Meet Glenn Dion | Animation artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Glenn Dion and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Glenn, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
Work life balance is a very difficult thing to maintain in my industry and in Los Angeles in general due to the demands of the job combined with the sheer amount of time you sit in traffic trying to get to said job. All that being said, everything changed about four and a half years ago when covid hit and my industry went remote. For all of the obvious and considerable downsides to the pandemic one significant upside for me has been that I’ve been able to reclaim about twelve hours a week where I’m not having to sit behind the wheel of my car. I know some people had a hard time adjusting to working in that manner because animation is a very collaborative business but luckily for me my particular job is fairly isolated so it’s been much easier for me. The balance shifted even further last year during the WGA and SAG strikes, I was lucky enough to be able to work through them as I work in post and the episodes I was working on had already been written but it still afforded me the first significant break I’d had in seven years. Not wanting to squander the time while also being a bit disillusioned with how Hollywood was being run I decided to take a television pilot that I had developed with my wife years earlier and adapt it into a comic book called Wishful Thinking. I wanted to work on something that was entirely mine that I had complete control of and was able to finish it and get it out into the world. Basically the last four and a half years has been one instance of making lemonade from lemons after another but I learned very early in my career that if you’re going to work in this industry you better have a good lemonade recipe.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Drawing and creating are things I’ve done my entire life and I’ve always known I wanted to do them for a living in some capacity. I was obviously very excited when I broke into the animation industry in the late 90’s and at the time really felt like it was going to be enough. Over time, however, I started to realize that as great a job as it is, it’s still a job and I was still doing what other people were telling me to do. I forget when it happened exactly but it was definitely after I met my wife that I realized that I needed to have my own projects to put my energies into, something I could call my own and be proud of when it was done. One of the quickest ways to find out who your real friends in the industry are is to do your own thing and wait to see who encourages you. Luckily that’s been pretty much everybody in my life. When I came out with my creator owned comic earlier this year I was very happy and proud that I had done it but I wasn’t anticipating the outpouring of support I got from my friends and colleagues. A few had even mentioned that it inspired them to get their own projects into the world and for me that’s been one of the best parts of it. I think whether people know it or not, anybody who creates art in some way or another wants it to inspire others.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would definitely cater the experience to whoever was visiting which is fairly easy in Los Angeles as this city has something to offer pretty much anybody. If left entirely to me, my favorite place to take people is Pasadena, it’s a city that has a strong sense of its own history and personality. It has the best museums (Huntington and Norton Simon), the best bookstore in Southern California (Vroman’s), and every possible cuisine imaginable on offer. One of my favorite things to introduce out of towners (and sometimes people who have lived here for years) to is a tour company called Esotouric Tours, they specialize in the less known but far more interesting stories behind the city, from true crime to literary tours they’re by far the most entertaining and educational tour of LA you can take. The company is comprised of a married couple who can tell you what happened on every corner in this city.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The person who is the most motivating influence in my life is my wife, Nicole. Not just because we’re married but because she’s also my primary creative and business partner. She’s a screenwriter and director as well as an independent book publisher. Every personal project I’ve had in the last twenty four years has been a collaboration with her.

Instagram: @glennsapien

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@food_n_stuff

Image Credits
First photo: Me with Maury the Hormone Monster. Second photo: The cover of my creator owned comic Wishful Thinking. Third photo: Me and my wife, Nicole. Fourth photo: An Alphonse Mucha inspired drawing of Connie the Hormone Monstrous I did for the show creators. Fifth photo: A Calvin and Hobbes inspired drawing of Maury and Andrew I did for Andrew Goldberg, the creator of Big Mouth. Sixth photo: My dogs, Titus, Ginger, and Harper.