Name's Landon, Friend
Artist | Student | Varied

United States

Uh... hello?

Yeah, I'm maniacaldude, or Landon, as close friends know me. Yeah, I'm planning on becoming a cartoonist and animator that not only comes up with creative, entertaining work, but hopes to accomplish various goals. I'm trying to save the entertainment industry from mediocre animation & programming (WAY too much CGI, although some CGI kicks butt as well), prove to American audiences that cartoons aren't for kids & that they can be for older audiences as well (as a big lover of Japanese culture, I notice that Japan considers manga & anime to be an art form & they treat it as an equal, despite being animated, not to mention, I love cartoons that can appeal to both children AND adults in various ways), and to let my thoughts known to the world.

I am currently attending college at the Art Institute Of Austin, with a major in Media Arts and Animation, and I'm interested in learning animation, storyboarding, character design, sequential art, conceptual art, illustration, graphic design and writing (both story and personal opinions).

I'm also a high-functioning autistic, so if you say anything against it or make fun of it, prepare to have an axe sent through your forehead. That means you, Chris-chan, you fake!

I love not only drawing, cartoons and animation, but video games, internet, TV (well, some of the older shows mainly), music, movies, & reading. I consider sports to be one of the most overrated, overhyped things ever (but that won't stop me from using them at times in my comics) & I don't understand why tween crap like High School Musical, Hannah Montana, & The Jonas Brothers are so freakin' popular among younger audiences.

I'm also a fan of satirical reviewers Douglas Walker (The Nostalgia Critic), Lewis Lovhaug (Linkara) & James Rolfe (The Angry Video Game Nerd), and would love to start my own review show one day. That is, if I can get my hand on a good camera and microphone and some video editing software.

Another Internet trend I love is Youtube Poop, mainly the kind that utilize editing software to its fullest potential and are incredibly bizarre and especially funny. Notable examples are works by Waxinator/ Waxination, Geibuchan, and JitteryDragon. Yeah, it'd be fun to learn how to make those as well.

I LOVE the Golden Age of Animation with a passion. I love the Looney Tunes, the Disney theatrical shorts, Tex Avery, Max Fleischer, Rocky & Bullwinkle, the Pink Panther cartoons & nearly anything from that time, especially if it's zany & funny. However, I will watch any cartoons past that era if it interests me or if it's good. I'm also wanting to check out newer cartoon series to see if they are promising enough and to serve as proof that modern animation hasn't been dying out.

I'm a big pop culture nerd, ESPECIALLY 80s & 90s culture since some of my favorite music, cartoons, movies, and styles came out at that time, but I'm open to whatever, especially if it's retro. I also love classic commercials & closing logos, and I plan to use their influence if I ever get into graphic design. We don't need anymore of that stupid "trendy" logo crap like what they did with the Wal-Mart and Nickelodeon logos. Time to bring a little life and variety back into logos! As I mentioned before, I love Japanese Culture, & have started turning towards their pop culture more lately, wanting to learn more about anime & manga & works by Hayao Miyazaki & Osamu Tezuka (the latter of who I consider my all-time favorite mangaka). I also love trivia and interesting facts related to my interests, and I like sharing it with others.

I also kinda have an obsession with age regression & seeing certain characters, especially girls & mothers, as babies or young children, so I hope that doesn't turn you off.

Also, for those of you fans of new school music, just let me warn you that I am INCREDIBLY cynical about any music made past the early 90s. Don't get me wrong, I DO love some of today's music, but honestly, I feel it hasn't been as good as it could be. I personally feel the Golden Age of Rock/Pop Music started in the late 1950s with the emergence of rock & roll & ended in the early 90s, with the advent of grunge, slutty pop stars & boy bands. I dunno why, but older music just seems to click better with me. Yeah, I'm what some people would call an old soul...

Also, while I do love a lot of 60s and 70s music, the 80s is my favorite decade for music.

FAVORITES
Bands: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Rush, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Queen, Cheap Trick, Daniel Amos, Five Iron Frenzy, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, The Police, The Cars, Huey Lewis and the News, Gorillaz, ABBA, Oingo Boingo, Devo, The Ramones, Van Halen, AC/DC, The Killers

Solo Singers/Songwriters/Musicians: Michael Jackson, Prince, Tevin Campbell, Weird Al Yankovic, Elton John, Billy Joel, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Danny Elfman, Kenny Loggins, Linda Ronstadt, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Terry Scott Taylor, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Paul Simon, Jack Johnson, Sting, Randy Newman, Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond (my two guilty pleasures), Bette Midler, Melissa Manchester, Bruce Springsteen

(FUN FACT: I discovered a lot of my favorite artists through their contributions to animated movies, like Billy Joel for Oliver & Company, Tevin Campbell for A Goofy Movie, Linda Ronstadt for An American Tail, Randy Newman for Toy Story, Elton John for The Lion King, Phil Collins for Tarzan & Melissa Manchester for The Great Mouse Detective to name a few)

My Personal Feelings About Music Genres And What I Like About Them:
-Rock (Mainly classic, but some of the newer alternative acts are pretty good as well. And no, rock and alternative rock are NOT the same thing.)
-Pop (Again, mostly the classic, but some modern songs catch my interest. Hey, just because I hate what the music industry has dwindled down to doesn't mean everything about it sucks!)
-R&B/Soul (Anything related to that, like disco and funk also count as well.)
-Video game music (Especially the old-school variety from the 80s & 90s that utilized synthesizers.)
-Classical (I'm not a BIG fan of this kind of music, but since I have a love for Golden Age Animation and a brother with a major in music theory and composition, I manage to find a lot that I like.)
-Soundtrack Score (I don't have a ton in my library yet, but soundtrack score is awesome, especially if it's by John Williams, Danny Elfman (ESPECIALLY Danny Elfman), James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, David Newman, Randy Newman, Thomas Newman, Hans Zimmer, and anyone else who does great score. Both orchestras AND synthesizers are great for film score, I personally believe.)
-J-Pop (Any era is good, but I prefer 80s, 90s, and 2000s the most.)
-Westcoast Music/ AOR/ Melodic Rock (You might have to look those three up, but I love these types of music.)
-SOME Country (I hate a lot of modern country, because it tries way too hard to sound like other genres. I usually prefer the likes of Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, and some of those older guys that recorded BEFORE the 90s, as they knew how to blend country with rock or pop effectively.)
-Old School Hip-Hop/ Rap (Modern rap sucks, but the older stuff from the 80s & early 90s is something of a guilty pleasure to me.)
-Heavy Metal (I like a lot of heavy metal, but I usually prefer the older bands from the 70s and 80s rather than all that nu metal garbage. I hate the kind where the guitars are overblown, the singers sound like Cookie Monster, and a large percentage of it is uncomfortable noise. Disturbed is something of an exception, though. They actually sound like they're trying to balance out the loudness with the actual music.)

Movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Pink Floyd: The Wall, The Brave Little Toaster, Unico In The Island Of Magic, Twice Upon A Time, The Thief And The Cobbler, WALL-E, The Secret Of NIMH, Spirited Away, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Labyrinth, Hot Fuzz, anything that's funny, cool, or animated as long as it's truly good (in my eyes, that is)

TV Shows/ Cartoons: Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Looney Tunes, Rocko's Modern Life, numerous other cartoons I could list but don't have the time to (for now)...

Anime/ Manga: Anything by Osamu Tezuka or Hayao Miyazaki, Keroro Gunso, Hoshi No Kaabii, Bobobo-bo Bo-Bobo, and numerous others that have caught my interest and that I want to check out.

Web Media: Homestar Runner, The Angry Video Game Nerd, Nostalgia Critic, Atop The Fourth Wall, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series

Artists: Any of Walt Disney's long line of artists, Max Fleischer, Richard Wiliams, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Osamu Tezuka, Hayao Miyazaki, Bill Plympton, Doug TenNapel, Gerald Scarfe, Tim Burton, Jim Henson, Charles Schultz, Bill Watterson, Jim Davis, Berkely Breathed, Matt Groening, John Kricfalusi (although I have mixed feelings on his views), Joe Murray, Ralph Bakshi (I haven't seen any of his films yet, but I love his artwork, from what I've seen of it), Don Bluth, and several more that I will probably be putting in or listing in my influences meme that I have planned (although I personally find just about ANYTHING to be an influence)

I'll add more later if can think of something...