Austin has a rich history as a music city, and its burgeoning reputation as the film business' third coast come together in a new project from veteran Austin singer-songwriter Troy Campbell. He's the co-founder of Collection Agency Films, a local production group that's found success producing animated short films for musicians, politicians and advertising campaigns.

Campbell is quick to admit that 20-plus years as a musician has stunted his maturity. So maybe it's little surprising that he refers to Collection Agency Films as his "nerd squad."  

"We might as well get a tree house, smoke cigars and read Playboy. Then we'd have the whole deal," he said.

Collection Agency Films, a partnership with Dano Johnson, started two years ago with an idea for an animated short starring Ray Wylie Hubbard. What wound up an award-winning animated short has spawned a companion graphic novel, Tall Tales and Other Big Lies: The Comic Book. Both projects are based around a concept Campbell knows well - the stock-in-trade of any touring musician - the road story.

Campbell isn't the first local musician to try his hand at filmmaking. But he's quickly become one of the more successful ones. He said the world of film and the world of music aren’t all that different.

“It feels like the same part of my brain. Where it can suffer is the business end. In the music business I hard to learn the hard way, but I've been able to take those lessons and incorporate it into this company. And it's why I think the team has been successful, because we've been pragmatic about it. Each project we take on and focus completely on it. We don't have any delusions. It's about ‘how do we make this the best possible thing? How do we make it funny, so we think it's funny? How do we do justice to the artists we're working with?’” Campbell said.

So far, Collection Agency Films has earned the most notice for shorts commissioned by Kinky Friedman and Ned Lamont's political campaigns, and a music video they did for the legendary punk rock misfits the New York Dolls. While Campbell said business is better than he ever expected, he said he's careful that the company stays focused on what's been rewarding so far - making satisfying and funny art - for the right reasons.

"Whether it's a cartoon or a million dollar piece of art, if it's high art it elevates you and makes you feel good. It's like when you walk into the Hole in the Wall and see a band playing for nobody, but they make the hair on your arms stand up. That's high art. That's what I'm interested. How do you tell the truth and find the right people to like it?" he said.

Tall Tales and Other Big Lies: The Comic Book is available at Book People, Borders and Waterloo Records. The book comes packaged with a bonus DVD featuring an animated Ray Wylie Hubbard story