Cannon Busters

   I first mentioned this series back during PPP2 and mentioned it again earlier this year when writing about my trip to MCM London, and while it appears that there is some delay for the pilot's release date, there is still so much that I can talk about since my first post on this Kickstarter. Being heavily influenced by numerous anime classics, you could say that LeSean's work was a love letter of sorts to many classic anime Shonen series. But before we get into the anime adaptation itself, Cannon Busters was originally a fantasy comic book series written and drawn by LeSean Thomas that was first published in 2005. 

   The first issue was due to be published by Com.x in 2003, but was moved to Devil's Due in 2004. And while the series was very well received by both critics and fans alike, Thomas' incredibly hectic work schedule resulted in him making the decision to have the series reprinted and to have it continued as an OGN. And so, the graphic novel was due to be out in the winter of 2009... can't say there's any other news about it other than this, unfortunately.

   While the pilot was expected to be released at the end of January this year, due to minor production delays (That was announced through their Kickstarter page), the release date ended up being pushed back just a little, and while it's already May... it is unknown when exactly this will actually be released in the end. It was also stated however that at the risk of creating another fake promise, they have decided to simply keep their heads down and push towards the finishing this properly for everyone's enjoyment. And heck, for the sake of a quality piece of work, us loyal backers will most definitely be willing to wait for everything to be properly straightened out. Nothing good ever comes out of rushing out a project (And I have especially seen that so many times when it came to video games...).



   I am not necessarily the biggest expert on Kickstarter, and in fact, I think Cannon Busters was one of very few projects that I backed (The other one was this science fiction graphic novel years back) simply because of how big a fan I already was of LeSean Thomas and how I just knew that this was most certainly going to turn out amazingly. Reading through their progress posts on Kickstarter, I found it incredibly enlightening just getting to know the behind the scenes process when working on such an animation. 

   From the well known names in the animation industry that are hired in to work on the character designs, backgrounds, etc, to even what is going on exactly when delays occur and retakes of an animated scene need to be done (Basically redos on individual, completed scene cuts, which could be grounds for change on anything from character model check revisions, missed timing, to inconsistent colours, all the way to re-animating scenes from layout... and that honestly sounds a lot like a lot more work than redoing a live-action scene in a film), LeSean and Co. always kept us in the loop when this project had first taken off.

   This is most definitely the dream, one day getting the chance to work in something as amazing as this alongside all these amazing folks... But anyway, I am happy to wait, even looking back to their unfinished production stills inspire me so much as I struggle to finish my own Extended Practice animation. Just... thank you, for still wanting to keep hand drawn animation alive, especially in this day and age.