MOMMA, DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE STORYBOARD ARTISTS

One of the many great things that came out of the Sunday morning drawing workshops that Bill Stout hosts was that I met Josh Sheppard, one of the more talented storyboard artists in the business. And a very sweet man, although with a very healthy dose of the cynicism that comes from working in Hollywood; he once related to me the story that when he told his wife about talking to young perspective artists, she dubbed him The Dreamsquasher.

Despite this  pejorative salutation, Josh has always been of the greatest help in steering other board artists toward work that crops up…including your truly. One of the accomplishments of the current crop of board artists has been to organize and  create a list of all the artists working in entertainment and with what type of restrictions they require on the job (union, non union, TV or film only,etc.) as well the pay scale they demand. There has been a couple of these groups and its has been very helpful questionnaire both for artists and their perspective clients. Even  Josh was a little skeptical when he saw my entry on one of these groups. I added on to the category, What Jobs Will You Accept or Not Accept, I stated that I would would be glad to work for Ang Lee or John Sayles, but all other directors would have to explain to me why I should want to work on their films. When you read Josh's short comic story below that comment might make more sense.

 Josh is also very knowledgeable about film in general and a great conversationalist. We've shared many a lunch together talking over both the state of the business, art in general and comics specifically. For all his great success working on any number of big budget feature films, boards for hundreds of commercials and all types of CGI special effects Josh remains at heart a fanboy geek and frustrated comicbook artist.

When he talks about his true love, Josh  will pull out the very personal and exceptionally humorous graphic stories he produces in his spare time. What I've posted today is one of the classic examples of Josh's offbeat and cynical humor that he has done in this form. And after you're done splitting your sides with laughter, the scary part is just how spot on is Josh's portrayal of working in Tinseltown.

(And now a few words by Josh himself: I was lucky to discover the good stuff at a very young age: All the 50's-70's Mad Magazine artists, all the 60's Marvel guys: Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Gene Colan. And thankfully R. Crumb.

(Noel Sickles)

(Mentor Heubner)

(Noel Sickles)

(Wallace Morgan)

Later influences as a pro: Alex Toth, Mentor Heubner, Noel Sickles, Edgar Degas, my friend Gerald Forton, Noel Sickles, Robert Fawcett, Raymond Poivet, Attilio Micheluzzi, Wallace Morgan, Joe Kubert, all the great U.S. newspaper strip artists, all the great U.S. print illustrators. And watching 70's cop shows like the Streets of San Francisco!

(Raymond Poivet)

(Attilio Micheluzzi)

(Attilio Micheluzzi)

(Gerald Forton)

(Gerald Forton)

(Raymond Poivet)

 

Josh Sheppard contact info:
http://www.thestoryboardartist.com/Site/Home.html
http://joshsheppard.blogspot.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1376426/