The ANIMATED Grease Monkey: EPISODE 2!

Believe it or not, this was a last-minute idea that came up while I was working on the "pilot movie" that can be seen elsewhere on this site. Oddly enough, my decision was dictated by software. At the time I conceived of the pilot (late '99) the software of choice for such a project was Adobe Premiere. But shortly thereafter, a more web-friendly program called Flash started to gain popularity. I was already committed to Premiere for the first project, but I thought that if I were to do another one in Flash it might open the doors to a webtoon format if the TV thing didn't work out.

Flash allowed me to use some different animation techniques that made for a smoother presentation, and the shorter script (co-written by my pals Cassy Harlo and Rob Brackendridge) gave me time to draw more poses. In the end, it took just about as long to make as the pilot, but it's much closer to finished animation quality. All told, it took an entire year for me to produce the Grease Monkey cartoons. As soon as they wrapped I got back to work on the graphic novel itself. I think it was time well spent.