My Original Iwao Takamoto SCOOBY-DOO Sketch!

I finally got my original Iwao Takamoto Scooby-Doo sketch from the Van Eaton Galleries in Los Angeles, California today. It took a while to get the letter or certificate from Barbara Takamoto before they were able to ship it to me. It was an expensive piece of art but worth it since his creation of Scooby has given me work for ten years now. I felt I should have a piece of his art just on principle. It's too bad he's still not really known for his contribution to the cartoon world and to pop culture as he should be. Hanna-Barbera got all the gold off of it along with all his other visual creations and designs he did for them for over 40 years or so. When I told some friends of mine that I got an original Scooby sketch that was drawn by Iwao, I mostly got back a pause and then a "Who?" And I'm like, "It's the guy who created Scooby-Doo!" But I guess that's the price of fame when we artists work for the studios for too long. Most people know it was Hanna-Barbera who created the idea and story, but the designers who take an idea and flesh it out always get lost in the shuffle since we're just cogs in the wheel. Iwao created the look for many HB characters, but his main show that he designed all himself was Scooby-Doo, and of course, he designed Shaggy, Freddie, Daphne and Velma. I scanned the 11" x 14" art as a grayscale so that you might see the brush strokes more on the paper instead of just scanning it as line art. It's a beautiful and clean marker sketch straight from Iwao's head to paper. He was a master of just seeing it on paper and drawing it cold! I'm able to do that for a couple of things when I'm drawing, but not like that. Drawing still is a struggle and a process for me. I also attached the letter as well so you can see that his wife has set up a foundation for struggling or aspiring artists...

My SCOOBY-DOO Art in the new COUNTRY WEEKLY MAGAZINE!

My Scooby art is in the new Country Weekly Magazine this week! I just picked up copies of the magazine in the local Wal-Mart tonight and it printed great! The article is all about Scooby voice-actor Scott Innes, and I got my name dropped as well at the end of it when they mention Hal & Al! The art of Scott with Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy was a piece that I did for him as his press photo back in 2007. He now uses the new one that I did last year, which has 20 characters that he's done voices for over the years. You can find that on my blog if you search for it. Here's a post of the cover and 3 page story from Country Weekly! Click on the images to view them full size so you can read the article! Check your newsstands and pick up a copy this week! Newspapers and magazines are in danger of going away so support your favorite magazines before they are gone!

My New SCOOBY Cover Art Becomes The New SCOOBY House Ad!

This was an exciting moment today! I was paging through the new issue of Looney Tunes and saw the new house advertisement for the Scooby-Doo comic, and it featured my art on it that was used for Scooby #143! Who 'da thunk it? A very cool moment and a nice surprise I sure wasn't expecting. I'm honored that someone at DC Comics picked my piece to advertise the Scooby comic book on a regular monthly basis! As a design it works great and it's an attention getter!

SCOOBY-DOO #143 Cover Art! It's Finally Printed!

For those who follow my stuff, you've seen this cover before on my blog since it was posted late last year. It was to be on Scooby #138, but Scooby had some production issues and it got moved to #143. Here is a scan of the actual printed comic which I got from DC Comics on Saturday. It should be out soon on the stands in the comic shops. They even used my exact verbage that I submitted with the color art! You can read more about the art from my previous entries!

HAPPY EASTER!

HAPPY EASTER! Here's a pic from the ye olden times that I did that was colored with markers and pastel. Mid 90's I'm guessing it was done, maybe somewhere around '95 or '96.

Nashville Star BUCKY COVINGTON Shows His Support For Hal & Al!

Former finalist of Season 5 on American Idol and Nashville Recording Star, Bucky Covington, is a star that's rising! The Lyric Street Records star has delivered three consecutive Top 10 hits and has sold more than 400,000 units of his selftitled CD, Bucky Covington! Bucky stopped by the studios of WYNK Radio on Thursday and he shows what he's watching on the tour bus these days!

Hollywood Hal & Rhinestone Al are huge Bucky fans and voted for him every week on American Idol...and are very happy for Bucky and his country music success thus far.

Fans can also catch Covington make his big screen debut in Hanna Montana: The Movie (April 10th)! Bucky's new single just hit Country Radio stations and it's called "I Want My Life Back". For more on Bucky, you can visit http://www.buckycovington.com/ or visit Hal & Al at http://www.halandal.com/!

HAL & AL In COUNTRY WEEKLY MAGAZINE Again!

Hal & Al were in the April 6th issue of Country Weekly Magazine yet again! This is a pic from our shoot with Marty Raybon in Baton Rouge right before Christmas when I was down there. We shot a lot of footage with Marty to cut into the Hal & Al TV shows for the new season!

SCOTT INNES Promotes His New Book On WAFB TV In Baton Rouge!

And He dropped my name during it! A second of glory! WooHoo! It's funny though that the spot is 2 minutes and 35 seconds long. That's the same length of our segments for the Hal & Al Show! Ah, TV limitiations! You can buy it at ScottInnes.com. He has a small batch of books so far, but more are still being printed at Baker Printing so we'll have the full order hopefully soon.

SCOTT INNES "CARTOONS & COUNTRY MUSIC" Book Advertisement!

Here is one of the ads for Scott's new book that I did for one of the magazines down south. It was done and the refigured for different formats for other newspapers and magazines. His first book signing is tonight!

HAL & AL In The O.C.!

Hollywood Hal & Rhinestone Al start April 1st in Orange County, CA on COX Channel 3!

HAL & AL Nationwide Campaign for 2009!

HAL & AL Coming To CLEVELAND, OHIO! Starting In March!

Speaking of getting bigger and bigger... Hal & Al will soon be on the air in Cleveland, Ohio! Starting in March on Cox Channel 45! Don't know the time or how it will run yet though (could be once a week or daily) as this news is just breaking!

02/09/09 UPDATE: Beginning Feb. 16th, Cox 45 will be running it every weekday at 8am!

SCOTT INNES - "CARTOONS & COUNTRY MUSIC" Book Cover!

This weekend I sit and finish up writing Scott Innes' new book and putting the final touches on it. It's called Cartoons & Country Music - My Life in the Shadow of a Dog! It's slated for the printer and I have to get it out of here by today or Monday. It's been completely updated from the last one version that was released in 2002 and this will be the only book that he does again for a long time so I'm trying to get it right. Older chapters had stuff added to them and there are a bunch of new chapters added, such as a chapter on me and our working relationship with Hal & Al and other of Scott's PR stuff that I've done. There's also a new chapter about Hal & Al, which is quite good. Hal & Al will have their own book at some point since it seems to be getting bigger and bigger. This book will also have a LOT of photos in it, and that was where most of my time yesterday was focused on getting them in order and labeled correctly. Here's the cover art for the book. Eagle-eyed fans of mine will see that this cover is similar to the Scooby-Doo "Earth Day" comic cover I did in April 2008.

Some will ask why does Scott even have a book? Is it a vanity project? It is that, but the original book came into play because he kept getting asked how he got the job of voicing Scooby-Doo back between 1997-2002 for the movies. He got so tired of being asked it, and telling a shortened version of it, that he thought he'd write a book about it where it explained it all in depth. It's a good chapter of the book. Hanging out with him when I travel down south for Hal & Al stuff, people do still ask him how he got the part, so now he'll have this new book to promote. He has met a LOT of famous celebrities and done some cool stuff so it's a fun read. Kids would also enjoy it since it will also be in a bigger font and like a 'young adult novel' melded with a scrapbook.

Scott's still doing the voices of Scooby and Shaggy (Shaggy even more now) and has been for since 1997 for licensed products and such as the new Scooby-Doo Interactive DVD Game that came out late last year where he did Shaggy's voice. Hopefully he'll be doing the DVD movies again soon!

This new book should be out by early March and available online at his website, which is located at http://www.scottinnes.com/!

THE LONE RANGER Rides Again! - Pen & Ink Artwork!

Here's a Lone Ranger piece of art I did the other day as a warm up. I just got the The Lone Ranger: 75th Anniversary - Seasons 1 and 2 from Amazon and it's a great set that features the first two complete seasons of the original TV Show! It's expensive, but worth it!Clayton Moore was great in the part! This piece or art was penciled on cheap paper and then I taped it to the back of a good piece of art paper and 'light tabled' it for the inking stage. All told it was done in about two hours. Enjoy!