Jenn & Bueno: Happy New Year 2009!

So. How's this for a mildly disturbing New Year's drawing? Hope you have a great one!
(And speaking of year-end stuff, don't miss this other new post for today featuring my Top 10 Movies of 2008...if you're into that sort of thing.)

-Andrew
(Also, for those who read it, there are new posts in my Dream Journal.)

My Top 10 Movies of 2008

Once again it's time for me to post my personal Top Ten Movies for the year! I saw a whopping 34 movies theatrically this year (not counting a small handful of second viewings). Despite that large number, there were still plenty of movies, especially in the case of limited release/indie films, that I didn't get to see. And since I can obviously only rank movies that I saw, I may admittedly be leaving some good stuff off the list.

Now then, since my opinion is so vitally important to you, let's get on with the list!

-Andrew

Top Ten Movies of 2008

1. WALL-E
Once again Pixar produced my favorite movie of the year (and by a long shot). This movie is very nearly perfect as far as I'm concerned, with endearing characters, and engaging and even moving story, and beautiful animation. A true work of art through and through.

2. Let The Right One In
I'd never have guessed a Swedish vampire movie would make my number two of the year, but when I saw this one at an area film festival this summer, I fell in love with it. A very dark and rather slow-paced story, but artfully and engagingly told.

3. Good Dick
Another little-heard-of movie I saw at the aforementioned film festival. A comedy with a rather dark and serious subject matter at its core. It's both funny and touching...and it has a title that makes you go...HUH?!

4. Iron Man
For my money, one of the best comic book movies to be made so far. Robert Downy Jr. simply was Iron Man, and he made the movie. I know there are complaints that it was a tad low on action, and that's probably true, but that didn't seem to affect my enjoyment.

5. Kung-Fu Panda
This movie surprised me! It's one of very few non-Pixar animated movies that I've thoroughly enjoyed in quite some time, but it was really good in its own wacky way. Funny and beautifully animated.

6. The Boy In Striped Pajamas
I'd never read or even heard of the book this was based on, so I can't compare it to that, but I really enjoyed this tale of a WWII concentration camp through the eyes of two young boys. A little jarring at first that both the Germans and the Jews have British accents...but you quickly forget it as you get involved in the story.

7. The Incredible Hulk
To think I almost didn't even bother to go see this one before I began to hear positive word of mouth, and here it is at number 7. I'm not a huge Hulk fan in general, but I found this to be a great adaption of the character. Sure, the Hulk looks a little obviously animated, but what can you expect?

8. The Dark Knight
As a Batman movie, I thought this was only so-so. But, as you could guess without even reading this, it's on the list because of the Joker. Possibly the best version of the Joker to date, not to mention one of the most fun (and creepy) movie villains to date.

9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Just a little bit on the slow side to be nearly three hours long, but all around an excellent film. Some of the most impressive visual effects I've seen so far, along with great performances and direction.

10. Bolt
Between Disney's sorry track record in recent years and the apparent (and unfortunate) changes that were made to this film's original concept, I really didn't know what to expect. But it turned out to be rather enjoyable for what it was. Not really a classic, but it was fun.

A Few Random Honorable Mentions:
Hellboy 2 was just plain fun to watch. Whorton Hears a Who was yet another surprisingly enjoyable non-Pixar animated movie. Quantum of Solace failed to live up to its predecessor, but Daniel Craig is still an awesome Bond. Step Brothers was good for ridiculous, mindless laughs. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a silly-but-fun popcorn flick. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was a fine adaptation of the book, but it's one of my lesser favorites of the novels. The X-Files, while disappointing in many regards, had enough good points to satisfy a hardcore fan like me. Cloverfield, while featuring a thin plot and a lack of any likable characters, was a lot of fun for the same reason some people like roller coaster rides.

SO, what were YOUR favorites movies?

Jenn & Bueno : Christmas Card '08

Time for the annual Jennifer & Bueno Christmas card! Yes, some of you may recognize that this is a remake of this piece from last year. Basically, I did the old piece after I'd already designed last year's card, but I decided it would make a good card too. So I redesigned it for this year's card! And here you have it! Enjoy...and Merry Christmas!

-Andrew

Bettie Tribute

When I heard the news that 50's pin-up model Bettie Page had died at 85 late last week, I decided to do a quick drawing as a tribute. She was a lovely lady, and has been known to be a muse of sorts for many of the cartoony girls I so often draw. Enjoy.

-Andrew

Alien Life Form (and Terrestrial Sunset)

ALF was one of my favorite shows as a kid, and I've been enjoying the nostalgia of re-watching the show on DVD recently. So I've been in the mood to do some fan art for a while...and when the Drawing Board had a "They Came From Outer Space" jam this month, it was sort of the perfect storm. Hence, here we have Mr. Gordon Shumway himself. Enjoy!

-Andrew

Also, this evening I was privy to a particularly gorgeous
sunset, so I took some pictures and thought I'd share them
with you here...

Jenn & Bueno's First Book is Now On Sale!

Oh, what a red letter day in history. Today The Jennifer & Bueno Collection, the first ever book from Studio Bueno, goes on sale! Just in time for Christmas! Buy one for yourself! Buy them as gifts for your friends and family (and watch the disappointment dawn on their faces)!

Front and Back Cover

The book features every Jenn & Bueno illustration from 2008 (the holidays, the "Colors" series, the movie spoofs, the miscellanea), a select few from 2007, and several of the rough pencil prelims for pieces featured in the book.

$21.00, 50 pages, paperback, full color, 8.5" x 11", perfect binding.
Each book will be signed with a quick Bueno sketch. Please specify if you want it personalized (or don't want it signed at all).

ORDER YOURS HERE!

Jenn & Bueno: Turkey Terror (Take 2)

Yes, this is a remake of the exact same theme I went with for last year's J&B Thanksgiving art. I was never really satisfied with the final product last time, so rather than do an all new one this year, I wanted a do-over. Once again, I'll remind you, it's even better if you imagine the Benny Hill music playing in the background.

Happy Thanksgiving!
-Andrew

Make A Place In History

Here is another two-page comic that was done for U Magazine (Fall 2008 edition). In it we join Bill the Bill on his seventh adventure. This time he's having fun creating a time capsule (the blank areas were filled in by the client in the printed version).The client was Big Blue Dot. Enjoy!

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Go Team!

I am not really a sports fan. At all. Jennifer is not really the cheerleader type. At all. And yet here we have this picture. Probably no one knows why these sort of things come to pass. Let's just try to enjoy them anyway!

-Andrew

It's Showtime!

One more post for Halloween! I loved the Beetlejuice cartoon as a kid (or as an adolescent, which probably more accurately describes where I was back then). I actually liked it more than I ever liked the movie. So when I saw the movie on TV the other night...I had to do some cartoon fan art. One which is fairly on-model with the cartoon, and one featuring a slightly older version of Lydia (which was born out of my doodles in prep for the other piece, and I decided to finish it as well). Enjoy, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

-Andrew

In the original sketches below, note how TINY Lydia is next to Beetlejuice!
How did I not notice that until after I scanned it in???
Probably because I hadn't seen the cartoon in years, but really?
THAT tiny and I didn't notice?

Jenn & Bueno: Witch Way Did He Go?

Here's this year's Jenn & Bueno Halloween art. Instead of the "Jenn and Bueno dressed in costumes" theme I usually use, this time I thought I'd just depict them in a fictional Halloween scenario as actual Halloween-y characters. At any rate, now she knows why most witches have cats. Enjoy!

--Andrew

And here's a little bonus for you...this past weekend I attended a Halloween party, and here are a few pictures of my costume. Astute Studio Blog-O followers might remember a reference to me as Marty McFly last year, but that was just one I threw together on the fly (on the McFly?), thinking I might get to use it and I ended up not getting to. This year some thought went into it, and it got used. NEXT year I'll do something different. (Oh, and trivia? The family dog seen in the picture is Einstein, yes, named after Doc's dog in the movies. Wrong breed, but at least he finally got to pretend to be his namesake here in his old age.)

Original Character Meme

This is an Original Character Meme, the original of which was found on deviantart. I had a ton of fun doing this, visiting and revisiting my characters, past and present. It makes me want to do comics again! (Which is something I really should get more serious about).

I followed the rules and picked out and numbered the characters before reading the questions...and I think the scenarios played nicely into the characters personalities in many cases. Enjoy!

-Andrew

Since I don't do comics very often, here is a little background info on each of the characters I selected, just in case anyone's curious:

1-3: Drew, Jennifer and Bueno: Anyone who's visited my gallery even a few times, should recognize these already. Jenn & Bueno are my current trademark characters who are the focus of most of the illustrations I do these days, and they, along with Drew often appear in the "Heydaze" short comics I do very, very sporadically.

4. Cheer, a.k.a, Shia LaPeoufytail: A somewhat sullen squirrel I used to occasionally doodle in high school, and in recent months he's very unexpectedly turned up in a few Jenn & Bueno illos (his first appearance being in a spoof as "Shia LaPeoufytail"). So I thought he deserved a spot of the list.

5. Fatback & Skinny McLean: I did regular comics with Fataback & Skinny for several years, beginning in high school. Quite simply put, they're just a violent pair of dimwitted stickmen. They've been on a bit of hiatus for the past couple of years, but they still have a special place in my heart and may well see the light of day again on a regular basis somewhere down the road.

6. The Cat: One of my main characters in my high school and early college days. A wacky, cheerful-yet-stupid cat.

7. Grandpa Cat: The cat's grandpa, whom he lives with.

8. Heidi: Heidi has had a few incarnations, beginning in the high school days. In her current incarnation, I see her as Drew's sister and Jennifer's roommate (with whom she often clashes). But since I don't do comics, you don't really get to see that...yet, anyway. Heidi's also in a band.

9. Professor Buck Buckum: He is actually a new character that has yet to be used in comics, but he's turned up in may of my doodling and brainstorm sessions. Simply put: an evil, but somewhat incompetent mad scientist...his goals lack any real vision, and are often just an elaborate attempt to create a shortcut to some temporary need or desire of his at the expense of anyone unlucky enough to be in the way.

10. Beef: Another of the old high school characters. A rare, often though mythical, creature known as a bear-monkey. Beef is about as cool and laid-back as they come. And fiercely loyal.

Park People Sketches

These are sketches I did several weeks ago of a couple of interesting characters I regularly observed at the park when I'd walk there this summer. The guy who watched videos on his PSP while walking, and the always-shirtless dude who walked laps while playing a guitar. (The sketches were done from memory after the fact, not while actually at the park). Enjoy!

-Andrew

Heydaze: The Wrong Movie

First off, allow me to address that I've been having some problems with the server for my website lately...as a result, the images for almost the entire archive of my blog are currently missing. I apologize for the inconvenience, particularly to any first time visitors who wanted to browse. If you're one of those, check out my deviantart gallery in the meantime (new posts to this blog won't be affected). I'll try to have the problems fixed before too terribly long...I hope!

Now for this week's new update: Here's one of my very rarely produced Heydaze comics. It's very, very silly....so enjoy! (And there's actually an additional new blog update this week so please scroll down below and be sure not to miss that one!)

--Andrew

This comic is either a sequel to or a remake of this four year-old
Heydaze comic.

Also, just in the interest of self-promotion, I have the first ever Studio Bueno sponsored contest going over on my deviantart page. Details can be found in the journal entry on the main page.

Jenn & Bueno: Goobeetsafied!

I recently had the good fortune to do an art trade with Goobeetsa! You saw my half of the deal in last week's post, so now let me show you what I got in return: A very excellent Goobeetsa interpretation of Jennifer & Bueno!

As an added an unexpected bonus, Goobeetsa's wife, TheSweetestPea, created the world's very first plush Bueno doll! I believe this may possibly be the coolest thing ever in history, and upon seeing it, I think you'll be forced to agree.

Many thanks to Brian and Jen for these awesome pieces of art!

And as long as we're on the subject of Jenn & Bueno fan art and commissions, the talented MissLeo of deviantart was offering $5 commissions recently, so I took the opportunity to see her interpretation of Jenn & Bueno. Below is her black and white version, along with some colors that I added myself with permission. Enjoy!

--Andrew

Vizzini & Fezzik Commission

A recent commission I did featuring Vizzini & Fezzik from The Princess Bride. Later this week I'll post pictures of the cool stuff I got in return for this particular commission! For now, enjoy!

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Colors: Colorless

Here we have the grand conclusion of the Jenn & Bueno "Colors" series with "Colorless". Hope you've all enjoyed the series! Now comes the hard part, which is deciding what do do with them next! In the meantime I've got some other art to post in the coming days, including some commission work...and sharing some excellent Jenn & Bueno commissioned/fan art by other folks. For now, enjoy the lack of colors...

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Colors: Orange

The Jenn & Bueno "Colors" series continues! The ninth (and technically final) color is Orange. Bueno is sitting this one out, but he'll be back next time, when I officially conclude the "Colors" series with "Colorless". Enjoy!

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Colors: Blue

The Jenn & Bueno "Colors" series continues! The eighth color on the list is Blue. The sky is blue, so there you have it. One more color to go in the series--Orange! Then I'll close the series with "Colorless" after that...so stay tuned and enjoy!

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Colors: Black

The Jenn & Bueno "Colors" series continues! Here we feature the color Black. Looks like Bueno might have to change his name to BuEMO. HA! More colors are on the way. Enjoy!

--Andrew

(See an alternate background here.)

Jenn & Bueno: Colors: Yellow & Purple

The Jenn & Bueno "Colors" series continues! This time we have a double feature of Yellow and Purple. More colors are on the way. Enjoy!

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Colors: Brown

The Jenn & Bueno "Colors" series continues! This time Brown is the featured hue. Yeah, I know this isn't the most inspired take on the color, but at least it was marginally less obvious than chocolate or...something gross. More colors are on the way. Enjoy!

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Colors: Red & White

The Jenn & Bueno "Colors" series continues! This time we feature the colors Red and White. More colors are on the way. Enjoy!

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Colors: Green

Back in the spring I started doing a series of Jenn & Bueno illustrations inspired by different colors. In spite of the fact that most of them are finished, I haven't gotten around to posting any yet! So I decided I'd better start now before they all go stale or something.

The first color represented is, "Green"...the color of jealousy! Enjoy!
--Andrew

Goggle Dancer & The Hot Seat

For the first time in ages I participated in one of the monthly Drawing Jams at the Drawing Board. Of the two photos I tackled, I took small liberties with one and tremendous liberties with the other (I'll let you guess which was which, brilliant detectives). Enjoy!
Credit for the original source photos:
Model: Mosh, Photographers: Stuntkid (dancing pose) Christopher Smith (the other one)

--Andrew

Fix It, Toss It, or Sell It?

Here is another two-page comic that was done for U Magazine (Summer 2008 edition). In it we join Bill the Bill on his sixth adventure. This time he learns to be less wasteful by repairing or reusing old items instead of replacing them! The client was Big Blue Dot. Enjoy!

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: The Bark Knight

The Jenn & Buneo Summer Movie Spoof train just keeps on rolling! This time we have, naturally, a Dark Knight parody. (I saw the movie this weekend. My briefest personal summation is that Heath Ledger's Joker performance actually lives up to--if not surpasses--the hype. The rest of the movie...is not quite so spot-on as the hype led me to hope, but it's still a very good comic book movie. I like it for the most part!)
Enjoy the silly art!

--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Kristen-ized!

I (relatively) recently had the opportunity to commission the abundantly talented Kristen McCabe to do her interpretation of my Jennifer & Bueno characters. I gave her no guidelines whatsoever, only to bring her own style and vision to the duo. This week I finally saw the finished product and learned that I ended up getting not one but two pieces out of the deal! I thought I'd share them here. As you can see, each one is rather amazing--I can hardly wait get the originals in my hands! Thanks again, Kristen, and enjoy, everyone!

--Andrew