Jake Parker is one of those names that might not come to mind real quick, but some of his work does. Your kids may know him best from the Scholastic series Missile Mouse, but for the rest of us he’s been a behind-the-scenes guy for films like “Titan A.E.”, “Horton Hears A Who” and “Rio”. He’s also contributed to several books and comics as an illustrator, while also teaching up at BYU. Jake sat down with Gavin Sheehan from City Weekly to talk about his career and more.
Gavin’s Underground interview with Jake Parker
Gavin: How did the opportunity come about to work for 20th Century Fox, and what was it like working for them on various projects?
Jake: They had a studio in Phoenix and had imported a lot of talent, but were also looking for local talent as well. I was visiting my old art teacher from high school when he told me I should give it a shot. I sent them my portfolio, they saw a glimmer of something in my work and gave me a drawing test. Miraculously I passed and they hired me on. The spot they had open was for the “Rough Inbetween” department. Back when animated features were hand drawn the studios had a team of artists to fill in the drawings that the animators didn’t have time to do. So I would draw all the drawings that went in between the drawings the animators did. It was an eye opener for me to work at an animation studio. I had never seen so many talented people working together in one place. Prior to this I had no idea if drawing for a living was even viable, but here were 300 people in front of me doing art for a living, supporting families and paying off mortgages. While I was there I worked on “Bartok the Magnificent” and “Titan A.E.” Fox became my new art school. I was actually pretty bored with inbetweening, so I haunted other departments like background painting and visual development. There I would show the artists my work and get feedback and instruction. I really owe a lot to those guys who sort of took me under their wing and helped me make an artist out of myself.
Gavin: Over time you’ve had some pretty cool titles out for younger teens, like Hugo Earhart and Lucy Nova, plus your own title The Robot & The Sparrow. What’s the difference for you in creating your own works with your designs, and putting your work to other people’s creations?
Jake: Hugo Earhart was the story I contributed for the first volume of Flight. I wouldn’t exactly call it a “title” since it was just one 14 page story. Lucy Nova was a couple of 14 page stories I did for fun and to experiment a little more with drawing comics. One of them was self published and the other was a follow up story in the back of Kazu’s Daisy Kutter comic which was published by Viper Comics. The Robot & The Sparrow was the story I contributed to the second volume of Flight and is probably my favorite piece of art I’ve ever done. The only time I’ve drawn a comic that wasn’t my own creation, was a 10 page Jimmy Neutron story I did for Nick Magazine. It was fun to play around in that world for a little bit, but I much prefer creating my own worlds and characters.
