: Did you get any ideas into any episodes?
Not really. The scripts and storyboards took care of all that. We did
throw visual gags into the backgrounds whenever we could. My wife's name
is Jan and I must have thrown her name into at least a dozen episodes. As
time went on we got a little braver and threw in a bunch of
"suggestive" names and shapes onto store front windows and the
like!
ECTN: What was it like working with Savage and/or Bill?
Personally I never had any contact with either Savage or Kopp. I think it
was only our directors and producers who talked with Steve. I loved
reading their scripts though! You could tell that those two were having a
ball writing that stuff!
ECTN: What is your fondest memory of
working on Eek?
The crew.
We were always laughing and joking around! Going to work
on Eek wasn't work at all, it was an eight hour recess! God we were so
loud we drove the other crews crazy with our antics but years later people
still tell me how jealous they were of us because we always having so much
fun! Guys like Darin Bristow and Patrick Rowsome are still two of my
closest friends and I met them both while working on Eek! I also loved it
when we'd get a storyboard in from Alan Bunce. That guy could draw Eek
like no other! It was always an easier couple of weeks designing from his
stuff, I still have some of his boards kicking around the house somewhere.
It was a really fun style to draw and the shows were so funny it just made
for a great time!
ETCN: Which was your favorite
episode and Why?
Wow. That's tough. It's been a few years plus since I've even
seen an episode. Quadropedia, In The Line Of Fur, Show Squirls
all come to mind but I really, really liked Paws. I thought it
was really well done at the time, very funny. I hope that's it's held
up!
ETCN: Who
was your favorite Character?
I was always partial to Mittens. I wish he appeared in more
episodes, they should have done a spin-off with him as the lead! I like
Wendy Elizabeth too, great design!
ETCN: What
could have been done different?
Well first off they should have never added Klutter to
the mix. That was complete crap! Thank God we didn't design it! They
should have kept Eek going a little longer. I think it was still popular
enough to have run for another season or two I'm not sure about
Thunderlizards though...it got kinda old for me after a couple of seasons.
Maybe it was drawing all those damn trees!
ETCN: What
have you done since then?
What have I done since then? There's been a lot, probably 20 shows
since Eek ended! I'd check the IMDB for a complete listing but some of the
shows I've worked on since include... Ned's Newt
(design supervisor) George And Martha (design supervisor and
assistant director) Moville Mysteries (storyboard artist) My Dad The Rock Star
(storyboard artist)
In 2003 I sold my own show idea to Nelvana as part
of a cartoon variety show called Funpak. The show was called "The
Manly Bee". It's about a legendary superhero who is called back
into action 50 years after he retires. The problem he faces today is he is
now 92 years old, his powers have greatly diminished and he has no memory
of his storied past! It aired this past spring (2005) on YTV up here in
Canada and was voted the favorite cartoon amongst all the Funpak cartoons
in a nation wide contest. It was a lot of fun as I got to write, direct,
storyboard and design every episode. There were 5, five minute cartoons of
The Manly Bee produced. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's
going to get it's own series.
ETCN: Why Not? Sounds like a funshow.
Why? I have no answer for that. Since then I'm just coming off a
season on The Fairly Odd Parents as a storyboard artist. That was a
lot of fun! I loved that gig! I also just finished a Danny Phantom
board a few weeks back and am currently doing storyboards for Bob Boyle's
new Nick Jr. show called Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (check out the wubblog)
ETCN: Anything else you can share with us?
That's all I can think of. Thanks for
this, it's been fun remembering, it's one of the good memories I have when
I think back to all the crap I worked on after it went off the air! I was
really lucky to be a part of it!
ETCN: Thanks Steve for taking the time with us. Good to know that
the show was as much fun to work on as it was to watch.
