The Blasted Flakes parody title was hatched in my mind one day. It could have been while drifting off to sleep or while driving into the office (not sure which) but when a title comes to you it must be written down. Many a night I had thought up a good title thinking to myself "I will remember it in the morning" only to have it drift away as a distant memory. The "They're G-r-r-enades" was the perfect fit that makes this gag really pop. There were many iterations to this design and I share some of them here for the very first time. This parody design was moved along through the development process by TSE's VP Steven Benisch. During the production phase, we talked about the concepts on a daily basis and Steve and I always liked having an Easter Egg in our email inbox. That meant that overnight there was a design that was worked on and ready for review in the morning. Steve always noted that the designs are "like your children" as you bring them to life. When we got the first renditions for the tiger, I wasn't all that enthused by the telescope eyes.
Looking at it again it has kind of grown on me. The first tiger rendition had a much fatter face and a lot more teeth than I thought should be in Tony's mouth. Some of the major changes as you can see were to the tigers overall look. In retrospect I really like the drawing but I am just as pleased with the final version we were able to come up with.
One artist codenamed "Canada" was responsible for the sketch. His forte is in cartooning so pencil is his medium. Canada hooked us up with a second artist who could bring the concepts to life (in color). The second artist is codenamed "Workhorse". Workhorse is probably responsible for 80% of the color work done on the Silly Supermarket National release. He worked long hours into the night with TSE's art director (Steve). As you can see there were a lot of revisions as we don't take the whole product parody thing lightly. We have always said "lets make them the best we can and they will sell". If something ever looked cheesy or out of place we either revised it or scrapped it altogether for another design. I remember meeting one day with Steve at a local pizza place looking through a folder of designs/sketches for review. Those truly were the best of times. We knew we had something special in our artists. The only thing left to prove was that we had the fortitude to stick with it and complete a series all our own.
Back to the concept, you will also notice the side of the box which started out as "Free Body Armor Inside" was revised to "Free Bomb Disposal Robot inside". Steve and Workhorse hatched the idea for the change. Posted is the original sketch done by Workhorse.
One artist codenamed "Canada" was responsible for the sketch. His forte is in cartooning so pencil is his medium. Canada hooked us up with a second artist who could bring the concepts to life (in color). The second artist is codenamed "Workhorse". Workhorse is probably responsible for 80% of the color work done on the Silly Supermarket National release. He worked long hours into the night with TSE's art director (Steve). As you can see there were a lot of revisions as we don't take the whole product parody thing lightly. We have always said "lets make them the best we can and they will sell". If something ever looked cheesy or out of place we either revised it or scrapped it altogether for another design. I remember meeting one day with Steve at a local pizza place looking through a folder of designs/sketches for review. Those truly were the best of times. We knew we had something special in our artists. The only thing left to prove was that we had the fortitude to stick with it and complete a series all our own.
Back to the concept, you will also notice the side of the box which started out as "Free Body Armor Inside" was revised to "Free Bomb Disposal Robot inside". Steve and Workhorse hatched the idea for the change. Posted is the original sketch done by Workhorse.
I believe these revisions plus the 7 Explosive Nutrients tie-in really finished this one off. I have posted some of the revisions throughout this blog entry. Look for a very cool slide show which will reveal the various iterations from the first drawing designs to the final finished product. I am thinking that someday these might work in a hardcover book with the stories behind the designs. For now you get all this for free! But seriously I am glad to share it.
Check back for my next blog entry for a title that never made it into the series but was recently a big news story...
Check back for my next blog entry for a title that never made it into the series but was recently a big news story...
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