Here's a playlist of all the videos highlighting our 2023 art book that reads more like a cutting-edge zine: ArtVndngMchn Mission Wonderful. This playlist includes many in-progress handmade art scenes and some fun promo movies.
Here is a very experimental (and fun) animation I created and ran on multiple overlapping window screens at different start times. It represents family, unity, and creativity.
You can also see the animated GIF version of this Silly Daddy comic-related artwork on SuperRare. On that crypto-collectible marketplace, it is available as rare digital art in a super rare limited edition of only 1 issuance on the Ethereum blockchain at https://superrare.co/JoeChiappetta
My family-friendly comics are now being posted on my Patreon site.
Become one of my patrons to get access to Silly Daddy Comics on Patreon. Please support me and become part of the family.
Why Support Silly Daddy Comics?
I am Joe Chiappetta, father of three and best known for my work on the award-winning Silly Daddy Comics series. As one of the pioneers of the independent comics publishing movement that started back in the 1980s, myself and just a handful of others brought autobiographical comics to mainstream popularity many decades ago. Comics fans may not remember this, but there was a time when making comics about real life was almost unheard of in a market dominated by superheroes. Yet comics historians note that Silly Daddy remains the longest-running autobiographical comic about family in the known universe!
For most of the half-century that I've been alive, I have been moving the hearts of people through comics and drawings. I am inviting you to become a patron of my work. Your support will allow more of my innovative, family-friendly brand of storytelling to come to life.
You give to Silly Daddy; you get Silly Daddy Comics! When you become my patron, I will make more comics and art for you to enjoy. In fact, you get exclusive access to my work; this is stuff not available to the public. We're talking about new comics, sketches, drawings, as well as unpublished art and comics from my three decades as a cartoonist.
Cartooning is a passion. It's fun, exciting, and a little bit of a crazy way to communicate. As my dear patron, you will help to make this happen more. In fact, you will become part of the family--The Silly Daddy Family--and empower me to post comics and drawings on my Patreon site! I am a very prolific artist. You get behind this thing, and you will see all kinds of cool art coming out of me. Get ready to be moved throughout each week.
Now, you might be wondering: if this guy has been doing comics for so long, why does he need patrons to help him fund his cartooning effort. It is a valid question. At a peak in my comics career, after winning a bunch of awards for Silly Daddy, frankly, I withdrew from the marketing side of comics to follow a calling that involved helping the poor and people with disabilities as a full time career. During this period, I still made comics, but most were not widely distributed. However, I am now at a point in my career where I have figured out how to still serve the poor, and also create and publish comics at a very active level. During that long sabbatical from promoting comics, all the while, I still kept creating comics, some of which were posted briefly on the Internet, yet unseen by the public at large. As my patron, you will get an exclusive first look at new and unpublished material--months before it ends up in my next Silly Daddy comic book.
Silly Daddy 25th Anniversary
As we approach the 25th anniversary of Silly Daddy Comics (in late 2017), your continued support will nurture an ever-increasing flow to my cartoonist productivity. This, in turn, will initiate more inspiring cartoons for inclusion into new Silly Daddy comic books. I have some big plans for the Silly Daddy 25th anniversary, so you definitely want to join team Silly Daddy now.
Thank you for playing your part in making my creative visions come alive in comic strips!
Silly Daddy family time gets back to nature as the Chiappettas have fun and laughs in the woods. This is a real life, live action enactment of the cartoon series: Silly Daddy comics. I also drew a comic strip about this family fort adventure.
While on a family walk in woods, I said to my youngest daughter, "Pretty soon, Anna, you'll be too big for me to carry you."
My oldest daughter, Maria, asked, "What are we even doing out here?"
As we approached a crude little hut made out of sticks, I replied, "Your brother and I built a fort in the woods. We're downsizing."
Anna yelled out in objection, "We can't downsize!"
My wife asked, "Why not?"
Anna replied, "I'm still getting growing."
The video closes out to a song that my daughter sang beautifully. I wrote new lyrics to the tune of "Summertime." Thanks to Anthony Paparo for camera work, and Joel Klemmer on video editing. If you think this video is cool, you should see the fort.
Here is rare footage from Silly Daddy Comics World Headquarters. It's the first ever Chiappetta family interview on what it's like to be in a comic book series (4 minute movie).
Video transcript follows: [Chiappetta family sits in living room surrounded by original cartoon art from the Silly Daddy comic series]
Joe Chiappetta: So we've got the Silly Daddy family here, and uh, just some of the comics. There's over five hundred online, and I thought I'd just gather, uh, some of our greatest fans together, and to see, these are our greatest fans, to see, uh, what we, uh, what we think about Silly Daddy comics which can be read at Silly Daddy dot net. So I'll start with my wife Denise. So, what do you, uh, what do you say is your favorite comic?
Denise: I really like this one where it... where you see Anna and she's in her high chair and some food falls on her foot. And she says, Whoops, and then Dad comes along and says, Ah, wait. New house rule. No eating food off of your foot!
Joe: That's a true story. It happened.
Denise: Yep. True story.
Joe: So what do you think about being a cartoon character?
Denise: I love it! I uh, like it a lot because I feel like it uh, takes the moments like that, the precious moments of life, and uh, records them for us. I think it's really cool. And it's neat to be a part of that and to see it all written down and illustrated. I like it a lot.
Luke: I like these two.
Joe: Why?
Luke: Cuz, uh, with this one, Dad, who is also known as Silly Daddy, uh, is pushing Anna in here stroller, than Anna says, Are you tired yet? And then Dad says, No. And then Anna says, who is getting pushed the whole way up the hill, says, Well I am.
Joe: And so what do you think about being a cartoon character? Do you like that, or is it a little weird?
Luke: I like because, when you make a book then we get to read it. And we get to draw stuff on the papers and everything.
Joe: Thank you, son. Sorry I had to cut you off there. Did you have something inspirational to say before we, uh, go to Maria?
Luke: No.
Joe: Okay, alright. So Ree Ree, what do you uh, what do you think of these comics? Any, any of them strike out to you as being particularly useful? Funny?
Maria: Uh, I really like Baby Ninja, where Anna pokes you in the eye and it's excruciating pain and you have to go to the hospital. But she's still really cute and you love her. I like it because it reminds me of when I was younger, and like when I was little and I like, pick your nose and...
[laughter]
Joe: Yeah, that, that tale is recorded in the Silly Daddy 2004 graphic novel which you can get on the Silly Daddy dot net website. So uh, what about being in a comic? You've pretty much been in a comic since the very beginning of your life, 1991. Uh, what do you think about being a cartoon character?
Maria: I like it. It's really cool to see myself, and my friends, and everyone we know on paper as cartoons and sometimes you give me a big nose.
[laughter]
Maria: I don't like that.
Joe: I'll try to work on it.
Maria: But I like being in comics.
Joe: Alright. So Anna, any of these comics that you like?
Anna: I like this one? [points to Dehydrated comic]
Joe: Why?
Anna: Cuz, I'm little and I have a pink feety on me.
Joe: That's great. And what do you think about being a cartoon character in comics? Do you like that?
Anna: Yeah.
Joe: Why?
Anna: Cuz, you get to read it. You get to look at it.
Joe: That's great. That's great. That's Silly Daddy comics containing some of the funniest people in the world that happen to live right here with me in North Riverside. You can read it all at Silly Daddy dot net. Silly Daddy dot net.
All comics in the video were drawn by Joe Chiappetta.
Thanks to Anthony Paparo for the camera work in the living room. The camcorder used to film this was a Kodak Zi8. It took nice video shots but the format was not really compatible with Windows Movie Maker, which is what I used to edit this video (after converting the file, which was no small task). So I returned the camera to Best Buy for a full refund. But at least we got a funny video out of the whole experience.
Bonus Article...
How Artists Can Include Family In Creative Work
The above video is a behind the scenes look at Silly Daddy Comics in their first ever entire family interview about what it's like to be in a comic book series. This is also a great example of how artists can include their families in creative work and make their work more of a family atmosphere.
Step 1: Create work that your family can relate to
Keep it real, fun, and positive. What would inspire your family? In my comics, I take a down-to-earth approach. When I capture the funny moments, it helps us in times of trouble to remember that we can still laugh together--that the world is not all gloom and doom. There is hope too.
Step 2: Include family in the art-making process
My wife and daughters and son have all helped in the writing process of the comics. Bounce ideas off of them. After a while, the family starts coming to me with great ideas for a comic. When getting feedback from your family in the process, ask them, "Will this work?" or "Is this funny?" For comics, my wife has even colored many of my comics.
Step 3: Make family members the subjects of your artistic creations
You are creating history here. Your descendants will cherish this family record as your family multiplies over the generations.
Step 4: Gather family together for an interview
Don't rehearse the interview. Just record a candid response on how it felt for them to be included in your work.
Step 5: Share the interview with the world
Post the video everywhere. I have it on my blog and it gives my readers a behind-the-scenes view into my creative life that no other work could more directly describe. This helps those interested in you as an artist to connect on a deeper level.
See Batman hit the pavement as you never imagined. The world's most famous superhero is no match for these Jokers. Can even a Christian Bale him out of this predicament?
"What are you doing?" asks my son Luke to his little sister Anna.
Anna replies, "I'm changing his diaper!"
"Whose diaper?" I ask.
"His diaper," Anna replies, referring to her action figure.
"Who's that?" I ask.
"Batman," she replies.
Then my son grabs the action figure out of Anna's hands so she yells, "No!!! I've got to change his diaper!"
WATCH MY MOVIE... Fun animation for the whole family. Silly Daddy, the long running indie "Family Circus" comic series is now a silly cartoon, at least for 26 seconds.
The most remarkable thing about this musical adventure video is not the cutting-edge animation. Rather it is the fact that the dialog from this cartoon actually happened between me and my son Luke a few years back when he was three. However, the indoor cannonball maneuver is fiction.
This is animation from the other family guy, the less offensive one. The cartoon "Comic Splash" could be considered the very first complete Silly Daddy animation because I started it in 2004 but didn't add the audio until this year. Why the three year gap in between completion? I was at first concerned that Disney, Pixar and Big Idea might copy my state-of-the-art animator techniques, but now I just don't care.
One day my little son was running around in circles with more energy than usual (which is a lot). He was even jumping on furniture, so I asked him, "Who wound you up?"
He replied, "Uh, Jesus!" with a big smile and kept on running.
That conversation actually happened, as i mentioned earlier. However, the rest of the cartoon I elaborated because I had a fun sketch of Luke sitting on an extra-tall fancy chair at the Nordstrom store in Chicago. I though it would be neat to have him jump off the chair as a stunt and into a pool of water, so that's what I animated.
This entire short movie was done in the Chiappetta studio by myself and my team of child laborers working for under minimum wage. I asked my daughter Maria if she could use the internet piano to make some background music, but she said she had learned something better in high school singing class. So she sang the background music and did an incredible job. Leave a comment and let me know what you think of this cartoon.
I was going for an old-school, homegrown B-Movie effect with the animation style. Watch this funny cartoon of a kid doing a cannonball maneuver.
Animation by Joe Chiappetta. Voices by Joe and Luke Chiappetta. Music by Maria Chiappetta
Directed by Joe Chiappetta, 2007 in Macromedia Flash 4. Thanks to Mike Rende, another silly daddy for giving me that software for free.
