about the team
The Daily Mobster is a true indie project brought to you by industry studio-veterans with a vision and a story to tell, bringing you their best work yet without big studio funding. While it is indie, it still has an amazing team behind it and it wouldn't be what it is without the talent behind it.
jack kasprzak
slavik ia
Director, Animator and Writer, Jack has worked on many of your favorite film and tv shows including Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Roald Dahl's The Twits, DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, Spirit Riding Free, and dozens others. He has primarily been an Animation Director as well as an Episodic Story Director and now looks to bring those skills from the animation pipeline to the graphic novel medium.
Jack has been obsessed with mobsters and the noir crime genre since he was a kid. Some of his favorite films and books growing up were Dick Tracy, the Fritz Freeling's mobsters in Bugs Bunny, The Untouchables, Miller's Crossing, and of course, The Godfather.
What began as a personal "journal" project during Jack's early film career to keep his creative skills sharp while he primarily digitally groomed Uma Thurman's hair, blossomed into The Daily Mobster blog (when Blogger and Wordpress were huge). It amassed a rather large following and he ended up with nearly 100 characters and short stories/poems/articles about them.
A decade later, when Jack joined forces with Slavik, The Daily Mobster was resurrected, with or without super natural forces, and was developed as an animated series. However, in an increasingly indie-creator-friendly industry, Jack and Slavik decided to retool it into the breathtaking, visually cinematic, noir epic that you see today.
You have most certainly seen Slavik's work in many of your favorite films and countless commercials. He has twenty years specializing in primarily previsualization (which is effectively storyboarding in 3d space for film, tv and commercial) sometimes acting as the actor, cinematographer and director of photographer being the very first visual look from page to screen. He has worked on such films as Tron Legacy, G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra, Free Guy, The Planet of the Apes series, and Spiderman: No Way Home.
Slavik is an avid film and gaming fan, with a long interest in the World of Warcraft games, Tekken, Street Fighter and also has always appreciated the mobster genre, particularly highlighting Casino, The Godfather and Goodfellas. His unique perspective from the game world adds even yet another layer to the user's feel of reading a comic that feels like an immersive experience.
After writing, directing and shooting several short films, music videos and commercials Slavik and Jack joined together to write and develop several animated series, an interactive game called Pirates ArrBCs, and ultimately began writing and developing The Daily Mobster for the graphic novel format.
Bringing his career long experience with visual composition, cinematic story telling and lighting to the table, Slavik drives The Daily Mobster's unique cinematic look. He also co-writes the episodes and assists in overseeing asset development alongside Jack.
liz chun
Writer and show-creator, Liz Chun brings her extensive experience in writing that you may know from Madagascar: A Little Wild, DreamWorks' The Bad Guys series, Trollstopia as well as being the creator, writer and voice actress in (Not) Hero. Liz co-writes the issues along with Slavik and Jack and brings a unique perspective absurdist humor to ensure our world stays as unique and true to the source material as possible while introducing fresh ideas to keep the plot exciting and twisting.
OUR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
This project would very likely still be stuck in our heads and nothing more than a blog if it weren't for the guidance, generosity and support of Roberto Esquivez. The entire team thanks you and we are grateful for your trust in our vision.
...
the visual team
Some said we were crazy, it's impossible, and it's overengineered, but The Daily Mobster follows a traditional animation production pipeline process (eliminating only the "animation"/motion task), meaning every character, prop, and set is drawn and designed, then 3d-modeled, rigged, textured, posed and placed in a set and then lit and rendered before going into a graphic design and layout phase. This gives The Daily Mobster a distinctly unique visual appeal and look, a truly deep cinematic and detailed feel that few other graphic novels would attempt.
CHARACTER MODEL LEADS
Jean-Louis Schiller
Bryan Repka
CHARACTER RIGGER
Mike Gajga
ADDITIONAL CONSULTATIONS
Meg Favreau
Robert Taylor
Anukul Kukade (Triodoxic Studios)
ADDITIONIAL CHARACTER ASSETS
provided by
The Monk Studio
Executive Producer Juck Somsaman
Producer Natnaree Pichetpongsa
Production Assistant Panna Ampairat
Production Manager Napassara Chaisukdamrong
Asset Manager Palapas Nimawan
Head of Assets Tanoo Choorat
Character Modeler Pongsopat Totan
Character Modeler Saranchana Mekhaworanan
Character Modeler Viphada Karnjanawarit
Lead Pipeline Sarinporn Pintusopon
Lead Technical Director Thanapat Tummati
Pipeline Developer Nuttapon Vanakittistien
Pipeline & TD Coordinator Danuphol Jongariyakul
CREATIVE COMMON CREDITS
An additional list of models and assets is provided for under the fair use terms set forth by Creative Commons.