The Cheese and the Rat

A boarding test submitted as an audition for the story department of a major motion picture studio. The images are from a digitized copy, but the original was all hand-drawn, pencil on paper.

The test was called simply, "Foot Chase", and the instructions were as follows: "Draw a sequence with two characters, one chasing the other. Include action and comedy." That was it. No models, no script. No anything. Knock yourself out, kid. I doubt this 80-page epic was what they were expecting to get back, but it got me through the door.

Sadly, the job never amounted to anything-- the position their recruiters made it seem like I was applying for got bait-and-switched after the fact to a temporary position, during which I would be "evaluated", and which they declined to extend. But the board (narrated by me with voices and sound effects) became a favorite bedtime story of my son's for years, one that he still remembers. So who won in the end?

Bonus anecdote: I made the mistake of drawing the entire thing on old Cartoon Network storyboard pages I had lying around, each of which had a very prominent copyright notice at the bottom. It caused me no end of trouble later on-- employees at places like Kinko's would see the notice and refuse to help me photocopy, scan or duplicate any of the pages, for fear of losing their jobs!