So what's so special about Tony's new Sock Monkey project? It's animated specifically for the Internet! Working with Dark Horse Multimedia Designer Jeff Russell Allman and a host of other talented folks, Millionaire is bringing Uncle Gabby and Drinky Crow to life! Utilizing Flash animation has allowed Millionaire, Allman and the rest of the crew to not only add motion, sound effects, music and voiceovers to everyone's favorite (but mischievous) stuffed monkey, but it has also allowed Sock Monkey to come to life in a new way. Does applying this new technology to comic books change the way the creator thinks about his creation? Will moving from the printed page to an animated form have an impact on future stories? Well, I asked Tony Millionaire and Jeff Allman a few questions just like that, so I'll let them speak for themselves:
Dark Horse: Do you think that fans experiencing Sock Monkey in an animated form with music and voiceovers will find new meaning in your stories? Do you think fans will appreciate the subtle nuances of the story more or less?
Tony Millionaire: I was a little nervous about losing some of the subtlety and nuance, but Jeff Allman has captured the feel of the comics very well using soft earthy colors, delicate wallpapers and beautiful cello music that I couldn't achieve with black and white comics. I'm very fortunate to have someone directing this who really understands it. I was quite worried about it turning into some kind of hideous Scooby-Doo haunted house type of cartoon, but I was very excited after seeing just the first frame he worked on.
Jeff Allman: With animation you lose the wonderful detail of Tony's drawings that recall Beatris Potter, Winnie the Pooh, and old 19th century wood cuts. Since using the detailed line work was not feasible, I used other visual cues to recall the Victorian art style. Such as a muted palette with earth tones, intricate wallpaper textures, and video effects mimicking deteriorating silent movie films. I'm not a big fan of Hanna-Barbara or Disney animation. My animation influences include Eastern European animation, The Brothers Quay, Miyazaki films, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. I wanted Sock Monkey to have an eerie dream like quality to it. I think I succeeded.
DH: One of the qualities fans of your Sock Monkey comics enjoy are your incredibly detailed drawings. Do you think that animating those drawings and adding music and voiceovers will place a lesser emphasis on your artwork? If so, are you concerned about that?
TM: As long as I have control over it to the degree that I now do, I don't see any problem with that. It is a different medium, but the idea is the same. By control, I mean being able to choose who I work with, it's very important to get people who have a feeling for the work. I chose the actors (Ted Davis, Bill Chott and Becky Thyre) because I had seen other work they had done and I knew they could do the job.
JA: I think that a good animation short focuses on the story and voice actors. Art is important too but it has a lesser focus than in comics. The voice actors Davis, Chott, and Thyre are absolutely wonderful. They nailed it! I trusted Tony on this without any auditions because of time and budget constraints. When I received the voice-overs that day, I knew we had a winner.
DH: You've had previous animation experience with having your Maakies strip animated for use on Saturday Night Live. Are there many differences between animating your stories for television and animating them specifically for the Internet? Do you have more control, less control, do you prefer one form over the other, etc.?
TM: You know, that's technical stuff that I don't know much about, whether the animator is working in Flash or AfterEffects, what constraints we have with memory issues etc. I just try to keep as informed as I can about what the various tools can do and I keep my fingers crossed. Animation is not something I have studied much, so all I can do is keep asking questions.
DH: Do you see the Sock Monkey web animation as a springboard into other, more traditional forms of television or feature film animation or are you going to focus on producing more features for the internet?
TM: No one seems to know where the internet is going right now, so I just keep trying to get stuff made and see where it ends up. I certainly hope that the web stuff leads to film or TV, but at this point I'll just keeping working on lots of different projects. I've got some children's books I'm working on; I'd like to try to get some of that stuff animated too.
JA: My advice to Tony right now is to use this animation short as a pilot to sell to a television network. Web entertainment has imploded because of ill-conceived ideas, wasted resources (in the millions of dollars), and downright ignorance of the web's role in entertainment. The Sock Monkey short was developed for web distribution but I'm also planning on a more robust video version for DVD and VHS. This should work as a pilot episode as well as web animation.
DH: The Sock Monkey itself is a traditionally old thing. Families made sock monkey dolls for their children hundreds of years ago (probably around the time that socks were invented, would be my guess). Your Sock Monkey artwork and stories seem to be placed in the Victorian era. Do you foresee your storytelling changing, either consciously or subconsciously, to reflect the new technology that has brought Sock Monkey to life (so to speak)?
TM: Absolutely not. I try to keep all pop culture references out of the Sock
Monkey series, it's not about the present day, in fact I wouldn't ever make mention of any historical events from any time. These stories have to do with the world as seen by some shut-in child or through the eyes of some doll. I would prefer that the characters in these stories don't have any idea that the outside world even exists. Well, except maybe to sail around the world.
DH: Have you done much web surfing? Are there any web animations out there that you like?
TM: I loved the "Hard Drinkin' Lincoln" series by Mike Reiss and Xeth Feinberg.
That was on Icebox, it was very funny in an insane drunken Bullwinkle way.
And Spumco is great, especially "George Liquor". Hmm sounds like I have a taste for booze humor, doesn't it?
JA: I love obscure and obtuse web animations such as Modern Living, Mumbleboy, JibJab, and many of the animations and films on AtomFilms. I'm also working on my own series Silence for AtomFilms that is influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e period prints and paintings. I dislike Shockwave and Eruptor and I say good riddance to Icebox and Entertaindom. In Portland [Oregon] I go to these Internet Movie Nights where we play the best (or worst) of web animations and video. It's quite fun and Flash actually looks great on a big screen projector. Very abstract and displaced.
DH: Do you foresee doing more animated features for the web in the future, whether it's Sock Monkey or another project you have rolling around in your head?
TM: Yes I would love to do more Sock Monkey animations and I also still have the Saturday Night Live animations which I would like to see on the web. I'm also working on a cartoon called "Mighty Mite the Earmite" about an earmite that drives people nuts with his singing. Becky Thyre does his voice, and They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh and Robin Goldwasser are doing the music for that. So far it's very funny.
JA: Sock Monkey now, Sock Monkey forever! I hope this turns into a series somewhere. Peanuts had a great following on TV and I think Sock Monkey has that same feel where it could be a big hit with the mainstream public. Did I just say mainstream? Like there is an alternative to anything anymore...
DH: If you're thinking about doing more web animations, do you think that your writing and/or art style will change to take advantage of the differences between animation and static images?
TM: I think it's always important to be flexible stylewise, you never know what you're going to be working on. I have a few established styles of drawing and writing, from the cartoony madness of Maakies to the subtle interiors of Sock Monkey and lots in between. There's not much room for tiny scratched lines in Flash animation, but the technology changes constantly, so I'll just adjust accordingly.
JA: John Mathot did a good job of keyframe animation and Tony realizes you have to make concessions in animation. It would take forever to animate his detailed drawings and probably would not look so great animated. Simpler is better when animating characters. It's all about movement and gestures. Especially important when the characters have no mouths and buttons for eyes! Tony has a bright future in animation and it is in this medium that he will reach his full potential as a writer and artist. His themes and characters speak to our days gone past of youthful dreams and exquisite fantasies of play.