The Adventures of Baxter & Clyde

In 2009 my niece, Kate, having moved back to Maine after several years working in NYC theater, expressed interest in animation voice acting. I decided to make a short cartoon with characters that Kate could voice.

I had been trying for a few years to write a story around an egg-headed boy with a duck perched on his head, and I decided to use them as the main characters. One moonlit evening before dinner, my spouse Didi remarked, "I'm so hungry I could eat the moon" and it really made me laugh! I pictured a huge creature climbing to a high peak with a fork, drooling at the moon. Classic tv cartoon stars like Tom Terrific and Crusader Rabbit, if that happened in their world, would quickly leap into action with their sidekicks. I imagined that this boy and duck duo doing the same and drew a short storyboard of them dragging the moon out of the creature's reach with a fishing pole and the creature bawling like a toddler.

Over the next few years I expanded, rewrote and refined the story, molding it into an homage to not only my favorite early tv cartoon serials but also Pajama Sam, a character I had loved animating for Humongous Entertainment in the late 1990s. Didi is an artist with superb instincts and was my sounding board throughout the decade-long production. She also assisted in the prop photography and the two live action video segments (watch for her "hand cameos").

In addition to the expressive voice acting of my niece Kate Michaud, my friends Byron Wagner, Rhonda Conley and Todd Smith contributed more character voices, background art, and a music soundtrack. By continually re-evaluating my character designs, storyboards, layouts, and animation in hopes of meeting the high quality of everyone else's work, I became a much better artist.

I hope you enjoy our short cartoon, "The Adventures of Baxter & Clyde", suitable for all ages.