Tracy J. Butler's Blog

fibiearts:

newsie boy

lackabella:

Happy International Cat Day to Lackadaisy!

I’m late, but..
Aww, thanks! <3

mollynesa:

Yay! More ivy!

Thank you! <3

:

listened to ghost riders in the sky and we all know how much Mordecai loves horses /j

lackabella:

Some more random character collages. 😊

Very many things. Too many to name. Sometimes it's hard to even identify what things inspired you because it happens without you realizing.

I've always enjoyed history and historical fiction, but I think prior to working on Lackadaisy, I had written most gangster-genre media off as superficial morality tales (it might seem like all fun and games but don't become a crime kingpin, okay?) or power fantasies aimed at hetero male audiences. Looking back, probably the Sopranos, Deadwood, and Coen Bros films did a lot to change my mind and spark my interest in deeply flawed, morally bankrupt, tragic-but-funny characters scheming their way around.

As I was developing Lackadaisy, I absorbed just about every gangster film and Jazz Age-themed thing I could find. Watched lots of old Cagney and Bogart films. Cagney often portrayed very vulnerable, even fragile characters, really. I think it surprised me how clearly some of those old movies telegraphed the tough-guy element as a complete facade, how much more psychologically layered some of the gangster types were, and how much ambiguity pre-Hays Code films toyed with. (There's plenty of stuff that's just kind of vacuously silly too, but that can be fun in its own way).

Anyway, I watched all of the self-serious stuff and sprawling epics - Once Upon a Time in America, Road to Perdition, Scorcese, Coppola, etc., and mixed in a bunch of Marx Brothers and Jeeves and Wooster too. Add some Don Bluth and other animated influences, and I guess that's why Lackadaisy is the way it is.

dappergent1927:

Miller's Crossing always stood out to me

Watching someone try to juggle and play the angles of a dangerous, tragic, and sometimes darkly comedic situation and a colourful cast of misfits and thugs

Miller's Crossing is one of my favorites - a love letter to Dashiell Hammett. It definitely inspired some of Freckle's Tommy gun shenanigans. Bonus Sam Raimi cameo too.

And probably the most interesting thing of all - on the first viewing, you might not even notice the gay love triangle at the center of it.

Very many things. Too many to name. Sometimes it's hard to even identify what things inspired you because it happens without you realizing.

I've always enjoyed history and historical fiction, but I think prior to working on Lackadaisy, I had written most gangster-genre media off as superficial morality tales (it might seem like all fun and games but don't become a crime kingpin, okay?) or power fantasies aimed at hetero male audiences. Looking back, probably the Sopranos, Deadwood, and Coen Bros films did a lot to change my mind and spark my interest in deeply flawed, morally bankrupt, tragic-but-funny characters scheming their way around.

As I was developing Lackadaisy, I absorbed just about every gangster film and Jazz Age-themed thing I could find. Watched lots of old Cagney and Bogart films. Cagney often portrayed very vulnerable, even fragile characters, really. I think it surprised me how clearly some of those old movies telegraphed the tough-guy element as a complete facade, how much more psychologically layered some of the gangster types were, and how much ambiguity pre-Hays Code films toyed with. (There's plenty of stuff that's just kind of vacuously silly too, but that can be fun in its own way).

Anyway, I watched all of the self-serious stuff and sprawling epics - Once Upon a Time in America, Road to Perdition, Scorcese, Coppola, etc., and mixed in a bunch of Marx Brothers and Jeeves and Wooster too. Add some Don Bluth and other animated influences, and I guess that's why Lackadaisy is the way it is.

Some Mitzi art I did a little while back for a thing. Didn’t have time to fuss with it and it didn’t quite turn out how I wanted, but I’ve had so little time for non-production art lately, it was nice to get a little something done.

I started creating it because it was occupying all of my thoughts and I had a compulsion to manifest it somehow - on paper, or on a digital canvas, in animation, whatever I could manage to do. I didn't have any preset expectations of where it would go audience-wise. I just wanted to make it.