You may be familiar with my Litterbox Comics, featuring the orange cat mom and her dysfunctional family but here’s a fun fact from the very beginning I’ve always dreamed of turning these comics into an animated show. As an animator by trade I even studied it in university I’ve always had that animation bug. But let’s face it animation is tough. I knew I couldn’t achieve the level of quality I envisioned on my own. So, instead of waiting for the perfect animation setup, I started reverse-engineering the animated scenes in my head into storyboards or in other words comics. That system of turning my animated ideas into comics has worked well for six years but let’s be honest it can be frustrating at times. I’ve got so many ideas that just aren’t realistic for a comic format. Sure, I could try to make them work but they’d take forever to finish, and then fewer people would see them. With comics, it’s all about brevity 3 quick snappy single-page comics will always perform better than one lengthy 3-page comic. So when Ross from Pencilmation reached out and asked if I’d ever considered turning my work into a show, I couldn’t believe my luck.
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The system I’ve been using for the past six years has worked pretty well but it can get frustrating at times. I have tons of ideas that just aren’t realistic for a comic format. Sure, I could try to make them work but they’d take forever and end up reaching fewer people. With comics, less really is more. Three quick snappy single-page comics will always do better than one drawn-out three-page one. So when Ross from Pencilmation reached out and asked if I’d ever thought about turning my work into a show, I was honestly blown away. We worked hard on the script packing it with jokes and tweaking it until it was the best it could be but once it was finished that’s when things started feeling real. The search was on for an experienced director who could bring my characters to life while staying true to the comic’s vibe. When I saw Brien Hart’s tryout drawings, I knew we had found the perfect fit. I mean wow he nailed it!
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Once we had the core team in place, we needed to test if we could bring animated Litterbox to life. So, Brien took the script and drew up storyboards for a short test animation. From there the storyboards were handed off to Marty Daniels for animation, and wow seeing Fran move for the first time was such an amazing feeling. The animation was cleaned up by Anna Navarro and the colors were brought to life by Shofi Akifah Rochima Putri. Watching it all come together like that was honestly surreal!
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Hand-drawn animation is stunning but it comes with a hefty price tag so we knew we couldn’t move forward without significant funding. Having never done a Kickstarter before I’d been inspired by watching friends run their successful campaigns and loved the energy around it all. We didn’t want to just fund the show we wanted to make funding it an experience. So, we got creative with some wild reward ideas. The craziest A Designer Toy Usually you’d run a Kickstarter to fund a designer toy but we went all in and made it an exclusive reward for backing the pilot.
After months of planning, Kickstarter launch day was almost here. The closest feeling I can compare it to is being nine months pregnant standing on the edge of something huge and life-changing, but still battling that nagging fear something could go wrong. I planned to drop the kids off at school and hit that launch button but of course, they had other plans. That morning my youngest came down with a fever and my oldest was in agony from an ear infection! Not ideal but the show must go on.
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