James Eatock
| James Eatock | |
|---|---|
 James Eatock.tif Eatock at the March 2013 Power-Con convention | |
| Born | James Douglas Eatock 21 August 1977 Enfield, London, England |
| 💼 Occupation | |
James Douglas Eatock (born 21 August 1977) is an English freelance animator, designer, writer and publisher.[1] He is commonly known on the Internet as Busta Toons.
Early life[edit]
A fan of animation, James Eatock grew up watching cartoons, primarily shows from the 1980s, taking an interest not only in the obvious visual entertainment, but also the people that worked on the shows themselves. Gaining access to the Internet James, as Busta Toons, soon found himself engaging in many an animated discussion, and was the first person on-line to interview Larry DiTillio regarding his work on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Galaxy High School. The moniker of Busta Toons came from his admiration of Leaders of the New School front man Busta Rhymes, and his love of animated cartoons.
Career[edit]
He-Man and She-Ra Episode Review Website[edit]
In 1997, James alongside Zadoc Angell created the He-Man and She-Ra Episode Review Website. The website went on to become one of biggest dedicated to the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and She-Ra: Princess of Power animated series. The website attracted many visitors, including many of the series staff, earning the pair reputations as experts on the series. However, by late 2001 both James and Zadoc had many other priorities occupying their lives prompting them to rarely update the website, leading to an eventual unexpected merge with He-man.org.
Soopa Don Boogie[edit]
In mid-2001, James was fortunate enough to have his Soopa Don Boogie animated short aired on BBC Three as part of the BBC Talent scheme that the channel had been running. The short was heavily influenced by the animation styles of both Tom Tataranowicz and John Kricfalusi.
Mattel[edit]
In December 2001, Mattel contacted James and paid both he and Zadoc to write an in-depth guide to the original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series. The project was completed on time and handed to Mike Young Productions who used the guide to heavily influence their new He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002 TV series). The pair were supposed to receive an on-screen credit for their work, but they were left unaccredited. This would be the last time that James and Zadoc would work together. At the same time James had left his job in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
DVDs and comics[edit]
In 2003, Contender Entertainment Group asked James to co-produce the UK release of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe on DVD. Liaising with Contender he was responsible for the extra content. The DVDs were popular at the beginning, but due to a slow release schedule the interest level subsided and later releases were shelved in late 2004. During 2006 and 2007 the remaining three volumes were released as both a box set on their own, and alongside the previous six volumes. At the beginning of 2004, James was asked by Contender to appear on the commentaries for the UK release of Dungeons & Dragons (TV series) on DVD.
Alongside co-producing the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe DVDs James was also writing the Masters of the Universe Encyclopedia for MVCreations. Due to disagreements with Mattel the series was canceled after only one issue, even though all five issues had been written. Initially the plan had been for James to write an Encyclopedia based on the classic He-Man properties, but legal problems led to this idea being shelved after James had written the first issue. James also worked alongside Val Staples to create The Energy Warrior and came up with concepts, stories, and designs for a proposed comic series which never saw the light of day.
From 2005 to 2008 James worked with MVCreations on many DVD titles from BCI Eclipse including He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, The New Adventures of He-Man, The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, Defenders of the Earth, Dungeons & Dragons (TV series), Ghostbusters (1986 TV series), Bravestarr and many more. His role primarily involved writing the synopses, character profiles, and trivia, naming the chapter points, and researching material for the documentaries produced by Andy Mangels.
In 2008 James assisted in producing The Real Ghostbusters DVD set for Time-Life. In addition to researching a wealth of material for the content that would eventually appear on the DVDs James also assisted in the documentaries themselves by traveling to California. As well as formulating questions for each of the interviewees, he himself interviewed Marsha Goodman, Kevin Altieri and Dan Riba. He was later interviewed for the set by Andy Mangels and performed three episode audio commentaries.
James Eatock and Dan Schoening worked together on a Ghostbusters comic book pitch which was sent to IDW Publishing. Although the pitch did not result in any immediate work, the on-line debut of the pitch created much excitement. After the pitch was showcased on the New York Daily News' website, James and Dan were asked to contribute a story to IDW Publishing's Ghostbusters Haunted Holidays trade paperback. He penned the story "Guess What's Coming To Dinner?"
cereal:geek[edit]
In 2007 James launched cereal:geek; a 100-page glossy magazine with no adverts dedicated to the animated shows from the 1980s with contributions by many talented artists and writers.
Dark Horse He-Man Publications[edit]
James Eatock wrote The Unofficial Cartoon Guide to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. It was published in August 2010 and meticously breaks down every single episode of the series. The book was not only reprinted in 2012, but also led to an eventual official version of the book being produced. In October 2014 James was hired to work on The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe published by Dark Horse Comics. Having contributed to other Dark Horse books Dark Horse presented him with the idea of turning his unofficial He-Man guide into an official one. And on August 25th 2016 He-Man and She-Ra: A Complete Guide to the Classic Animated Adventures was published, and later reprinted in late 2020.
Filmography[edit]
Television[edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe | Himself | |
| 2017 | The Toys That Made Us | Himself | He-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes |
| 2023 | Faking Filmation | Himself | Documentary about "The Return of Faker" |
"The Return of Faker" and Future Plans[edit]
"The Return of Faker"[edit]
From 2013 to 2015 James produced content for the Official He-Man and the Masters of the Universe YouTube channel. 124 videos were exclusively created by James an published on the channel. This work would lead to he and animator Dušan Mitrović spending three years creating a new, unofficial episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe titled "The Return of Faker". The project was planned to have been shown during Power-Con 2019 in Anaheim. James subsequently received a cease and desist from NBCUniversal, which prevented him from showing the 30-minute episode.
Faking Filmation[edit]
Currently James and "The Return of Faker" are the forthcoming subject of a documentary titled Faking Filmation produced by filmmaker Rob McCallum. The documentary, which had a wildly successful Kickstarter in which over $116,000 was raised, will chart James' journey to have "The Return of Faker" recognized as an official episode. The documentary is due to be released at the start of 2023.
The American Shotgun Symphony[edit]
James still has plans for The American Shotgun Symphony, a comic book series set in the 1970s.
References[edit]
Interviews[edit]
- Farsector Interview (2006)
- WhichDimension.com Interview & Artworks (2009)
- Coloring Dragons Interview (2009)
- Masters of the Universe Chronicles Interview (2010)
- TWIG Interview (33 minutes in) (2010)
- Proton Charging Interview
External links[edit]
- James Eatock on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 23: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- The He-Man and She-Ra Blog!
- Cereal:geek
- James Eatock on IMDb
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