Cincinnati artist Dylan Speeg has combined his two creative loves for an eye-popping new animated short.
The video is soundtracked by the song "Ms. Right," a track off of his Alt/Rock/Soul/Roots band Heavy Hinges' stellar 2018 release, Lonely. The visuals are based on MeSseD, the 2017 comic series Speeg collaborated on with Know Theatre founder Jay B. Kalagayan. The "Ms. Right" video brings to life the story of the comic's Lilliput, a sewer worker who has adventures beneath the streets of Cincinnati ("MeSseD" is the nickname for the Metropolitan Sewer District).
Speeg said doing the animation for the clip took five months to complete.
"I had my model Xu V. Chau dress up like the character Lilliput and took some reference photos for movement then went to work drawing," he explains of the process. "It took 1,365 drawings to make this 4-minute-and-27-second animated short. I used a lot of the original art from the comic books for the backgrounds. I drew most of the stuff by hand with ink scanned it into the computer to add shade and animate. I wanted to show what the world Jay and I have been building over the years in the comic book might look like in action."
Visit Speeg's page on ComiXology for info on how to purchase MeSseD digitally.
Heavy Hinges' next scheduled local show is Aug. 9 at Northside Tavern.
