Store Glitch Fixed
May 26th, 2013

We were recently informed that certain items from our store could not be added to the shopping cart. I'm happy to announced that I fixed the glitch and that everything is working properly once again. Thanks for letting us know. Cheers.


Plugging Away on The Saga of Rex
May 22nd, 2013

Sorry for the lack of update, but most of my blogging is now being done through the blog that I set up for the Kickstarter. In there, I'm going throught the process of making the film with videos, artwork and tutorials. I'm so stoked about this project!

On the horizon is a likely commission for an abstract animated film. We're currently negotiating and if everything pans out, I'll be making another crazy abstract experiment. I really enjoy doing abstract animation and any excuse is a good one. I did it in Ratatouille, and with projects such as Sensology and Fixed Fluid Fragmented. This new film would be awesome if it happens. In any case, I will respect my schedule of delivering the first four minutes of animation of The Saga of Rex by October, this year, as promised on my Kickstarter.


Presentation in Portland
May 14th, 2013

The lecture I gave at the Art Institute of Portland went super well. on Friday, I had fun visiting Supergenius Studio and got to hang out with some really cool folks who made me feel so welcomed. The presentation took place on Saturday to an audience of about 60 people. I was also utterly delighted to see the work in progress video of The Saga of Rex getting such wonderful reactions. A big thank you to Temris, Rebekah, Rob and ASIFA Portland for organizing such a special event. Read more about it at this link.

Upcoming Presentation
May 6th, 2013

I will be in Oregon this weekend lecturing at the Art Institute of Portland. If you live in these parts, you might want to check out the event. Should be a lot of fun. Click here for the full details.

Our Store is Open for Business Again
April 28th, 2013

Last October, we closed our store in order to dedicate ourselves to our Kickstarter campaign. Then, we kept it close until we had shipped all the rewards. Now that this task is accomplished, we are resuming business as usual with one difference: all books ordered from our website will be signed by the author/artist—yours truly. That's a cool bonus, isn't it? Now, don't be shy. Check out what's available and see if you'd like a nice autographed item for yourself or a loved one.


Kickstarter Rewards Are All Shipped!
April 19th, 2013

We made it! All the Kicktarter rewards have been shipped and all I have to do now is finish the film!

I want to thank my wife for doing such an amazing job with the shipping and packaging, and for spending hours in line at the post office! I don't know what I would have done without her help. As for me, I'll keep plugging away on the film. There's a huge amount of work left to be done and I'm having a good time doing it. I originally estimated the delivery of the completed short by October, but hopefully, I'll be able to beat that deadline!

When we launched the Kickstarter campaign back in October 2012, we closed our webstore (redirected all the links to Amazon.com) in order to give us a chance to cater to all our Kickstarter backers. Now that we're done with that, we'll be reopening the store in the next couple of weeks (and maybe adding some new goodies). Stay tuned.


Eisner Award Nomination
April 17th, 2013

The Eisner Award nominations were announced yesterday and I was surprised and delighted to learn that one of my projects was among the nominees (Best Archival Project).

I spent five years compiling, restoring and editing a book called, Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics, and often questionned my sanity in doing so. When working on the book, I often felt a sense of guilt that I should be doing my own art instead of restoring someone else's. Still, I knew that the book was important to the history of comics and a worthwhile endeavor. Moreover, I was on a mission to demonstrate my vision of a properly handled restoration project.

The book was eventually published by Fantagraphics and released last year just in time for Valentine's Day. It's nice to see that my efforts to bring this project to life didn't go unnoticed. You can read more about the project here.


Rex Meets Aven Animated
April 14th, 2013

This week, I finally wrapped up the character animation for the scene where Rex and Aven meets for the first time. It was a challenging scene to animate and a crucial one in the film. To make it work I needed to get the acting just right—a mix of surprise, apprehension, playfulness, and intrigue. I posted the pencil test on The Saga of Rex Production Blog. If you have a subscription to the blog, you can view it here.

I'm mostly known within the animation industry for my effects animation, but I actually started my career as a character animator, working on pictures such as The Land Before Time (Original) and All Dogs Go To Heaven. In retrospect, having done work in several departments at various animation studios has given me the necessary skills to pull this film off single-handedly.

Doing the 4-minute film is also a good way for me to determine what type of crew I will need when I handle the longer version.

Speaking of... I've been getting a lot of emails from people wanting to help on the film. Thank you all very much for your interest. At this point, I'm saving all these emails in a folder for future reference, but I just don't have the time to look at portfolios or listen to music samples. My life is immersed into the production of the film and the little that's left over, I need to spend with my family. When I need help, I'll let everyone know, no worry.


Printing, Signing, Cutting, Bagging, Inbetweening and Onward
March 25th, 2013

The Saga of Rex is progressing very nicely. I've had some problems with my hand using my Cintiq, so I added an Intuos5 Wacom Tablet to my arsenal and everything is back in order. For those interested, I go into this in a lot more details on The Saga of Rex Production Blog.

While keeping an intense schedule working on the film, we are also keeping up with shipping rewards to our Kickstarter backers. We spent the weekend printing, signing, cutting and bagging prints. Those rewards will be going out this week. We're getting closer and closer to having all the rewards shipped (except for the delivery of the film, which is going to be in production until October), and it feels good to see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as that's concerned.

Now, back to work, I've got thousands of drawings to do in order to finish this film!

The Krah Khronicles
March 13th, 2013

Too bad "The Krah Khronicles" by Steve Rolston never materialized. This project, from 2005, was going to be a spin off of ZED featuring the foul mouth heavy metal band, Krah. Steve just unveiled the artwork on his blog. Check it out!

Trilobite Tattoo
March 8th, 2013

A few days ago, after reading a nasty comment about my work on the internet, I posted the following statement on my facebook: "When people hate my work, I feel like they hate me personally." I wasn't really depressed, I just wanted to voice an opinion that I'm sure many artists share.

The post prompted several people to leave comments including this one from Inkynebula Faye Retinioti: "haters gonna hate, and I love your work. I actually love it so much, I have it on me. For life. Keep up the good work."

Here's the picture of Faye's tattoo next to my original drawing.

For more, check out my Tattoos Inspired by Michel's Art gallery.