Game of Thrones and Star Wars actor – Ian McElhinney interview

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Ian McElhinney has been a stage and screen actor for close to 40 years. He’s done a wide range of roles including acting in both the Star Wars franchise, Krypton, and in Game of Thrones as Barristan Selmy. We talked at the 2018 Great Philadelphia Comic Con about acting in general, how he got into it and how he does his work, and also about his work specifically in Star Wars and GoT.

1:30 – Ian talks about how he got into acting. He started at University trying to study something serious. He was getting a degree outside of Boston, Brandeis, and they had a theater degree. He decided he loved acting too much to not get a theater studies degree.

3:55 – He went back to the British theater and taught for a few years. Then he went back into the gaming game and had to get an equity card. At age 30, he went back to Northern Ireland to work as an actor in Belfast.

5:56 – He did a lot of screen work that reflected modern Irish politics and he was often put in a box. He had more freedom on the stage.

11:00 – Ian discusses what its like playing a character in sci-fi and fantasy including the Game of Thrones.

14:50 – Wearing a knight costume gave an Ian a different sense of movement. Wearing armor and wielding a sword gives one a new sense of weight and such. Props can give you a new sense of how you relate to others.

17:20 – Ian loves being on stage and getting the feeling of having connected with the audience. He’s also started enjoying rehearsing a lot more.

19:42 – Ian addresses how he approached his roles in Star Wars and Game of Thrones.

20:30 – Ian loves acting and will keep doing it as long as he can.

21:40 – He was in a Ken Brannaugh production and he met Jack Lemmon. He had always been a big fan of Jack and loved working with him. It was the only time he did a fan thing and he asked Jack for a favor.

24:50 – He had to give up science while in school because the system required one to choose science or the arts. But he really liked science and misses having learned it.

25:55 – He’s more of a fan of gritty dramas rather than sci-fi or fantasy. However, as a child he would have liked to be able to fly and enjoy the freedom and sensation of flight.

28:18 – Ian believes that apart from entertaining people, actors can help people think outside the box and to broaden their minds.

30:00 – Ian has a twitter account @serianmc

Links of interest

https://twitter.com/SerIanMc

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Ian McElhinney

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, art, artist, barristan selmy, game of thrones, star wars, rogue one, General Dodonna, sci-fi, acting, props, Belfast, Ireland, Brandeis, Krytpon, Superman

Sci-fi and fantasy writing – Jack Campbell interview

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Jack Campbell has published multiple sci-fi and fantasy book series over the years that are extremely popular. Two of his most popular series are the Lost Fleet series and the Legacy of Dragons series. In March 2018 I spoke with Jack about his writing.

1:28 – Jack Campbell talks about his latest work which is part of the Lost Fleet series.

5:01 – Jack talks about how he balances sci-fi and fantasy elements in his novels.

6:20 – He makes sure he maintains consistency in the rules of what characters can and can’t do in the world in which they live.

7:17 – Jack talks about how he meets deadlines and gets what he wants in his novels.

9:15 – His Lost Fleet series was inspired by the idea of a Long Retreat type story in Star Trek. The second inspiration was the idea of a sleeping hero returning to save the day for some society.

12:25 – Jack decided to get into writing seriously once he retired from the Navy. He felt he had stories he had to tell.

14:41 – Mixing short story and novel writing at the same time can help keep your writing progressing.

15:44 – Jack’s first success was selling a story to Analog magazine. After selling three stories he was part of the Science Fiction Writers Association.

17:31 – Attending conventions are exhausting but very energizing overall to see his fans and hear from them.

18:35 – He finds it difficult to listen to his own books as audio books. But the feedback from his audio books has made him more aware of names and language elements in his books.

21:24 – He loves Andre Norton, CJ Cherry, and Lee Brackett. He read a lot of books when he was young. But now that he writes he doesn’t have as much time to read. He does try to keep up with science discoveries though.

25:05 – He was living on Midway Island when the original Star Trek series came out. He would watch the shows on a base movie screen. He learned that it was the characters, not the special effects, that made the story. He watches a lot of anime nowadays. The mashups they create in anime can be amazing. He also loves anime soundtracks.

27:35 – The interest in time travel wanes once you have kids and you can develop a fear of doing something that could cause them to not exist.

29:58 – His website is Jack-Campbell.com.

Links of interest

Jack-Campbell.com

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Jack Campbell

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, lost fleet, legacy of dragons, writer, sci-fi

Cartoon development – Bob Camp interview

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Bob Camp is a cartoonist and cartoon developer who co-created the iconic Ren and Stimpy Show. He worked for Rankin Bass, Marvel Comics, Warner Brothers and has worked on numerous well-known animation projects. He currently teaches Visual Arts in NYC. I spoke to him about his past work, inspirations, process and future goals at the 2018 Great Philadelphia Comic Con.

1:26 – Bob Camp got into animation in the 1980s while working at Marvel Comics. He started with Thunder Cats and other Rankin Bass shows. Then he moved to LA to do animation full-time when Rankin Bass closed down.

3:29 – Bob isn’t an animator and is self-taught in everything he does. He considers himself too lazy for animation. He studied film in school and then did caricatures and portraits for rodeos and such. He met Gary Holgren who got him into comic art for Marvel Comics. He inked for John Buscema and then was doing fixes on just about every Marvel comic while he was there.

6:18 – In LA, he worked for the studio Deke who [doing] did Captain Planet and Inspector Gadget. Bob worked on an animated Alf series and then a Ghostbusters piece.

7:35 – Then he began working on Tiny Toons for Warner Brothers. He began doing other work and then worked on Your Gang and Ren and Stimpy were minor characters in that show. Then they teamed up with Nickelodeon and began doing their cartoon show. Ren and Stimpy started as a theatrical cartoon.

10:59 – Bob was inspired by the cartoons from the 1940s that were created for theatrical release. Those cartoons were for entire families.

13:44 – The reboot of Ren and Stimpy poisoned the well of the original series. Ren and Stimpy could have gone on for a longer time if it hadn’t had the troubles they had.

15:59 – Bob is an actor and did a bunch of the voices for Ren and Stimpy. He’s in the Screen Actors Guild. His favorite part of creating cartoons is the development. He likes show running too. He also likes to fix scrip ideas.

18:09 – Bob teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He teaches storyboard creation and critiques his students’ work as if he were the director. He likes taking ideas and making them better.

20:20 – Bob likes using Pinterest to inspire himself. The images there give him new ideas.

22:19 – The comic business is tough though. It’s a hard and stressful life which you need to love.

23:49 – He’s been inspired by Bob Camplett, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Harvey Kurzman, and a slew of others. He loves the Three Stooges.

25:19 – Comics are an incubator business for movies. The artists don’t make the money. The studios and the executives make the money.

27:43 – Bob has a sci-fi epic project he’d love to do. He has a little kid show that takes place in New York he’d like to do. He has lots of ideas and plenty of sketches.

28:59 – Bob said the way to succeed in this business is to just start making films and don’t wait for money. Get a youtube channel, teach yourself the skills you need. Do it yourself. You don’t need college.

30:17 – He’s on Bob Lab Studios on facebook and instagram. Michelle Fire is his partner and she has sites on facebook and instagram.

Links of interest

https://www.facebook.com/boblabstudios/

https://boblabshop.com/

http://boblabstudios.com/

https://twitter.com/boblabstudios?lang=en

https://twitter.com/michelefire

 

For more of the podcast “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guest: Bob Camp

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: cartoon, art, animation, rankin bass, ren, stimpy, nickelodeon, marvel comics, john buscema, ghostbusters, alf, tiny toons, crazy