Channel Frederator Blog

Jesse Thorn (seen above with taxidermy) hosts one of the web’s most consistently entertaining interview podcasts: The Sound of Young America. He recently corralled a somewhat-animation-themed trio of innovators at the Integrated Media Association Conference in Atlanta. The panelists were Funky Flash-ness pioneers Bros. Chaps (creators of the pioneering cult webtoon HomeStarRunner), Jeff Olsen (adultswim.com head honcho), and Merlin Mann (who runs productivity and creativity site 43folders.com, among other things). The panel was titled “Blow Up Your Brain” and it’s really worth checking out their conversation about inspiration, celebration, and other essential engines for making Internet coolness. Their comments about how they hate the word “branding” are particularly refreshing. Chock full of insightful concepts like “The mullet approach to doing social media”.

Download here.

And you likely will enjoy this G4 interview with Bros. Chaps. For more on them, see the official HomeStarRunner page and more at the HomeStarRunner Wiki.

—Anne D. Bernstein

New York Comicon (February 6-9 at The Javits Center) has posted most of its schedule and here are some top events for animation addicts. (Just my own personal picks. Complete schedule here.)

Friday 3:15-4:15: WILDBRAIN: Head of Creative Bob Higgins, CMO Mike Polis, and some artists showcase W!LDBRAIN’s animation work, including Yo Gabba Gabba!

Friday 4:45-5:45: SUPERJAIL: Christy Karacas and Stephen Warbrick, the creators and executive producers “speak about the most intense, violent, and complicated jail in the universe.”

Friday 8:39-10:30: WONDER WOMAN: Big screen premiere. Panel with Bruce Timm and some stars after the film.

Saturday 1:45-2:45: MARVEL ANIMATION: Iconic heroes; you know the drill. Wolverine and Iron Man become Nicktoons. A Black Panther show for BET. Thor is awarded his own animated series. Get yer hype here!

Saturday 1:45-2:45: ROBOT CHICKEN: Can you believe this is up against the Marvel event? The weird folk (I mean, cool people) will be in attendance.

Saturday 4:00-5:00: J.J. SEDELMAIER: With Howard [Read more…]

The 8th Annual San Francisco Sketchfest kicks off on January 15th. This year there are some animation-related events sure to please. You can see the complete schedule and buy tickets to all the laugh-inducing festivities here.

January 15th at 8 PM: Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Tour 2009: $25

January 16th at 8 PM: TV Funhouse Live with Robert Smigel, Dino Stamatopoulos and Doug Dale featuring the Anipals and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: $30

January 18th at 2 PM: Sunday with Moral Orel Panel with Dino Stamatopoulos and Scott Adsit: $15

January 31 at 8 PM: Cartoon Dump with Frank Conniff and special guests Andy Kindler and Mary Lynn Rajskub $20

If only I had deep pockets and a plane ticket in hand because there are lots of other incredibly rare ocassions that I would hate to miss, include a performance by The State (and, on another night, an interview with the group hosted [Read more…]

[Read more…]

It’s a big week for two of today’s top cartoonists fixated on centuries past. Last night was the premiere of Tony Millionaire’s The Drinky Crow Show on Adult Swim. Five episode summaries are currently posted including the intriguing-sounding “Episode Four: Organs” where “Drinky Crow infuriates his brain by quitting drinking, Gabby dates a sexy French spy trapped in a cage, and a young syphlis [sic] with a lot to prove fights his bladder.” Learn more, if you dare! Catch future episodes (but not syphilis) late Sunday nights at 12:15 AM.

Also, here’s a two-part- interview with Tony Millionaire and co-producer Eric Kaplan: Part One, Part Two.

And the more land-based creative storm Dame Darcy has a show up at Sloane Fine Art on the Lower East Side (until December 20th) which displays artwork from her new graphic novel Gasoline, about a family of orphaned Gothic witches.

The ever eerie trailer is here. Or on YouTube here. (Embedding is “disabled by request” so you have to go through the effort of clicking!) For another animated/puppeted take on Darcy’s dark and ornate world…after the jump, view “Golden Shoes” animated by Adam Gravois back in 1996.

[Read more…]

Two new animated series for grown-ups premiere this Sunday, September 28: The Life and Times of Tim debuts on HBO at 11 PM and Superjail airs on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim at 11:45 .

Here are the official descriptions:

The Life and Times of Tim follows this everyday working guy from one scandalous crisis to the next….Tim is a young guy who always tries to do the right thing, but for some reason the world conspires against him. In many episodes, he’s trying to better himself, but the harder he tries, the worse things become.

Heavy animation and violence run rampant in Adult Swim’s newest original series Superjail! Created by Christy Karacas, Stephen Warbrick and Ben Gruber… Superjail is the most intense and complicated jail in the universe, residing on a remote island under the tedious eye of the mysterious and slightly delirious Warden.

Although I am rather peaceful by nature, I am really looking forward to Superjail. The team behind it are Supertalented; Christy and Stephen first collaborated on the hysterically over-the-top short Barfight. The series was produced at Augenblick Studios in Dumbo. Lots of tasty show artwork and info here.

The Life and Times of Tim seems to be going for an award for Animated Show With the Least Actual Animation Possible. It’s attempting a charmingly inept drawing style, but I don’t think it can compete with the best of the genre: Beavis and Butthead and Dr. Katz. You can check some sample videos on this page. A few red flags for me: the creator’s big claim to fame is that he was co-creator of Budweiser “Lizards” TV campaign; the show was developed for FOX, which didn’t pick it up. But he did make a funny short called Angry Unpaid Hooker. Since HBO hasn’t had an adult animated series since Spawn, I guess I will hope for best…

Both shows plan to be outrageous…my money (okay, eyeballs) are on Superjail!

If you watch either of both of these shows on Sunday, please come by this thread on Monday and post your reviews!

After the jump…Barfight and Angry Unpaid Hooker, for those who haven’t seen them. Both NSFW…especially the second one. [Read more…]