Duck fans Across the "Pond"

We just returned from an exciting adventure to Europe where we had the opportunity to meet the friendliest fans of the Disney Afternoon and Feature work that Patty and I were fortunate to be a part of over the years. Before we set foot into the plane though, we both were working hard months earlier to create something special for the collectors that were already contacting us about the events. In fact more than a year earlier I was commissioned to create an oil painting while Patty was likewise asked to create another of her stunning "cloth creations" which have become so well known and collected at the Disney Parks.

My better half and I began creating some new pieces in our little studios. Obviously a certain miserly mallard from Duckburg, Uncle Scrooge McDuck, is one of our favorite subjects! My painting, "Portrait of Success," is in oil and I actually let it dry for over 8 months before applying the Damar varnish. Patty created her piece, "Number One Dime",  entirely from thread, cloth, and a bit of stuffing hench the branding phrase she uses, "Cloth Creations". She was constantly cutting, re-cutting and trying new cloth and thread combinations over many weeks to get it exactly the way she wanted it.

Carefully adding the varnish

From the ODOR IN THE COURT Dept: After carefully and s-l-o-w-l-y drying the painting in a custome drying box (with side vents) over a period of just under a year it was ready for the final application. Applying a couple of coats of old school Winsor Newton Dammar varnish over my dried oil portrait painting of Scrooge McDuck was a bit daunting. I heated up a jar of Dammar within a bowl of boiling water and just a hint of turpentine in the traditional method to help thin it a wee bit so it would go on smoothly. The varnish really brought all the color back to life! Very happy how it all came together, except for that smell. A day later and the smell is almost gone!
As Scrooge might say, "It all makes SCENTS now."

This photo of Patty and I was taken moments before they open the doors of the event to the public. (They're expecting over 28,000!) The jet lag might be there but hopefully no one will notice. Patty said if I start to get sleepy she'll be happy to pour cold water over my head. (what a doll!)

It's times like this when we're signing with paint pens, that I'm glad my name doesn't have too many letters. And for those wondering, NO, I am not about to sign the tablecloth. They had just removed a stack of glicees I had signed before they took this pic. They did an amazing job reproducing my oil painting 1 to 1 size on heavy weight acid free paper.

But let me tell you about Patty's latest Cloth Creation. I really love what she has created and the photo here on the right really doesn't do it justice. Eveyone's eyes pop and jaws drop when they see it up close. I will say though that the glicee reproductions of her cloth are actually are so sharp you might think they are the original cloth instead of the stretched canvas surface! It is truly a magnificent piece fit for Scrooge's Money Bin Gallery!

An interesting bit of trivia, Patty went with the traditional red coat used in European comics and older Disney editions while I went with the blue coat we used on our original series of DuckTales. (I prefer the red one, but don't tell anyone.)

This event also gave me the opportunity to pay tribute to my old friend Carl Barks and his character creation and the inspiration for our DuckTales series in a sculpted form in addition to the oil painting. This is the first of a series of animated characters I am sculpting that will be released as a resin cast with a gold color finish (what else would Uncle Scrooge have preferred!) and the bronze version will be a later edition.

This wasn't a sketch sent overseas to have someone else sculpt which is unfortunately the norm for most Disney collectable pieces these days. instead, I drew it out in sketches and sculpted this piece myself. Scrooge McDuck and future Disney cartoon animation legends will also be posed atop the sculpted version of my trusty old animation disc. This was my original prototype and I was playing around with tints. The resin will be completely one color (Scrooge McDuck prefers the gold hue) but the later bronze may have value tints and even colors. The resin was reproduced beautifully and is in an even smoother finish than this.
I was surprised that no one I spoke with overseas was familiar with the base that I made which was "based" on an old animation disc.

These are a few of the lovely people we met over the three days we were there.

Patty and I have been blessed to meet so many incredible fans at the event. One person took a boat for 3 hours from the island they lived on to get there to see us and purchase a signed sculpture. Another got up at 5AM and drove over 4 hours for a print of the oil and an original pastel!
Thank you to everyone who has made our visit so memorable including Koushi, Kamilla, Brian, Paw, Tora, Anders, Glenn and especially Niels and to everyone who stopped by our table. We are truly humbled at all of these amazing fans and it is an honor and privilege to be able to spend time with them.

Like all good things, even this lively fan event came to an end but as they say when one door closes, another one opens. Well that doorway was to Tivoli Gardens! Walt Disney visited here many times and found inspiration for his park to be called Disneyland. Patty is waiting for me to take the dern photo so we can get into the park.

The park opened on August 15, 1843 and is the third-oldest operating amusement park in the world. Tivoli is always evolving without abandoning its original charm or traditions. George Carstensen said in 1844: "Tivoli will never, so to speak, be finished", a sentiment echoed just over a century later when Walt Disney said of his own Tivoli-inspired themed park- "Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world".

It's therefore no secret that Walt was extremely impressed with Tivoli Gardens and studied elements of it as a basis for his future park to be called Disneyland. Lillian and Walt enjoying one of their many visits to Tivoli while Walt trades his usual skimmer hat for a bearskin shako in the photo on the left.

When I was 3 1/2 years old in New Orleans, my dad gave me a bit of his steak at a steak house in the Big Easy. It was the best thing I have ever eaten and have searched with no luck across the globe for that same taste since. Well, we found it in Tivoli Gardens where Patty and I had the most scrumptious birthday dinner at Groften's Restaurant in Tivoli Gardens! The service and meal were the best! What a wonderfully romantic evening!!

As empty as the gardens were, this place was packed, and with good reason. The food was the best I've had in a long time,... outside of Patty's cooking (whew! close call). All those years later and I finally located that delicious steak flavor, in another country!

After celebrating our birthdays with that delicious dinner, we left the restaurant and got something to drink from the local cauldron to wash down a swirl of cotton candy. We got the inside dope where to stand for the animated water and light show and we were not disappointed.

If the place looks fairly empty, it's because being the last day of the season,... it was pretty much was. We weren't complaining as there were no lines for anything, and it was simply beautiful!

Tivoli Gardens is such a lovely park and made even more magical with the cool light mist that was wafting throughout the evening. We got the inside dope where to stand for the animated water and light show and we were not disappointed. If the place looks fairly empty, it's because being the last day of the season,... it was pretty much was. We weren't complaining as there were no lines for anything, and it was simply beautiful! Here is Tivoli's iconic whale's mouth snack stand with the old lighthouse next door still illuminating the area. You can probably tell that it was cold and a light drizzle of a fine mist permeated the park. Patty and I just loved it as it is certainly a change from perpetually warm and sunny Southern California.

It's easy for us folks with squeaky knees to walk around across Copenhagen as it's relatively flat, like a few of my jokes. Patty and walked across this bridge twice a day. The view of Nyhavn, Copenhagen along the canal is lovely, even when it's overcast.
Our lovely Copenhagen apartment is just around the corner but out of respect to the owner who graciously gave it to us during the stay I won't show any photos or give the address.
Every turn in this beautiful city presented us with yet another stunning view of magnificent architecture and friendly people. It's nice to see folks embrace and hold onto their architectural history and culture.

The sign by the way is from a little neighborhood cafe and is advertising their delicious homemade Lentil soup with bread.

We had to visit the Little Mermaid statue while we were here. There was a small group of kind people there that helped us get closer (to Ariel) on those slippery wet rocks without falling into the water, and took the photo for us.

Another checkoff from the bucket list. Well, we have to pack now and head home. SO relieved we don't have Covid!

Scrooge McDuck!

I was recently asked to do an oil painting of one of my favorite miserly fine feathered friends, Scrooge McDuck. He is of course officially licensed by Disney and will be unveiled in the fall. This is a photo Patty took of me up in the studio tickling old Scrooge with my paint brush.

Terrors That Flap in the Night...

This was a very quick little doodle I did for a neighbor's child that is having a rough time with the Coronavirus safety guidelines. His mom was lamenting she had to take him with her to the store to pick up groceries but he refused to wear a mask or use the hand gel. He is a new fan to the original Disney Afternoon. He is binge watching with mom during the quarantine and especially loves the old DuckTales and Darkwing Duck series. I sent this over via email, keeping that 6 foot distance they recommended, and he loved it!

He even washed his hands now!

DuckTales 30th Anniversary!

D23 is the biggest Disney fan event of the year and eagerly awaited by fans around the world. For this year’s 2017 event,  I did a tribute illustration to a series that I had a key role in bringing to the small (and big) screen, DuckTales. You can click on this link to read behind the scenes of the original series and see a little of the concept art I created for it along with stories of its creation and fabulous and very talented crew I was fortunate to work with.

This summer when D23 erupts, Disney Television Animation will be unveiling a new version of DuckTales while at the same time celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the beloved series that is credited with being the very cornerstone of the Disney Afternoon. Has it really been that long? Well, in one word, yes! WOO HOO!

All in a day's work for me back in the 80s

Marc Buhaj, Senior Vice President Programming at Disney XD had made the announcement a couple of years ago that a new series based on the late 1980s hit show would be coming to TV in 2017. Well here we are finally and the newest version is set to travel on more amazing adventures. It will include the same beloved characters from our old series including Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Launchpad, Donald Duck, Gyro Gearloose, Magica DeSpell, Ma Beagle and her boys and all the rest of the Disney denizens of Duckburg.

Boy do I wish we had the digital tools back in the day when we cranked out the old series. In those days it was strictly the "3 P's ", paper, pencil and paint! Oh the things we could have done with a Cintiq during the limited time we were allowed for the shows! Oh well, those bells and whistles can now be appreciated with the latest incarnation that will be exploding across small screens this summer. I can only wish the new crew the best and hope they achieve as much success and appreciation among the fans with their reboot as we were able to enjoy with the original series. Both crews, old and new were and are incredibly talented!

One of my old concept pieces for the original series

For the original series, there were definite changes in the character design along with the look of the backgrounds. I didn’t use Carl Bark’s look of the McDuck Mansion which was simply laid out as more rectangular, and decided to design a sprawling country manor home with helio-port, swimming pool and so on. I naturally incorporated the dollar sign motif into everything I could think of while design those areas to celebrate McDuck's love of money. I was very apprehensive when I ran these designs by Carl to get his feedback. To my relief he laughed and though they were great. He said, “I wish I had thought of that!”  Of course he was being humble as he was the man who had created the entire realm of Duckburg, it’s citizens their exciting adventures and I was just giving my take on some revisions for some key locations.

The new crew of DuckTales

Nevertheless I know I actually blushed with that compliment as it was from the master himself. There would not have been a DuckTales series or a reboot if not for Carl and his comics creation.
For the record, (I know there is discussion among DuckTales fans about it) Carl actually really enjoyed the first season of the animated series. I can share that viewpoint because that is what he told me. All of our artistic endeavors went through the talented hands of Brad Landreth, great friend and head Art Director of the series.

Frank Angones and Matt Youngberg share the Co-Producers hats along with shepherding storylines to make sure the new DuckTales does its lineage proud. From what I’ve seen, it does exactly that!While the old characters from the original show were constructed in the traditional rounded shapes, the new versions are made up of more straights and sharper edges which is a very interesting departure and will definitely be a fresh take. Tim Moen is one of the key artists heading up character design on the show and is part of the extremely talented crew. When the studio invited me over to see the early design look for the new version, it was still being fleshed out within a fairly slightly grayed color scheme.

My 30th Anniversary piece sold out the 1st Day!

Since then, the palette was pushed slightly more into a realm of saturation by its brilliant art director Sean Jimenez and I think it really helped breathe more life into the cool settings. The backgrounds are simplified in their design compared to the original series and use a linear floating line over underlying swatches of subdued hues with crisp dynamic shapes. Together with the spunky character styling this is certainly a fresh new look for the old series and I applaud them for trying something so bold and dynamic.

For my tribute piece, I wanted the old original cast that I had worked on headed up by their fearless leader Uncle Scrooge to be rounding an old winding stairwell and coming face to face, er… make that beak to beak, with their mirror images of the new reboot of the series.You can see a small closeup snippet of my new painting on the left showcasing a few of the original members who have just come across something  that has taken their breath away and stopped them cold in their tracks. That something is of course their duck dopplegangers. The new painting was unveiled this summer at D23 to coincide with the new series. I had hoped the old fans as well as the new fans would enjoy my painting as the tribute it is meant to be to the old and the new and was happily surprised.The original painting, all of the giclee framed prints and the entire run of deluxe prints sold out the very first day they were offered at D23! WOO HOO!!

DuckTales Deja Vu

One of the underground lost temples of "DuckTales"

Sometimes one ponders whether he or she might, "...solve a mystery or rewrite history." (Hmmm... sombody outa put dat to music) Well I recently got the chance to do just that with a return to the world of DuckTales. No I'm not "quacking up", you see, DuckTales is once again heading to the small screen although this time I'm not talking about your television screen. 

Thanks to Capcom and Wayforward Studios, we will be able to join Uncle Scrooge during his worldwide adventures and even dive into a refreshing swim in his money bin without leaving the comfort of your home. Yes, coming to a PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, Wii and PC this summer will be the DuckTales family we've all enjoyed watching over the years as one of the top rated animated series ever to surf the television waves.

Various versions of snow covered Himalayas

I was contacted and asked if I had any old sketches I could loan the crew to help with visuals since I designed the look of the original DuckTales series. They also wondered if I could recommend anyone to design new locations in my style (whatever that is? ). Yes, I did know someone, me... Mike Peraza!  The director told me they had wanted me but didn't think I would be interested, are you kidding me? If you look past my baby fat in recent photos you'll see I'm a starving artist! And so I quickly re-enlisted for DuckTales  duty before they could change their minds and was soon busy sketching out locations from foreboding castles to Magical mountain fortresses to ancient jungle temples to spaceships, well you get the idea.

I'm completely surrounded by the
amazing WayForward animators!

It was a DuckTales Deja vu!  I was happily surprised how quickly I returned to the old series style after an absence of 25 years and the director and staff at Wayforward Studios were really a fun, professional and gifted bunch of "quackups" to work with. Austin Ivansmith was the Director along with Matt Bozon as Creative Director and between those two I was always given clear detailed descriptions of each setup they wanted me to draw and was even offered helpful suggestions on a couple of pieces I just wasn't sure about. I would do some quick rough thumbnails and send them via email to Austin who would then discuss them with Matt as to which version they wanted to see taken into final tight renders or sometime in full color. Oh the joys of working from home in my DuckTales Pajamas and slippers. Certainly couldn't do that back in the days of the original series, well maybe on "casual fridays.".


Tim Curry and other technical artists would slice my designs up into something resembling our old multiplane setups from Disney for a 3 dimensional look to the sideways scrolling action. Animators like Sasha Palacio would then work their magic using traditional and cutting edge CGI to bring the Duckburg cast back to life. The time flew by but I was just happy to have worked with this amazing amazing group called Wayforward and to have had a small part in resurrecting such a beloved property. Hey maybe with all this excitement we can bring back the series with fresh new episodes? There's lots more adventures we haven't even touched on and with the latest technology we could do this even better and without breaking the bank of Duckburg. There's obviously a big audience out there that would love it! Well who knows, maybe somebody from the studio will read this and give it a try.

A few more location roughs and concepts

Not long ago Patty and I had a grand tour of Wayforward Studios and they showed us various sections of the game in rough and semi-finished form and I have to tell you, it really looks like fun!  I just wish they'd hurry and finish so I can join Uncle Scrooge on some wild adventures.  Wayforward Studios and Capcom have created quite asome highly successful games that are enjoyed around the world but I can't help but think that this latest title will be the best yet.

Yes folks, "...life is a duck blur in Duckburg!"

"GOOFY TROOPERS" PART 2 by Mike Peraza

Ever notice the alarm clock sounds louder on Monday?

My spiel went as follows, "Goofy is a recognized star of Disney animation, so why re-invent the wheel? His son is an average kid dealing with many of the usual issues they face: peer pressure, young love, grades, school bullies, and so on. On top of all that, he has the zaniest, wackiest GOOFIEST dad to live down. No matter how insane the situations get though, they will always love each other. They're a family." Gary asked how I would pitch it and I replied, "It's ONE day in  the life of Goofy and son. From getting up in the morning to fixing breakfast, we see their difference side by side as his son tries to distance himself. No matter what though he knows deep inside that his father will always be there for him, whether he likes it or not."

MAKE WAY! GOOFY COMING THROUGH, YAHOEE!!

Gary sat back and beamed, "Love it!" then told me to get started. At this point I was a mixture of joy and worry. My flapping gums might have just gotten me into trouble again. Was I going to be able to pull off this concept? If not it would definitely be my fault for opening up a can of worms and my mouth at the same time. The great news that buoyed me was the attachment of a Producer to the project, Robert Taylor. I wasn't really familiar with Robert's accomplishments at that point but I was soon to be up to speed. I know I sound like I gush when describing some of these people I was lucky to work with but Robert taylor was amazing even among that stellar crowd.

They call me, " Mr. Taylor!"

I met with Robert and went over the same speech I had just been through with Gary and I could tell he liked my concept. I admit looking back at my pitch years later, that it was hardly revolutionary but it was definitely better than the previous ideas being bounced around. Robert was a very easy going and wonderful guy and I was glad he would be producing. I quickly came up with the next door neighbors, Peg Leg... I mean Pete. Yes, even back in "Mickey's Christmas Carol" I was told never to refer to him as "Peg-Leg Pete" but simply Pete. Pete was a natural who played as an antagonist much like he had in many of the Disney shorts where he had been paired up with either Mickey, Donald or Goofy. After designing Goofy's son Max along with Pete's son, I gave Pete a gorgeous wife and daughter. It was all very fast paced akin to playing in a sandbox.

Breakfast burnt to order by GOOFY!

When Gary came by my office to check up on my "sandcastle" of doodles, he gave us the thumbs up. It was obvious we had clicked into a good vibe concerning Goofy and how his dynamics would work in this family sitcom. Everything was now going smooth, until I was reminded that the pitch was next Monday and it was now already Tuesday. Why can't anything ever be easy? Right about this time is when most concept artists wish they had either been involved earlier or at the very least had all that time back to do justice to their visuals.

Father & Son fishing trip

Well anyway the pitch was just under a week which really wasn't bad. I cleaned up my sketches and showed Goofy and son going through an "average day" together from the first "klang!klang!klang! "of the alarm clock through a harrowing fishing trip and heartfelt consolation from dad to son after losing a baseball game 1,000,000 to 0, keeping up with the neighbors and lots of fun stuff to connect the dots.

Gary OK'd the setups I presented to him and so I went to final color. I don't like doing the same thing over and over pitch wise and I was inspired by the beautiful "Baby Weems" story sketches from the 1941 Walt Disney film, "The Reluctant Dragon," starring Robert Benchley. They had a loose bits of spot color from pastels not quite covering the a rough line in a sepia hue. They gave a wonderful look and I wanted to try something in that vein. The sketches I'm including here are only my roughs before I re-rendered them in color for the pitch. I don't have any copies of my final color, or at least I haven't come across them yet but will post them if I do.

I  based this on my neighbor's kids' skate ramp

I finished the color setups and brought them in to Gary who inflated my enormous ego further by telling me they were incredible.  Did I mention Gary is a man of impecible judgement and taste? Well obviously he is! We took the pitch and in our usual flamboyant and entertaining styles presented it to the suits. I have to admit I do a pretty darn good Goofy voice which certainly helped. Before we knew what had happened, we had yet another new series on the Disney horizon.

Once again my main contribution was to do the concept/pitch as an amazing crew did the actual broadcast shows. "Goof Troop" premiered as a TV movie which was later chopped up into a pilot serial. I have to credit the staff of all-star artists that was attached to it for making this a success. Besides evolving into a very popular series, "Goof Troop" would spawn a very successful movie, "A Goofy Movie" which was in turn based almost exactly on my original pitch in 1995 and another direct-to-video in 2000 while producing the usual line of collectible merchandise to accompany the new franchise. In the end I was satisfied that Goofy had kept his klutzy and likable demeanor intact and that we had not screwed up a classic Disney icon but had introduced him to a new generation of fans, a-yuk...a-yuk... gwarsh!

"GOOFY TROOPERS" PART 1 by Mike Peraza

Just a few of the Goof Troop early "miss-fires"

"Goof Troop" had been in development for quite a while before I came in to the mix. In case you've ever wondered why the name seems to be about a troop when the actual series isn't, I'll tell you. The creative executive assigned to oversee its development originally concieved it as Goofy with the rank of Head Scoutmaster in charge of a bunch of young scouts. Not bad but limiting if we were to use that as a basis for every episode. We would watch their uproarious adventures as they pitched tents, learned secret oaths, cooked s'mores and tied knots. Well maybe there was just a little more to it than that, but not much.

Being the good soldier I was, and being that I was being paid to do it, I cranked out a bunch of situations with the character designs that had been drawn up to that point. I don't know how many of you reading this have ever wondered exactly what Goofy was. I mean was he a human, a large rodent, a dog? Well if you picked door number three, you are correct! Sorry, no trip to Disneyland for the winners this time though. What you do win is the opportunity  to hear how "Goof Troop" became the series it is know as today. When embarking on a series involving a famous character from Walt Disney's original stable of stars can be daunting. One has only to view some of Jack Kinney's incredible Goofy shorts or marvel at Art Babbit's or Woolie Reitherman's animation to appreciate the rich pantomime and hilarious antics that the "Goof" has brought to audiences around the world for many years. I hoped that whatever we were going to create at Walt Disney Television Animation did justice to that rich heritage.

In search of a series...

I had just finished up a batch of other show concepts when I was asked to help out with some pitch art on a new show entitled, "Goof Troop" that was becoming bogged down in the early stages of developement. As I started working on the pitch concepts I quickly realized that there was no clear direction for the show as yet. I was growing concerned working on the endless ill-conceived setups thought up by the new Creative Executive that had just been hired. The Creative exec wasn't a bad person by any means, in fact far from it. He was actually a very fun guy to talk to, but this was his first job in the world of film making and he just didn't quite have a clue what to do with this Goofy character and I was getting worried about the approaching deadline. To his creative credit, every week he seemed to have found a brand new approach to the show. Although while I was doodling versions of the show that were destined to never see the light of the TV screen,  the pitch date remained etched in stone and kept creeping closer. Various versions would find their way to the surface only to sink again into the wasteland known as the roundfile (trashcan). One moment Goofy was the Captain of the Fire Department, the next day a detective out of the Maltese Falcon mold, or a swash buckling hero fighting The Flying Dutchman.

I don't blame Goofy for being upset

The supporting cast he came up with really wasn't very supportive when you consider they sometimes included alien dragon babies with wings along with a large gorilla. Somebody at Walt Disney Television Animation must have really had a thing for giant gorillas around this time as they were plugged into almost every concept we  assembled.  It wasn't unusual to do a series of setups in the morning using one cast of characters only to redo the same scenes again in the afternoon with a different cast of characters. Check the subway setups above and the only character to make it from the morning cast to the afternoon cast was Goofy. Imagine combining angular sketchy characters with the style of Disney's Robin Hood with the more rounded ones from DUMBO, they just weren't meant to be in the same show. The consistency of style for the pitch was being ignored. As we kept dumping each previous set of ideas for the latest flavor, the idea of doing a show with a Disney star like Goofy was fading fast. I was called down to the Creative exec's office for yet another round of NEW ideas for the show.

With Goofy as Fire Captain, things were bound to heat up

The latest  idea this fellow had was to put Goofy into Toontown. Within the same meeting Goofy went from being the driver of Benny the talking Cab to driving a talking SUV (they were just becoming popular at the time) named Woody.  Roger Rabbit had been recently screened at the studio and had given birth to this latest burst of inspiration. I tried to explain to him why I wasn't sure it would work, after all I had worked on with Bob Zemekis doing concept art on "Roger Rabbit" so I thought I just might understand its conception just a bit better perhaps. I explained that in Toontown, everything is alive from the trees to the cars and even the buildings and the sky.

What made it special was the crossover from live action into this zany world. And speaking of zany, if Goofy is in a goofy world, is he still really Goofy? Not to mention we were probably not going to get the internationaly licensed animation cast of the movie version of Toontown like Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny, etc... He listened to me politely, ... then ignored everything I had just said and told me to start doing Toontown setups with Goofy and leave the visionary part to him. It was definitely a one-way street as far as any creative input was concerned on this project and we were headed for a bump in the road.

At this point I really have to add that while Goofy was definitely not exactly this young exec's "cup of tea", he would eventually distinguish himself by developing what would become a highly successful and wildly popular series down the road in more of an animation action genre. As he gained experience over the years he has proved himself a hard working exec who has helped shepard a couple of very solid and popular shows. Some series concepts just gravitate towards more real world action themes while others are much more at home with employing a looser "toony" feel for their world. Goofy was definitely in the "toony" realm and it just wasn't jelling in his otherwise capable hands. 

Goofy doing some soggy but sharp shooting at his boss

I went back to my room. The junior exec's ideas were indeed giving me ideas, hmmm... throw the junior exec off the roof, slip him a mickey(not the mouse), wire his chair? As these sordid thoughts wafted through my head, I cranked out a couple of  attempts at a Goofy Toontown and the SUV character. My phone rang. It was from Gary Krisel, President of Walt Disney Television Animation, who wanted to check on the progress of my development for the Goofy show. Coincidence? I doubt it. Hey maybe I was getting fired? Well at least then I wouldn't be blamed for helping to bring down a Disney star.

As I walked down the hall I could almost hear a distant memory from schooldays, "Michael Peraza, please report to the Principle's office..." I went over to his room, we closed the doors. Gary and I had a great relationship and he was very interested in my honest opinion of the Goofy show.  As always, I was very straight with him. I told him I didn't think we had any show to present. He didn't seem surprised at my statement and so I went into length about all the different scenarios that had been started and stopped ending with the latest Toontown suggestion. When I again described my reasons why I didn't think it would work, he agreed completely. Thank goodness!  Just as no two artists are completely alike, neither are the executives. He then leaned over and asked me the question, one that I had already mulled over in my mind, "OK, what would YOU do?" I have to admit, I had been secretly hoping for such a chance. I'm such a bbbaaaaddd boy sometimes.

"Double-O-Darkwing"

An early design sketch of mine for the pitch.

"DuckTales" had been a wildly successful series for Walt Disney Television.  It was inevitable that among the 100 episodes produced for the "DuckTales" series that somewhere among those stories would lurk a possible spinoff. "What do you mean spinoff?" you say? "Disney would consider spinoffs?"  Well, like pretty much all the Hollywood studios, in one word- YES!  Sometimes they turn out well, and other times you wonder why they even made a sequel (moolah). However this project was to turn into the kind of spinoff to be very proud of. "Double-O_Duck " and "The Masked Mallard" were a couple of "DuckTales episodes that were able to stay around in the minds of a few folks back at the studio. They originally aired on November 17th and 18th, 1989 respectively during the DuckTales run. The original concept had Launchpad McQuack not Drake Mallard, as the star of the show. "Double-O-Duck" was written by outstanding DuckTales regulars Ken Koonce and David Wiemers, and along with "The Masked Mallard", became very popular in the "DuckTales" universe. So popular that they would be at the top of a very short list of sequels to be placed into active development and ultimately become a new show a year after "DuckTales uttered its last quack.

My bridge secret lair suggestion and its cable "road"

Tad Stones had been sheparding this spinoff into a pitch and with the sudden demise of the new "Bullwinkle Show",  Mike Peraza was an artist wandering aimlessly without a series and became immediately available for show concepts and washing windows. As I wasn't crazy about heights, I chose the former. There had already been a number of character pieces done based on the original shows that I was given for reference. Gary Krisel and Tad both asked me to "Disney-fy" the characters up a bit while still keeping the original design intact. I wasn't crazy about the original Double-O-Duck character designs.

The models exhibited little exaggeration or interesting dynamics within their shapes. Double-O resembled a stiff sterilized combination of the absolute dullest features from 2 otherwise great iconic mallards: Donald Duck and Daffy Duck. The beak was too short with barely any curve, the head was so round you would think they had regressed to tracing nickles to get the shape. To be fair, you have to realize that the character design this was being based on was most likely created in less than an hour during our fast paced "DuckTales" days and was obviously never intended to be a star in his own right or to stand out too much since he was created as a sidekick for Launchpad in those episodes. Even though our hands were tied with character art, Tad wisely made some changes in the premise including reversing the two roles so that Drake Mallard, alias Double-O-Duck was now the star instead of  just second banana. He would live in a quiet suburban home with his adopted daughter Gosalyn,  Launchpad would now fill the sidekick slot, and Honker Middlefoot the son of a next door neighbor  would also come along on the adventures.  When villainy attacked the fair feathered city of Saint Canard, Drake would change into his super hero alter ego, Double-O-Duck!

I just thought it might be fun

This was now Friday morning and the presentation was Monday. Yeah... no kidding. I sat down with Tad and went over ideas for setups that would give the feeling of this show and hopefully help sell the pitch. We tossed all the setups that had been done to date by another crew and started with a fresh slate. The pieces done originally for the presentation made the show look like another extension of DuckTales. Tad and I wanted something more visually exciting and with a combination of "The Shadow", "James Bond", "Green Hornet", "The Scarlet Pimpernel", and the new Tim Burton film, "Batman" mixed into the artwork so I kept that direction in mind while sketching. I VERY quickly drew up over a dozen pieces in thumbnail size and showed these roughs to Tad. He liked most of them and gave suggestions to bring them closer to what he wanted and round filed a few of my less successful sketches.

 Storysketch I based on Tad's script

I still wasn't happy with the Double-O-Duck design but this was the character design we were using and at this point we were behind the 8-ball time wise. After lunch I xeroxed my drawings up in size to about 8 inches across and did a rough color pass over each with pastels. I had one of the few balconies with a sliding door so that I could go outside and spray matte fixative on the pastels to keep them from smudging. Tad also had a balcony and each time he heard my door slide open, he closed his to avoid the evil odors of asphyxiation wafting over into his domicile. I didn't blame him. My goal was (and I met it ) to have all the setups roughed and in color before the end of the day and then go home over the weekend and complete them in a larger 11" x 17" size for the pitch presentation. That was one of many "lost weekends" serving the mouse factory. Lost weekends it seems are a part of most animation folk I've known and worked with. It seems no matter how long something has been in development talks, there is ALWAYS a last minute, "we needed it yesterday" pressure that comes up right before a presentation date.

Very quickie setup, no time for reference or studies.

On Monday, I brought the artwork for the pitch in and Tad and Gary were thrilled with it. My only guess was that they must have had a great weekend but who am I to argue. I had added a location atop a cable suspension bridge where Double-O could have a secret base of operations to look out over the city and bay of Saint Canard. I also had a "car lift" to use one of the few vehicle designs we salvaged from the earlier artwork. Tad had mentioned having him ride on a motorcycle so I thought it would be a dynamic shot if I had him ride it directly up the cable to his secret hide-a-way. Tad loved the idea and I included those setups in the pitch. Thank goodness my simple chunky motorcyle design along with the rather pedestrian old model car was later put on some artistic steroids for the series resulting in those very cool Darkwing vehicles he uses to track down the villains with. Tad wrote a very entertaining script for the verbal part of the presentation that would have made a great radio show all by itself without any artwork to back it up. I pushed the Darkwing design slightly by elongating his beak and fluffing his cheek feathers. The pitch went very well, especially when you realize we had originally planned to be presenting the new update "Bullwinkle" show instead of a last minute replacement named "Double-O-Duck".

tomboy baking her first cake

One interesting side note was the when Jeffery Katzenberg saw the secret lair on and in the tower, he remarked that it reminded him of the "Great Mouse Detective" (Basil ) clock tower which he said might be a "good thing." Since I had developed both of these locations, I took it as a compliment. The truth was that I had zero time to develop the idea beyond my basic proposal and so relied on my own memories sans any reference and motivated by sheer desperation. The pitch included my color setups along with the character suggestions by Bob Kline who would go on to do spectacular Art development for "Talespin". In fact in my opinion it was his stunning designs along with some great pieces done by Carol Police that made the "Talespin" series such a visual treat, but that as they say, is another story. To say I wasn't very happy with my pitch artwork shown here is an understatement but you have to keep in mind that it was done in a couple days from beginning to end, or at least that's my only excuse. The bottom line is though, the series sold!

A dingy dank dark desolate artwork encrusted alley in St. Canard

Two major changes were to come next. The first was renaming the show. As it turned out, "Double-O" was copyrighted by "007" creator Ian Fleming and owned outright by "007" movie producer Albert R. Broccoli. We had skated by unseen with one "DuckTales" episode but they were not going to allow a new series to do the same with a knock-off of their registered name. So we went  from the overtly sounding James Bond spin "Double-O-Duck" to the overtly sounding "Batman" take, "Darkwing Duck". Still, it was an improvement. The main character got redesigned, thank goodness, through the talent of Toby Sheldon, one of those Disney artists who just can't make an unappealing character design, and gave him the dynamic look you saw on the series. The even larger cheeks were an obvious adaptation of Roger Rabbit's head shape but it worked well in that it separated Darkwing from his famous cousins, Donald and Daffy. Tad included catch phrases (all the best super heroes had em') like,  "I am the screeching fingernail on the chalkboard of justice!" and "I am the terror that flaps in the night,  I am the batteries that are not included. I am Darkwing Duck!". Obviously some lines worked a little better than others.

A doodle I did of St Canard's waterfront based on Naw'lins

Like most of the work I did for WDTVA, I moved onto the next set of concepts for new shows, commercials and specials and didn't work on the actual series. Tad  and my "DuckTales" buddy Alan Zaslove supervised production of the show and with their expertise along with a solid talented crew, this series would become yet another notch in the Disney TV belt running from 1991 to 1995. "Darkwing Duck" was the first Disney Afternoon offering that was created as a parody of a specific genre. It was a marvelous send-up of superhero , pulp fiction presented within a canvas of film noir imagery. You would think that after cancellation, that would be it for our mighty mallard but only recently Disney revised the franchise by licensing an ongoing monthly comic book series entitled, "The Duck Knight Returns." I mean really, can a new series be far behind?   Do I hear... "LETS GET DANGEROUS!"

Bullwinkled

A quick sketch I did for a pitch that was never presented.

It was in early August 1989  and I had recently finished up with Little Mermaid when I once again returned to Walt Disney TV. It was a different animal entirely by then. The once tiny staff had ballooned enormously and had taken over much of the once almost empty address on Cahuenga. I eventually found my  all official looking name tag formally spelling out  Michael Perazza instead of Michael Peraza, posted on a nice room with a balcony view. I figured with a room like this, the spelling was close enough. I was just moving in when I got a call to come to a meeting. I was immediately asked to help kick off a new series idea that Gary Krisel, President of Walt Disney Television Animation, along with Tad Stones were putting together for a pitch.  Gary was an unusual executive in that he was approachable with suggestions and took time to listen to any valid opinions. He had taken a wildly diverse background in finance and marketing and progressed from producing hit records as president of Disney's Worldwide Music Publishing to overseeing some very successful animated creations for Disney TV. Like most of us, Gary was also a fan of the old classic Jay Ward show "Rocky and His Friends" later to be know as its more famous moniker "The Bullwinkle Show". Tad  was the point person on this and he was likewise excited over the possibilities. I remember all too distinctly though, my first question to both of them. "So does Disney actually OWN the rights to these guys?" I went on to explain that I had been to Universal Studios only the day before and watched the "Rocky and Bullwinkle" live show right next to the "Duddley-Do-Right" Emporium, so how could Disney have the rights? Gary answered quickly that we (Disney) did in fact own, "all the video rights." That answer didn't quite settle my questioning little mind but I assumed we wouldn't be going forward into development without the rights all sewed up. Boy was I ever wrong.

A few of the sketches I made for the pitch

Jay ward created many iconic characters for his shows  including Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick and Super Chicken. Those of use who like to start out our mornings right will never forget his other creations like Cap'n Crunch, Quisp and Quake breakfast cereals. His Bullwinkle show however was most likely his most fondly remembered cast. He had segments within the show such as "Fractured Fairy Tales" and "Aesop and Sons" that were a hilarious send up of childhood stories told with a wry satiric wit. The announcer, "William Conrad) might be out of breath prompting another onscreen character to question his huffing and puffing while very often "breaking the forth wall" and addressing the TV audience at home. Just a few of the terrific voice talents used on the show included Bill Scott (Bullwinkle,George,Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Peabody), June Foray (Rock,Natasha, Nell Fenwicky), Paul Frees, Hans Conried, Charlie Riggles, Edward Everett Horton (Narrator for Fractured), and Daws Butler. Subjects from current events to politics and famous celebrities were often the genesis of these entertaining shows. An inside joke around the Jay Ward studio was to add a "J" throughout the shows for middle initials or store front signs in homage to "Jay". Examples are Bullwinkle,  J Moose, Rocky J Squirrel and so on.

I had known Tad back when he was at Disney Features Animation for a bit and his excitement over this project easily matched mine which was bordering manic. Tad was as talented behind a drawing board as he was on the typewriter, yeah, no laptops in those days. Gary asked if I could have a full presentation ready by the following Monday morning. As it would give me a week plus the weekend, I said most definitely yes, no problem. Tad and I went back to his room to kick around ideas. Tad was a terrific artist and doodled some jiffy doodles about a butter and popcorn caper  cooked up by Boris and Natasha that Bullwinkle and Rocky would foil of course by the end of the episode. I came up with "Fractured Scary Tales", a spin on Jay's famous series within a series. The basis of this would be to lampoon the then never ending slate of horror films the way the fairy tales had been targeted for an earlier generation. It wasn't easy gathering the reference for the Ward characters back then but luckily Tad was way ahead of me and had scrounged up a few video tapes of the old shows that I could study. As I viewed the old episodes I quickly realized that although some references-  like the cold war, was dated it all still had such a sharp freshness about it that was a joy to watch, and listen to. The limited animation Jay had used was well planned and designed to work exactly in that format and the overall art direction was wonderfully reminiscent of the UPA styling so prevalent of the 1950s.

More drawings of mine that never saw the light of day

I dove into staging the setups to illustrate Tad's funny ideas for the popcorn caper building upon his suggestions. One nice thing about working with Tad is that he listened to your ideas. You could bounce things back and forth, improving the storyline  together instead of a producer just ordering a single inflexible direction with no opportunity to improve.  After I did Tad's "popcorn" segment, I then did some drawings for horror spoofs I had including "PieDay the 13th"  and "Nitey Nite on Elf Street".  The first would take that mask motif and turn it into a pie tin where helpless victims were soon eating custard pie without aid of knife or fork. I also made fun of the Freddy Krueger character by making him an elf with cooking utensils instead of razor blades on his glove. He would visit chubby kids on diets during their dreams and stuff their gullet full of junk food. I came up with some snappy writing to back up the visuals along with the never ending puns.  I also added a "Mr Know-It-All" segment that would pay homage to Jay's original segment. I wanted to have Mr Know_It_All (Bullwinkle) show the folks at home how to set up their home tape recorder. Yes this was many years before Goofy would find himself in a similar situation. He would also help get rid of that annoying "flashing red clock" for good. I had Bullwinkle's voice down and a so-so version of Rocky to hep with the presentation. I showed Tad my assembled setups on Wednesday morning and he liked them. For the rest of that day and til the end of the week I had plenty of time to  complete the entire pitch in color. Tad meanwhile worked away writing up a hilarious verbal storyline that would be narrated during the pitch while I just kept my nose to the grind ... er...  animation desk. Our offices were literally side by side so we could constantly check in on what the other was doing and add some suggestion or remark or just bug each other. I could hardly wait to see this show get into production.

Happy Landings Bullwinkle.

I came in early Friday morning around 7:30, my usual time and turned on the coffee maker in the kitchen to make a little wake up juice. While I waited for the caffeine brew to drip, I sat down to finish up a couple of minor color details on the Bullwinkle presentation.   I'll never forget what happened next. Gary Krisel came running down the hall shouting, "We don't have the rights! Put down your pencil! We don't have the rights!" Gary was a tad upset. When Tad got in a little while later, he too would be a tad upset. I was a tad upset and I wasn't even related to him! Gary had unfortuantely been given the go-ahead by the Disney legal staff that we indeed had all the rights when we only had rights to the "video distribution" of the Bullwinkle show. In other words he was up Frostbite Falls without a paddle. It wasn't his fault nor mine or Tads. Placing blame was pointless anyway as we were all in panic mode now as the presentation was only days away.  We had to get a replacement pitch and fast! Luckily at about  the same time Tad had also been hard at work in development with a possible spinoff series coming out of an old "DuckTales" episode I had worked on that had paired Launchpad with a superhero of sorts called "Double-O_Duck". He secret identity was Drake Mallard but we woiuld eventually know him as "Darkwing Duck".