Storyboard artist by day. Motion book creator by night. When it’s daylight, Joe James is inspired to bring his clients’ ideas to life for their commercials, videos and other creative projects you’ve seen on TV and at the movies.
But at night, Joe’s thoughts are consumed by U.S. presidents … and these days, Richard Milhous Nixon is on his mind.
Is Nixon an obsession for Joe? Pretty much. Are Joe’s perpetual presidential thoughts a result of today’s times? No, not really. And what’s a motion book, by the way? We’ll get to that soon.
NOV. UPDATE: Nixon’s Demons is now available! Download the free Madefire app on your phone or tablet to get access.
Nixon’s Demons’ Origin Story
Joe James is the creator of the Presidential Dark motion and comic book series and its first feature, Nixon’s Demons.
Joe, a graphic designer, writer and now comic and motion book creator, developed Nixon’s Demons™ as the first set of stories in Presidential Dark, a new entertainment series. Nixon’s Demons focuses on the thirty-seventh president of the U.S. and the only one to ever resign. It takes place at the time Nixon signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreement, circa May 1972.
Before the Presidential Dark universe or Nixon’s story were ever named, their genesis came from a serendipitous discussion Joe had with Murray Butler, an executive creative director at Framestore. The Academy Award-winning creative studio has offices in London, New York, Montreal, Chicago and Los Angeles and works with clients to bring ideas to life in any space or screen through craft, imagination and technology.
Joe remembers the initial conversation like this:
When Murray and I had lunch a couple years ago, he told me about a new project, where a company was interested in doing a documentary about the Watergate scandal.
I began to talk about Nixon … and I kept going. Murray looked at me and asked how I knew so much about our former president. I said that I liked history and came to know Nixon by way of John F. Kennedy, a fascination that began when I was younger and first became aware of JFK’s assassination.
We kept talking and then Murray asked if I’d be interested in being part of the client pitch for the Watergate project. I said of course.
Exploring Nixon’s Inner Thoughts
Joe says that after he left the meeting, he became quickly consumed with the idea of exploring Nixon’s inner thoughts during his time as president and in the formative years before.
“I thought about Nixon from the point of view of a person who was a bit socially awkward,” Joe says. “He had a deep inner life, as we all do, and I wanted to explore the idea of externalizing that inner life. I think of Nixon as being intelligent and having drive, but I wanted to explore how he wound up being so self-destructive.”
In a follow-up meeting with Murray, Joe arrived with artwork he created to illustrate Nixon’s demons. “All our demons begin at childhood,” Joe says. “I took a lot of liberties in what I came up with and wanted to show Nixon’s inner and public life, which was were fraught with peril.”
Motion Books: Comics Reinvented
Fast-forward to last year when Joe and Murray completed their initial collaboration on four Nixon’s Demons books, and Framestore’s incubator and venture arm greenlit the project. Next it was time to bring them to life on the Madefire platform. Madefire, a Framestore partner, is a mobile and tablet app that offers a diverse catalog of digital comics and motion books. Madefire takes the traditional comic book experience to a new level, by adding excitement and boosting engagement with interactivity, sound and motion.
Joe enjoys seeing his artwork come to life. He says, “As I worked on Nixon’s Demons, the scenes play out in my head. I write these images down in script form, then I digitally illustrate them. Now other people get to see what I envisioned. I love how motion books allow creators to capture the real essence of their stories.”
The process to create a digital story required Joe to re-invent his drawing process. “With digital, everything’s done in multiple layers,” Joe says, “Each graphic element — the pattern of a White House window, the sky, Nixon, his dog — are drawn individually. It’s a lengthy and exacting process.”
In addition to creating the artwork for Madefire, Joe wrote the script for Nixon’s Demons’ 75 pages.
Soon, the Nixon’s Demons saga will be available on Madefire’s Comics and Motion Books™ platform, initially in 2D and later on Magic Leap One. (NOTE: We’re live on Madefire now! See below.) That platform will give augmented-reality fans the chance to immerse themselves in the Presidential Dark world and also in virtual reality on the Oculus Gear VR.
Presidential Dark Universe Expands
With new episodes already in the works, Presidential Dark will give fans more material that explores the minds of our nation’s past presidents.
Joe offers a sneak peek into who’s up next in the series:
Over the years, many people have assumed that Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham’s wife, was mentally ill. But she wasn’t. Her behavior is attributed to what her husband found in the White House shortly before he was assassinated: a mysterious device buried in the basement.
This discovery, the McGuffin for the Presidential Dark series, causes the White House to become haunted. And since that time, the device continued to influence and alter the minds of presidents guiding our nation.
The Nixon’s Demons Team
A project like this takes a big creative team. In addition to Nixon’s Demons’ co-creator Murray, the project is being produced by Gaby Darbyshire, Principal of Framestore’s venture arm, along with Jim Shooter, the former editor-in-chief of both Valiant Entertainment and Marvel Comics, as creative consultant.
Madefire Co-Founder and CEO Ben Wolstenholme says, “Nixon’s Demon’s is a layered story in all respects, interweaving characters and narrative in a way was just not possible in print. It also introduces Nixon’s own audio speeches and threads it together beautifully — quite a feat — and we’re very excited to launch this to fans on Madefire.”
Download the Comic Book and Keep in Touch with Joe
NOV. UPDATE: Nixon’s Demons is now available! Download the free Madefire app on your phone or tablet to get access.
If you’d like to keep up to date with Joe and the continuation of the Presidential Dark series, share your name and email address.
If you have questions about the project or would like to interview Joe about the Presidential Dark world, email him or contact Saint James Studios at (212) 366-9050.
Producers…Hire the right storyboard artist (or regret it later).
Directors…Which Style Storyboard Do You Prefer?