Gene Hamm's feature Hell Toupee is 75 minutes long and took Hamm three years to animate single-handedly. In Hell Toupee, when genetically engineered killer toupees escape from a lab on an isolated island, a female local barber must stop them from taking over the world. Hell Toupee was originally a graphic novel by Hamm which is available on Amazon.
Hamm wrote the story, animated the film, composed the music and voiced some of the characters. The other two voice actors were Samantha Lane who voiced the heroine and Ted Smith who voiced the villain.
Hamm moved up to the Bay Area to work on the Gumby TV series after working in Hollywood on TV series such as The Smurfs, Superfriends, Plastic Man and such music videos as the title song of Big Trouble in Little China, Howard Jones’ Like To Get To Know You Well, and Michael Bolton’s Everybody’s Crazy. He worked for Roger Corman on Battle Beyond The Stars. His first job in Hollywood was in 1978 for Ralph Bakshi on Lord Of The Rings.
In the Bay Area he worked on the cult TV series Liquid Television and animated the villains in Dick Tracy, Sega’s first video game made in America. He taught animation and storyboards in person and online for Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Hamm is the author of the book How To Get A Job In Animation And Keep It. Currently he hosts How To Caricature for Airbnb Online Experiences where he teaches you how to caricature and draw cartoons with simple tricks he learned working in Hollywood cartoon studios.
The song “Love Like There Is No Tomorrow” from Hell Toupee is on Spotify and Apple Music.
Gene is available for interviews about Hell Toupee at [email protected] or (707)235-9064.