Superjail

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How the hell did they do it?

How did Christy Karacas and his band of psychos get Superjail on the air? It's sick and subversive, sloppy and disjointed... and completely deranged. And brilliant. This thing is the closest thing to art Adult Swim has ever aired.


I can't get enough of this damn show. And it's not fair, dammit. After many long, long years trying to clean up my designs and streamline my production pipelines, trying to simplify my layouts so I can tell my story quickly and efficiently, trying to keep my characters on model and establish rules for style, these guys turn it all backwards and upside down.


It's the only show on Adult Swim - hell, on most of TV - that's still drawn FRAME BY FRAME! I don't even have the balls to try that! And we're not talking about simple artwork here - look at this:


Frame by frame, bitch.


It's like the 70s all over again... not the bad, stiff Hanna Barbera Saturday Morning 70s, but the trippy Ralph Bakshi, anything goes 70s. It's Yellow Subrarine on acid - a lot of Acid. It's Schoolhouse Rock for the criminally insane.



The characters, like liquid, seem to evolve from shot to shot - the result of a truly fluid and organic animation process - but it only adds to the show. In that way, it shares much with Ren & Stimpy. And the gags - my god. Lots of people die horrible bloody deaths, but it's okay apparently, because they're murderous criminals.

Every episode ends with a full-scale battle resulting in mass carnage. The plot that takes us there is almost irrelevant by the time we arrive, because the pure visceral thrill of the carefully (or carelessly) storyboarded action overshadows the whole experience. Even a sudden orgy provides more gore than a Freddy Kruger movie.

I challenge you to watch this show and find a main character without serious personality flaws (sadism, narcissism, emotional detachment, submissive self loathing - all to the point of turning your stomach) - and yet, I'm fully engaged. Adult Swim, Augenblick Studios, their sponsors - all took a huge chance on this one and it is paying off. Fans are clamoring for Season 2 and, at the rate it must take to produce each show, there will be a bit of a wait. But I expect the process will be as painstaking as season 1.

I don't know what makes this show so damn addictive, but I can say this with certainty: the guys who produce Superjail love to animate.

More - cause you gotta love it.




If you haven't bothered yet, give it a go.

T

Inspector McCloud Part 4: Design

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Not Much to say about the design for Inspector McCloud - it's been a long time since I was sitting in the designer's seat, at least to this extent. For the first time in... God know how long, I have taken on the roll of designing every last facet of a major project, from Characters & BGs to Props and FX. Even the title sequences will be me, I expect.

The villains prepare for a picnic.

It took a long time to dust off the illustration chops and get back to where I could build these things from scratch. It also took a lot of going back to the cartoons I love and analyzing why I love it. Although I love watching cartoons... that still counts as work.

Doin' Time

I've also had the good fortune of working closely with designers like Willie Castro, Gene Fowler, Peter Parpan and Brian Chin, all of whom had an influence on this style.

Sandy, making a guest appearance, develops a crush on Matthew McConaughey

McCloud takes his air quotes for a test flight.

ESD Headquarters

One of the hardest things to wrap my brain around was (and is) color. Making color choices is one of the most painful processes for me - like deciding which T-shirt to put on in the morning. Once I was able to break from the idea of Sky=Blue, Tree=Green, I was able to make some progress. I am by no means "free", but it's a lot easier to get moving now.

Mmmm... cake.

Some of the locals line up to take shots at Agent Public.

The climactic battle begins!

Much room for improvement... but I'm having fun, and learning how to draw again!


T

Hmm.. where have I seen that one before?

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I'm getting around to this one a little late, but...

I thought perhaps you might like to see this editorial cartoon by Jeff Stahler of the Columbus Dispatch, released on Obama's Inauguration day - January 20, 2009:



Pretty cool idea, Obama in the Lincoln Memorial, sharing a fist bump with the great emancipator, a fellow Illinois Congressman-turned-president. I thought so too when I drew this one on Election night, two and a half months earlier:


Now, I ain't got no high-falootin' "paying job" at no fancy newspaper, but I thought this one was worth printing... despite my clearly inferior illustration skills. That's why I sent it out to every publication I could think of in hopes that someone would break all protocols and print the damn thing.

To be fair, I'm sure Mr. Stahler never saw my cartoon, or any of my work (which puts him in good company). Also, it is his job to come up with several ideas a week worthy of printing... while this was merely the result of random inspiration for me. Who would roll the dice on an editorial one-hit-wonder?

Still, I reserve the right to be irrationally pissed off about it. What else can I do? I have nothing else to bitch about.

T

What a Cartoon Show gives birth to a new generation of animators

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Does anybody remember the "What a Cartoon" show from the early 90s? In the vein of the Channel Frederator model, "amateur" animators could bring their vision to the small screen compliments of Cartoon Network's in-house studio.

Eddie Fitzgerald brings his Spumco chops to the table

This was one of the first attempts to develop new content on the cheap through a weekly showcase - and it worked! Shows such as Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Cow & Chicken were all born from this model - as was the look and feel of the modern Cartoon Network!



It worked like this: submit your cartoon idea to CN in the form of completed Storyboards. If they liked it, they would give you the staff & resources to complete your cartoon, and then show it on Cartoon Network. One major caveat - CN owned your content (with the usual development deal of 5% profit participation or something along those lines, depending on what a hardass your agent was).

That's the other major caveat to submission: you could not submit Storyboards without being represented by a professional agent. This served the purpose of weeding out a ton of crappy work by amateurs around the world (myself included). It sounds unfair, but sorting through that kind of volume would have been costly and time consuming, and probably would have hurt the overall quality.



As you can imagine, most of the opportunities were given to Hollywood Studio staffers, a sort of insiders club of young and talented players... what we outsider animators called the "Cal-Arts crowd" (named for the amazing Valencia-based school whose program consistently launches some of the best and most successful animators in the business).

Do I sound bitter? I'm not, actually. All of these guys worked their asses off, creating their storyboards on spec, busting out complete (and funny) cartoons on a lean budget and a tight schedule... but there definitely comes confidence & incentive with having the industry experience and professional relationships that would come under scrutiny during the award process.

Still, it did (and still does) kind of reinforce a clique-mentality within the Hollywood animation scene - but nothing so sinister that genuine talent can't permeate it.

Robert Alvarez had me craving pizza for days with this one.

The What a Cartoon program produced one new cartoon every week for like, a year. It was also not uncommon to see these cartoons showing up on Boomerang or any of the other warmed-up leftover channels. Not only did it give Cartoon Network several of the most profitable properties they've ever had, it launched a bunch of careers... creators like Butch Hartman (Fairly Odd Parents), Craig McCracken (Powerpuff, Foster's Home) and Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter, Samurai Jack) as well as Directors like Robert Alvarez (Johnny Bravo, Grim & Evil), Zac Moncrief (Family Guy), and Mike Milo (Chowder, Pinky and the Brain).



Even those who do not swing big balls in the studios have gone on to enjoy enormous opportunities and respect from their peers since participating in the program. Miles Thompson and Joe Orrantia both graced and tortured me with their presence on the Li'l Pimp crew back in ought 3. Talented and mischievous, both of them.


Miles Thompson's installment - I'm convinced he based the worm on himself.

Some of these cartoons represented a look that was rather stale and mainstream by that time in CN history (I will not specify out of respect), but most of them brought something kinetic and wild to the screen, a combination of fresh and retro, a Hanna Barbera on acid approach (partially influenced by Kricfalusi) that helped usher in a new era of animation that has defined Cartoon network over the last 15 years.

The most memorable aspect of this series is, for me, the opening theme song. it sounds like someone took the guitar solo from The Beatles' "The Night Before" and turned it into a punk rock song.

If you've had any love for the animation of Nickelodeon & Cartoon Network over the last decade, drink a toast to the What a Cartoon show.

T

More High Finance Humor

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As promised, here's the other piece we did for Mark Cuban's blog, "Blog Maverick".

This one features the big boys of Government Financial Management, hitting the road in a heap of junk after being taken down a couple of pegs by an unruly economy.



This was was a little harder to write than the Madoff one - lots of research for a limited IQ numbnuts like me to get wrapped up in this stuff.

Very little of the research actually makes it into this piece (just a few key points - the title for example), I just have to really immerse myself in it before I can gain the perspective to write something that's (hopefully) funny. I also feel compelled to write something smart enough to keep Cuban's interest - the guy's a freakin' genius.

If you haven't spent time on any of Cuban's blogs, and you ever want to have a business of your own, GO.

http://blogmaverick.com
http://news.cnet.com/marc-cuban-blog - I highly recommend this one.

Much, much good business advice there, as well as some unique insight into the things we take for granted.

T

The Ballad of Bernie Madoff

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We just completed a quickie job for Mark Cuban, bringing a little financial sector humor to his blog, "Blog Maverick". It's a cut-out head number, parodying the Free Credit Report.com ads (and using the original spots as a background plate).

This is my first time with "high finance humor" - I had to do a bit of research so I could write funny songs to go with the animation. My sorry voice appears prominently in the pieces.

It's set to make its world premiere on Cuban's blog... normally I would hold off on posting it here, but I'm pretty sure he won't mind that 5 or 6 people saw it before his readership did.

Here's the first one - it features supervillain Bernie Madoff bragging about this undertakings while settling in to his new job:



There's another one on the way.

T

Pogo Possum by Chuck Jones

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Okay, here's a truly strange one...

In 1969, Chuck Jones actually took a crack at the beloved Pogo Possum Swamp gang. Honestly, this is nothing like the original Walk Kelly comic (unusual for an animated adaptation, no?) - but it was still an interesting discovery.






Weirdest of all: at 7:40, the porcupine... that Chuck himself doing the voice!

T

MoreTime for Timer

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This was another Time for Timer. Not as awesome as the other one... less clever, and the voice guy is forcing the whole Texan accent, which kinda kills it. Kind of cheesy, if you'll forgive the pun.




The Time for Timer PSAs were actually a "spinoff" of The Incredible, Indelible Magical Physical Mystery Trip, produced in 1973 as an ABC after school special. I remember seeing this damn cartoon (yes, when it originally aired - I'm THAT old), and it may have sucked for all i know but I thought it was an awesome adventure!

This one's a little better:



The voice is that of Len Maxwell, who did voices for the Batfink cartoons back in the 60s and, more recently, Celebrity Death Match! This one's great too, but the quality is a little crappy:



Timer was created by none other than DePatie Freling, the nuts who did the Pink Panther series. The similarities are very noticable at times.





T

Time for Timer

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Just found this one... first time seeing it in over 30 years. Despite the years, this song is burned into my brain, word for word. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but now there's proof!



It says vintage 80s, but this is pure 70s.

Almost as cool as Schoolhouse Rock, but 10 times as stupid.

T

She a bitch

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She was a bitch.

Not as a person, just the design & cleanup. I don't actually know her - you might.



Care to take a guess? Don't be shy... if you don't get it right, it's actually me who loses.

T

So... Busy...........

I just haven't been able to stop. long... enough... to... blog....

Nonstop Character Posing - it's actually causing severe back problems and music collection fatigue. Here's some more Inspector McCloud Laredoans.. Loredans? Loraiders?

Back as soon as I can walk!

T

Vacation Leftovers

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Just a couple of doodley-doos documenting my last trip to the beach.

Fat Guy surfing.


Old guy surfing.


Mick was right. What a drag it is.

Sniff.

T

The Old Navy of animation

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I was reminded recently of something I recently told a fellow – a particularly penny-pinching pinhead who grilled me for over an hour trying to get a sack of gold for a sack of nickels.

At the limit of my patience, I said this: “We’re not Wal Mart – we’re more like Old Navy.”

Now, we work cheap, there’s no doubt about that. But we don’t have the resources, the cunning or the utter lack of ethics required to manipulate hard work out of desperate, hungry animators for a few coins and some lint – so we’re probably not the cheapest Studio. But we do aspire to making cartoons that aren’t revolting to watch… “great” would be nice, but we’ll take not revolting.

Much in the same way Old Navy clothes aren’t utterly revolting to look at.

Now you may have some kind of “fashion sense” or “style” that far exceeds mine (like that’s hard – I invented the Mullet) but in general, it seems Old Navy duds hold their own, as long as you’re not hanging out at Country Clubs or.. well any clubs.

And if you can’t afford to shop at uber-casual outlets like Banana Republic, or Tommy Hilfiger or Needless Markup (I’m looking at you, career animators), but you’re not willing to contribute to the slow painful death of America (by shopping at Wal Mart), Old Navy is much appreciated.

I like to think of Flinch as the Old Navy of animation. Mock me if you must, but have you seen their commercials? Not the old ones with the silly songs and the 80’s has-beens, the new, sexy ones with the pretty girls! And people talk about how sex sells… I don’t know if sex sells to me, but it makes me stop fast-forwarding for a few seconds.

And that’s exactly what we try to do, get you to stop fast forwarding for a few seconds – just apply that to whatever metaphor comes to mind. That’s our goal for now – to do that and get paid.

When we get some traction, we’ll be going for the JC Penny crown!

Character Cleanup

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Character Cleanup takes so damn long! I've been slaving away on these suckers for weeks! Here's a few of the Inspector McCloud characters in their presentable state:

Agent John Q. Public


E.S.D. Worker

Willie makes a guest appearance

As does McConaughey (not his first time appearing in this Blawg)

It's not just the initial poses and turns (turns - yeah right!), it's all the damn assets too. Eyes, mouths, arms, hands... kill me soon, please.

Here's the next batch I gotta do:


Next it's on to it's Hugh Grant, Jesssica Simpson, Sandy Cheeks... when does it end??

T

Air Travel

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Prolly not too legible, but...

Typical Air travel moment.

T

"Work-cation"

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Hi folks,

I'm writing from my vacation, or "work-cation" as I have so cleverly redubbed it (yeah, I'm not expecting an emmy nod for that one).

I'm holing up in this nice little time share with the rest of America's SOV crowd (Seniors on Vacation). Guess which unit is mine?



Got a visit from my good friend Kim. Here she is after one of our signature low-key surf sessions:


Working on vacation is obviously a bit limiting... it feels so primitive without my Cintiq, my scanner, my light table, my blasting music.... but one adapts. I'm doing all my character cleanup on my bulky laptop (I call it the lap-crusher) with a mini optical mouse. If I need something more hand-drawn, I'll draw it in my sketch pad, snap a photo, dump the image onto the laptop through the USB cable, then clean it up via mouse in Flash. Oh, and I have i-tunes for the blazing rock!


It's a little more difficult when you want to work outdoors. The first two nights here featured a spectacular full moon, so I was out on the grass patio in a deck chair cleaning up Chuck Norris' head. Though my moon-tan might suggest otherwise, there wasn't enough light to see the keyboard very well, so there will probably be a lot of mis-named assets.

I'm also using this trip to meet with a friend here who is gearing up to produce an autobiographical animated series taking place in Melbourne. We'll be snapping lots of photos today of this guy's world to take back to our icy caves and turn into pure entertainment gold. More on that later - hopefully.

Amid the sunshine and surfing are tons of little nuggets of inspiration. Here's one that had me tickled:

Didn't catch that? Let me zoom in for ya:


You see those damn birds? What a poop-storm that must be! I can't wait to work that into a cartoon.

While I'm gone, the Family back at Flinch is keeping the artistic vibe flowing:

Charlie has a morning rendezvous with a dishy Waffle Lady!

More to come -

T

I Got Bugs!

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Follow-up to my Bugs Bunny Post: After lodging a serious complaint to the deaf-o-shpere about the dearth of Bugs Bunny on Cartoon Network, They go and run a Looney Tunes Marathon on New Years Day, which was quickly rushed out the back door of my TIVO by a flood of Daily Show reruns.

But not to worry, because my good buddy Sean sent me - I mean sent my son - a fully loaded collection of Looney Tunes on DVD. My boy went crazy!

I don't know what made me more excited, the gift or the fact that he's reading my blog.

Thanks Buddy!

T

Wall E - The E is for Muy Exellente!

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Like most animation geeks and/or Pixar Fans, I saw Wall E when it came to theaters last summer. I enjoyed it (as much as someone can while in full parent mode ), but I can't say I truly appreciated it for the stellar piece of filmmaking it is!

I'm not just talking about the much publicized message - that Convenience will one day destroy everything we love and force us to grow fat & plug into the matrix - it's just a damn well made film!


As soon as it was released, it was almost completely overshadowed by paranoid accusations from the right wing that is was a bunch of liberal preaching wrapped up in a cute kids movie (how preserving our quality of life became partisan I do not know). They even tried to make roaches cute, those bleeding hearts!!


Not the first Pixar film to have a political agenda hung around its neck - The Incredibles was perceived by many to be a statement that government bureaucracy was impeding on exceptional peoples' ability to do their best. 3D Socialism!

Oh, and Spongebob is Patrick's gay lover.


Pixar just plain makes awesome movies (though they pushed their luck with Cars). The technology and the inconceivably tight attention to detail & quality has made them so much fun just to look at that you could turn down the sound and enjoy them! And that's just what I had to do the other day, pretending to do adult stuff during a dinner party while the Wall E DVD was playing in my line of site from the next room - I was enthralled.


Even without the message, the amazing imagery, or the big budget thrills - in terms of just pure storytelling - this movie rocks my bones! The characters are so rich and expressive, the plot evolves effortlessly but with palatable twists and turns, and the imagination that moves the story forward - none of these things rely on giant budgets (respectable ones, yes).



In the end, Wall E is a really great love story with robots... robots that play out some pretty interesting gender role twists. There's also a lot of action, visual gags, and liquified food. Best of all, they worked the Haliburton Logo into the branding for Big & Large, the offending corporate giant behind the species' sedation.


Okay, maybe it's a little political ;)



T

Inspector McCloud Part 3: Script & Recording

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One of the most thrilling aspects to the Inspector McCloud project (for me) is the way it was written.

David Knoell as Burnt Ciggy and Agent John Q Public

Though I had developed a basic story outline to work from, Inspector McCloud’s script was Quasi-Improvised by the voice talent. Incorporating improvisation into the voice mix is nothing new, but we actually wrote most of the dialogue on the spot, as a group, and over-packed the tiny recording booth to lay it down in groups - which explains the less-than-stellar audio quality (something I do not usually allow, but the results are worth it in this case).

Daniel Cohen Plays Dirty Diaper Dan

The McCloud cast consists of a handful of scalawags from the Central Florida area who work in one part of this industry or another. Many of these guys were SAK improv folks who had been working with me since Popped Culture Theater back in 2005.

Chrissy Keihl as Lucy Litter

For several years, we had been discussing the idea of doing an improvised animation piece – just a handful of people in a room knocking out funny ideas and then running into the booth to serve them up while they’re warm. Problem is, once the recording is done, I get to slave over the animation for weeks while everyone goes on with their lives. Inspector McCloud gave me the opportunity to get paid to do it.

Steve Grogan as Tommy Treadless Tire

Because of their enormous contribution to the development of the characters and scenes, the voice artists (David Knoell, Jim Acamondo, Autumn Alexander, Steve Grogan, Daniel Cohen and Chrissy Keihl) have also earned writing credits.The show truly would not be been the same without them.

Jim Acamondo plays Oil Slick Willie

Along with my brothers Jerry and Stephen Grillo, the cast helped to shape the characters and the sequences as they will ultimately play out. Again, you may see this sort of thing going on a lot within certain creative circles, but for a small, work-for-hire studio like ours, it was a special treat to have a client remain open to this process.

And John is an awesome client. He understands the limitations of our budget, and has given me enough rope – er, I mean room to build it the way I want to. One of the best decisions I made was to bring this group of very talented people on board to help shape the script. Not only did they remain focused on the elements that would bring the characters forward and tell the story, but they brought some amazing voices to the piece.

Autumn Alexander in Yellow-face...

...and fish face.

As improv artists and live interactive show professionals, most of these guys were able to give me several options to work with. I myself prefer to write my lines out so I know what I'm going to say - but when you're in the room with folks like Chriss, Autumn, Daniel, David & Steve, the ideas just bubble up like bad gas! Hopefully, the final product smells just as sweet!

Stay Tooned,

Me

A Holiday Cartoon

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I drew this single-panel cartoon to celebrate the holiday and the new year. It was written mostly by my 6-year-old son, who just cracks me up sometimes.


The problem is, nobody got it. Not my son's fault, he was a hoot saying that line "Egg Here, Egg Nog, a play on McCain's "Drill Here, Drill Now" mantra that earned he and Alaska Barbie so many donations from Big Oil.

It was my execution and, primarily, my assumption that everyone was as immersed in the McCain campaign as I was (what with making cartoons about the man all summer) that killed the joke.

If you haven't heard him say it, here's one example:




Single panel is hard, but that is no excuse. Being tired and drunk when I did it - that is a fine excuse. Still, I think the concept of a "Big Nog" is hilarious (that was my wife's... come to think of it, what the hell do I do around here?).

T