Creebobby News

I recently produced this recording of ‘He Needs Me’...

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:02:00 -0500

I recently produced this recording of ‘He Needs Me’ for Austin band ‘Uke n’ Saw’!

Lacie sings and plays uke. Pierre plays the musical saw. I play bass, pushed record and sing one line.

My artwork for ‘The Empire Strikes Back Uncut’ was used as the cover image for the new...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:36:08 -0500

My artwork for ‘The Empire Strikes Back Uncut’ was used as the cover image for the new teaser trailer, and even popped up on the official Star Wars blog!

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2013/04/23/the-empire-strikes-back-uncut-new-trailer/

Not to forget the trailer itself.

You can watch it here:

https://vimeo.com/63830672

I bought a replacement Tascam 424 4 track cassette recorder...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:58:15 -0500

I bought a replacement Tascam 424 4 track cassette recorder today at the Pawn shop! After 9 years and three albums my old one has started conking out. I brought my own cassettes headphones and a microphone to make sure this one works.

1971 Hot Wheels Jet Threat - Father of the 1989 Batmobile?

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:06:27 -0500

Vroom! Vroom!

What’s that coming down the street? It’s a Batmobile! No, it’s not a Batmobile. It’s the 1971 Hot Wheels car #6179: Jet Threat!

Previously, I discussed the interesting resemblance between the 1973 JVZ Cereal Car and the 1989 Batmobile.

Well, there’s another early 70s toy car that pre-invents very specific design characteristics of the 89: The 1971 Hot Wheels Jet Threat. (I custom painted this one flat black to highlight the similarities.)

This car was designed by legendary Hot Wheels designer Larry Wood (aka ‘Mr. Hot Wheels’).

Note the similar wedge shaped cockpit. Also, the 89 has very similar visible jet engine workings, but shrunken and moved to the sides.

The main thing we’re interested in, of course, is the nose. It’s the same nose, complete with the same pointy turbine … thing!

Tim Burton was 13 when the Hot Wheels Jet Threat came out, and 15 when the JVZ Cereal Car might have plunked into his cereal bowl. Was he too old to be playing with Hot Wheels and eating sugar cereal? Did he own these particular cars? Did he bring Anton Furst a box of toy cars from his childhood and tell him, “Combine this toy jet car with this toy jet car and give me a Batmobile!”? I don’t know.

Maybe Anton Furst came across these toys while searching for inspiration for his design. There may not be any connection at all. But I think the similarities are tantalizing.

THE 1973 JVZ CEREAL CAR PROTO-BATMOBILE

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:36:00 -0500

I’d like to introduce the Batmobile world to JVZ cereal cars.

JVZ Co. was a plastic company that made cheap cereal box cars in the 60s and 70s.

Around 1973, they produced a series of four cereal box race cars including one magical car that seems to have accidentally (or maybe not so accidentally) stumbled upon many of the 1989 Batmobile’s key design features, a full sixteen years before Anton Furst designed the Batmobile we all know and love:

It came in red, green, yellow and blue. The black one on the right is a custom that I painted.

Here it is next to the Hot Wheels 89 Batmobile:

Here are all four cars that came in the line, two unused sticker sheets and also two ‘Gyro Cars’ JVZ made that came in Captain Crunch and other Quaker cereals. I was told by cereal collectors I contacted that the line with the proto-Batmobile came in POST cereals, but I haven’t been able to find a box image advertising them. It may be they were so cheap and simple that they came as a random toy in Raisin Bran or some other non-sugar cereal unadvertised. One of the NOS cars I bought from ebay came from the original owner who confirmed that he pulled it out of a cereal box in the early 70s.

It sure looks like a Batmobile to me!

Coincidence? Probably. But the parallels are pretty amazing:
Front jet scoop with two side buldges, fastback cockpit pod pushed to the rear of the car, two stubby fins mounted on buldging rear fender modules, air intake vents on each of those rear fender buldges, the general proportions and feel of the car.

For this and other Batmobile posts (including my DIY Batmobile building adventures), check out ‘The Batmobile Show’ at:

http://thebatmobileshow.blogspot.com/

BATMOBILE DESIGNING 101 WITH ANTON FURST

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:37:00 -0500

On March 7, 1990, Production Designer Anton Furst gave a lecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles.

He spoke about his career leading up to work on Batman, ending the talk with a description of the thinking and ideas behind his Batmobile design.

You can watch the full video here:

http://sma.sciarc.edu/video/anton-furst/

Thanks Nick for the heads up on this video.

What follows here is a word for word transcript of the Batmobile part of the talk. He may have been bit drunk, which the transcript reflects, but the concepts are all there.

ANTON FURST ON DESIGNING THE BATMOBILE

(Transcription starting at 1:30 or so.)

And … . .

(Picture of Batmobile)

That’s my new car.
Uh . .
What I wanted to do with the car here is to, um,
I wanted it, and I, …
I wasn’t very interested in looking at cars,
You know, to, to try to come up with designing it,
Cause what I thought was

It’s like an extension of his armour,
It’s an extension of him.

Every time you know you came up with a concept car …
Heh!
A few, you just …

It’s the sex is the shit!

I wanted to . . just … .
I mean I thought if,

If you don’t make it rude you’ve really … failed.

You know,
So … .
And …
Then I thought … thought that,

You’ve got to have this knight in armour feel.

You know,

With a sort of visor look to it.

And, every …

Anything to make it very an agressive war machine.

And paid very little attention to any designed … cars
Apart from looking at what had had generally over the years,
Looking back to the sort of … .

40s

… the 40s um …

Speed machines,

the

Utah Salt Flats,

Through to the,

Muscle cars of the 60s.

Through to … .

And then putting a bloody great rocket engine down the middle!

You know, I … . .

It just really is a war machine.

I didn’t …

I must say, in terms of the … producers or the production if you like of this, um …
John Peters … animal, you know, that, he is …
He blew out six million dollars from General Motors,
They wanted to do the car,
And they came up with various designs,
They said, ‘We think we can improve upon this design’,

And John just said, “Are you going to do that design or not?”
And they said “No,” and he said, “Well, let’s just shake hands, it’s very nice of you to suggest it, see you later.”

An … and uh … that’s strong producing, I mean, that’s certainly support,
That is, uh …

(Slide changes to a picture of the rear of the Batmobile.)

… And the back.
Uh …
So, he … blew out six million dollars, uh … just to …

Maintain the original design.

… his … . .

And we built it.
Uh, which was a magnificent job by the way by Johnny Evans, uh …
Who … had done ‘Full Metal Jacket’ with me,
He, he, uh … this, uh … if you imagine building a functioning car that does … has a …

Blistering performance.

… and, uh … is gonna run for months and months and months with a …

Seven point seven liter engine …

in it, with uh …

Guns . .

Gattling …

Thing we didn’t like … we didn’t like high tech stuff … very much,

Laser guns and all that, doesn’t fit with Batman.

You know all the sort of mechanical elements and all of that sort of thing …
So even when, he comes out and zaps something … you know la-ser gun? …

It’s a dirty old gattling gun!

You know, how it comes out,

Always try never to position the thing in time.

You know …
it’s the 40s or the now, whenever …
Uh, but it … worked magnificently, it never went wrong,
We built two, one of them’s under wraps at Pinewood,
And the other one’s in John Peter’s garage in Hollywood,

And that’s it.

…

For this and other Batmobile posts (including my DIY Batmobile building adventures), check out ‘The Batmobile Show’ at:

http://thebatmobileshow.blogspot.com/

‘The Batmobile’ print is now up and available for...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:43:00 -0500

‘The Batmobile’ print is now up and available for sale in very limited quantities!

http://store.nakatomiinc.com/flyingmammalfinmoto-byjacobborshard.aspx

On Thursday I’m playing a very special small house show...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:12:39 -0500

On Thursday I’m playing a very special small house show for SXSW!

I expect to see you there!

'Summer Will Have Its Way' Video

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:33:37 -0500

'Summer Will Have Its Way' Video:

Here’s a nice little animated comic video for ‘Summer Will Have Its Way’ that Knut from Eardrums Pop made:

http://youtu.be/SoHT4o5HmZQ

The Batmobile! An imagined history, drawn without looking at any...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:20:00 -0600

The Batmobile!

An imagined history, drawn without looking at any reference material of any kind, and also drawn entirely while drinking.

I have a new free 3 song EP out on the Eardrums Pop...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:26:57 -0600

I have a new free 3 song EP out on the Eardrums Pop label!

Download the EP for free here:

http://www.eardrumspop.com/2013/02/19/epop031-jacob-borshard-with-laura-k/

(This flower shop drawing illustrates one of the songs.)

Here’s a Christmas single for 2012 I recorded today, just...

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 23:59:51 -0600

Here’s a Christmas single for 2012 I recorded today, just for fun.

http://www.creebobby.com/philspectorchristmas.mp3

It’s called ‘Phil Spector Christmas’, and it’s about having a wonderful Christmas in jail with Phil Spector. (Which hasn’t happened to me, but I’m sure it’s happened to someone.)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

‘The Indian 1910’ board track racer style antique...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:21:33 -0600

‘The Indian 1910’ board track racer style antique motorcycle print.

Now up for sale on the bay:

Click here to ‘Buy It Now’.

It will also be available in person at EAST this weekend and next!

18 X 24, first edition of 100, 2 colors with a beautiful transparent grey-blue over vivid fiery red. This is a new poster design created from elements of a small original 1910 magazine advertisement.

These very limited hand-printed Vintage Bicycle T-Shirts will be...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:55:20 -0600

These very limited hand-printed Vintage Bicycle T-Shirts will be on hand and for sale at my house for $15 each during the East Austin Studio tour!

EAST happens this weekend (Nov. 10/11) and next (Nov. 17/18) from 12 noon to 6 PM each day. I’ll have all my prints on hand for less than you can get them anywhere else.

Click here for more EAST info.

Xsmall, Small, Medium and Large available in American Apparel Organic Off-white Cotton. All the colored shirts are men’s Small or Medium.

‘Inigo Montoya at the Cliff Castle’ print is now...

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 09:35:00 -0600

‘Inigo Montoya at the Cliff Castle’ print is now available on Nakatomi!

I printed a very limited run of 50 Enigo Montoya prints. Click anywhere to purchase!

Also, if you’d like a set of all of three Princess Bride prints I did recently, you can get the whole set value priced with one click here!

The ‘Fire Swamp’ five color screenprint is now up...

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 09:27:14 -0600

The ‘Fire Swamp’ five color screenprint is now up for sale on Nakatomi!

This print has been in the works for several months, and is finally available. Click anywhere to get one!

‘The Empire Strikes Back Uncut’ I recently completed...

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 12:00:24 -0500

‘The Empire Strikes Back Uncut’

I recently completed two fifteen second animations for ‘The Empire Strikes Back Uncut’, an official Lucasfilm project!

The picture above is a special 3-d still from one of the clips. (Wear your red/blue glasses with blue on the right eye to see the Power Droids in living depth!)

Want to see the animation?
Here’s the first scene:

http://www.starwarsuncut.com/scene/195

And here’s the second:

http://www.starwarsuncut.com/scene/197

Gonk Gonk. Gonk! Gonk, Gonk: Gonk.

‘Virgin of Guadalupe 1649’ print is now up and...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:49:18 -0500

‘Virgin of Guadalupe 1649’ print is now up and available from Nakatomi Inc.! Click here to purchase.

You wouldn’t believe the colors unless my feet were in the picture to prove that it’s real!

Unless those aren’t my real feet at all … .

This print reproduces the first known printed image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, from a 1649 pamphlet.

The venerable ‘Times Table’ celebrates it’s...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:44:36 -0500

The venerable ‘Times Table’ celebrates it’s third printing!

For this edition, I mixed up a nice aqua/seafoam color.

As always, available at Nakatomi Inc. and in Austin at Parts & Labour.

The ‘Ciclista Matches’ screenprint is now available...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:41:11 -0500

The ‘Ciclista Matches’ screenprint is now available on Nakatomi Inc. Click here to purchase!

This print is the first in a series of antique matchbook cover prints. I collected black and white originals and did the color design.

If you live in Austin, the print is also available at Parts & Labour on South Congress.