the Ranger Variations

 Some authority figure doodles...

Space Ranger

BGs From Boo Boo Runs Wild

Layouts by Eric Wiese, Vincent Waller and me.

Painted by Richard Ziehler-Martin

Warm Shower Environment

If this had been painted in the 80s, it would have been a lot harder to read. Each major object (Rocks,Wall, Lockers, Furs, Benches) would have been painted harsh and clashing primary and secondary colors.

Colors straight out of the Cartoon Color cel paint tubes. - like the paintings I posted a couple days ago.
This BG uses more control to guide the eye and focus the viewer on what is important.
It uses neutral colors that subtly change hue, value and saturation -to keep it from looking dull and monochromatic.
The biggest contrasts in value and saturation are on the benches and this helps frame the bear furs and draw our attention to them.
The painting technique is very skilled, sensitive, organic and appealing too. I think it's Richard Daskas. The layout was drawn by Aaron Springer.

Yogi Defends Boo Boo

I did this color in Painter 2 long ago. It was a bugger of a program to use, and it got worse with each new version. I'm not able to do this sort of thing with the later versions.

Smith's 7 Year Itch

Yep, he's got it. 7 years of dealing with irascible bears and finally he's gonna take some time off to woo his little lonely little wifie-pie.

PART 1 - LOVE DENIED"How long have I denied myself the loving embrace of a civilized woman?"

PART 2 - WIFIE PUSS WAITS NO MORE

Ranger's Retreat

This is a story of man living in idyllic hinterlands.

the rundown

Scum Rules BG

This scheme was inspired by a Yogi Bear cartoon called "Stout Trout".

I think I have the layouts and maybe storyboard for this sequence. Should I post 'em?

BGS: Layout, Color Key, Finished Painting

I wanted my Yogis to have some feeling of the original 195-1960 cartoons. I didn't want them to be like the 1970s, an 80s redos where the characters try to be be with the times. No cleaning up the environment or riding skateboards - and no pink purple and lime green airbrushed bgs. I got Ed Benedict to do some of the background layouts and design and he drew them in pretty much the style he drew in the 1950s. Trying to get the painting style down was tougher.
Here's a beautiful painting - I think by Richard Daskas that is sort of half Ren and Stimpy style, half early Hanna Barbera. It wasn't until Boo Boo Runs Wild that I thought we got the finished BG style to look like the Art Lozzi/ Montealegre techniques I so admire.
Here's my key. This is from a scene that was cut from Ranger Smith's Day In The Life for time. It had RS inspecting the underwater world and making sure the fish were obeying the rules of the scummy lake bottom. Even scum has to have rules and order in Smith's world.

Marker Color Keys

I often do marker color keys of scenes to give my painters. I can't paint, so markers are easy for me to dash out.
They tend to fade in color over the years though, and I had a heck of a time trying to get the colors to scan right. They also look different on every computer screen I checked, so who knows what colors you'll see.

This one is from my Bjork video and the colors here look much less saturated than in the original. I tried 2 adjustments and neither one is exactly right.

Makes it hard to discuss color theories.
More to come...

Yogi's Ground Game

From 1997, an early tribute I did in honor of the UFC.

When I first turned in this scene to CN, they wanted me to cut it because they thought Yogi and Ranger Smith were having "relations". I explained that, no, this was an MMA style of fighting popularized by first, Royce Gracie's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and then built upon by Mark "the Hammer" Coleman's "Ground and Pound" combination of wrestling and strikes. This scene has never aired in its entirety on TV as far as I know, but now that UFC is popular everyone understands what "the guard" position is, so I'm guessing it's safe to finally show it uncut.

Todd White, famous cartoonist and illustrator has a black belt in Machado Jiu Jitsu. He helped me plan out all the poses. It's animated by Anthony Agrusa.

WATCH YOGI GROUND AND POUND RANGER SMITH

what this scene really needed was Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan to do the commentating

I've been a huge fan of UFC since almost the beginning and even pitched the idea to Spike TV to do a reality show based on it back in 2002. I wanted them to follow Tank Abbot around to bars and watch him start fights with people. We even wrote Ken Shamrock into a Ren and Stimpy episode playing Stimpy's Dad. At the time, Spike had never heard of UFC but thank Jesus (and Dana White) it's mainstream now. There was a time when it looked like it was going to disappear forever.

I think it's the best show on TV (the live Pay Per View events) and possibly the last purely human entertainment.

MORE CARTOON MMA ACTION!

Original Ranger Smith Story Notes

I always thought Yogi Bear cartoons could benefit from more true-life nature bits. That way the fans could not only enjoy hearty laughs with their favorite forest oaf and his youthful charge, but would also learn about what really goes on behind every innocent looking tree and bush.

"Wake up Kids! This is REAL LIFE!...
OK, now sit down and enjoy some wacky forest antics."

When I was about 11 or 12, I had a friend from the catholic school who was huge, and already had a filmy mustache. He was a year older than me, but 2 years behind in school. My friends at the public school would ask me, "Hey, who's that MAN you hang around with?" The "man" was named "Beaver", but everyone was afraid to ask him why. He used to twist the other kids' arms off and punch you in sacred areas. But I would tell him all the latest jokes, feed him cigarettes and draw funny pictures of him, so he never killed me. Every time the urge to mangle would come over him (and I could see it in his eyes and stiffening mustache fibers) I would have to quickly come up with a crazy joke, or just do something stupid enough to make him laugh. He also took my cowboy hat and rode my tiny mustang bike all over the neighborhood. Beaver basically owned other the material wealth of every other kid in town. Every kid cartoonist should befriend a bully who's body has matured years before its time. It's great training.

Of course the lesser bullies be jealous that I was protected by Beaver, and whenever he was around, then they would start in on me and I had different strategies to stay alive for them.

One thing especially fearsome to us Protestant kids ( who took about 2 more years to reach puberty) was that all the Italian boys had pointy shoes "cockroach kickers". They absolutely hated wearing them - except when soft unformed Public School boys came around. We were easily punctured.

New Ranger Smith Story

PINING AMONG THE PINES
Ranger Smith is sitting in his cabin at his desk pining.
He stares longingly at a picture on his desk and sighs.

"How long have I been out here in this God-forsaken wilderness? Keeping order in the forest. And for what? The bears hate me. The trees drop their mess all over the forest floor. "
Mrs. Smith
We see the picture and it's of a very pretty young lady in her wedding veil. She looks lovingly at Ranger Smith. "Gee, I miss Mary." says Ranger Smith. "How long ago were we married? It must have been 10 years since I've seen her. You know, I think I'll take a break from Jellystone and enjoy that honeymoon we put off."
Just then he gets a call from the park supervisor about a rumor that some park bear is causing trouble and Smith better get to the bottom of it. "Yogi! That's it! I'm tired of getting to the bottom of every bear problem! And it's always Yogi's bottom!


The heck with this, I'm going to go home to Mary and forget about bear bottoms for awhile."

BOO BOO PATHOS

Ranger Smith goes to Yogi's cave and tells Yogi he's had enough of him and his childish antics. Yogi and Boo Boo are in bed. Boo Boo cries when he finds out Ranger Smith is leaving them. "Good riddance to discipline and rules!" shouts Yogi!

Ranger Smith leaves, "Well that's a load off! Now to lead a decent human life with my beautiful wife, Mary!"

PART 2