Mike Bundlie

Michael Bundlie (born April 6, 1975) is an American artist, film and music producer, entrepreneur, author and publisher.

Early life

Bundlie was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. He began his first company at age nine as a manuscript typist for fiction authors. While in high school he started his second company, MiraView Design, which provided design services for national brands.

After high school, Bundlie attended Carleton College and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where he graduated in 1997.

Career

Design and interactive career

After moving to Los Angeles, Bundlie provided art direction and design for numerous film, television and animation series including ''Strawberry Shortcake'', ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and ''Inspector Gadget''. He continued on to do character design for animations such as ''Dragonlance'' and ''The Voyages of Young Doctor Dolittle'', starring Jane Seymour, Jason Alexander, and Tim Curry. This led him to become Head of Interactive for animation company DIC Entertainment in Burbank, California.

In 2001, he formed Poets Road, a creative technology company. Under his direction, Poets Road has produced websites and apps for large corporations and celebrities. In 2011, Poets Road created the Free Candle App which became a number 1 app in six countries and one of the most downloaded apps of 2011. In 2012, Bundlie launched the Pearl Jam app which continues to be one the top rated band apps on iTunes. Poets Road continues to produce websites and apps.

Bundlie co-authored the worldwide patent for the educational system that became the successful online learning tool ABCmouse.com in 2010.

In January 2017, Bundlie designed an emoji app featuring soccer star Neymar Jr called Neymoji that ranked as the number one celebrity app and the number one entertainment, utility and sports app in multiple countries.

Art career

Bundlie has done animation and design on various animated and live action titles including Hercules, Stan Lee's Mighty 7, DinoSquad, Rock Dog, Horseland, Strawberry Shortcake, Trollz, Sabrina's Secret Life, and Liberty's Kids. He was commissioned to design the award statue and show graphics for NBC's Ultimate Toy Awards.

In 2018, Bundlie designed, inked and lettered a limited edition comic issue entitled The Marvel Experience written by Cullen Bunn featuring the Avengers, SHIELD and various Marvel villains.

NFT art

On January 4, 2022, NFT company Metacurio licensed Bundlie's art for an NFT collection called Reactor Motors which was released on Opensea. The collection consisted of 8888 unique 3D animated videos of virtual reactors based on the fictional story written by Bundlie which Metacurio is adapting into a mobile racing game. One Reactor NFT owner was also gifted a one of a kind real world McLaren designed by Bundlie popularly known as the Iron McLaren due to its inspiration being drawn from the superhero Iron Man. The Reactor NFTs were only the second time ever that an NFT was minted directly on Opensea and the collection sold out in a week. The Reactor Motors inspired comic book title "Reactor 2042" debuted during a panel discussion about the future of comic books at the 2022 Stan Lee Super Con.

In honor of Muhammad Ali's 80th anniversary, Bundlie was asked by the Muhammad Ali Experience to create six unique paintings to celebrate Ali's life, messages and achievements. The paintings were then animated by Bundlie and launched in the form of 5637 multi-tiered mystery box tokens, comprising the first Muhammad Ali Experience NFTs on the Binance marketplace on March 8, 2022. The 5637 was chosen because of Ali's 56 wins and 37 knockouts. The drop sold out in 2.5 minutes setting a new record on Binance for the fastest sale. The top token prize was a 1 of 1 painted canvas signed by Bundlie and Ali's wife Lonnie Ali.

Writing career

In 2003, Bundlie co-wrote a non-fiction book teaching financial literacy to kids entitled ''Make More Than Your Parents'' with Kevin O'Donnell and Bart Diliddo. The book featured an interactive CD-Rom.

In 2007, Bundlie co-wrote a hardcover fiction book, ''Adventures in the Arts'' with Denise Bradley. The book was the first to feature the PTA logo on the cover as it allowed the reader to complete a full Arts curriculum while reading.

Publishing career

Kewl Magazine was created by Mike Bundlie (Publisher), Denise Bradley (Editor-In-Chief), DIC Entertainment and Geffen Records in 2007 with Bundlie and Bradley becoming full owners in 2008. The magazine was licensed for a TV Series called ''Everything KEWL'' that aired on CBS in 2007 and later as the brand for the entire Saturday Morning TV block called KEWLOPOLIS on CBS. KEWL was the first music-focused magazine geared specifically to tweens and celebrated its launch by sponsoring Miley Cyrus's Best of Both Worlds Tour.

Beginning in 2019, Bundlie began mentoring future authors and artists through investments and creative assistance including the Kippi the Conqueror book series by author Kady Oliker Eshleman.

Film producing

A member of the Producers Guild of America, Bundlie began producing in 2012 with the Sid the Science Kid Movie. In 2015, he established Abstract Entertainment with Barry Levine.

On September 4, 2015, ''Variety'' announced the upcoming film "Monkey", a modern-day follow up to the classic Chinese fable of Journey to the West with Mike Bundlie and Barry Levine producing under their production company Abstract Entertainment along with co-production partner Eracme Entertainment.

The 2022 award-winning film "Trees of Peace" that debuted June 10th on Netflix, was produced by Mike Bundlie, Barry Levine, Ron Ray, and others. Written and Directed by Alanna Brown, the film follows the powerful struggles of four women trying survive the Rwandan Genocide. The film became a top 4 film in over 60 countries on Netflix.

Recent films executive produced by Bundlie include '' Da 5 Bloods'' directed by Spike Lee on Netflix starring Chadwick Boseman, ''Norm of the North Family Vacation'', and the thriller '' No Escape'' starring Keegan Allen and Holland Roden.

Bundlie is currently producing multiple films through Abstract Entertainment including Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson with Road Pictures and script by Karl Gajdusek ('' Oblivion'' and ''Stranger Things'')..

Interactive and live events

Starting in 2014 became a producer and creative on The Marvel Experience, a touring interactive park based on the characters from Marvel superhero universe that tours around the world in which visitors train to be Agents of SHIELD.

In November 2019, Bundlie produced the first ever Stan Lee Super Con, a large scale Comic Convention, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The event drew dozens of celebrities including members of the cast of ''Entourage'', ''The Sopranos'', ''Vampire Diaries'', ''Doctor Strange'', '' Avengers: Endgame'', and more. Famed comic artists such as Rob Liefeld, and Bob Layton. The show lasted three days and drew over 60,000 attendees. The first international convention of its kind in the country, the event has helped open the doors of American Pop Culture for local fans.

Stan Lee's Super Con returned to Saudi Arabia in June 2022 produced by Bundlie and Rick Licht, where from June 9-11 over a dozen hollywood celebrities and artists entertained tens of thousands of fans at the Jeddah Super Dome. Attendees included Shazam's Zachary Levi, Guardians of the Galaxy star Michael Rooker, Eternal's Lauren Ridloff, Viking's Clive Standen, and more. The show included multiple interactive exhibits including the Cinema Watch Collection, and the Premiere Gallery that featured rare comic first appearances of a wide variety of superheroes. The event also celebrated the 100th anniversary of Stan Lee's birth.

Theatre

Bundlie produced the first production of a Broadway Musical in Saudi Arabia in November 2019. The twenty-show run of ''Peter Pan'' featured over thirty cast members, the World Tour sets and was done in conjunction with Thomas McCoy and the legendary Cathy Rigby.

As part of Broadway's comeback in 2021, Bundlie produced Candace Bushnell's critically acclaimed show "Is There Still Sex in the City" based on the best selling book of the same title. The show opened in November 2021 to glowing reviews.

Music producing

In December 2020, Bundlie produced and mastered the album "Snow" by Bethany Joy Lenz of ''One Tree Hill'' fame. It featured six holiday songs including four originals by Bethany Joy. The album was released under Poets Road Records and was Top 10 on the iTunes Christmas Charts and Top 50 on the Overall Albums Charts.

Following up on the success of 2020, Bundlie produced the first Christmas album for singer Pia Toscano entitled "Christmas with You" with six songs including classics White Christmas, "Baby It's Cold Outside" featuring Broadway artist Erich Bergen, "O Holy Night", "Jingle Bell Rock", "Ave Maria" and the breakthrough original "Fall All Over Again" written by Denise Bradley. The album reached Top 10 on the iTunes News Christmas Charts.

Chocolate

In 2021, Bundlie founded artisan chocolate hous
ChocoLab
with partners Sergio Petrina and Jonathan Clough. The company produces high end chocolate bars in collaboration with well known celebrities and brands.

Charity

Bundlie actively assists a variety of charities. In 2019, he was awarded his second Kiwanis award by the Kiwanis Club of Burbank.

See also

* ''Kewl Magazine''

References

External links

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Mike Bundlie on TMX

Mike Bundlie on Amazon

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bundlie, Mike
1975 births
Living people
Writers from Minneapolis
Artists from Minneapolis
Carleton College alumni
Minneapolis College of Art and Design alumni
Film producers from Minnesota