The Art of Over the Garden Wall 1506703763, 9781506703763

Citation preview

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REN EEEERSS VaR

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WITH

INTRODUCTION

SEAN

PATRICK

AND

COMMENTARY

BY

EDGAR» MCHALE

ART

OVER

GARDEN

OF

THE

WALL

RDEN WALL... COMMENTARY

BY

ro OoOy ee om DECavaat GREAT ED

PATRICK

Background: Nick Cross

DARK

HORSE

BY

MCHALE

BOOKS

President & Publisher

MIKE

sexabivoye

RICHARDSON

CARDNER

CLARK

Digital Art Technicians CONLEY SMITH and MELISSA MARTIN

Designer JUSTIN COUCH

Special thanks to Marisa Marionakis and Janet No at Cartoon Network, Jim Campbell,

Annie Gullion, and Tina Alessi.

ee de

Published by

a

DARK

HORSE

BOOKS

se

A division of Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

be

10956 SE Main Street Milwaukie, OR 97222

DarkHorse.com

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To find a comics shop in your area, call the Comic Shop Locator Service toll-free at 1-888-266-4226. International Licensing: (503) 905-2377

First edition: September 2017

Ole Beare a

| Digital ISBN 978-1-63008-978-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Edgar, Sean, writer of added commentary. Title: Art of Over the garden wall / commentary by Sean Edgar; created by Patrick McHale.

Description: Milwaukie, OR : Dark Horse Books, 2017.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017008208 |ISBN 9781506703763 Subjects: L t--Then

TABLE

OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION THE

Sacro ee tee eee

ROAD TO THE

TOME

OR THE

...........

8

UNKNOWN

AY,

Table of Contents (story wdeas)

“LITTLE BLACK TRAIN” (PILOT) On Halloween night Wirt and Greg accidentally get on a train headed for the afterlife, and jump off halfway. They end up in a place called the Unknown . . . a mysterious land that lies somewhere between life and death. As Wirt and Greg come to grips with the reality of this strange world, it becomes apparent that getting home is impossible. Until, that is, they befriend a wise old woodsman (and his friend Beatrice, the bluebird) who

reveals the secret to returning home: they must live out all the chapters in his mysterious book, the Tome of the Unknown. When they reach the end of their story, they will find their way home.

“BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS” The Woodsman gives Beatrice the responsibility of helping Wirt and Gregory carry out the next chapter of the Tome of the Unknown

(which

involves a lady in white who sings to lure travelers into the tall grass, where a beast devours them). But the more Beatrice tries to help them, the more Wirt has a tough time believing in all the superstitions and nonsense of the Unknown. And Gregory keeps goofing off with his pet frog. Eventually Beatrice gets so fed up with the two brothers that she leaves them to figure things out

on their own . .. with dangerous repercussions. In the end the brothers realize they had better take their quest a little more seriously.

“LOVESICK MILLIONAIRE” Wirt and Greg get involved with a lovesick millionaire whos having visions of a beautiful lady that he wishes to marry. If they don't find her soon, he'll die. And if he dies, then he will haunt them forever for not helping him. But when the brothers start trying to track her down, a silent, hairy man keeps showing up to stop them. Is he bad? Did he kidnap the lady? Is he her guardian? Is the millionaire a crazy, two-faced lunatic dressed in a hairy costume? In the end Wirt and Greg discover that the hairy man is the beautiful lady herself! Long ago she was engaged to another fellow, but his mother cursed her to be hairy, and she was then rejected by her fiancé. But she soon realizes that the millionaire is her old beau (who became rich during their separation) . . . and once the couple realize that all the misun-

derstandings were caused by the millionaire’s mother (whos now long gone), everything turns out swimmingly. “NIGHTMARE” While Wirt and Gregory are sleeping one night, a horrible skinless witch comes and rides Greg

'3

off into the darkness like a horse. Wirt eventu-

ally discovers that the witch is one of the people in a small Puritan-like town . . . but as soon as he does, she returns home and catches him! The only way he’s able to defeat her is by putting salt and pepper on her discarded skin, so that when she tries to put it back on, she gets burned.

“GOOSE STEP” Wirt, Greg, and Beatrice find a parade of musical animals who are being chased by hunters. While trying to stop the hunters and save the defenseless animals, they learn that the hunters are actually soldiers .. . and that the animals were once soldiers as well, but were cursed by the moon for being too loud at night. Wirt and Greg have to travel to the moon (using a reflection in a pond) to try to get him to undo the curse so that the animals can defend themselves. But in the end he just changes everybody into animals . . . including Wirt and Greg! (Greg becomes a duck, and Wirt looks like either a bear or a dog... Nobody can tell which.) “FARMTOWN

caught up in a game of cat-and-mouse with a farmer who thinks Wirt and Greg are after his crops (in truth, Greg and R. Bliss do keep eating his crops). After they all get captured and trapped like farm animals, they need to use their new animal prowess to escape . . . before they become dinner!

“FROGLAND” Our heroes (still animals)

find themselves in

a place called Frogland, a riverside town of hard-working frogs. They plan on just passing through—until they meet a singing frog drifter named J. Bliss and realize .. . it’s R. Bliss’s dad! R.

Bliss struggles with whether to stay in Frogland with his dad or continue on with Gregory and Wirt. In the end, R. Bliss’s father makes the decision for them when he disappears in the middle of the night (hitching a ride downstream)

because he is a fugitive from the law. R. Bliss is disappointed with how things turned out until he finds a note in the player piano which says his dad will come back someday to help them all get back to their home.

FOLLIES”

Wirt and Greg have been turned into animals (in the previous episode) and want to get back to their normal forms (although Greg is having a lot of fun now that he and R. Bliss can talk using “animal speak”). But Beatrice doesn't recognize them anymore, and abandons them. While trying to find her or the Woodsman, they get

“THE TOAD AND THE WISHING WELL” Wirt, Greg, and R. Bliss discover a fat, shivering Toad King who lives in a cold wishing well and has the power to grant them anything they desire. But the Toad King is a jerk and says he'll never give them anything because he already has everything

“HOME” Wirt and Greg finally find the Woodsman, who down in the past). Wirt overthinks the problem tells them that they are doing very well. While at while Gregory and R. Bliss just keep throwing the Woodsman’s house, Wirt and Greg discover stuff into the well hoping they'll get lucky. In the a set of train tracks. Could it be that these train end, they realize the Toad King is only mean be- tracks lead back home? The Woodsman tells the cause he's so cold and shivery. They get a spider boys they are not ready to return home . . but to spin him a sweater to warm him up. It works! Beatrice convinces them to go. They follow the But just as Wirt is about to wish to return home, tracks and, sure enough, end up back in their he realizes that if they return home now, they'll hometown! But as they return to their daily lives, be stuck as animals forever. Instead he wishes to they start noticing weird phenomena. Pieces of return to human form . .. much to the dismay of the town are missing, or warped ... and on TV everything is reruns . . . They eventually realize Gregory (who can no longer talk to R. Bliss). that the town is just a projection of their mem“IVORY” ories, not actually their hometown at all. The Beatrice finally finds Wirt and Greg, and is pretty Woodsman guides them back to the Unknown, pissed they made her fly around looking for explaining that they have a few more chapters to them for, like, a week. She tells them how to get complete before their story is done. to the Woodsman’s house and leaves. But Wirt “LAST FAIR DEAL GONE DOWN” overthinks her directions and ends up getting lost. They come to the house of a man named After a big argument between Beatrice and the Mr. Whittles, a guy who carves ivory. He says he Woodsman, Wirt and Gregory catch the Woodsknows exactly where the Woodsman lives and man talking to an evil specter and writing new promises to bring them there in the morning. chapters into the Tome of the Unknown! It turns But as the night passes, Mr. Whittles’s dark se- out he’s the one who trapped them all along! It’s crets begin to unravel. They eventually learn that hard to believe, but it’s true. Wirt and Greg are he gets all his “ivory” from the teeth and bones determined to steal the Tome of the Unknown in of children he kidnaps! Finally they discover all order to rewrite their story and get home. the boneless children living in the basement, and with their help they defeat Mr. Whittles and get the heck out of there. in the world that hed ever want (he’s sitting on a big pile of gold and stuff that people have thrown

Oe —p y

Jo

és oe

In developing Tome of the Unknown and researching ideas for backgrounds and layouts, the team reviewed various old fairy-tale collections. This page features sketches directly referencing some of the illustrations found in

these books. Art: Patrick McHale

33

The first villain created for the Tome of the Unknown bible was

A

a diabolical, but cartoony-looking, figure named Old Scratch,

Ave

inspired by the devil-character motif often found in American folklore and literature. Sometimes this character was meant to be frightening, such as in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” while other times he was just a mean-spirited but hapless dope who was easily tricked by the hero of the story. Art: Nick Cross, Patrick McHale

34

ih t :

.

>

PM: This pencil sketch was the first incarnation for Tome

of the Unknown.

for the character In this version,

The note "horns

to be the primary I wanted

ful, but he was secretly

of the Woodsman

inside’

PM: "The

Dogman"

to an early plan

thinking

that the first

villain.

the Woodsman

to seem

him more

was the name

of the Beast for a short time. I was

act of the last episode could

opera piece, with the Beast singing his backstory. nice, friendly,

bad. Later, for the actual

go in the opposite direction: we made

refers

designed

and help-

series, we decided to

spooky

and intimidating,

win you over

by telling you his story, but when

Greg, you go, "No, even

if your

than those original

goofy devil-like

guy felt too specific.

sketches

He'd essentially try to you see what he's done to

story is tragic, you don't have any excuse

for doing that."

but he actually wasn't a bad guy at all. (Spoiler alert!)

PM: I kind of like the guy with the hat. That was another

just be a full-blown

early idea for the Beast. It fit the tone of the series a lot more

on the opposite page, but we wanted the Beast to embody the Unknown,

and this

PM: These are a bunch of concept

sketches

for the

Beast that Nick Cross and I drew during production.

We

kept going back and forth

with all these different designs. |

Nick did a million

beautiful

\, ty much

drawings all of them

and pretwould

\| have made incredible-looking '\ villains, but we felt like j

they were

too specific. They

' felt too "villainy"

mysterious

and not

enough.

Lae K PeOiSrraFh are

beoveei

vee Mle,

NC: We never had to check anything

| with)

+

Cartoon Network, especially with the Beast. ' I'm sure they would have had some issues with a few of these. But this is where

went at first. Amalia

Levari:

we

f I think

the Beast made

sense to me after I saw the way Pat and Nick were

designing

him. The degree to

which he was really sinister didn't gel with me

until

and how much He had evolved

reflection

I saw what

he lookea like

a part of the forest he was. into an actual,

of unknown

erfect

danger.\The thing

you're most scared to see in the\dark.

\

SF

C

ter Design: Nick crs

PM: This is the Beast's final color model.

You

can

finally

see

his little

spindly legs! Those aren't necessarily his actual draw

legs, but we just needed

something

actually

want

for

feel

them

like

part of the

but once

background,

to ever

be

itself,

as

connected

silly as a model

he's on a dark

he starts

see

so he would

forest

physically

to it. He looks pretty

We didn't

to always

by fog and darkness

if he was almost sheet,

model.

the audience

his legs; we wanted hidden

his

to

looking

forest spooky.

PM: At one point during that

this

model.

The

sketch

was

production,

going

storyboard

we decided

to be the

artists

Beast's

boarded

the

show with that design. Even the final episode was we

storyboarded changed

using that

it again

at the

model... last

minute.

we had to go back

and redo all of the

scenes

the

throughout

entire

series.

until Then

Beast's

rat

a,

.we

= =

Se

Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis Background Painting: Nick Cross

;

y

:

7 eel

‘

are

ae

-

CREATED BY

PATRICK MAL

PM: These

images at the bottom

were

attempts

at coming up with title cards

for the pilot. I tried to make

little handmade

magic lantern

slides by painting small pieces of cellophane. I liked how they looked, but they felt a bit too crude. The final title card was a combination of cut paper Art: Patrick McHale

40

and pencil sketches.

> -

“I HAD NO CLUE WHAT THE STORY WAS ABOUT.” —Chris Tsirgiotis, Background Designer

Cartoon Network released Tome of the Unknown: Harvest Melody through its website on September 9, 2013—just in

adults that kids’ entertainment is more sophisticated than they think.

time for festival season. That same night it screened at

the LA Shorts Fest, before making the rounds at stops including the Ottawa International Animation Festival and Austin Film Festival. The eleven-minute short served as the pilot for Over the Garden Wall. Patrick McHale: People’s taste in entertainment changes as they get older, just as people’s taste in food changes. It’s a physical change. Kids can’t taste sweetness as strongly

as adults, but they taste bitterness more strongly. That’s why kids can enjoy super-sweet candy, while adults are like, “Yuck, it’s too sweet!” And adults can enjoy bit-

palettes, new songs, new enemies, new funny voices, etc. The more new and exciting stuff, the better. To adults, kids’ shows sometimes look like crazy nonsense. So when you’re making something for an all-ages audience, you have to find a good balance. Over the Garden Wall was an attempt to trick kids into liking stuff that they’d normally think was boring and old, and to show

HARVEST MELODY Creator, Director, Writer,

Susan Mondt: Pat was saddled with Phil Rynda and me because we were the creative side of development. I was the art director and Phil was the character designer. All of the pilots at Cartoon Network for two years went through us. I thought Tome of the Unknown was amazing. I thought it was beautiful and the idea was charming. It was a little bit dark, and to say that Cartoon Network was completely hands off would not be true. I would credit Cartoon Network with being open minded to a show like Pat’s. It was a very unique idea for any network or big animation studio.

ter coffee, while kids are like, “Yuck, it’s too bitter!”

Nobody is right or wrong; people are just physically different. The same applies to entertainment. Kids feel emotion and conflict more strongly, so they don’t need as much of it as adults do. A little goes a long way. Kids need new things to discover: new characters, new color

TOME OF THE UNKNOWN:

Designer, and Storyboard

Artist: Patrick McHale

Creative Director and

Character Designer: Phil Rynda Character Designer: Mikkel Sommer

Background Designer: Chris Tsirgiotis Background Painter: Nick Cross Design Clean Up: Erik Elizarrez Color Key: Ron Russell Art Director: Susan Mondt

Phil Rynda: I wasn’t there, but after Pat pitched one of

the stories to the network, I saw Rob Sorcher and asked how the pitch went. He said, “It was five minutes of a

kid staring at his own hand. I don’t really know what the hell that thing was, or if kids are going to like it, but I think Pat might be a genius.” I felt really excited, because I agree. I think Pat is an incredible storyteller and human. The company was going to take a pretty bold risk on what it could be. The way the story plays out and the tone of that show is not your standard cartoon fare. When you think about Cartoon Network at the time, Teen Titans was a big hit, Gumball was a big hit,

4d

gre

tt Sollree needed

a e o pn val tshee o ae Ne Q 6attle f

Kill people.

PM: The first episode Bell."

storyboard

I did ended up as

7 of the series, "The That was intended

Ringing

of the

to be the pilot. When

I pitched it to Cartoon Network, the pitch went well, but there it was too scary discussed

network. episode

was also a lot of concern and hopeless.

it, the more

worry

I tried to explain

The more

I felt from

that we the

that this scary

was just one aspect of the show, and

that each episode would feel different,

so they

suggested I do another storyboard to show

them another side of the show. That's why I storyboarded the pilot. Art: Patrick McHale

"Harvest

Melody,"

which became

Adventure Time and Regular Show had a solid audience.

Patrick McHale: At one point, Chris copied the way that

Disney was still coming off the high of Phineas and Ferb. Nickelodeon was riding on SpongeBob. For Pat to come in and make this very, very unique type of a story, it really came out of left field.

I was shading in pencil, thinking it was the style I wanted, but really it was just my mistakes. It was embarrassing to see my limitations reinterpreted visually as an intentional

Patrick McHale: As I was making the pilot, I was

thinking of it as my last chance to make a proper film. I started getting bummed out because I'd wanted to make something scary, but the pilot storyboard ended

up being about a vegetable guy who drives a vegetable car. I tried to make the intro a little bit spooky, and we had all the animals attacking at the end, but I was still kind of disappointed. Then we started doing the art, and Chris Tsirgiotis did some backgrounds, and we

started seeing things come to life... so I started getting really excited again.

style! I said, “No, no! Don’t do it howI did it! Do it

how you'd do it!” So he came back with this gorgeous drawing of a really thick tree and I was so blown away. I thought, “This can look like a feature film!” Nick Cross: Susan Mondt contacted me out of the blue and asked if I was interested in doing some background paint on a pilot. Cartoon Network was just beginning its new batch of shows, like Adventure Time and

Regular Show, so | thought Cartoon Network shows looked kind of simple. I was doing storyboards at the time, and it sounded like a good freelance side project. I thought it would be relatively easy. Then they sent me

Chris Tsirgiotis: Susan Mondt, the art director for

Chris Tsirgiotis’s background that he had done, and it was beautifully rendered pencil. It looked like an old

the pilot, brought me in to work with Pat because she

Disney layout from the forties. I definitely wanted to be

thought my style would work with what he was doing. Nick Cross started as one of the painters, and when the miniseries was greenlit, they brought Nick in as the art

involved. In the end, I painted all of the backgrounds

director. After the first meeting or two, we’d just watched

Susan Mondt: We did completely rendered pencil draw-

an animatic, and Pat said to me, “Do you know what’s

er and painted on top. So you could still see the pencil

going on in this story?” I had to be honest: I had no clue what the story was about. I said to Pat, “I like the characters and I like the situation they’re in. I’m sort of along for the ride with this show. It’s an interesting bunch of vignettes—I’m not really sure what it means yet.” And I

images—all of the shading and texture and nuance of that pencil drawing come through the colors and make the painting that much richer.

didn’t, actually, until the eighth episode.

Cartoon Network said to do whatever we want. So I just

for the short.

ings, and then we scanned them in through the comput-

Nick Cross: A lot of TV is done simply and cheaply. And went crazy. It was time consuming, which is why most

Patrick McHale: Chris is a chameleon, stylistically. He

shows don’t look like Over the Garden Wall. For TV, it

can exactly emulate just about anyone’s style. It’s rather

doesn’t work—you have to keep on moving and mov-

uncanny. It can make you second-guess: “Did I draw

that Chris could so accurately emulate his style. So with

ing. Because I was working on number of backgrounds. And from Canada, so I didn’t hear body. But I was working really

my own show it was thrilling to give Chris reference and just see what he’d do.

went to series, it became a bit of a problem. Because we only did ten episodes, it was fine. I don’t think we could

that?” On Adventure Time, I recall background artist

Ghostshrimp being really impressed, and almost upset,

Chris Tsirgiotis: Every show I work on is a recipe. It’s a little different each time. I’ll look at the show and see the shape language and the line quality.

Tome of the Unknown

background art by Chris Tsirgiotis

the pilot, we had a finite I was working freelance any pushback from anyhard. And then when we

have done a full series. It would have been too much. We knew we were only going to do a one-hundred-meter dash, so we could run as fast as possible.

43

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PM: This was an early idea for the logo, which good. But I decided naive,

colonial,

to do with series, Over

the

that

and primitive.

old books Victorian

the Garden

I wanted

Wall

anymore. influence logo was

it to look

Especially

I thought less

because

Victorian the show

But by the time we were had somehow full-on

crept

Victorian

looked pretty

back style

and more had nothing

doing the miniin, and the final again.

=

Art: Patrick McHale, Chris Tsirgiotis

pet

eas

é

—

Os Ol

Phil Rynda: We hired an amazing designer, Mikkel

We found a lot of landscape paintings that were

Sommer. Pat wanted to put together a team, and he want-

done in the 1800s, when people used to hike out to the

ed to chase after certain feelings. Iknew Mikkel from his comics; he’s not an animation guy. He brought a certain tone to the table with the vegetable people and the animals. We just had to make it work for animation. My job was to help Pat pull together all of these pieces to start making this project uniquely its own, without it feeling too nostalgic to the cartoons we were referencing. So we built a vocabulary that’s unique to this show—a combination of all of this stuff that Pat was inspired by, but it wasn’t just nostalgia. It was really fun and challenging.

mountains to paint. I was looking at those, and concentrating on how the light in a forest pierces through in little spots. There are little pools of light everywhere, and it plays off the trees. I knew that he also wanted it to be set in the fall, which naturally gives you a lot of nice warm colors, and a lot of atmospherics from fog.

Mikkel Sommer: I hadn’t done a lot of character design previously. I do comics and kids’ books. Pat sent me references of old illustrations and textbooks and said, “That’s the vibe I want.” He had the main characters

Mikkel Sommer: It felt old. It had the spirit of classic

cartoons. I love Silly Symphonies, and Pinocchio, and some of the weirder old Disney stuff. When Pat told me that the pilot was about vegetable people, I thought it sounded cool. I’ve done some comics and kids’ books that take place in everyday life, with modern buildings is a bit darker. It wasn’t the typical Cartoon Network, like Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo. This felt, in some

thing I drew was a little sketch of the two brothers, and then a rough sketch of the vegetable guy. He was fully made of vegetables. He didn’t wear any clothes. And I tried to put some colors into them. I made the little brother too colorful. Pat told me to play around with it.

ways, warmer, and closer to kids’ books.

that’s one of the reasons I got into background design and character design, to play with the architecture and design of different eras. So when Pat showed me that

source material and all of those old weird postcards, it

was really appealing to me. I like seeing things that I haven’t thought that much about. For some reason, I always gravitate toward projects that have more of

Phil Rynda: Our preproduction team here sets the style and the bar, and the animation team in Korea has to produce every shot and background. They use the stuff we

produce, but that’s not enough to finish the show. For the pilot, the director of the animation studio actually drew most of the layouts himself for the backgrounds.

The way the studio system in South Korea works is that there’s a flat rate for background design. The amount of work that went into those backgrounds—no one was willing to do it for the price that they were willing to pay. So the director who was overseeing the project in Korea actually did the layouts himself.

an older, darker kind of feel, with traditional villains. I

played Dungeons & Dragons a lot as a kid.

Om

and clothes. For some reason, that bores me a lot. This

sketched out. I needed to start somewhere, so the first

Chris Tsirgiotis: I share Pat’s love for old things. Maybe

Chugyar

Title card sketches by

Susan Mondt: There was a lot of pushback from the

Nick Cross

overseas studio. They said, “We can’t do that.” And we

Nick Cross: Before I got started, Pat had made this huge

were like, “Yes, you can. We'll show you how to do it.”

reference folder of old vintage postcards, and illustra-

And we did have to make an extra effort to say that it’s

tions, and paintings that he liked, so that got me into a mindset of what he wanted. I tried to make it look like something from the past. That was the overall goal for

not that difficult. We broke it down into steps and it

looks incredibly complicated in the final, but it’s not that hard. And they did a beautiful job.

the entire series. We wanted to make it so no one can

place when it was actually made. It could have been made in the forties, then gotten lost and found again.

45

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Don Quixote

Kaal 0° ACH

:

PM: This sketch above was inspired Don Quixote. It probably very

much;

I was

PM: The sketch probably

just trying

* °°

by a Gustave

actually

to find some

to the right was

inspired

of Hansel

doesn't

Fe 5

by that part

and Gretel

where

they ride a swan. I jotted down a lot of these and sketches

kinds

of notes

and then

I for-

got why I'd drawn or written them, so eventually

they evolved

into something else. Maybe eave evolved

into Wirt and Greg rid-

ing a goose in the pilot. I don't

know. Nobody knows the truth,

and nobody ever will.

2

Sketches: Patrick McHale Character Design: Mikkel Sommer

i oY

Doré illustration

resemble ideas

for

the original layouts.

in

illustration

PM: This was one of my first attempts at starting to storyboard the pilot. Greg is still wearing a sailor

outfit, so this was before

Wirt is cold and miserable,

I went

showing

alized that my first storyboard

through

that design process.

how they would

react

Greg is playing

differently

to rain. But eventually

on Flapjack ("Cammie Island") contained

in the mud, So to avoid Similarities

I scrapped

these

boards

with mud while

and changed

I re-

a scene with Flapjack playing Greg's outfit.

AT

Mikkel turkey.

Sommer: And

Sometimes

This

I think

turkey

is disgusting.

it looks

so disgusting.

it looks like it's melting

neck. There's just layers of feathers. Europe.

It's a weird

animal

Pat wanted I gave

a scary

it a black

and has mutations

eye.

on the

I haven't seen a turkey in

to me. It looks

like a mix of birds.

Character Design: Mikkel Sommer Design Clean Up and Color Styling: Patrick McHale, Phil Rynda

PM: Mikkel

did those

great alligator

the left, but I wanted

the alligator

like

I wanted

a real

naive, than

alligator.

like a memory an actual

designed

animal.

was inspired

to look

it to look

of an alligator The

sketches

final

by a Posada

on less

more

rather

version

that

illustration.

I

Mikkel funny

he has

cause

good

Christ-

the

use them

as detailed

so awesome

as they

were.

could

make

them

easier

to animate

black

and adding

blocks

of color

which

removed

pretty

true

a lot of line

to Mikkel's

work.

original

that we wanted But

we figured

by coloring

to capture In the sketches.

the

to just out we

them

pure

highlights,

end they

stayed

be=-

it was

with

were

a bow

but I thought

has

crows

It's

he's a wild goose,

look

massy.

PM: Mikkel's

Sommer:

and

a

The goose also

a realistic

feel,

the proportions head.

of

PM: The

Sommer

first

character

sent us were

ink drawings. Victorian I would

these

that

beautiful

We'd discussed certain

influences,

have

designs

pen-and-

colonial

and he really

loved to make

Mikkel

went

a cartoon

and

for it.

that looked

like these sketches (that corn lady is amazing), but these

weren't very animation

didn't match

the designs

of the

So we asked him to simplify. adorable

...

but a little

friendly

main

and

characters.

His second pass was

too simple

for our

show. On the third pass, he found the perfect ance, like the drawings

above.

They

bal-

would not be

too hard to animate, but still felt sophisticated and classy ...

removing

and then

Phil and I ruined that by

everyone's pants in the final designs!

Character Design: Mikkel Sommer Design Clean Up and Color Styling: Patrick McHale,

Phil Rynda

s aa

hn

é

x “

wcgek

Mii, “ ( ZA, wu ZW M oy oy n i

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y

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ih

YY

y, Pe.

at

.PM: Wirt's model ~ with and without

Vie to include hilm’ both

a cape. Usually his cape magically

stays cloged while he's| walicing around, but when he talks or-runs, his arms

y

FEES \

i

and torso

will

NOD

-

8

F

Zar N Sketches: Patrick McHale Character Design: Phil Rynda, Mikkel Sommer

Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis Background Painting: Nick Cross Color Styling: Susan Mondt, Ron is

——

a

we

ici cS

es

PM: Each

time characters

background, the

then

pilot

and other

because

adjusted

them

move

times

there

until

to a new

you adjust

were

they

location,

the characters

a lot of lighting

felt

you have

right.

The

changes.

to make

to match For

hope is that

the

this

sure

lighting

scene

viewers

their

in the

don't

even

stock colors and mood wheat

notice

look correct

of a new field,

Sue

the subtle

on the background.

Sometimes

you adjust the

scene.

We did a lot of special

character-color

threw

all

onto

color

of these

changes;

characters

they

just feel

the

the mood

models

background

shifting.

and

in

PM: The

us after

pencil

drawings

above

are the cute vegetable

we asked him to simplify

they didn't quite work

for what

right are very early sketches point

I was planning

a lady rid her home causing

mischief

we wanted. I did before

for the story

of three

in her

his first designs. I came

to revolve

up with

around

that

Mikkel

sent

I love these cuties,

The sticky notes

very troublesome

garden.

folks

vegetable

to the left and John

Wirt

but

Crops. At one

and Greg

people

helping

who were

Susan Mondt:

For an eleven-minute

pilot, there There were

were

was a lot of work a lot of characters,

a lot of times

a lot of mood to consider

that

were

was a lot about,

to

story through

moods.

To make

feel a bit frightening,

they were

the

because

in the forest, and to make

the nighttime lively,

There

and be artistic

and find those

daytime

there

of day. There

changes.

find a way to tell color

to do.

at the party

and then

that

feel

fun

and

night at the same

time has to turn a little bit scary. So there tell.

was quite a lot of color But it was

super

a

story to

“

‘ ~)

PM: This layout

was

the first

it seemed

like

full-color a perfect

painted

scene

background

to get us started

we'd be dealing

with

hadn't expected

it to look so lush and painterly.

give

Nick

doorway

any

notes!

in their

we finished. in color.

Chris

N

\

in the pilot. We sent the layout to Nick Cross

Remarkable

for a first

Tsirgiotis

It contained

\

if

trees,

first

LAS

=

:;

eR

SSN

\\

a= AS

a few

layouts

of trees

fields,

fences,

a road,

houses,

to paint, and when

painting.

ay {.

~

S

had done

he sent

Sue did a pass on it to tie everything

pass of the very

!

»

WS

fun; for an art

director, that's the most fun.

KS

=

t.

My parents

it back I remember

together actually

and make have

before

he did this

sky, grass...

almost

Sue and I were

just so excited.

it perfect,

a little

this, but when

poster

everything

but we didn't actually of this

image

hanging

have over

I to the

house.

Character and Prop Design: Patrick McHale, Phil Rynda

ey

Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis. Background Painting: Nick Cross Art Direction: Susan Mondt

° ne Ol

&

PM: This was the first background

Chris did in

the style of the show. That

was the YEAH moment,

YOU GOT IT

and that was what

the show was based around. The look of it, the back= grounds,

were

based around

this image. When

he brought

this in, I couldn't believe

it. I said... animation

La 56

idles

ua

we're making

art.

eR: =ARORA ENEN, SOLE?

Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis

5ST

y

PM: For this project I wanted appealing too much

58

leaf shapes. He drew

‘

ry

the world to feel as real as possible, ivy leaves

for the ivy, rose

leaves

work, but it really did look great, and it helped make

Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis. Background Painting: Nick Cross

-

so I asked Chris to be mindful

tiene

of drawing

for the roses, and specific deciduous

the world feel like a real place.

;

specific leaves

tree leaves

rather

than

random

for the trees. It was probably

Ze

y 4G / * 3Le ¥/

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PM: I storyboarded stuff

make

that

was

a bunch

just imagery

the opening

of to

of the pilot

feel fancy and classy. Most of

those scenes weren't used in the pilot, but some

of them

were reused in the series itself.

Storyboards: Patrick McHale. Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis. Background Painting: Nick Cross

61

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Storyboards: Patrick McHale

OF THE

UNKNOWN | day

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CY ddles with Cr BED hur

A

night

Background: Nick Cross

Cal

LS LTP eae

stHEDS °

PM: The illustrations featured on the episode title cards were all created before the episodes

were

written,

within.

The

illustration

episode

10 to represent

but many

of them

of the two rowers

Wirt

serve

as symbols

in a boat, for example,

and Greg's journey together.

Art: Nick Cross, Patrick McHale. Opposite: Jim Campbell

of the struggles was

used

in

ae “WHEN YOU WORK ON SOMETHING FOR A LONG TIME, YOU SEE ALL THE MISTAKES THAT ARE IN IT.” —Nick Cross

After the Tome of the Unknown pilot was released in

Once production began in October 2013 McHale

September 2013, Cartoon Network ordered a minise-

moved to Burbank, California, and hired Nick Cross as

ries from McHale, leaving the number of episodes to his

art director on the strength of his independent cartoons,

discretion. McHale first envisioned eighteen chapters,

including Black Sunrise and The Pig Farmer—works that

but eventually settled on ten to accommodate budget,

also prioritized lavish, meticulous attention to back-

time, and scheduling constraints.

grounds and otherworldly themes. To fill the need for

Many of the cut

ideas can be seen in Tome of

storyboard artists, colorists,

the Unknown’s

pitch bible,

background artists, and other

including tales of skinless witches and a villain who catves dice from kidnapped

talent, the pair assembled

children’s bones. The slimmer scope would help es-

any

tablish

were already committed to shows with more traditional

the

folkloric,

an international group of freelancers—some without Most

and

occasionally

grim,

of McHale’s

vision without

themes

offering too much nightmare

fuel for its adolescent audience. Fitting the ambitious story into ten eleven-min-

ute episodes proved one of the hardest tasks that the

animation

veteran

experience.

professionals

seasons,

so McHale

pulled

former

Adventure

Time

collaborators as well as cartoonists whose comics he admired. Each episode’s credits shifted dramatically as artists wove into new positions

classmate Amalia Levari and Adventure Time storyboard

to tackle emergent needs. To help kick off the show while McHale and his team scripted the episodes, Cross

artist Tom Herpich to help assemble the narrative. The

painted all of the backgrounds for “Hard Times at the

title also shifted to Over the Garden Wall after McHale abandoned the idea of a show structured around chapters of a mystical book.

Huskin’ Bee,” the first episode produced. Eventually,

showrunner faced, so he recruited his former CalArts

the team found all the storyboard artists needed for the show and got to work.

|

Art: Nick Cross

NWS

MS V R \

PM: The backgrounds Nick

and I knew

Just too much concerned grounds. losing

in the pilot were

it would

work

be impossible

So we discussed made

to do that

drawn

the pilot feel special.

One

miniseries.

was to draw

the

layouts

can see one

of Nick's first

studio. I was also

great, but I thought

the elaborate

the realism

didn't quite match

ways of simplifying

in pencil, but

for a full

for our crew and for the animation

that the simple characters

what

beautifully

the backgrounds of the first

back-

a bit without

things

we decided

line

would

work

have

digitally

from

both

ended

attempts

having

of the world.

rather

thick

than

at figuring

black

lines

We also considered

the characters

in pencil.

and the

up feeling too flat.

To the left you

out a process.

in the

It looks

BG took away

completely

removing

backgrounds,

but the

from

all the characters

PM: Nick and I are both fans of the way black is used in early cinema. using blocks might

of black

be a nice way

of details

drawn,

feel more

dramatic.

to the

marked

with

pure

image when

to reduce

and also

areas

have

more

he did the final details

a maniac.

But it was

approach

simplifying

found

layouts

a nicer

make

everything

little

Xs where

could

be filled

that

black, while

would

the amount

In the pencil layout

up adding

also

in the backgrounds

left, you'll see

Nick

We thought

the

rest

details.

Of course,

painting

everywhere

still

he ended

because

he's

a good way to

the layouts.

digital

that felt more

of the

line

Nick

for

these

like pencil.

On the opposite page you'll see the final painting

our

process

background

Nick

put

painters.

together

for

PM: For most meaning

of the

design.

In early

sinister. clearly

f

CG aN

Ay

MST

Of

Wi

Be

EE Se8

ne =

oe

enough

decided faces

Edelwood

trees,

sketches

them

them,

perfect:

and

pure

It also

tried

white, like

them

helped

with

making

forest.

understanding

uncertainty

them

but we realized

scary

seemed color

and that

Nick

in a dark,

to try what on

I struggled

They looked amazing,

glow, making

looked

f=

of development

look

into

the

gnarly

and

they wouldn't stand out

So Nick

etc. Nothing

bled

the

tried

seemed

making

right.

them

Finally

we

the

hackiest

idea possible:

put spooky

like

a modern

horror

game.

us tie up some

loose

video

ends

in the

It

story.

Natasha Allegri

Za

{«< » thumbs vadet overe ls eurlt Oeneaa

on fable

of empty ples

Steve Wolfhard PM: When

production

was important artists

started

to find storyboard

and revisionists

sensibilities

matched

whose

the tone of

the show. I asked everyone me sketches

of the main

to see what their

looked

first

like. Everyone

the characters

up, it

to send

characters instincts

approaches

differently.

Tom Herpich

A

,_ Nate Cash

es

3s

Nick Cross

IL

-

ph

SY

7, ©

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sa

@ Hoo!

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ition

si

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0 ie /

23

He

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Heel

Aaron Renier

z

Steppin 5

iA a

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ixample.-

Examples:

not unnecessa

Storyboard pose:

actions/moven pose to anothe

Example of how to translate rough storyboard drawing into character layout for animation: Storyboard:

PM: In order make

for the final animation

guidelines

tors to follow.

for the storyboard

I made a reference

to look cohesive, artists,

packet to show

Example:

we had to

revisionists,

and anima-

the board artists

how to approach their rough storyboards. Phil Rynda made a reference packet to illustrate more

finished

looking

how to best translate

character

rough sketches

into

layouts.

Details should follow model, but pose & expression should match storyboard as closely as possible.

Example:

Example of translating storyboard to character layout: Storyboard:

Noket Wikks gues Clee It’s important to follow the intention of the

storyboards.

board:

-dimenpowa whew > A

Close-up slots like Wis.

Qreins a8

Also notice eye direction. For medium and wide shots, no shadow is necessary, unless otherwise |indicated in the storyboard. | ~rxample-

Character Design: Nick Cross, Patrick McHale, Phil Rynda. Animation Notes: Phil Rynda Consumer Products Artwork: Jim Campbell

t6

|

It is usually b storyboard, bu please use you ment to make

Example:

—

003 - Take 2 - scene 119

Overall, perspective in this scene is great. hand shouldn’t exit the top of the screen.

should be more like this.

Wow

ons

remove extra line in

Chin should be smaller, like this.

PM: Digital

eMation

they

put their

really

A lot of their

(cKam P le) THe

( das) 003 - Take 2 - scene 129

rake!

Spe Gohh0!

are

ae en

all into the project

was

just perfect

right

the miniseries, to make from

and

it special.

the start, but

bound to be inconsistencies

and mistakes.

When

the anima-

our notes, we often sent sketches and visual reference to explain

esi 1)

Character Models: Nick Cross, Phil Rynda Animation Notes: Patrick McHale

to animate

tion didn't look quite right, we would give notes. To supplement

when the drawing is more finished. It usually looks best this way.

Examele:

onboard

when there are so many different people working on a show, there

locke coon My erneicnbea)

Le A Bae noe

work

came

things as clearly

as possible.

(Very Rough) Storyboard: Example:

Pa.

x

OCOE

©$ LOD f

Pencil Test:

duos ey e

136 row

yoe m re T Ridge

Pa \

Mole 4

Storyboard:

Rol

iC)

| realize it's hard to tell from the rough storyboard, but Beatrice should be looking at Wirt as he runs towards her.

Example: es

dni

Also, watch to make sure her cheeks don't get too puffy. Should look more like this.

Not

S|

Fesh5

fy

awkward

—-

YF

Hk

Scie!

s sleul /

“Claes about is

ths

fal

above

both

of ae :

EK Mmyle

he

(©.@

ae

0

ce _ 2 Scone Al: Noe S” Greg's pose should look

Arm should be pointing back away from camera so that we cannot see inside the sleeve,

more like this, with,his head stretching as it tilts back.

(oe

like in storyboard

(sr)

(Steeyecmen)

/ SES Greg's hands should be less realistic

Body should be slightly

and more bubbly... like... a little rubber glove filled with water.

wider to match model and storyboard

279

Ke

NN

Background Layout: Clarke Snyder Background Painting: Levon Jihanian

PART

FOUR

a)

Background: Nick Cross

Cpisove 1 “The Old Grist Mill” “Welcome to The Unknown, boys. You're more lost than you realize.” - THE WOODSMAN

Before production of the miniseries started, Patrick McHale made significant changes to the story that had been lurking in his head since

planned to recount Wirt and Greg’s modern backstory—McHale invited Magical Game Time cartoonist Zac Gorman to storyboard alongside Adventure Time designer and Bee and PuppyCat creator Natasha Allegri. After a few passes of the storyboard, McHale grew concerned about showing Wirt and Greg getting lost from their suburban starting point, fearing the audience wouldn’t become immersed in their fairytale exploits and would only wait for them to return to their home. Their backstory would be saved for the penultimate

2006. The story team of McHale, Amalia Levari,

and Thomas Herpich scrapped the idea of a

tome full of magical stories and replaced it with a more streamlined and organic arc, while still venturing into segregated fantasy realms. “The idea was to make it more like a story quilt,” McHale explained, “with each episode being a different

square of the quilt. Each episode was meant to feel very different from the others, but as a group they had to hang together as one cohesive thing.”

episode, “Into the Unknown,” and instead Steve

Because a miniseries is a short-term project,

Wolfhard, another Adventure Time veteran, was

McHale and art director Nick Cross recruited a mix of freelancers. For the first episode—initially

brought on to overhaul the story by introducing the big black dog with beautiful eyes.

83

day

day

night

night

#1028-001 EPISODE

PM: For our episode 1 intro, I was inspired by the opening

of The Rocky

actual

many

plot. Nick Cross did this pass of rough storyboards,

told Wirt

in episode

5. We never

of which

Horror were

explain why she did this, but we did include

Picture

Show.

I wanted

not used. Above, hints

to set a tone for the series

Beatrice

in the series

is throwing

that her family

without

a rock at a bluebird,

had an interest

revealing

any

just like she

in bluebirds.

#1028-001 EPISODE

PM: Here

we establish

Sc.

the dog from

Bg.

Pn.

episode 1, and an early version

of Beatrice's

dad as a hunter.

day night

#EPISODE 1028-001

PM: There

PM: The beast in the fog. The layout was borrowed

PM: This was an early concept of Enoch's backstory. Nick and I talked about the possibility of Enoch

from Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen.

being some kind of drifter and cult leader who came to Pottsfield death cult.

to take over the town and set up a

which the

made

1800s.

was a company children's

books

They

a big inspiration

were

show, so Nick thought

wood tree that Wirt burns

origin

down in chapter 4.

Storyboards: Natasha Allegri, Nick Cross, Zac Gorman, Steve Wolfhard, Bert Youn

of the big Edel-

and games

Bros.,

throughout for the

it'd be nice to give a nod to

them in the intro; the idea is that these are the McLoughlin

brothers

boat into the water.

PM: This hints at a possible

called McLoughlin

themselves

placing

the

little

PM: For most of production,

the Edelwood

tree's

oil was sticky. Wirt tells Greg not to touch the tree, but then he turns and Greg is already plastered

to it. Wirt

tries

to pull Greg free, and

too. But why would

he gets stuck

oil be sticky?

/

Didn't make sense. At the last minute, after the episode scenes

was fully animated, and made

Nick reanimate

fill in the gaps, bless

NC; After

I cut a bunch

his

Pat reboarded

of

bits and pieces to

/

soul.

(

this scene, there

were

\

other parts of the episode that didn't work. Greg threw

a bunch of candy that stuck to the tree,

and the dog ate an Edelwood

stick with the candy.

I asked, "What

doe: Ss he swallow

"Why not make

it a turtle?"

Greg put the candy

TO M E

ia

now?" and we said,

al

So we had to have

on a turtle.

1028-001

Chapter One day night

page_G2 day night

Sc.

1028-001 # EPISODE

1028-001 EPISODE #

G: Really?

G: Hi Gregory My

itt! Tim Your brother! Name's

S

|

Natasha

Allegri:

Woodsman. —Hand

L

pulls out

holding

I think

this is the best drawing

And the best drawing

his axe backwards

of a man

...

Wow. What

I've ever

I ever

did of the

done. Also, he's

a noob woodsman.

One Chapter PRODUCTION transferred fer production purposes, and may notbesol or except r manne any in used or ated duplic studio, the from taken be not may Grd ished unpubl is ©2013 Thismaterialis theproperty ofTheCartoon Network, Inc.It

\

PM: Steve Wolfhard, who

\

storyboarded the episode, had to figure

PM: In the first regale

incarnation

the Woodsman

of events veering his story using

with their

backstory,

rock

voices

with

and makeshift

a face on it. That

of what would become

the "Rock Facts"

at the time, but that

rock

of the overarching

story.

ended

with the size relationship

the big mill and the little

had Greg tell puppets:

house with a big chimney. I

his

=

was the genesis

loved his original

an important

part

design,

but I thought it needed to

rock! It was just a gag

up becoming

the mill

should look like. He came up

Greg and Wirt

with Greg's version

into pure fantasy. Zac Gorman

ridiculous

frog and a random

of the storyboard,

out what

=

‘

look a bit more

American.

of

I FS PM: I had read treasure,

a folktale

So I wanted

an old illustration actually huge,

read

glowing

Originally

the

the eyes

about

to include

from story,

a large

appearing black

the Hans Christian and

and asked

dog was

the devil

also

didn't

know

Wolfhard

spewing

snakes

dog somewhere

Andersen

what

Steve

as a large

the

image

lizards

in the

dog to guard series.

Later

story "The Tinderbox."

to incorporate and

black

and

was

from,

that bats

but

concept

I saw

I'd never

I loved into

buried

those

his boards.

out of its mouth,

but

it

was a bit too overwhelming.

G3

The.

cS

-

.

4.

day

night

4

hint ig

f

va 2 My, ,‘f

NAAN

ees

"i

| iN} i

hit

y/,)

MH ) \))

iia

Ns

PM: This

image

inspired

by a shot

The

Legend

it's from

The image

that

tree was partially

of a signpost

of Sleepy

Hollow...

in the

Disney

At least

short

I think

film.

to the right

see Beatrice. Cheshire

of the Edelwood

It was

is the first time

meant

Cat is sitting

we really

to feel a bit like

on a branch

above

when

the

Alice.

Character Design: Nick Cross. Prop Design: Nick Cross, Dylan Forman. Storyboards: Steve Wolfhard Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis. Background 1g: Nick Cross, Levon Jihanian Design Clean Up: Miranda Dressler. Color Styling: Camille Stancin. Art Direction: Nick Cross

Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis = eS s 3 Ss S 2 3s= as} i Ss 3 bo 2 3 oO£ 2 |a § s < —= s = =

&

s9

Background: Nick Cross

Episode “Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee” “By the order of the Pottsfield Chamber of Commerce, |find you guilty of trespassing, destruction of property, disturbing the peace, and... murder.” —ENOCH

Patrick McHale: One of the early ideas of Potts-

Nick Cross: “Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee”

field was inspired by an old postcard. The town

was actually the first episode we completed.

grew cabbages, and from those cabbages babies were born. But the twist is that to grow their cabbages, these townsfolk murder people and bury them in the ground like seeds. They say, “It’s the

After finishing the pilot, I didn’t hear anything

circle of life,” but Wirt and Greg don’t want to be

up and moved from Canada. When I got to Los Angeles, it was just Pat, a producer, and me in

for a while. And then, out of the blue, Pat con-

tacted me and said, “Hey, do you want to come down and art direct the series?” So we packed

ToolbTne(clucre e-ToYe MRUTubTcre Balko litd(cMer:]o)ey-Tevell oy:los[och Another version of the story felt more like a Christmas pantomime, where everyone looks like they have big heads but they’re actually just wearing costumes .. . and there’s something sinister beneath the costumes. After a long writing process, we combined and simplified all the ideas,

the office. That was the entire crew. I was used to

starting a show with tons of people. I ended up doing all of the backgrounds for this episode, which is good, because I think this

one informs the look for the whole series: fall, warm colors, set out in nature with woods and

and added the harvest-festival angle to make it feel

farms. When we started bringing in other artists,

more autumnal. I knew that most of the episodes weren't going to feel exactly like Halloween, so we needed at least one episode that really made the show feel like a Halloween special.

we could show them that this is what it’s supposed to look like.

91

« Genepre NOTE = 2 Syte Te MAKE PRTRILS Tar trplaaConmecr Srite. ‘Poair AfBM ap

4

i;

fore We FORM.

(fi

AIGAT

(o-

Dialog Pumpkin

Gal:

Folks

don’t

tend

to

"pass

thrpugh"

Pottsfield,

EVEN

STRING Pots

i

LN

PM

s

se

SS CHMUES

iitem og Seamer LINES VHEN POSSIBLE

PM: Much lucky

of our crew

enough

was freelance,

to get Miranda

PM: Graham

but we were

Dressler

strange

on staff

a as our in-house character cleanup artist for the ; . : ‘ series. Early on she did this test, and Nick did a draw-over

PM: These

sketches

are based on postcards.

trying to put all the different pumpkin

faces

into

to show

how

it could

;\|

celebrate

your the

to|

vegetables harvest

unless you know the

‘4

and with us.

“munis Ones TRYING +o ESCAPE!”

insistent

that they were

based on Halloween

old-style

pumpkins,

i Graham t© draw a million illi Kin designer Graham Falk Fa pumpkin

see onscreen,

{7°

folks ‘ought

really

hi ti character

nid 60" 5 dS 2 9

don

seems So cute... G story.

one place.

dio 9 140

you

people. The one with

styles of Victorian

(av6D * (a) ,

Say,

fun,

I was

Pat was

Man:

pumpkin

up with so many

the baby was the most unexpected. It

be improved.

NC: A lot of the pumpkin people's designs were

Pumpkin

came

thithere

are probably ably

hihundreds

of f sketches. sketch

postcards from the 1800s.

painted instead of carved.

chi ti characters.

We hired

ForFor the the titen designs i you

PM: Enoch's

final

townspeople

changed

to cover

their

design

looked

very

substantially.

pumpkin

costumes,

similar

In this which

to my early sketch

sketch

cover

their

they are skeleton

above, but the

dressed bodies.

in human Obviously

costumes that

was far too complicated.

fowow

ee PoOoLS0bF_ 5&7 A

FoR Desien OF

TUE

Painting: Nick Cross. Character Design: Nick Cross, Graham Falk Design Clean Up: Miranda Dressler. Color Styling: Carol Wyatt. Art Direction: Nick Cross

93

De

PM: It's unclear

whether

or not the cat is Enoch him-

self. We made sure you never the cat was onscreen.

Maybe he's like the Wizard of

Oz. Maybe not. Cats can't talk.

PM: Enoch's

pumpkin,

design

Aaron

sense,

some

other

but it feels

Reiner,

did these

meant

to be a mix

an apple, a skull, a Maypole,

and possibly much

was

one

beautiful

of the

things.

of a

a poppet,

It doesn't

make

right for Halloween. storyboard

development

artists,

paintings.

They

didn't get used in the series, so it's nice we can

include them here! Paintings: Aaron Reiner. Character Design: Nick Cross, Graham Falk, Seo Kim Prop Design: Nick Cross Storyboards: Bert Youn Design Clean Up: Miranda Dressler Color Styling: Carol Wyatt. Art Direction: Nick Cross

saw Enoch talking while

} \(

PM: Seo Kim skeletons

designed

and cat in this

episode. The skeletons meant

to resemble

gravestones.

PM: Bert Youn storyboarded the sequence where Wirt awkwardly turkey

meets a turkey.

is silently

Thanksgiving

waiting

dinner.

I think

the

to be prepared

for

the

were

New England

PM: My sketches

artwork to feel

at the top of this page were

for the show. With Over like

inspiration?

a watered-down They

were

the Garden

version

looking

Wall

of classic

at classic

on Gustave

we were

animation,

literature,

Sketches: Patrick McHale. Storyboard: Fran Krause. Backgrounds: Nick Cross

96

based

Doré

layouts.

trying to make so we tried

illustrations,

On the right

something

you can see how they eventually

into final

that felt old, but not stale or played out. We didn't want

to get into the mindset and artwork

translated

(in addition

of early to the

filmmakers.

film

work

What

of their

did they

look to for

contemporaries).

it

Backgrounds: Nick Cross

Background: German Orozco

“Schooltown

Follies’

b)

“The world really is as sweet as potatoes and molasses.” — MR. LANGTREE

Patrick McHale: When we were structuring the series, I had to convince the network that Over

But when we first storyboarded the episode and pitched it to the network, they didn’t like it

the Garden Wall wasn’t all scary and spooky,

very much! Mostly because it was too childish and

so I wrote a premise with a schoolhouse and a bunch of animals. But I started to feel like having

cute and dreamlike—which was, ironically, exactly

what I’d come to love about the story by that point. There was also a scene we’d added with Wirt lying in bed, staring at the silhouette of his hand against the ceiling as he poetically reflects on his

a school of animals broke the logic of the show; animals should act like animals, and people should act like people. Except for Beatrice, who

is enchanted. So in the next pass I changed the episode to a story about sailors who sail over fields of grass. (That story ended up as the first special issue of the BOOM! comics.) The network told me they much preferred the animal story. It so clearly conveyed a fun side of the show. I agreed that it was nice to have a light episode that focused more on Greg after the dark tone of “Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee.” So we did “Schooltown Follies” as the third episode.

existence being only a shadow. It was the first

time that the network saw Wirt being poetic and overly dramatic (we hadn’t finished episode 1 yet). So that part of the episode didn’t go over so well either. I think in the end we found the right balance for everyone. We removed the dreaminess and Wirt’s dark reverie, but kept the innocence and cuteness intact. There was a lot of talk about Our Gang, Anne of Green Gables, and Shirley Temple while making this episode.

101

ire Ze Z

c>

=

L

/

A

drawings ideas, but

Park

)

‘Sy

and Nick Cross

did a lot of concept

for this episode. I loved Laura's bird and fish I thought

they raised

logic of the world.

but I wanted awkwardly

\

Nu! IN 4

=

PM: Laura

the

VILLE

Nick's drawings

the kids to feel

wearing

too many

clothing.

more Nick

like

questions

are

hilarious,

realistic

showed

about

me

some

animals old short

films called Dogville Comedies, which was exactly the right idea. Eventually

we had Seo do a pass on the school

to help us figure

Laura

Park:

character school

out their

I have

final

a ludicrously

kids

designs.

cute French

bulldog, and the dog

is based on him. I try to put him in all my projects. The

kid with

cut. He's a human

the fake

nose,

ears, and tail didn't make

kid pretending

to be an animal.

Character Design: Nick Cross, Seo Kim, Laura Park. Design Clean Up: Miranda Dressler Color Styling: Ron Russell, Carol Wyatt. Art Direction: Nick Cross

the final

Laura

Park:

Father

Langtree

(originally called J. B. Soloman) is a cranky

banker,

so it felt

ripe for some

kind of visual

A fat cat who

is all

steak

...or

sizzle,

gag. no

here, all fur coat

and no body.

NC; The original

concept

for Father

from the Shirley Temple all these shows

owns

kids in an orphanage,

up and makes

the orphanage

having

movie

everyone

Curly Top. There and Shirley

have

not here

imposing-looking

his mother, and he's going broke her

medical

bills.

in the end, which face, we just made

Writer Amalia Levari developed the lovesick schoolteacher

Miss Langtree from her own romantic misadventures. She adopted the name from the Judy Henske song “Lily Langtree,” itself a reference to nineteenth-century actress and heartbreaker Lillie Langtry. Miss Langtree’s design is based on nineteenth-century paintings of women reading books and letters by windows, and storyboard artist Laura Park gave her the slender neck and delicate features of a wooden doll.

are

Temple

fun. The guy who

to have fun!"

guy,

out in the film that he was actually

for

came

says, "What is this?! Why are you

all this fun? You're

He had to be this

Langtree

but it turns

taking

care of

because

he's paying

So he had to look

sympathetic

is where

the coat came

from.

For his

him look like J. D. Rockefeller.

hae

eae

oe

ie

5

ts se

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ee

s x

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PM: Our storyboard storyboarding sequences Laura

artists

for TV,

for this episode,

but their natural

Jim Campbell

sensibilities

perfectly

with Greg and the kids (including the "Potatoes

took

on Miss

Langtree

and Laura

Park, were

matched

and Molasses"

both new

to

the show. Jim did the sequence

above) while

and her classroom. |

| |

TOME

Chapter Three

1028-003 |

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day nigh

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NC;

ee ae

The way characters

fingers

traumatized

used to wipe and hold tears on their

me as a kid. To carry

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abuse, I forced Pat to let me put it in G the Overa Wall. rden es 1028-003

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PM: We gave hair

and a blood-colored

weird, scary movies, Allan were

the gorilla

ape costumes

especially Poe's The

baSically

chase sequences

mouth

just seen

ba FONOvWane

to look

shaggy like

the

in old stage shows

and

of Edgar

in the Rue

Morgue.

as violent

monsters

was also heavily

from

:

crazy,

early adaptations

Murders

then. The episode

costume

q

inspired

Apes back

by the

the 1930 Our Gang comedy

Bear Shooters.

Character Design: Nick Cross. Storyboards: Jim Campbell, Bert Youn Design Clean Up: Miranda Dressler. Color Styling: Ron Russell, Carol Wyatt Art Direction: Nick Cross

(©2013 ThismaterialisthepropertyofTheCartoon Network,nc.Wis unpublished andmay notbetakenfom thestu, duplicatedorusedIn anymane @xCapiTorProduction purposes,andmaynotbeSoldor WanaTared

wavea

NC; Pat really wanted the world to look different he wanted more browns,

green

in this one. Pottsfield

reds, and yellows.

was the idea: this forest

with this strange

This

looks

schoolhouse.

one needed

different

in each episode. His one main note was that

had been fall--there

a lot of green,

were a lot of oranges,

and a bright

from the previous

All of a sudden, everything's

red schoolhouse.

one, and they come

That

into a clearing

really cute and friendly.

ds: Nick Cross

Background: Nick Cross

pe eeee re sieges

nen

a

“I'm the Highway Man. | make ends meet, just like any man. | work with my hands. Ifyou cross my path, I'll knock you out, drag you off the road. Steal your shoes from off your feet. I'm the Highway Man, and | make ends meet.” —THE

HIGHWAY

MAN

Patrick McHale: Back in the day, people didn’t

When we were recording that episode, we

have the same sense of individual identity that we do now. You were more defined by your circumstances than by something inside of you. So I thought it would be interesting to look at people who define themselves by their roles in society, and contrast that with a more modern boy like Wirt. He should be more in tune with his own identity, but he’s actually more confused than anybody. So they start defining him .. . just like people do to each other in high school: “You’re the weird kid,” or “You're the jock.” Wirt doesn’t

purposely hadn’t written a melody for Wirt to sing,

feel like he fits any labels, and he pretends that

Amalia Levari: We talked a lot about Wirt’s particular relationship with Greg. The fact that they’re half brothers was a big talking point. The

and we forced Elijah Wood (who did Wirt’s voice) to make it up. We wrote lyrics, but no melody. It was a pretty hilarious recording session, with Collin Dean (the voice of Greg) and me shouting, “Sing, lover, sing!” at Elijah over and over again, trying to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible. Obviously Elijah is a very experienced actor, so I don’t know if he really felt uncomfortable with all our jeering, but we tried to make the atmosphere

as oppressive and awkward for him as possible.

he’s proud of not fitting into a mold, but inside he’s struggling to find his identity. At first they call him “the young lover.” And he is that, in some ways, but that’s an embarrass-

scene where Wirt discovers that he’s a pilgrim was a big focus in terms of trying to think about

ing thing for someone his age to admit. Especially

what his particular struggle is. It’s funny to think

when they throw you ona

about it, because he feels like a person to me now. But at the time, his identity wasn’t crystallized yet, and we were figuring out how we could depict his character in a way that would fit into a relatively short-form narrative.

stage and start chanting,

“Sing, lover, sing!” at you. How embarrassing. A whole crowd looking at you and judging you, and

saying who they think you are. That’s basically what your teenage years can feel like.

109

sail fe.

(4 ae

- cat hig

PM: Pen Ward's

storyboards

for this episode

of the series, but I wanted to make ing too modern. details

old fashioned.

old illustrations,

Although

I do like

some

sure the tavern

I did this pass of character

from various

were

some

of the funniest

parts

didn't end up feel-

designs to try to incorporate

attempting of these

to make them

redesigns

look more

individually,

GS

as a

group they aren't cohesive. They look like they're all from different time periods

and different

places

in the world.

So we didn't use any of these.

CHANDLER

PM: The original less comedic;

idea for the tavern

it was

more

dark

The idea of having a character Boop voice

was

Nick thought

to lighten

and ominous.

with a Betty

things

up, and

it'd be fun to actually

her look a bit like Betty Boop too.

aperns re

Character Sketches: Jim Campbell, Nick Cross, Graham Falk, Patrick McHale, Pen Ward

Design Clean Up: Miranda Dressler Color Styling: Camille Stancin Art Direction: Nick Cross

was

make

sto, ©2019 CartoonNetwork Studios,A Te Wamer Company, AllRightsReserved.NOTICE: ThsmaterialsthepropertyofCartoonNetworkStuds,In. andisitendedforintemaluseony.Itiunpubished andmustnotbetakenfromthe

PM: I loved Frank voice

and wanted

Toy Maker really

to make

character

the

feel

special, but we never

quite figured even

Fairfield's

sure

it out. I wasn't

if he should

toy maker,

be a

or a cabinetmaker,

or what. Nick wanted

him to

look like Santa Claus, which, in hindsight, the

best

idea.

may

have

been

Storyboards: Steve MacLeod. Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis Background Painting: Levon Jihahian. Design Clean Up: Miranda Dressler Color Styling: Camille Stancin. Art Direction: Nick Cross

a.

NC: The tree in this episode has a lot of faces on it. I thought at first

are all these hints about what's in the Unknown.

it could have been Civil War soldiers that had fallen

asleep by the tree.

Maybe

when

But it got wrapped

in the tavern

known

is informed

into this idea that all the people

actually in this tree--that's actually leave the tavern. this tavern

The Unknown informed

112

Ep ad

is: the lantern

where they all died. If you watch, they don't

It's called the Dark Lantern, and that's what that their

is Wirt's particular

by his own

are

interests.

souls are trapped in.

vision of what the next world may be,

When

you go back to the real world there

it would Amalia

he was there

he saw that and imagined

by his perspective.

look completely

ferent terms for that, which existence.

grave.

what that was. The Un-

If you or I had gone to this world,

different.

Levari: The Unknown

a state that people

You see Endicott's

is a liminal

space. And there are a lot of dif-

are associated

with death. To me, it describes

are in, but they do exist. Death

implies

a lack of

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Beast Painting: Nick Cross. Storyboards: Jim Campbell. Background Layout: Chris Tsirgiotis. Background Painting: Levon Jihanian

PM: Jim's fight sequence designed him; we were

was so cool looking, but this was before the Beast's redesign, So you see how far we got before we re-

already

on episode 10. We included that last shot for sure in the series. It was so neat to have all those

black shadows of trees and then you have blackness.

166

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NC; At some point, Pat said, "Maybe the Beast could have a lot of holes in him."

He had mentioned

how his wife

hates

little

dots and holes,

led to us discovering

something

holes

like, "No, no, we can't do that. My wife will kill me."

in him, Pat was

called trypophobia.

and it

As soon as we put some

Background Layout: Nick Cross, Jim Smith Chris Tsirgiotis Background Painting: Nick Cross, Levon Jihanian, Gerr

fe

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PART

FIVE

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Art: Jim Campbell

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the

Patrick McHale: The idea was that it’s the frog

always as they seem...” And things start get-

Cartoon Network publicity department sent out a read-and-listen vinyl to the press. The story was written by Patrick McHale and illustrated by Jim Campbell. The concept paid homage to

narrating. At certain points the record devi-

ting dark and creepy, with the Beast singing

ates from what’s written in the book. If you’re

“Come Wayward Souls.”

about being a frog. And then he says, “Anyway,

water and people yelling and the train. When

Peter Pan and Disneyland Records, labels that

it doesn’t matter .. .” and picks up where he

you're supposed to turn the page, you hear

licensed comic books, TV, and movies to create

left off.

the steam

new stories on book-and-record sets that com-

and old fashioned, but is actually dark if you

bined reading, voice acting, and sound effects.

The book concludes with a happy ending, with the frog singing. Then the record

Jack Jones narrated the record.

adds more to the story: “But things aren’t

Before

el w

READ

Over the Garden

Wall debuted,

reading along, he starts ad-libbing and talking

On the record, we added the sounds of

engine train, which

know the show.

seems

cute

Some on now voung strangers someone,s son? Y yent.vou Tow,

a

aint

it

cuz

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Photograph and Sketches: The Blasting Company

THE BLASTING COMPANY To complement the sterling diversity of art and

Armstrong—displayed

aesthetic in Over the Garden Wall’s visuals, the

genre and instrument expertise. McHale sent

show needed a score that spanned the same

the younger brother.”

centuries blended throughout the Unknown. Patrick McHale’s initial plan was to reference

them a copy of the pitch bible, and the trio responded with music recorded on Kaufman’s iPhone. One of the tracks in the show—the

genres that touched on Dixieland, opera, jazz

haunting piano lullaby that plays over the cred-

shape and build. “Potatoes and Molasses” was

ballads, eastern European folk music, and turn-

its—is from that original recording.

written by David Stevenson, an acquaintance of

of-the-century blues—a

a staggering range of

he’s responsible. And the other one just messes everything up,” Kaufman said. “I felt like I was For many songs, artists and friends offered melodies that the Blasting Company helped

dynamic soundtrack

But the Blasting Company had more in com-

Jim Campbell. Pendleton Ward wrote an out-

to fit the shifting tones of each episode. Writer Amalia Levari recommended as composers the Blasting Company, a trio of musicians stationed in Los Angeles. The group—consisting of Josh

mon with Over the Garden Wall’s vision than

line of “The Highwayman,” while Mark Bodnar

just musical taste. Kaufman and Rubenstein are

both wrote and sang “The Old North Wind”

half brothers who admit that their personalities

from “Babes in the Wood,” his voice slowed to

overlap eerily with those of Wirt and Greg. “The older brother gets a lot of things done;

a bass in postproduction.

Kaufman,

Justin

Rubenstein,

and

Brandon

VOICES OF THE UNKNOWN McHale and the Blasting Company collaborated to recruit musicians for cameo characters. They drew from the Los Angeles folk and bluegrass community, and also sought out old favorites of McHale’s, including pop standard icon Jack Jones (the voice of Greg’s frog) and opera veteran Samuel Ramey (the Beast).

Chris Isaak, known for his deep-throated

tunes honoring fifties blues and classic rock, performed the song “Patient Is the Night” for the episode “Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee.” The song was written in homage to the jazz ballads of Hoagy Carmichael. Ukulele revivalist Janet Klein had played

with Kaufman on her 2015 album I?’s the Girl! Her passion for early nineteenth-century jazz and Dixie made her a perfect fit for Over the Garden Wall’s exploration of vintage Americana. Miss Langtree from “Schooltown Follies” was developed specifically for the singer/songwriter. 1735

Sam Wolfe are

the initial

for the along

sign

cover

with

the

of the

idea on

left

since

it felt

tune

with

the

cartoon the

album,

border

end we went

cover

These

thumbnails

for the sheet

In the the

Connelly:

de-

music. with the

far

more

nature

in

of the

and the journey

of

characters.

Art: Sam Wolfe Connelly Images courtesy of Mondo

Za MONDO VINYL & CASSETTE ZA Mondo, a company that produces pop culture posters, records,

song and sheet music for four of the compositions. The record sleeve,

clothes, and other materials, released a limited vinyl record of the Over

vinyl, and booklet were designed by Sam Wolfe Connelly, an illustrator

the Garden Wall soundtrack and score in July 2016. The album included

whose black-and-white chiaroscuro illustrations inspired McHale when

thirty-two tracks with a twenty-page booklet featuring the lyrics of every

he was developing the series.

vs

z. it

a=

-

SS

A Swe: This the

record

of the that

is one itself,

glowing

appears

of the

of the

labels

simulating

eyes

in the

for one

SWC: I made

this pattern

hand-drawn

autumn

layered

first

to create

show.

in the

This

is the

final

drawing

of Wirt

and

Greg

for the interior

we of

leaves

on top of each

other

a forest-floor

backgrounds

album

Swe;

A

xo}

of the dog episode

Fl

feel

of the

booklet.

spread.

SWC; More dark

thumbnails

scene.

for the interior

It was printed

Beast

was printed

in glossy

Beast

only

visible

barely

spread

on matte

black

black

ink. This

where

the

of the album.

paper,

and the

had the

light

reflects

We chose

silhouette

effect

the of the

of making

the

off the page.

PM: I can't believe this tape got made. The

MONDO¢ EOR

contents

of the tape were

Blasting

Company.

the muSic

to have

SARE

multiple

actual

written

of the

my high-school The

wonderful

provide even

Wirt's

Collin

9. It’s full

to create

layered

to read some

as teenagers

Blasting

Company,

friend Vanessa Elijah

vocals

Wood

when

by me, and

Templeton).

came

on to

for the tape, and

Dean, the voice

an appearance i3© Cortoon Network.

is so embarrassed

in episode

tape recorders

poems

members

=

Wirt

to replicate

harmonies) and original poetry (including

PP} = =

ig

meant

by the

of soothing clarinet music (recorded using

MONDO&

a

It was

and poetry

Sara hear

produced

Greg

of Greg, makes

hijacks

of his own poetry:

the

tape

WyA) yy |Csoo y rtee aads

Le ee 2

|

ott BOOM!

eo

zs

COMICS

Yo

Coinciding with the November 2014 airing of the miniseries, Patrick

additional four issues the following August, joined by original staff writer

McHale and storyboard artist Jim Campbell released a comic book special featuring one of McHale’s unused episode ideas. The story invited Greg and Wirt aboard a land ship with a crew of “commonwealth” patriots attempting to wage a war on cows. That creative team reunited for an

Amalia Levari, who wrote the concluding chapter. Publisher BOOM! later launched an ongoing series with creators including Campbell and Levari, as well as artist Cara McGee.

ln 26!4 spo®\ F. Sai cafe) UL

4

wal ee

Ae

(Mersin: YS, ae sly

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[eli

Jim Campbell:

These

concept

sketches

and rough

layouts

are for the special first issue of the comic. The character Art: Jim Campbell, Levon Jihanian

;

Images courtesy of BOOM! Studios

designs

for the sailors

nineteenth-century

were

illustrator

inspired

Edward

in part by

Lear's

drawings.

JC: The Woodsman's

cabin

his daughter

appeared

Anna

for only a very brief in the

show.

In

and

moment

Amalia

Levari's story (issue 4 of the BOOM! miniseries), we not only

see

Anna

also

meet

her

grow

up, but

mother.

JC; These

are

alternate

covers

for

issue

by Levon

Jihanian (right), who was also a

#4

background artist on the show, and me (left). I sculpted this model (above) to use as reference for the Woodsman.

German Orozco

Stacy Renfroe

Adrienne Lee

Aaron Reiner

Natasha Allegri

Vi-Dieu Nguyen

After the miniseries wrapped production in September 2014, many

of the storyboard and background artists climbed back into the Unknown to revisit Wirt, Greg, Beatrice, the Beast, and even Jason

Funderburker through additional art.

Zac Gorman

PM: Some believe

of the items the

idea

a pair of my

my pocket while hat

and

through

until

of using

own

that

sometimes.

dreaming cape

with

the

that

stork

I bought

The

were

inspired

scissors

in high

came

school

by real-world from

which

cape and hat combination

of creating

a couple

it seemed

in the series

times,

a rock-and-roll

alter

just out and about,

rock-and-roll

like a perfect

plan. So the

outfit

Amalia,

I used

was

outfit

but

I also

to carry

I had

around

in

|

i j

|

a look I put together

ego for

but

objects.

myself.

I never

was

ended

shelved

I wore

the

up following

for

a while--

for Wirt.

Sketch: Patrick McHale

Photographs: Rick DeLucco

181

(OVER Hic

(GaRDEN &

2

Garoen WALL

:

WALL

OXER GARDENWALL

ast asus

Ye Wie TtenaroundrChon Jez285006 10

Photograph: Corey Booth

| POST-IT BOARD PM: Sometimes

you

area, and I think

182

soon

the

whole

hice

contrast

do a really

bad drawing,

at some point I started

crew to the

was

posting

highfalutin

terrible

and it’s so bad that

posting

some

drawings.

miniseries

we were

it somehow

of my worst

It grew trying

makes

sketches--or

and grew

until

you

feel

someone

kind

ge of good.

We

had an

empty

else posted my bad sketches,

we had a big, beautiful

collection

bulletin

I'm not sure.

of bad Post-it

board

in our

But anyway,

drawings.

It seemed

office

pretty like a

to make.

183

184

Bee ne BS

ue

pean

ART

/ POPULAR

CULTURE

VENTURE

INTO

THE 1E UNKNOWN!

rNCOMPLETE TOUR through the development and production of t

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