![\"IMG_1494\"](\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/IMG_1494.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe idea for Smuggle Brothers came to me on the day I had a meeting with Cartoon Network’s action department. It was just a general meeting. I wanted to know what they were looking for and if I could come up with anything for them. I also wanted to see if I could pitch them a less gruesome\/violent version of Manly, which I think could work as a He-Man type show but with, you know, more thought put into it. <\/p>\n
They weren’t interested in Manly, but wanted to hear ideas from me. So I went home and took a nap; kind of thinking I wouldn’t bother. The idea of quitting Adventure Time was to get back into my personal comics. At the same time I have to come to terms with the fact that I will run out of money in less than the amount of time it will take me to finish Forming III. So while I’m working on Forming, I have to be putting together some kind of plan to make a living. <\/p>\n
So I took this nap and had a dream about a show called Smuggle Brothers: three brothers that smuggle stuff in space. That was pretty much the extent of the dream because I only slept for like 20 minutes. I woke up and sort of shook my head at myself. It seemed like a fucking stupid idea, but I wrote it down in my phone. <\/p>\n
The next day I had a follow-up meeting at Disney to discuss “Above and Below”, the pitch that didn’t go anywhere. I realized no one was going to make “Above and Below”, unless I just learned how to animate really well and did it myself. So at the end of the meeting I pulled Smuggle Brothers out of my pocket as a sort of joke, and the people at the pitch seemed interested. So here I was with this idea that came to me in a stress-dream. I decided to sit on it a while. Just let it simmer in my head and see if I could get excited about it. <\/p>\n
I started having more ideas about it that felt compelling to me. Moments, character dynamics and concepts are starting to take a rough shape in my head. At the same time I am feeling reluctant about pitching this thing anywhere because I don’t feel that compelled to get mired in the development swamp at the moment. I don’t need to be a great pitch-man to make something cool. I can do that at my house and not ask permission from anyone to greenlight my ideas. So getting involved in this is a difficult negotiation I’m having with myself. <\/p>\n
Anyway I was having a tea with Pen Ward a few days ago, who sometimes has the ability to steer my head when I’m feeling confused or self-punishing. I was talking about my plans and how I know I’m going to run out of money. I tossed out the idea of doing freelance boards for whoever, which he sort of poo-pooed, telling me I should be pursuing my own concept for the next thing I do. So that convinced me to at least sit down a dedicate a little bit of time to this thing. That’s what I started doing today. <\/p>\n
I biked to Kinokuniya in Little Tokyo and got a fancy sketchbook to dedicate to the project. So as I work out things for this idea I’ll keep y’all updated. Here’s an initial drawing I did today at the coffee shop. <\/p>\n