YOU SAY YOU WANT AN EVOLUTION?
When we started work on Bronk and Bongo about a year ago, they weren’t even dogs! They were unidentifiable “critters”. But then we were afraid that our audience would be distracted trying to figure out “what” they were instead of focusing on them as characters. So we settled on making them dogs. I mean who doesn’t love dogs?
Since then they have continued to change and evolve as I kept drawing the characters and figuring out their personalities. Above you can see how much BONGO has changed since the start. He’s not as tall or as “flat” as he used to be. That bucktooth has disappeared and his footy pants now allow for his feet to pop out. He’s also a lot shorter and a better height to deal with the far smaller BRONK.
Bronk has gone through a lot of changes as well. He’s a little less cheery all the time and a little less angular. His personality went from dimwitted and happy (not too different from BONGO) to not slightly smarter than BONGO and short tempered. He got a nose job, contacts and got a little darker in skin tone. He’s also exercising more and is eating better.
And before they even got this refined take a look at this page of horrible misdirection! Sheesh… these guys are horrendous and offend every fiber of my being. But I’m glad they auditioned for the part or I never would have found the right BRONK and BONGO!
Another thing I want to add is that right from the start I knew I wanted them to only have one outfit between the 2 of them. Nothing would make them seem more desperate than if one had the pants and the other had the vest. In fact those are the exact same outfits Alan and I were wearing when we first met. And yes, unfortunately for me, he had the pants.
Bloggingly yours, Alan and Manny.
Click here for BRONK and BONGO stuff!
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On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Nice post!! Those original version were WEIRD!!! esp the pointy nose one. Cant wait to see ur short. Im gonna be in LA when you show your cartoon if its done by then. July 19-23 or something like that. Talk soon! -steve http://www.stephenstudios.com
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Love the evolution. They are perfect now. Don’t change any more. Please don’t make him wear pants. They have to fight me on wearing pants every day. I don’t like it either.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Jeez….this is like the longest post ever from you guys. It’s really interesting to see some of the behind the scenes stuff. The early variations are extra unusual now that I’m used to the way they look now. Even reversing their color schemes looks really wrong.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
I know what you mean. Now that i know the characters it seems weird that i ever tried them differently.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Are those some of the names you guys were considering at the bottom? They are pretty bad! You ended up with a good one though. That one character, middle row left, brown and red nose. He’s like from another show entirely. How’d he even get in here? They both look great now….stop messing with them…
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
I promise to leave them alone from this point on. And yes I agree, some of those names were terrible but you don’t have to be such a ball buster, jeez. BONED! was my favorite but BRONK and BONGO will do just fine. And yes alot of those early characters didn’t work together, and it’s clear now looking back on it. But you have to put those odd combinations together so you know when the right ones are.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
They are still super cute…even in the mirror. BONGO has gotten even more cute though…What did they look like before they were dogs?
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
The latest Bronk and Bongo designs look GREAT! But, I’m still partial to those cute “Alan” and “Manny” characters. Who could blame me?
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Hold on a second. . . you’re saying Bronk & Bongo are DOGS??!?? Wow. This changes EVERYTHING. Crap, I gotta start listening more when Manny’s talking.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
This show looks incredible. I love the art work. Solid designs. It’s about time to get back doing real cartoons. Please pick this one up.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Bongo says he got hair in weird places? He’s got hair everyplace! What’s hey talking about? Freak. Ohhh, he must mean his tongue.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Cool stuff Manny! I like both versions actually although the newer versions seem a bit more streamlined to me.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Yeah, that’s pretty much what happened. As things went along and I drew the in more and more poses they just evolved naturally to work better, and ended up “slicker” or streamlined as you say.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Crackin’ good stuff. Can you show us any of the earlier sketches? Pr-dog, perhaps. Curious.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Great to see the evolution! I would love to see what they looked like when they were just “critters”
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
I’ll see if I can dig up some of those extra embarrassing sketches for a future post.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Wow, there are a lot of differences…from their skin color to their pointy noses to the distance between their eyes. It’s really interesting to see how much has changed.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
This is great, guys! I always think it’s interesting to see how a character and idea evolve. Can’t wait to see more.
On May 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Yeah, things keep evolving alright. By the time this cartoon comes out they will probably be something else….Like Clowns or something….
On May 23rd, 2006 at 12:00 am
i love how bongo’s nose blew up light a balloon in the progression of sketches. SUPER cute.