We’re very happy to confirm that the very animated Joe Pearson will be joining us for the Gathering convention in October.
Joe was co-producer with Kevin Eastman for the anime film Highlander: Search for Vengeance for Imagi International/Madhouse Studios Japan, released in July 2007. The film was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri and written by David Abramowitz. He was also the director and producer of Tripod’s feature film War of the Worlds: Goliath which included the voice talents of Highlander stars such as Adrian Paul, Peter Wingfield, Jim Byrnes and Elizabeth Gracen.
Joe is an animation producer, director, art director, writer and designer with a Hollywood career spanning over 30 years. He is currently the chief creative executive in Tripod Entertainment Sbdn where he oversees the Group’s animation productions and co-manages its intellectual property development, and oversees the Group’s US subsidiary Studio Tripod Corp.
Based in Venice, California, Joe also heads Epoch Ink animation, an independent Los Angeles animation company that he founded in 1995.
Joe’s animation career started in the early 1980s as an artist and designer for companies such as Walt Disney, Fred Wolf, Universal, Hanna-Barbera, Warner Brothers and Ruby Spears. In 1989, he directed and designed Nickelodeon’s Thanksgiving Special, Thanksgiving Nightmares which was nominated for Best Animated Special at the Cable Ace Awards 1990.
He created, wrote, produced and directed the independent title Collet .45 in 1992, and was a creator and producer of the Commander Cash animated shorts for the Robocop live-action TV series. Joe was also a producer on the Robocop animated TV series for MGM in 1998 and for Film Roman’s Blues Brothers animated series, DIC’s Mummies Alive!, and RKO Pictures’ Mighty Joe Young animated series.
From 1995-1996, his company Epoch Ink produced the TV animated series Captain Simian & the Space Monkeys for Hallmark, a cult hit to this day.
In addition he also wrote and designed Crash Bandicoot for Universal/Sony, the videogame that became a cultural icon for the Playstation. Joe is credited as the designer of ‘Crash‘ and continued to support the franchise as director and designer for Crash Nitro Kart, Crash Twinsanity and Crash Tagteam Racing for Vicarious Visions and Red Eye Studios.
In 1998, Joe produced and co-wrote animated Pearl Jam music video Do the Evolution for Todd McFarlane Entertainment and Sony Music, earning him a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video in 1998.
From 2000 – 2001, Joe was Network Creative Director for the Bohbot Kids Network, and was executive producer and showrunner for the hit animated series Roswell Conspiracies, and director for the Kong: The Animated Series.
He recently completed writing, producing and directing 40 minutes of in-game cinematics on the Macbeth video game for the D.O.D.
