Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1493292
18 KEYFRAME SUPER SUPER HUMANITY HUMANITY While Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring may seem unlikely influences for a show about a teen superheroine, the creatives behind Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur beg to differ. The series is as much about 13-year-old Lunella Lafayette as it is about the city she inhabits: New York during its creative heyday. Marvel's first Black teen superheroine, the science-minded Lunella—aka Moon Girl— accidentally rips a hole in the space-time continuum. The result is Devil Dinosaur, a 10-ton T-Rex. Together they fight crime during mysterious power blackouts on the Lower East Side. "When [Executive Producer] Laurence Fishburne and I got together and started discussing what the show should feel like, we had a very shared vision—starting with New York and what New York represents," says Executive Producer Steve Loter. They talked about art inspirations, which also included graffiti, street murals, and Andy Warhol's screen printing. They brought in Production Designer Sean Jimenez who created a look "that feels like a kind of comic book printing process but still has a really interesting artistic flair," Loter says. Supervising Director Ben Juwono says this included spotting blacks, a classic inking technique used by comic artists—filling in strong lines and areas with solid black to focus the eye, create contrast, and add depth. "We pulled all of these notions from old comic books to try to apply it to an animated series, which we had never seen before," he says. OLD-SCHOOL NEW YORK CITY, POWER BLACKOUTS, AND A 10-TON T-REX SET THE STAGE FOR A TEEN SUPERHEROINE IN MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR. above: When Moon Girl accidentally brings Devil Dinosaur into modern New York, the two team up to fight crime. opposite page: The show's creatives sought authenticity through influences including graffiti and street art. STEVE LOTER EXECUTIVE PRODUCER BEN JUWONO SUPERVISING DIRECTOR S T O R Y & V I S I O N