I have authored and designed art books about animated series on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Netflix. I wrote, designed, and illustrated a doodle activity book, many art zines, and have collaborated on creating anthology comic books and artist sketch books. I’ve designed books about zombies, horror and science fiction movies, comics, Wonder Woman, the Joker, and legendary animation directors. Plus more! If you’d like a more specific view of book project types, CLICK HERE for books designed by Chris, CLICK HERE for books written by Chris, and CLICK HERE for books illustrated by Chris.
Meathaus formed while a group of us were attending School of Visual Arts around the turn of the century. We self-published comic book anthologies, sketchbook anthologies, zines and a few records, attended small-press comics shows, curated group shows, and had a good time.
After roughly 20 years online, meathaus dot com is no longer. If you would like to still buy our latest and greatest 272 page full color anthology at half-price, head over to Domino Books, the exclusive place to pick up Meathaus SOS!
My cover illustration for Go For the Gold! #4, a sketchbook anthology that I self-published under the Meathaus imprint featuring the Meathaus regulars and a whole lot of brilliant cartoonists from around the globe.GO FOR THE GOLD! 4 cover art inksMy cover illustration for Go For the Gold! #3, a sketchbook anthology that I self-published under the Meathaus imprint featuring the Meathaus regulars and a whole lot of brilliant cartoonists from around the globe.Meathaus S.O.S. pages from my comics story in the issue.
Comics panels from Meathaus S.O.S.
I wrote and designed The Art of Invader Zim which was published by Abrams in 2020. The book features a foreword by Rebecca Sugar and commentary throughout from Jhonen Vasquez and the original Nickelodeon series and new Netflix movie crews.
SYFY Wire did an interview with me about the book here.
At various points during the cover design process I had limited art to work with or different departments with different goals weighing in on the directions. Ultimately it came back to designing a cover that Jhonen would be excited about, which was the most important thing in my consideration anyway. Jenny Goldberg took one of my directions towards the bottom and finalized it into a cover that she knew Jhonen would like, being that she was the art director for the Enter the Florpus film, and Jhonen’s long time friend and collaborator. Plus Jhonen was probably in the room saying, “Yep. I like that one.”The cover direction that I designed that evolved into the final cover, designed by Jenny Goldberg.
BoJack Horseman: The Art Before the Horse, written and designed by Chris McDonnell.
“The sumptuous and comprehensive “Bojack Horseman: The Art Before the Horse”… is fascinating.”
—The New York Times
“Netflix’s BoJack Horseman has cemented itself as one of the best comedies – animated or live-action – of the past decade, thanks in large part to its meticulously detailed world and the fascinating design of its quirky characters. Every scene is brimming with visual gags, ridiculous animal puns and Hollywood-skewering easter eggs, to the point where it’s impossible to catch them all in a single viewing – which is why a new book, BoJack Horseman: The Art Before the Horse, should appeal to fans of all stripes (and spots).”
—IGN
“For fans of BoJack Horseman,The Art Before the Horseoffers over 200 pages of fun,behind-the-scenes tidbits and images that you just won’t find anywhere else.”
—SyFy Wire
“…part behind-the-scenes companion, part art book, and part history of the project quilted from interviews with cast and crew.”
—Animation Magazine
“An official behind-the-scenes companion book to BoJack Horseman so you can see what all the crazy-cool art looked like before it aired.”
—Buzzfeed
“…the perfect companion book for fans…”
—Advocate Magazine
BoJack Horseman book cover design initial concepts.BoJack Horseman book cover design initial concepts.BoJack Horseman book cover design initial concepts.BoJack Horseman book cover design initial concepts.BoJack Horseman book cover design initial concepts.From Animation Magazine.
Dogs and Cats is a mini comic that I wrote, illustrated and self-published in October 2014 with some one panel comics in it about dogs and cats.
The context is that it was created as a pitch to my friend who was an editor at a publisher at the time, but it wasn’t ultimately picked up for publishing. It’s kind of corny but fun.
I wrote and designed the 352 page art book Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo which was published in October 2014 by Abrams. Adventure Time is a popular show on Cartoon Network that has earned an international fan base.
Some praise for the project:
“This book is a deep dive into the Land of Ooo.” (Boing Boing)
“The holy grail of the hit animated series Adventure Time. And you don’t even have to go to very distant lands. In fact, you can put in right on your coffee table.” (Paste magazine)
“An extensive look at concept art, storyboards, early character sketches, background paintings, and the series’ show bible.” (The LA Times’s Hero Complex Blog)
“Even if I didn’t love this series so much, I would still buy the awesome Adventure Time: The Art of Ooo, a beautiful 352-page large format tome that tells the series’ genesis.” (Gizmodo)
I designed and animated this The Art of Ooo book trailer.
I also created this The Art of Ooo book trailer with Jenny Drumgoole, but it was rejected! I think it is amazing, of course.
Some more praise for the project:
“It’s fascinating seeing the show broken down into its purest form.” (Kotaku)
“Fans of Adventure Time will basically lose their freaking minds.” (io9)
“This gorgeous full-color hardcover book will grace coffee tables with elegance. Yes, you heard right, with elegance.” (GeekMom)
“McDonnell deserves credit for producing such a worthy endeavor that encompasses nearly every facet of this multidimensional series. . . . this book cannot be recommended highly enough for diehard and casual fans alike of the show.” (ICv2)
“…A stunning hardcover coffee table book that dives very deep into the production of this show. It’s an incredible resource for fans that is immaculately designed and thoroughly researched, and it features an introduction by Guillermo Del Toro to make it a little more high-brow than the usual coffee table book about a Cartoon Network show.” (A.V. Club)
The book includes brief interviews with many of the primary voice actors.Storyboard artist Thomas Wellmann’s personal artwork made excellent endpaper designs.
Earlier cover design directions.Earlier cover design directions.Earlier cover design directions.Earlier cover design directions.Earlier cover design directions. A variation of this became the case design under the jacket.Earlier cover design directions.Sketchbook design notes.
In September 2014 Universe published Ozzy Inguanzo’s book Zombies On Film: The Definitive Story of Undead Cinema which I designed. This is the second book that Ozzy wrote and I designed, after the Green Lantern film book.
Early cover design conceptsEarly cover design conceptsEarly cover design concepts
Sasquatch’s Big Hairy Drawing Book cover illustration and design and the original pitch cover art.
Many versions of the cover were created before we landed the biggest, hairiest, best one.
Here’s an illustration of the author, me, enjoying my royalties earned from the book. Help make this a reality. Buy the book!
Sasquatch’s Big Hairy Drawing Book in action: A superb monster drawing from my editor Jay’s nephew!
Thumbnail sketches of cover design ideas from my sketchbook.
More sketchbook rough ideas. Playing around with lettering.
crude sketched out ideas for the “Funny Pages” section of the book and a doodle on the right that inspired the “Turtleneck Champ” page in the book.
What drawing activity do you get to do with these unsavory characters? Buy the book and find out.
“Excellent.” – Super Punch
“What’s great about Sasquatch’s Big Hairy Drawing Book is that it involves your imagination-and way too many artists have stopped using their imaginations.”- Bill Plympton, cartoonist/director
“What I love about Sasquatch’s Big Hairy Drawing Book is that it really encourages kids to use their imagination – and most importantly to draw, draw and draw! ” -Fanboy.com
“This book is awesome. I’ll try to think of a better blurb than this book is awesome.” – Pendleton Ward, creator of Adventure Time.
“This book dares you to get silly about drawing. An anxiety shattering process, especially for people who draw for a living. Like going to the gym where the only exercise is getting a massage.” – Tomer Hanuka, illustrator, teacher.
“This Sasquatch thing looks like so much fun-I want to draw on the vans first. It’s like you’ve made the perfect McD-style culmination of all the best games and puzzle draw-in books of yesteryear.” -Brandon Graham, comic book author/artist.
“I’ve been drawing in the Big Hairy Book with my grand kids. They love it, I love it, and-when I do a bad drawing I can blame it on Chris. Now that’s a great drawing book.” – Ralph Bakshi, cartoonist/director.
“Got . ‘Sasquatch’s Big Hairy Drawing Book’, and I hereby deem it to be my favorite of Sasquatch’s books”.-Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Invader Zim.
Universal Studios Monsters has gone through several printings and updated editions since I first designed the book in 2009, and author Michael Mallory has since added a new chapter for the latest edition in 2021.
First edition jacket design (right two photos), and second edition cover design (left).Endpaper design.Interior spread layout.Cover design directions.Book design sketches and planning.
The outside design for the sales folder featuring an earlier cover design and my hand-lettering of the word MONSTERS.Sales folder layout.
Published in April 2008 by Universe, Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi is the a look at the life, career and art of artist and director Ralph Bakshi. I designed and co-authored it with Jon M. Gibson, with Jon primarily handling writing while I handled visuals. The foreword is written by Quentin Tarantino.
“…a loving behind-the-scenes tribute to a true American iconoclast.” ~Playboy
“The artwork and honor are all contained within, chronicling the acclaimed career of this key animation pioneer that we have to thank for much of popular culture’s influence.” ~Juxtapoz
“The book, which features hundreds of rough sketches, doodles, and animation cells, is tremendously entertaining, if a little worshipful.” ~Planet Magazine
“Stuffed with sketches, paintings and stills from the completed films, the book emerges an eye-candy tribute to an important and idiosyncratic creator.” ~Sci Fi Magazine
“…a behind-the-scenes look at the legend from his childhood spent drawing the characters of Brownsville, Brooklyn to his bitter retirement after losing creative control of the…feature Cool World.” ~Tokion
McD Workshop 