Meet Peter Hannan | Writer, Producer, Artist, Author, Songwriter

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

Hi Peter, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I grew up in a small town in upstate New York on the Erie Canal. I had a happy childhood, despite a healthy dose of marital strife, mental illness, and death. All in all, ours was a loving family in a house full of music and art. All of these things—the good, bad, and ugly—contributed to who I am today.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a writer, producer, creator, author/illustrator, and artist. I created and executive produced the Nickelodeon animated series CATDOG, overseeing all aspects (writing, storyboarding, character design, art direction, post-production) of a hundred and twenty-something 11-minute episodes and holiday specials. I produced Fetch, a CatDog theatrical short and a TV movie called CatDog and the Great Parent Mystery. I wrote and sang the CatDog theme song, which I will sing for you even if you don’t technically ask me to. I wrote many other songs for the series. I have contributed words and pictures to other peoples’ TV shows too, currently as Story Editor and Writer on the PBS animated series, LET’S GO LUNA. Other hats I wear on Luna include writing tons of songs and as writer and producer of dozens of short animated interstitials in a wide variety of styles by independent animators. I have developed and sold properties for film, TV, game, and books to numerous studios and publishers, including Nickelodeon, Universal, Warner Brothers, Cartoon Network, Disney, Klasky Csupo, Scholastic, HarperCollins, and Knopf.

There’s nothing easy about the entertainment business. I take that back, sometimes it seems pretty easy, but then it gets really hard again. Sometimes things miraculously work out and other times they just don’t. Anyone getting into a creative line of work should try to make themselves as comfortable as possible with the uncertainty of it all. It just comes with the territory. The real trick in this business is that you need to accept that as a trade-off for the luxury of doing fun stuff for a living. And you really do have to love it. If you don’t draw or write or make music or whatever it is you do ALL THE TIME, whether you’re making a living at it or not, you’re probably not going to do it for a living. You really have to be obsessed. So that’s really the secret: obsession, sweat, perseverance, and luck. And figuring out what it is that you offer that’s unique: your particular combination of skills, your voice, your sense of humor, your vision. If feels best when it at least seems like you are the only person you know who could do the particular thing you’re doing.

Right now, I’m also working on a pilot for a new kids’ animated comedy series for a different network. Lots of songs, lots of laughs. In a lot of ways, this new project feels like something I’m more perfectly suited for than anything else I’ve ever done. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to talk about it more soon.

I’ve done a lot of other things in my career and all of it together has helped make me the particular creature I am. I created and produced an animated online series called REALLY FREAKING EMBARRASSING—true stories, real people, total humiliation. Not for little kids…more like big snarky ones. I wrote a series of three irreverent romance novels for adults under a female pseudonym that cannot be revealed. Really. Contractually. My most recent middle-grade illustrated book is PETLANDIA (Scholastic), which stars a group of house pets who revolt against their human family, kick them out of the house, and establish their own sovereign nation. Another recent illustrated novel from Scholastic is called MY BIG MOUTH: 10 SONGS I WROTE THAT ALMOST GOT ME KILLED. My picture book from HarperCollins, starring CHARLES CHINCHILLA, is called THE GREATEST SNOWMAN IN THE WORLD. My 2011 series of middle-grade illustrated novels, FREDDY, KING OF FLURB, is about a kid who is abducted by aliens, and then, to his utter amazement, proclaimed king of their planet. I also wrote and illustrated a series of six middle-grade illustrated novels called SUPER GOOFBALLS, starring a dysfunctional group of avenging lunatics…Super Goofballs #1: That Stinking Feeling and Super Goofballs #2: Goofballs in Paradise, #3: Super Underwear…and Beyond!, #4: The Attack of the 50-Foot Alien Creep-oids, #5: Doomed in Dreamland, and #6: Battle of the Brain-Sucking Robots. I wrote and illustrated THE SILLYVILLE SAGA: Sillyville or Bust, School After Dark: Lessons in Lunacy, The Battle of Sillyville: Live Silly or Die, and ESCAPE FROM CAMP WANNABARF, which has been in development as a feature film on and off for a very long time. This may be the year. I contributed stories to the anthologies Speak! Children’s Illustrators Brag About Their Dogs and Purr! Children’s Illustrators Brag About Their Cats. I have worked as a consultant, character designer, writer, art director, and graphic designer in the creation of pitches and pitch materials for many projects and clients. I have written and illustrated newspaper and magazine pieces with titles like The Incredible Shrinking Christmas; The Good, the Bad, and the Irish; and Mike Royko Moves to the Suburbs. I have done tons of illustrations for newspapers, magazines, books, advertising, and greeting cards. My single-panel cartoons (THE ADVENTURES OF A HUGE MOUTH) have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, the Chicago Reader, many other periodicals, and in a book form. I have worked as an illustrator, cartoonist, graphic designer, and art director for magazines and newspapers. I have exhibited paintings, illustrations, and cartoons in a variety of galleries and venues. My work has been transformed into everything from toys to t-shirts to cheese crackers. I co-founded a digital entertainment start-up called Granite Planet and an independent television production and distribution company called FutureVision. Among other things, we produced a cable TV series featuring concerts with numerous blues legends, including Muddy Waters, Albert King, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Bobby Blue Bland, Otis Rush, Blind John Davis, Eddie Clearwater, and Charlie Musselwhite. I taught at Herberger Institute at Arizona State University. I have taught and led art, writing, music, and animation workshops for pre-school through college. I’ve lectured, done readings, and book-signings at colleges, schools, bookstores, and conventions. I grew up on the Erie Canal in upstate New York, where I had a three-legged dog named Tipper, who once got his front paw caught in his collar and ran home using two legs on the same side of his body. Tipper inspired TIPPER THE 3-LEGGED DOG, another project that has slipped in and out of development forever. Come on, Tipper! Other pets I have loved include Gizmo, Stella, Scat, Honeybaked Hamster, Scarface, Billy Joe Bob Jr, Billy Joe Bob Jr Jr, Peeper, Peeve, Steve, Scram, Ping, Pong, Blackie, Binker, and Binker II. I live in Los Angeles and have the best wife and children ever.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love Musso and Frank, Huntington Gardens, Griffith Park, lots of museums and galleries, Mulholland Drive, the beach early or late in the day, I adore Union Station and the Bradbury Building. I loved Arclight Hollywood…hate that’s it’s gone, hoping it comes back. Love Laemmle and other independent movie theaters. I love drives in every direction from LA, from San Francisco to San Diego, out into the desert, the Cabazon dinosaurs, Malibu Canyon. I love DTLA, the arts district. I love being in the film capitol, love seeing locations from silent movies, to film noirs, to recent stuff. I live in Pasadena and I love walking every square inch of it. I recently discovered a Frank Lloyd Wright house on a walk that I didn’t know was there. I love Luggage Room pizza. I love Vroman’s and Book Soup and other independent bookstores and I root for and try to spend my money in them all. My latest obsession is exploring the trails above the Rose Bowl. I love hearing live music, but haven’t done that lately, Speaking of which, after this year of staying home, just driving around is thrill.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to thank my wife Dru Hardy, my grandma Josie, and Mad Magazine.

Website: www.peterhannan.com

Instagram: @peterhannanland

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhannan/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peter.hannan/

Image Credits
anything with CatDog should probably credit Viacom. Nothing else really needs credits.