Mission Mission

Here’s something you might not know: the cartoon biz as of late is no stranger to Mission/Bay Area talent.

Take Bob’s Burgers, for example. Do those Mission-style Victorian buildings in the background art look familiar? That’s because they were designed by local artist Sirron Norris. The character design in the show was done by none other than Jay Howell.

Regular Show, a hilarious Cartoon Network show about a couple of 23-year-old dudes who are also animals, features the writing/storyboarding talent of local indie comics darlings Hellen Jo, Calvin Wong (my bro!), and Minty Lewis (additional voice talent)! I have it on relatively shaky authority that pages of Mission Mission may have been source material for the cutting-edge fashions in this episode:

More recently, Jay Howell has announced his own show on Nickelodeon called Sanjay and Craig… with and additional Mission bonus: music by thee Oh Sees!! Check out the awesome promo for it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7nP1p7MARw

Granted most of these jerks have moved to LA to, you know, actually make a career out of art. Zinefest doesn’t pay the bills. Still, let’s take every opportunity to claim all the credit for their talent just like Modesto tries to do with George Lucas.

We’ve all seen the blue bears. Then I saw Troy’s pictures and a great interview on Mission Local and I had to check out Sirron Norris’s new gallery for myself. It’s a pretty cool setup. He’s got all kinds of work, paintings, toys, stickers, shirts, even a video game.

My favorite was the lineup of the neighborhood buildings, done on wood blocks, a couple of inches tall.

The gallery is at 1406 B Valencia Street, near 25th. Check out the stuff, talk to the guy himself and sign up yourself or a teenager in your life for one of the cartoon classes.

Although their styles are very different, just like Will Eisner’s city stories, he has an amazing way of bringing out the city’s character.

I can’t quite tell if this epic Sirron Norris painting is a paean to Muni past or a biting critique into present Muni woes.

(Is that a 26 Valencia floating off into the sunset? All I know is I’m loving that pickup truck.)

More Sirronographs on Telstar Logistics’ Flickr feed. Or visit the new Sirron Norris gallery on 26th and Valencia.