Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Miller. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Chris, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the best boss, mentor, or leader you’ve ever worked with.
Best Bosses I ever had were a couple out of San Francisco named Steve Hoffman and Naomi Kokubo. I worked with them on two occasions in my career. The first time was back in 2007-2008 when they needed an illustrator and animator for their site called RocketOn which was like a Neopets site where you could create your own avatar and pets. The second time I worked with them was in 2012 and it was my first time working in social games. I was a concept artist, and 2-d animator for the games Yumby Toss and Yumby Smash. They were my favorite bosses because they gave opportunities really out of the blue that helped me to grow as an artist and animator. They trusted me with building their concepts from the ground up and working with them almost like a partner and not just a work for hire employee. even when I made mistakes or they didn’t like a design they were always encouraging and let me know what direction they wanted to go in. They always treated me with respect and were friendly with me even outside of our work relationship. When I visited San Francisco we met up and when out to lunch.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Chris Miller and I go by the artist name Chris Crazy House. For over 20 years I have worked professionally as an illustrator and animator doing web animation, mobile phone animation, independent comic books, children’s books, independent film, social games, and coloring books. I started out my career in South Florida while I was attending the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. I started as an intern doing Flash animation and character design, then moved on to working full time doing several independent webseries with a number of companies in the area. It was then that I also launched my own website called Chriscrazyhouse.com, doing my own animated shorts and putting them either on the web or in film festivals. This lead me to getting work in corporate America and working in the media departments for two international companies that created content for mobile phones. After a few years I learned that corporate office life was not for me and also they can lay you off when the market goes bad, I decided to go independent again and just sell my services work for hire. In doing so I was able to work in social games, music videos, comics, role playing games, children’s programming and even dating apps. All the while still giving myself enough time to create my own content like the comic series NUKKULL HEADZ or the fantasy graphic novel The Chronicles of Piye. These days I mostly work as an illustrator on children’s books, like The Big Monty series as well and my creator owned coloring book series Naturally Cute
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
So back in June of 2007 the company I was working for just got bought out by a large overseas corporation. That was basically the beginning of the end for it. I saw a lot of people getting laid off or moved to other positions for less pay. So I took my chances and decided to reign in the summer and just go out to California with my demo and see what I could get. It was a tough choice because I had just gotten married that spring and I did not want to leave my new wife hanging financially. So I went to Siggraph in San Diego California and hit up the job fair for 3 days, giving out my resume, showing my art book, giving out copies of my demo and talking to whoever I could talk to. When I got back home to Miami I didn’t have a job offer just yet but I was able to help out with an independent web series about sports for a month. Then out of the blue in August I finally got a call from a company called Rocket On who were just starting up and need an artist pronto. I wound up working for them for the next two years creating backgrounds, animations, and avatars for their website. It was one of the best times of my life. Luckily I had the courage and the mind to go our west and look for a job because had I not I would have been one of the many digital content team member who got laid off in September of 2007, right before that company closed it’s Miami office for good.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding times in my career have always been creating happy memories and emotions for others. I’ve received emails from adults who say that they were watching my independent cartoons online while they were in middle school or high school and how much it meant to them. I have a ton of pictures of little kids at conventions with a big smile on their face while holding my comic books. I’ve been told by several adult black women that they cried when they saw my coloring books because they wish they had books like that when they were growing up. And last is probably the best comment I ever got about my work. A young man told me that his grandmother has alzheimer’s disease, but she comes alive when she see the art that I draw for children on my Youtube channel. So knowing that I can bring a little joy to someone’s life with my work means more to me than anything in the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chriscrazyhouse.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriscrazyhouse/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chriscrazyhouse1
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/chriscrazyhouse
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/CrazyHouseAnimation
- Other: AMAZON https://www.amazon.com/Chris-Miller/e/B07FS5ZV6B Patreon Link https://www.patreon.com/chriscrazyhouse