MATTHEW I. JENKINS

[adultswim]

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PAGE FOUR (NEXT PAGE) (PREVIOUS PAGE 3, 2, 1)

Feb 5^th, 2006.

I have a LOT of stuff to post today. Maybe too much. We’ll see if I can fit it all in today.

Remember those original Zorak keys from the production of Brak Presents the Brak Show starring Brak? Well I found some of the printed out photos of the maquette that I was telling you about, the one that Clay made. I thought it would be neat to show them here. These are the photos that I used as reference to make those keys. Some of the keys turned out almost exactly like these photos.

There they are! Preserved for internet posterity. What an enormous help these were. The only thing that was missing were the antennae, and you can see where someone scratched them in with a ball–point pen on one of them.

So on to some big and better stuff! Since were on the Brak universe already how about a few drawings from the pilot production of The Brak Show. I was super happy to find one of my only full-body, early versions of Brak’s Mom.

We were getting pretty close to the final design with this version. Now let’s go to an alternate version of an early Brak’s Dad design, one very similar to the one I’ve already posted.

Not bad, huh? But there’s more! I think there is a version of this next one on the official adult swim site, but this one’s a little different.

This next one definitely is on the official adult swim site but who cares? At least it’ll be bigger here. I was delighted to find this in a stack with all this other stuff.

So, you’ll notice that at this time in my career, I was really into making model sheets, even when I was just sketching, still looking for the correct design. I’d usually list the name of the character somewhere. There would be a full body of the character surrounded by close-ups of the heads or other action poses. And, I’d usually sign it (as I still do today) with my box-like initials with the date inside, and most times credit Cartoon Network with the ownership of the character. This was mostly due to the fact that I was, and still am, a huge fan of Alex Toth, the original designer who came up with Brak, Space Ghost, and Zorak (and many, many more). He often made his model sheets with a similar design when he was working for Hannah-Barbera. I love the look of them and am always trying to live up to that standard. Sometimes I get close. Anyway, the following is another one in this category. I was so into this that I even drew a rough one for the Jerkwater High School’s mascot, the Fighting Chicken from one of the early episodes of the Brak Show. Was it the pilot? I can’t even remember anymore.

For some reason I find this sketch amusing. Next you’ll see an original key in red colored pencil of Thundercleese.

Now let’s look at some early Aqua Teen Hunger Force production work. This is from a key of Carl. I call it, “To the home, Carl”.

Hah hah! What I especially like about this key, is if you look really closely, you can see another version of the head that I had drawn first. Carl’s head is turned toward the camera and he has a comical, wide-eyed expression as he’s being zapped. Can you see it?

Next are two original keys of the Rabbot.

Early on, I was commissioned to help them come up with a logo. Bob Petit, the fantastic background and prop artist of the show, ended up creating the logo that was chosen. Here is one of my attempts. They didn’t like it, but later on made it into a sticker.

That’s it. I got through it all!

More coming soon!