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Hailing
from New Mexico, most notably the town of Hobbs, Josh Anderson
is no stranger to doing the opposite of what people expect. While
growing up watching movies and television shows about schools
with different cliques and the popular and unpopular, he was surprised
to find himself phased in between both worlds, friends with everybody.
This was mostly due to the fact that, being of the chunky nature
as a kid, he was forced by pure attrition to develop a wit and
a sense of humor.
An
artist from an early age, most of Josh’s early drawings
consisted of dinosaurs and characters from the “Moral Kombat”
games. However, a love for drawing led to doodles of many sorts.
Around the age of nine, Josh developed an appreciation for comic
strips, most notably “Garfield,” “Mother Goose
and Grimm,” and, in particular “Dilbert.” Inspired
by these strips, he began to draw his own and show them to his
fellow students.
As
the years went on, he continued to develop and hone his drawing
skills. Early strips Featured two characters, who were without
names, one who wore a hat and one who didn’t. Soon, though,
characters were created. The two characters, named Jay and Nick,
frequently interacted and went on epic cartoon-style adventures.
It was around this time that Josh started on his dreams of someday
becoming a syndicated newspaper cartoonist. To this end, he assembled
around twenty of his best strips and sent them to a local newspaper
where they were promptly lost in the shuffle.
It
was around this time that Josh became friends with Abe Burrell
and Preston Oldaker. Bolstered by a similar sense of humor and
a love of video games, the three became fast friends and began
to hang out more and more. It wasn’t until his freshman
year of high school that Josh (who had now picked up the nickname
“Louie” from Chris Howell, who called him this because
Josh shared a last name with comedian Louie Anderson), would start
to incorporate them into the strip.
Later
on, Josh would experiment with web design, starting by making
a web site for his grandfather’s bluegrass band. That year
for Christmas, Josh would receive a Wacom tablet for Christmas.
The combination of a growing interest in web design and a new
method of creating digital art led Josh to the conclusion that
he could create digital art. A web site was created shortly after
that would host the most basic form of his comic strip. The title
of the strip was developed simply by Josh looking at songs he
enjoyed for title ideas. The song “Box” by the band
Mustard Plug was the primary inspiration for the strip, which
would go on to be called “Man In A Box.”
Around
this time, Abe and Preston had also expressed interest in joining
Josh in the cartooning field. Abe, being a longtime artist like
Josh, began to write and draw his own comic strip, titled “Ignoramus.”
Preston on the other hand, possessed little in the way of artistic
skills but made up for it by having a quirky and innovative point
of view. His ideas and writing made it into a strip entitled “Evil
Penguin” (the original name of the strip was “Chilly
Willy,” but copyright reasons prompted a title change),
which he wrote and Josh drew.
During
this time, the cartoons “Clerks” had come out on DVD.
Having caught both episodes that aired on television, Josh quickly
snatched up the set, and showed it to Abe and Preston. All three
enjoyed the show, which led them to investigate the “Clerks”
movie. The low-budget-yet-high-humor nature of the movie inspired
the three to create their own movie.
Utilizing
the message board of the website, Louie, Abe, and Preston each
started to post different scenes of the film. After a while, a
script was completed, though it’s short length and a lack
of ambition caused the film to be put on what seemed to be an
indefinite hiatus.
Later
on, Josh would decide that the current incarnation of the strip
was not meeting his expectations and, as such, a new approach
had to be taken. After a long period of development of the artwork,
in which a new style for the strip was created, Man In A Box was
re-launched as part of the new L.A.P. Dance Productions website.
Soon after the www.ldprd.com domain name was registered and before
long the comic would start to garner several fans.
At
the end of his junior year, however, Josh would cease work on
Man In A Box, citing a lack of time and a desire to work on other
projects.
For
the next year, Josh would begin development on a future comic
strip called Oasis. The strip was about a group of teenagers who
go on a road trip as their last senior trip.
In
the mean time, Josh would, along with Abe and Preston, graduate
high school. Josh would go to Tempe, AZ to the University of Advancing
Technology, while Abe and Preston would both join the military.
While in Tempe, Josh would work on Oasis, drawing several strips
and working on a new layout for the web site. A short time after,
however, a hard drive crash would wipe out almost half of the
completed Oasis strips, and frustrated by the whole thing, the
comic was ceased (it will, however, be made into a feature film
from L.A.P. Dance Productions).
Later
on, inspired by the film-related classes he was taking at the
University, Josh would re-write the Innocent Idiots script. It
is now a completed script that will begin filming this summer.
Soon
after, work on the web site, renewed contact with Abe and Preston,
along with an introduction by his longtime girlfriend, Christina
into the world of Myspace, would prompt Josh to start Man In A
Box up again. It is currently still underway.
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