Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1257506
SUMMER 2020 13 T H E C L I M B Dan Riba, to ask him what a pan and a tuck were. The rest he learned on the job by watching over the shoulders of his fellow professionals and comparing notes. Within two months, Rader says, Dorman fired him, and in the same breath provided him with contact information to Hanna-Barbera studios located just across the street. "I went over and introduced myself to Kay Wright who was producing on The Dukes and Richie Rich as well as The Little Rascals series." After work at Hanna-Barbera dried up, Rader struggled to find his next job. Eight months later he was freelancing at DIC while also working as a security guard at the Norton Simon Museum of Art. It was a hectic schedule as he was frequently pulling all-nighters. It was at this time he met his mentor, French artist and director Bernard Deyriès. Rader brought the storyboards he was working on to Deyriès, who asked him if he wanted to make his own changes. Rader had never been offered this opportunity before and says he was essentially working blind, following the script religiously. Rader watched Deyriès make changes in the margins of his storyboard paper. It was a revelation to him to see how he opened up the story, making his own additions. "All the things that took him about five pages of storyboard to play out, I'd done in one long shot pan," recalls Rader. He pointed out to Deyriès that he'd followed the script as instructed. Deyriès pointed to his version, and asked in his French accent: But is this not better? Inspired, Rader went home and applied what he'd learned to the remaining third of the storyboard. "It was like a light went on in my head," he says. After that, Deyriès put him on staff where he continued to value the mentorship. "That's one of the things that really interests me, is how to pay that forward—because I'd say in all honesty that I think Bernard saved my life—I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't met him," he says. Rader continued working for DIC on shows like The Real Ghostbusters and Alf Tales. By 1991 he was at Warner Bros. on Batman, which led to finally getting his much sought-after foothold in comic book illustration. He then segued into directing animation, which he pursued from 1993 to 1998, culminating in winning an Emmy in 1999 for best longform animation for his work on HBO's Spawn. Despite this milestone award, in the first six years of the 21st century it became difficult to find work. There was a shift to anime and manga and shows were being bought and dubbed into English rather than new work being commissioned. Fortunately, Rader's frequent freelance work with director Anthony Chun landed him a job on the final two seasons of King of the Hill. Over the years his approach has shifted, he says, in that he now anticipates more what clients' issues are and what they might want, rather than doing what he thought was right and then having them tell him differently. More recently, he worked on Bob's Burgers, which he left in 2017 after eight seasons. While he's currently working on Titmouses's Bless the Harts, Rader also finds time to pursue his own passion project. In 2003, he started Flaming Artist Press and has published his own homoerotic comic magazines and artwork. He has noticed that since he turned 60 it's been harder to find work, which is one of the reasons he's started the Experienced Workers committee where he hopes to address best practices for getting and maintaining work. "I want to flip the script," he says. "You know how they say don't put anything older than ten years on your resume. Screw that—I've got 34 years of experience and I'm going to brag about it!" He wants to highlight how experienced workers know how to get things done and can continue to learn and evolve their skills. He also wants to promote mentorship, to pay forward the experience he had with his own mentor, Deyriès, who was such an important influence on his career. — Karen Briner If you are interested in learning more about the Experienced Workers committee, email Rader at ewc@tag839.org or visit Rader's website at www.bradrader.net..