Ice Storm 88 and Heavy Metal

So on my very last day of work after Bob/Papyrus/Sphinx, we were hit by one of the biggest Ice Storm in history.

One of my co-worker who was a huge Playstation fan.... and an even BIGGER Lara Croft fan.... wanted me to go to his place to try out the game TombRaider.

Although we knew that there was a storm coming, there was no way to know at the time how big a storm it would be. So we left the studio and went to his place.

He lived outside the city and we had a good bus ride to go to his place.

On the way, it was getting dark, and we were seeing explosions in the distance on the horizon.

We thought that it might have been lightning bolts or something like that we were seeing hitting the ground in the distance. But we later learned that it was actually transformers exploding all over the place.

It was very impressive, it was almost like being into a war zone.

As it turned out, where he lived was one of the areas that was hit the hardest by the storm.

So the next day, we decided to leave the area and went to my place.

We were fairly lucky since at my place, it took about 24 hours to get the power back.

In the area where my co-worker lived (who is now not just a co-worker, but a good friend).... it took about 3 weeks to get the power back. So he crashed to my place for one week. Then another week to some other friend's place. And the last week to his sister's place.

That first day when there was no power at my place, me him and the other friend, all 3 of us went downtown to try to find some restaurant to eat and hang out at.

But to our big surprise, downtown was deserted and there was snow all over the place. It was very impressive to see.

Anyone who saw the movie 12 monkeys, remember the scene early in the film with Bruce Willis all alone in the city with snow all over the place. It was exactly like that. Well almost exactly like that.... minus the bear and lion and other animals that are free in the city in the movie. ;)

Little did we know that downtown had been completely evacuated. Until we saw some cops who told us that we had no business being there.

But we finally found a restaurant just outside of the "quarantine" zone. So we pretty much spent the next 2 weeks there from morning to late in the evening until life started again.

I had not heard from Heavy Metal yet.... so one day at the restaurant I decided to call to see what was up with Heavy Metal.

I had applied to work on Heavy Metal 2000 while I was still working on Papyrus. I had met a producer and I had shown her a truckload of my work and should have known something was fishy when I first met her.

I first showed her my "official" portfolio. She quickly went through it and said.... Do you have anything else to show??

Usually the portfolio is enough for most people. But I was prepared. I really wanted this job, so I showed her my "back-up portfolio". Again she went quickly through it and asked.... Do you have anything else to show??

As I said.... I was prepared so I took out a 2 inch stack of various artwork I had done. Once again she went quickly through it and asked.... Do you have anything else to show??

But I was REALLY prepared and took out another 2 inch stack of artwork.

That was it.... she did not ask for more.

I felt like I had just won a game of chess or something with me pretty much countering every move/excuses she might be trying to come up with NOT to hire me.

So at the end of our meeting, she asked me to leave her a CV and some art samples to give to the Heavy Metal producer. Once again, I was ready and had a CV and some samples to leave her.

So back to the restaurant, I decided to call to see what was up with Heavy Metal, but not being that much of a fool, this time I took no chances and called the Heavy Metal producer directly.

I introduced myself. Told her that I had already met a producer previously who was supposed to have given her my CV and art samples. It turns out that she had never heard of me and never saw my CV or my samples.

I later learned that the first producer I met was keeping some places on Heavy Metal free for when some of her favorite guys in the studio would be available. So she had no intention of telling the Heavy Metal producer about me.

So this time I scheduled a meeting with the Heavy Metal producer. When I met her, all she looked at was my portfolio. She asked for my CV and some art samples to show to the director. But not just any samples. She hand picked some artwork in my portfolio and asked me to make a copy of those for her.

She seemed very impressed with my work.... especially my work on Bob Morane.

That is when I started to realize how working on Bob Morane had changed my career. That having Bob Morane in my CV would be a great help in getting me some work.

Not many people are impressed when I tell them that I have worked on Arthur.... but when I tell them that I have worked on Bob Morane.... they take me more seriously.

Not long after my meeting with the Heavy Metal producer, I got an appointment to do a test (the last test I would do for quite some time).

A character head rotation to draw, a couple of poses to draw, and a BG to clean-up if I remember correctly.

I was told that it should take an hour or two to do the test.... but my "other friend" had already started working on Heavy Metal, and he told me that no one did the test in 2 hours. Most did not even finish the test. I don't know if I was mislead about the test deliberately or simply by mistake. But I just ignored the 2 hours time limit.

So I spent the whole afternoon doing the darn thing. I would have worried that I was taking too much time, but since I knew that no one actually did the test in that little time, I just ignored that part.

I handed in the test and went back home.

Some time later, I would get a phone call telling me that I was hired on Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 which later became Heavy Metal; 2000.

And that is how I was hired on the design team of Heavy Metal: 2000.

Next time, I will talk about working on Heavy Metal.

Until then.