Dan's Papers - August 8, 2008

What's funny is that growing up, Mickey Paraskevas, an illustrator and painter, thought he'd become a lawyer.

Instead, the Southampton resident found himself at art school. "I always drew and I always painted, but I thought I'd become a lawyer - which is good, because now I know how to read a contract," he said.

Paraskevas started out as a painter, but branched out. He was working as an illustrator at Hamptons magazine when Dan Rattiner, founder of Dan's Papers, hired him away. Rattiner gave him the opportunity to have his drawings seen on a weekly, year-round basis, and the two quickly became wordless collaborators. "After all this time, we don't really discuss it," he said. "Dan sends me the story and it leads me in a direction."

He added, "Dan gave me a great opportunity. I always loved the immediacy of newspapers. If it's good, then that's great, and if it fails, then you just fix it next week."

Celebrating 20 years at Dan's this year, Paraskevas laughs when he recalls the many trends he's seen at the paper over the years, especially last year's local news story of the relocation of the Big Duck in Flanders. "There were a lot of Duck jokes," he said. "Dan was obsessed with the Duck. I had to say, 'Enough with the Duck. I can't think of anything else.'"

He also eventually became an illustrator of children's books with his mother, Betty Paraskevas, who wrote them. His most well-known series involves the Ferocious Beast, which was turned into an animated series for Nickelodeon and became a very popular children's show called "Maggie and the Ferocious Beast."

"Nickelodeon loved the book and said to just add a little boy or girl," Paraskevas said. "'Maggie' is a beautifully made show. Of all the ones I've done, it's the one I'm most proud of."

Paraskevas and his mother (who scripted many "Maggie" episodes), acting as executive producers, went on to create other children's shows, including "The Kids from Room 402" on Fox Family and "Marvin the Tap Dancing Horse" on PBS, also based on their books.

"Somebody once said to me, 'Did you know you have three shows running concurrently?'" he said. "Most book authors are lucky to have one show in a lifetime."

The mother-and-son pair also has several shows in development, including a CGI-animated show, "Taffy Saltwater," about a little girl at the beach with a pet rabbit and singing beach ball. "It's going to look like Toy Story," Paraskevas said. "It's going to be beautiful." There's also "Peter Pepper's Pet Spectacular" and a show based on "Green Monkeys," Paraskevas' popular weekly comic strip in Dan's Papers. And a "Maggie" movie is in the works, as well.

There's also "The Cheap Show," a self-written, self-created and self-produced adult-themed puppet show that used to air on Plum TV late at night and was inspired when executives at HBO bemoaned how expensive it is to create an animated series. "I said to them, 'I can create a show that will cost you next to nothing," he said, and "The Cheap Show" was born. "It's supposed to be for kids, but it's definitely more adult. It's a little over kids' heads. It's more like 'Pee Wee's Playhouse.'"

Despite the fact that HBO passed on the show and it was short-lived on Plum TV ("It was a little too strange for them. Puppets are hard to sell."), the show is obviously a passion of Paraskevas', as he and his mother continue to write, shoot and air videos online at thecheapshow.com, and are in developmental talks regarding the series with another company. "'The Cheap Show' is just the most basic way of doing things," he said. "You don't have to answer to anybody. It's the quickest way of visualizing something. We write it and then film it the next day. We're in control of every aspect. If it stinks, then you've got nobody to blame but yourself. I can't blame the production crew. I am the crew. I can't blame the writer. It's my mother."

But don't forget that Paraskevas is also an accomplished painter. This year his artwork has been selected for The Hampton Classic poster for the fourth time - previously his work graced the poster in 1987, 1992 and 1998. "It's a big honor," he said. "I'm happy to do it. Everyone knows I love the horse show." In fact, one of his favorite things to do each summer is take his sketchbook to the Classic.

While he has his own gallery in Westhampton, Paraskevas also currently has a series of his paintings, "Passengers on a Train" - which showcases his typical dark humor - on display at Hampton Road Gallery. The opening reception for the exhibit is August 9.