The 29 Year Design History of Missile Mouse


Hello!

Sorry I missed sending an email last week. I have been busy working on Children's Book Pro all week. We have about 2 more weeks of recording and then the class is done! Really proud of this one...and really excited to get this OFF my plate so I can get back to having the majority of my week be working on comics.

Here's 5 things I thought you'd appreciate this weekend:


1) The 29 Year Design History of Missile Mouse

From the Drawings Unit

Why do I keep coming back to this character after all these years?? I don’t know. Just when I think we’ve moved on from each other we get back to hanging out, going on adventures, fighting bad guys.⁣

I guess there’s a lesson in here on never giving up on your OC, or nurturing creativity in teens, or maybe dragging something on for way too long.⁣

Hope you got something out of it. ⁣


2) Fantastic Ukiyo-e Style Animated Short for Tokyo Olympics

From the Film and Animation Division

No these aren't ukiyo-e prints. These are stills from an animated short!

To promote the Tokyo Olympics on France TV they commissioned some brilliant team of artists to make this masterpiece. Unfortunately I can't figure out who made it.

Watch "Sumo - Jeux Olympiques d'été Tokyo 2021" here: LINK


3) I'd like to live in this world

From the Department of Creative Bank Accounting, Illustrators Division

I'm completely in love with the surreal yet calming illustrations of Chinese artist Jun Xingye.

See TONS more of his work here: LINK


4) Van Neistat is Making YouTube Videos

From the Arts and Culture Unit:

This is from the Arts and Culture Unit of JP Creative, because, well, this YouTube channel is art. Van isn't making YouTube videos, he's making FILMS.

I love the peaceful yet ambient vibe, the quiet industriousness of them, and especially that it's all narrated in the third person. His little bro is no stranger to YouTube, but clearly you can see why he looks up to his big brother so much. These videos have been my little, cool down treat at the end of the day.

I think YouTube is absolutely dominated by Millenial and Gen Z "content" creators, and suffers because of that. Van Neistat is a Gen X and his videos reflect a non digital, pre internet life that brings me back to my youth. It honestly feels like these were made in the 90s.

A couple favorites of mine:

Where the Spirited Man explains these "Unprecidented Times": LINK

Where the Spirited Man pines for a car he can't afford: LINK

Also, this interview with him about his career path is fascinating and think it should be standard viewing for High School graduates. LINK


5) The Value of Experience

From the Inspirational Thought Unit:

A quote I've been thinking about:

"Ignore anyone who tells you to go for security over experience."
-Patton Oswalt

As Alison (my wife) can attest to, I've made a lot of career decisions based on what will give me more experience versus what's more secure. What we've found though is that security follows experience, but rarely does experience follow security.

One example: I quit my perfectly stable, six-figure job in the animation industry to try being an independent artist and make books and do freelance. It has been a scary, hard, and incredibly bumpy road...but it has been RICH with experience.

I can confidently say I am a much stronger and more capable version of my self by choosing this path over staying at the day job.

I'm NOT saying that my path is the path for everyone. I just bring this up to remind myself where I'm at now. Am I still letting experience be a part of the equation in my decision making? Or am I choosing security? And am I okay with that?

I get really introspective around my birthday (last Monday). And these are the kind of questions I ask myself.

Again, this last section is mostly for me to work things out...hopefully it's helpful for you too!


That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!

-Jake


My sponsor for this newsletter is…me. It's me, because I'm not accepting sponsors for my email list, and don't plan to any time soon. Really, I'd just like people to buy stuff from my shop. If you like this newsletter, you can support it a few ways:

Order something from the shop (Best)

Back a kickstarter when I launch one (Also Best)

Share the newsletter with a friend (Second best)

Shop for art supplies using my affiliate links (Third best)

Mention it on social media (Forth best)

I'd appreciate any of these when you can. Thanks!

Hi! I'm Jake

My newsletter gives people a 5 minute infusion of inspiration to help them stay motivated to create.

Read more from Hi! I'm Jake

Issue 196 Hello, Work has been solid lately. I just delivered the first 100 pages of the graphic novel I'm working on. Can't wait to tell you about it when the publisher gives the OK. Things are also coming together for the reboot/glow up of SVSlearn.com. We are going to be taking our teaching to another level. More on that next month. Lots of great stuff to share today, so let's get to it. Here's FIVE things I thought you'd love as we roll into the weekend! Enjoy! STAYING IN THE LOOP: 3PP...

Issue 195 Hello, I've been neck deep on the big graphic novel project I'm working on with Scholastic. I can't really talk about it yet, but when the time comes you won't be able to get me to shut up about it. Haha. The rest of my time has been working on SVSlearn 2.0 which will be launching in November. I'll be sharing more about that as things start to solidify. It's going to be soooo cool! Okay, here's FIVE things I thought you'd love as we roll into the weekend! Enjoy! STAYING IN THE LOOP:...

Issue 194 Hello, My Comics Creator Head Start Workshop is next Saturday. We have over 20 people signed upI I would love to have you if you're wanting to learn how to save time in the comics process, and make work that matters. Enrollment closes next Friday night. July 20th and 27th. Mark your calendar, and enroll today: LINK COMICS WORKSHOP INFO Okay, here's FIVE things I thought you'd love as we roll into the weekend! Enjoy! STAYING IN THE LOOP: 3PP Podcast: Is My Work Ready for Market? 3PP...