Creaky old "Invisible Hands" somehow found a new life on YouTube

Thank you, Chuck Klosterman & Grantland (third video down):

YouTube Hall of Fame

"Invisible Hands" came out of my love for old horror movies and pulp stories.  When I wrote & drew it for MTV (via Colossal Pictures in San Francisco) I was still working a day job while doing as much freelance illustration work as I could get - and dreaming of one day having a chance (and the time) to do comics.


For years (and years) people used to ask me why the six-part serial I created, designed, drew and wrote (directed by Denis Morella, with music by Eric Tallman, produced by Colossal Pictures & shown on MTV's show "Liquid Television in the early 1990s) -  "Invisible Hands" - had never been released on VHS (remember that?) or DVD, even though MTV did release a few "Best Of Liquid Television" compilations.  (Beavis & Butthead and Aeon Flux also debuted on the same show -- & I was keenly aware - and totally okay with the fact -  that my humble and creaky little genre cartoon would never be anywhere near as popular as those two).


So I told the story again and again to people who wrote to me over the years and asked me how they could get a copy.  I explained that MTV owned the copyright and it was up to them -- and that I had no idea if it would ever be released.  Thanks to the lawyer I had hired for the occasion, I was able to keep the rights to the characters & story in print - since it first appeared in my self-published comic Night Drive in 1984.  But I had no control over what happened with the completed six two-minute episodes - or the full twelve minute version which was also shown sometimes on MTV throughout the early 1990s.  


I was one of the few freelancers to be a part of Liquid TV (most were on staff at Colossal), so although I wasn't too surprised when I was not invited back to do more "Invisible Hands", I was disappointed --especially when I was told that there was a cartoon in the second season (created on staff, for staff salary) that was trying to copy I.H. - or at least cover the same pulp mystery territory.  I don't know for sure myself since I didn't even have cable back then!


So for years I figured I.H. would remain locked away in MTV's vaults and never be seen again.  Then YouTube came along.  


And although I had nothing to do with uploading it onto the internet (I'm still not sure how one actually does that -- I need to learn someday) -- I was very happy to see that fans of Liquid TV remembered my humble and creaky and silly little genre cartoon and that some were even fond enough of it to post the episodes on-line.  


So although I never made another penny off the thing after my initial payment - never any royalties that might have come from video releases -- at least now it's out there for people to see again.


I wrote a couple of earlier posts about "Invisible Hands" on this blog, for anyone interested:

Here.

And thank you again, loyal readers, for reading all this stuff!

"Invisible Hands" Storyboards

Here are the storyboards I wrote & drew for the third episode of "Invisible Hands". In the previous blog entry, I posted some of the final drawings that were actually used in this episode. (For more info, see my other "Invisible Hands" posts).

(note: Animated version of "Invisible Hands" is copyright MTV and Colossal Pictures. Print version of "Invisible Hands" is copyright Richard Sala).

Still more "Invisible Hands" art...

Here is some of the art that was drawn for the third episode of "Invisible Hands" (Please see previous two posts for more information).

(note: Animated version of "Invisible Hands is copyright MTV & Colossal Pictures. Print version of "Invisible Hands" is copyright Richard Sala).

More art from "Invisible Hands"

As promised (threatened?) in my last post, here is more of the art I created for the animated version of "Invisible Hands".

From top to bottom:

- A panel from the original comic, as it appeared in Night Drive.

- Scene from the Voss & Crawley Bait & Tackle Shop, showing the three separate layers - foreground, middle and background.

- Three sets of various drawings of characters & objects used in the final animation.

More to come!

(note: Animated version of "Invisible Hands" is copyright MTV & Colossal Pictures. Print version of "Invisible Hands" is copyright Richard Sala)

The art of "Invisible Hands"

"Invisible Hands" was a six-part animated serial which aired on MTV in the early 1990s. MTV had hired Colossal Pictures, an animation studio located in the Bay Area (where I was, too) to produce Liquid Television, a show that would feature lots of new animation. After one of the producers saw "Invisible Hands" in Night Drive, my first (self-published) comic, which was then selling at City Lights and other independent bookstores in the San Francisco area, I was hired to write and draw an expanded version for their show. The first season of Liquid TV was to consist of six episodes, and "Invisible Hands," which I had written as a tongue-in-cheek version of old-time mystery thrillers, would run in each episode as two-minute chapters of a complete 12-minute serial.

So I went to work expanding the story, drawing the story-boards and lots of new art. Then I'd drive them over to Colossal where the staff would blow up my drawings onto colored paper. Next, the director, Denis Morella, made the art come alive by photographing the cut-outs (which were positioned on three layers of glass to give the illusion of depth) using stop-motion. It was pretty primitive, I guess, but I really liked the jerky effect that resulted.

"Invisible Hands" was shown a lot on MTV during the early 1990s, sometimes even in a complete 12-minute version. MTV & Colossal kept all the original artwork I did, but luckily I made a bunch of photocopies, which, I recently realized, I've never shown before. So, here are a few for now. I can post some more soon, as well as some of the storyboards.

At the top is my drawing for the opening credits. Next, the original promotional postcard, advertising the debut of Liquid TV, with a scene from "IH" (the costume party) on the front, followed by more of my drawings -- characters, interiors & exteriors --- before they were transferred to colored paper.

I used to get asked about this serial a lot. It's never been on video in either VHS or DVD (there are reasons) though other Liquid TV animations were. However, it has been on YouTube for a long time now, so I don't get asked about it as much as I once did. I'm just glad that folks can (finally) see it again if they want to. And I hope some people may enjoy a look at the drawings I did for it.

(note: Animated version of "Invisible Hands" is copyright MTV & Colossal Pictures. Print version of "Invisible Hands" is copyright Richard Sala)