Hollywood Hal & Rhinestone Al start April 1st in Orange County, CA on COX Channel 3!
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!
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.
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!
As I type this, the last of my final artwork for Power Rangers Jungle Fury is being uploaded for the final approval stage. This is the last project I'll be doing (unless they wish to do more) and I expect it to approved in two weeks time with no problems. Candace Bell did a great job helping me get this all done and colored on time and we think it came out great!
Here is a new Scooby-Doo story I just did for Schibsted over in Sweden. Scooby-Doo and the gang meet The Forest Phantom! For any Scooby fans in America who'd like to read the story, I've posted all 12 pages of the story in English so that you can read and enjoy it since it will most likely never be printed in America! I like the way it came out and Candace did a stellar job on the colors as well since it was a limited color job. There are quite a few panel layouts that I really like as well. I also added nods to my friends Scott Innes and Jim Hogg in it, and I also added my friend and all-around great artist, Mike Manley, who is the forest ranger on page two, panel one! Click on each page image so you can read the bigger version! Enjoy!
Here's a new poster idea that I tried on a free site where you can upload your pics and create a poster in the Obama election-style posters that were created this past year. I did one of Hal & Al and I think it came out cool! What do you think?
This past weekend, Hollywood Hal & Rhinestone Al met the Harlem Globetrotter's Wildkat Edgerson in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and we shot a new segment with Wildkat for an upcoming episode and also for a future DVD segment! A lucky group of kids in Baton Rouge got to learn some great tips and tricks from Wildkat himself as Rhinestone Al acted as an assistant coach!
Hal & Al made it into the January 12th issue of Country Weekly magazine again! This time for the picture of Nashville star Chris Young who's picture I posted holding our Hal & Al music CD on this blog back in November. It finally saw print and we are happy to have Chris Young on the Hal & Al bandwagon! Thanks to Larry Holden at Country Weekly as well! You can click on the images to see them larger!
As Scooby says above, Merry Christmas to all those who like to view and read my blog of current goings-on at the Neely Studio! This Scooby vector art was sure an old file, the final art was finalized back on July 17, 2000! Yikes! Time sure does fly! Sorry I've not been posting any new art since my trip ended and I came back, but as soon as the plane hit the tarmac back in Philly I was hammered with the last Power Rangers Jungle Fury project to do, which was finished yesterday artwise and now it just has to be colored. Later this week, I also have to finish a new Scooby project for overseas as well! I also have two possible new jobs to do in the coming month of January so 2009 looks to be off to a great start as well! Also of note, Hal & Al may be on local TV in North and South Carolina very soon as well! It just keeps building!
On December 13th, Hal & Al teamed up with Ronald Mcdonald to ride in the 2008 Baton Rouge Christmas Parade in a New Robinson Brothers Ford truck! It was the kid-favorite of the night...Ronald is the most famous face in the world 2nd only to Santa Claus!
Here's a pic Jim Hogg took of the Hal & Al trailer in his yard after it ACTUALLY SNOWED down in Louisiana on December 11th! New Orleans and Baton Rouge got about 3"- 5" of snow and it hasn't snowed there in like 10 years! I though it was Mother Nature weeping since I left and came back up north! Haha! This would make a nice Christmas card though, don't you think? Scott Innes shot some video of it as it was coming down.