From Kim Possible to Batman the animated series, Lesean Thomas keeps his notebooks filled with ink like a rapper on his grind. Back again for his second interview with Scheme, Mr. Thomas, discusses the second season of the Boondocks, his views on anime and hip hop.

SCHEME: Most little boys think they can draw, well at least I did (laughs), when did you really realize, like “Yo, I am nice?”

LeSean Thomas: I’m 32 years old now. I’d say I really realized that about a year and a half ago (laughs). You know, you never stop learning. And quiet as kept, cats from afar don’t realize as artists, how harsh we are on our own work. As a kid, I knew that I wanted to draw, but I was constantly in the shadow of the artists I looked up to and wanted to emulate. It always reminded me of how far I had to go in terms of being a consistent artist. It’s only when I look at old work that I can see my progress, growth and such.

SCHEME: Being an “80’s baby” such as myself, did Saturday morning cartoons have a strong impact on you?

LeSean Thomas: Yeah. It was an integral part of my growth. Mom dukes sat me in front of a television and left me alone when me and the siblings became a handful. Shows like Spiderman and his Amazing Friends, Voltron, Thundercats, Bionic Six, The Mighty Orbots. Outside of the toys, Saturday morning cartoons helped spark my creativity for sure.

SCHEME: Now although, naturally an adult wouldn’t be as excited about cartoons as a child, what would you say is lacking with today’s cartoons?

LeSean Thomas: Variety. As far as today’s American television animation is concerned, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of variety in the types of shows being produced. Everyone seems to be biting each other. Networks seem to claim looking for “fresh ideas” but in reality they are all just looking for the next SpongeBob Squarepants. It’s definitely good business, but as a purist and active artist in the biz, it definitely seems to be a lack of risk-taking in things. Lack of fantasy shows, lack of shows starring minorities and an increase of dumbing down. There’s this gospel these days that adults think kids are stupid, and write shows as such. I think we underestimate the child today being an uncle myself. Kids are a lot smarter and since they look up to us as adults we should write smarter and do less talking down to them. Having a wide variety of content for them to choose from helps I think.

SCHEME: With many parents envisioning their kids being doctors/lawyers, how supportive has your family been with your career choice?

LeSean Thomas: My mother was very supportive of my interest in art an early age. She had me test for various art-related high schools when I was deciding which one to enroll in. Mom dukes knew what I was doing was something I had an interest in, and I guess she took to my ability in knowing I might have been better than the average 13 year old kid drawing (laughs).

SCHEME: What was your first paid gig regarding your craft?

LeSean Thomas: It was as an assistant designer for a childrens accessories company called PYRAMID HANDBAGS in downtown NYC. I was 19 when I interned and 20 years old at the time when I landed the gig. Great learning experience.

SCHEME: You have worked on everything from Kim Possible (Disney, Storyboards), the Batman, (Animated WB Storyboards), The Lizzie McGuire Show (Disney, Assistant Animator), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Animated (Dreamwave Productions, Comic book illustrator), to Street Fighter (Udon entertainment, Comic book illustrator), is there a dream job still waiting out there for you?

LeSean Thomas: My own animated television show, MOVIES, console games and graphic novels. I’d like to someday have a hand in producing my own projects in film with a monster production company.

SCHEME: Your range of animation is limitless as demonstrated from all of your various works, what would you say inspires your work?

LeSean Thomas: A small handful of my contemporaries and a lot of animation, game and film producers in the biz. A few of them come to mind: Kazuto Nakazawa (El Hazard, Samuari Champloo), Koji Morimoto (Beyond: The Animatrix), Takeshi Koike (World Record: The Animatrix) Michael Arias (Tekkon Kinkreet) Claire Wendling, the list goes on. Those are some of the people who really make me feel like “ I’m not nice” (laughs).

SCHEME: Do you have to put the same amount of effort into each piece, or are there certain designs that are more difficult than others to draw?

LeSean Thomas: That’s about right. It really depends on the piece or the project. Honestly, I’m still figuring out how to draw properly. Since I’m always trying to challenge myself to try different ideas of execution I find that sometimes the drawing part gets in the way of the “communicating my thoughts clearly” part which, in the end always affects the time it takes for me to do any one piece. Some come easier with just me thinking it then putting it on paper. Others take more thought and time. But the intention is to always do a good job in the beginning. It just doesn’t always end up that way.

SCHEME: How much would you say your work has evolved over the years?

LeSean Thomas: I’d say lot. But only close followers of my works who are anal enough and OCD enough (like myself) can tell. But, say we’re talking about my television content, I’d say it’s constantly changing because I change styles to fit whatever show I’m storyboarding, designing or developing for. That also goes for what comic book project I’m drawing at the time.

SCHEME: With Boondocks already into its second full season, did you expect the series to be so successful?

LeSean Thomas: I had an idea, just not exactly. I mean, for one, it’s Aaron McGruder. The guy’s a genius. His following for the last six to seven years doing the newspaper comic strip has always been gigantic. With all the celebrity and controversy the strip has had, I personally thought It was a no-brainer that it was going to be even bigger in animated form. I just didn’t know how big.

SCHEME: What can we expect differently from this season of Boondocks?

LeSean Thomas: Better art. Better Writing. Better Animation.

SCHEME: Some would argue that hip hop or shall I say rap music, only continues to perpetuate negative images of blacks and other people of color, do you think some of the images portrayed on the hit cartoon ever border that line?

LeSean Thomas: No. First of all, I feel the major outlets for which to get hip hop music today (major radio stations/ music video programs) are now akin to a sort of aesthetic bottleneck. I think the corporations/ major labels perpetuate only the negative aspects of hip hop. I feel hip hop, like any culture, partcularly the music, has good and bad in my personal opinion. Just like rock music. There’s positive rock music and negative rock music in my opinion, depending on whom you talk to. Just not all the positive hip hop is getting shine I feel. It seems like there isn’t a balance to me. “The Boondocks,” depending on how open-minded you are, looks at everything from a satirist’s POV. The show, I feel, isn’t making up anything so much as it’s just putting a microscope on things that’s actually out there in the hip hop/real world; you know, to ridicule those things. Also, since the concepts, topics and themes in the show are being approached from an extremely edgy angle, the possibility of people misunderstanding some things being portrayed in some of the shows sort of comes with the territory.

SCHEME: How much of an influence does Hip Hop have on your work?

LeSean Thomas: Way too much I think. Which isn’t at all a bad thing to me.

SCHEME: With much of your work, you seem to use a lot of hip hop references (Re-Up, Midnight Marauders) what did you think of Lupe’s performance at the VH-1 Hip Hop Honors? (when he forgot the word’s to electric relaxation)

LeSean Thomas: Ahh man, that whole thing was hilarious. I found the whole “fiascogate” thing entertaining. Honestly, I think people are blowing it up way bigger than it needs to be in retrospect. Forgetting lyrics? From a fan standpoint it probably wasn’t a good look I imagine, I mean I can see how it’s a topic starter. I think it happens to the best of them. With Lupe, I just think it was his response/seemingly lack of respect for the situation in the people’s eyes that rubbed the fans/peers the wrong way. That comes with the territory. When you’re a public figure, you become public property so to speak. People are allowed to have a public opinion on you I guess. On the real though, I gather it’ll be good publicity for his upcoming album though. I’m sure a Q-Tip/Lupe “make-up collabo” on one of his upcoming mixtapes is in the works in the near future (laughs). Rap music is a circus now. Kind of like the WWE. Nothing surprises me these days. It’s all entertainment to me now for real. You can’t take any of this rap drama sh*t seriously today.

SCHEME: Speaking of Hip Hop, is there ever beef between anime artists like in rap (laugh)?

LeSean Thomas: I wouldn’t know. If so it wouldn’t be publicized. There aren’t enough of us hip hoppers in the animation game to f*ck it up for everybody else like we do in hip hop music (laughs)!

SCHEME: It seems as though your name is on every piece of hot animation these days, you’re like the Lil Wayne of animation, what artist would you compare yourself too?

LeSean Thomas: To me it’s not uncommon for an artist to jump from project to project in this business. Television Animation productions are largely seasonal. So usually, show productions end within six to eleven months per season from their start-dates then it’s on to the next show if any, so it’s common-place for one artist to be on one show production then the next they’re on another within the same year. So the thought of me working on all the shows above isn’t that special by industry standards. It’s more admirable to stay prolific than to be on every project I feel cause not all of them can be good looks for your career or what standard you are trying to set for yourself. But to be fun, I’d compare myself to early 2000 Kanye West: Mr. “I didn’t know you worked on that.” Kanye (laughs). Back when nobody knew who he was but he contributed serious work to projects people loved. I feel I’m there now.

SCHEME: If you had to choose, The Simpsons or South Park?

LeSean Thomas: The Boondocks.

SCHEME: 50 cent or Kanye West?

LeSean Thomas: Which circa we talking about?

SCHEME: Superhead or I Love New York? (I don’t know nor care for her real name)

LeSean Thomas: I don’t watch television.

SCHEME: Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?

LeSean Thomas: Barack Obama.

SCHEME: How exactly did you come up with the concept behind your graphic novel “Cannon Busters?”

LeSean Thomas: Long story short, I was inspired by role-playing games on video game consoles and fantasy animation produced from Japan as well as Mangas.

SCHEME: “CB,” has been highly anticipated by much of your fan base, what can they expect from the novel?

LeSean Thomas: A completed portion of the story, (laughs). It’ll only be volume one of the graphic novel. I’ll get crackin on volume two shortly after that. Dope character designs, classic high concept story and ill action sequences.

SCHEME: When is “CB” scheduled to release?

LeSean Thomas: At the moment its looking like end of summer 2008.

SCHEME: What else are you currently working on?

LeSean Thomas: My second art book” Midnight Marauder: The Art of LeSean Thomas volume 2. It will be 150 pages of art. Featuring full color and sketches, 4 tutorials and such. It’s a follow up to my last book “Nervous Breakdowns: The Art of LeSean Thomas Vloume One, my 400 paged sketch bible. In–House Storyboard Artist at Cartoon Network Animation Studios new animated series “Ben 10: Hero Generation” it’s going to be a dope action show for new and old fans of the current emmy-award winning daytime action series. And of course developing my side projects.

SCHEME: How hard is it to get into the animation industry?

LeSean Thomas: Only as hard as you make it.

SCHEME: At the end of the day no matter what field/profession your craft is in, it’s still corporate America. Have you had to deal with any shady practices?

LeSean Thomas: Surem but I won’t get into that. I’m not big enough to air dudes out without blacklisting myself (laughs)!

SCHEME: In your first interview with Scheme, you mentioned that you have been drawing since the age of 10, did you ever imagine you would be where you are now?

LeSean Thomas: Nope. I’m still on cloud nine. In fact, as I answered questions for this interview I realized why I was being interviewed and again acknowledged how grateful I am that I’m doing what I love for a minute. I’m a lucky dude and I know it.

SCHEME: If for whatever reason, tomorrow comes and you are unable to ever draw again, what would you be doing?

LeSean Thomas: I’d probably default to one of the many Black stereotype occupations. If I cant sell crack, I’ll try to rap. Or rap about selling crack….while shooting some hoops, if that don’t work I’d step my baby-daddy game up and pop out a couple seeds. Gotta play ya part. America’s watching!