Animator and illustrator James Burks doesn’t do things halfway. He began running to lose weight, but kept going until he was competing in triathlons.
That’s been the trajectory of his career. His grandmother drove him every week for a year from Bakersfield to classes at the Animation Guild union building in Hollywood. He kept practicing until he found himself working in temples of entertainment like Walt Disney Animation Studio, Warner Bros, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
He’s forged a career path through web comic strips, movies like Space Jam and The Iron Giant, TV shows like Powerpuff Girls and Fanboy and Chum Chum, children’s books and graphic novels including When Pigs Fly and The Monstore. He is the featured guest at this weekend’s Salinas Valley Comic Con. Here, he talks about the ins and outs – and the ups and downs – of a life of drawing.
Weekly: How did you start drawing?
Burks: My dad gave me a book as a kid, Garfield Loses His Feet. I taught myself to draw out of that. My dad bought and sold crude oil; I was the only artist in the family. Now I can’t stand Garfield.
Who or what are your influences?
I took architecture drafting classes. I was good at that. The original Beauty and the Beast inspired me. [I saw] some behind-the-scenes stuff and it looked like they were having fun. Disney’s Nine Old Men – Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, Marc Davis and the others, they were [Walt Disney’s] go-to animators. I read Superman and Batman, but I was more into comic strips – Charles Schulz, Calvin and Hobbes.
What was it like working at Warner Bros and Disney?
Warner Bros was amazing when I started. At that time, Disney had made The Lion King, so Warner Bros wanted to start making those hit movies too. They put a lot of money into it, sending us to study improv, acting, live drawing, going to the zoo, working with all these creative people. I’m drawing all day long and getting paid, learning at a huge rate. We were spoiled at that time. When I went to Disney, it was sort of on the verge of decline from 2D. The Emperor’s New Groove was successful.Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Home on the Range hadn’t done well. At this time, Pixar came out with Toy Story. People were saying traditional animation was dead. Disney got rid of their 2D animators.
What’s the difference between 2D and 3D?
With [2D], you’re drawing on paper. With 3D you’re moving forms modeled in, say, Maya software. Like a mannequin. Computer animation never appealed to me. That’s when I left feature films and went into TV – Jim Henson, Nickelodeon – where you’re still drawing on these really big tablets with a stylus.
What did you do as an assistant animator at Warner Bros?
It’s clean-up animation. You take animator’s rough drawings and put lines around it – one line where there are 4-5 lines. Also, inbetweens. The animator might only do key poses, then a chart for the inbetweens. Assistant animator puts in those drawings so it’s smooth.
Where are you working currently?
Now I’m at Cartoon Network. I’m the supervising director on Powerpuff Girls. I supervise a group of storyboard artists. Writers do the script, and [we] flesh out a storyboard, what’s going to be animated, put together the animatic, the roughs. When that’s finalized, it gets animated in Korea, then it comes back.
How did you get into children’s books and graphic novels?
When I was working at Disney, I was doing my comic strip and making my own book at Kinko’s. I would go to San Diego Comic Con, have a table, and sell them. [I did that] for 5 years. I came up with the idea for a [longer] graphic novel about a little girl who befriends an alligator. An associate of a literary agent asked if I wanted to get it published. That 192-page graphic novel [Gabby and Gator] kicked off my children’s publishing career.
Ever see people out in the world and turn them into a character?
Yeah. Definitely. I’ve been to Disneyland and overheard conversations that inspire stories. [In my books] Pigs in a Blanket and When Pigs Fly, when the boy pig draws, he sticks his tongue out, which my son does. I steal [my kids’] quirks and put them into my characters. Bird and Squirrel are two sides of my personality.
What do you look for in a writer collaborator?
Most collaborations have come through the publisher. They approach me and send me the manuscript and ask if I want to illustrate it. Sometimes I don’t actually meet the writer. The publisher is the mediator. If it’s my own idea, I write and illustrate it myself.
How do you stay in touch with children’s sensibility as you get older?
You hear, in publishing, that everyone writes at a certain age, the age you stopped evolving. I want to enjoy life as much as I can while being responsible. I don’t want to wait until I’m old. Kids have that. Especially in animation, we play a lot when coming up with ideas. They say we’re immature boys.
Is that world predominatly male?
Not as much anymore. It’s getting better. At Cartoon Network it feels like there’s a lot of women.
What should aspiring children’s book authors and illustrators prepare themselves for?
There was a period, recently, when Yeti and Bigfoot was popular. Also squirrels, ninjas, zombies. The problem is that those books were written 2-3 years ago – that’s how the pipeline works. If you try to follow that trend, it will have waned by the time you get to market.
What do you like about school visits?
I love it because the arts have been minimalized, so it’s nice to show kids that they can do this thing and be successful at it. My teachers said there was no career in art, that it’s a hobby.
What do you like about a comic con?
Meeting other people who have similar interests, seeing others’ artwork and expressions. It’s electric to be around other artists.
If you could be any cartoon character, which would you be?
Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes.
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