Channel Frederator Blog

PictureBox has announced that they are working on a John Kricfalusi book, to be published in 2009. It will be “the definitive book of John’s work – from childhood through Ren and Stimpy to today.” I can’t wait for this to come out!

PictureBox puts out high quality art books, including the recent comprehensive and massively tasty Gary Panter tome. Click here to see the $95 version. And, if you can bear it, click here to see the $1000 “Hot Burrito Deluxe” version!

They also have a store in Brooklyn near the banks of the scenic Gowanus.

If you go to the PictureBox news page and scroll down (no direct link–look for June 13th) you will see photos from Dan Nadel’s recent visit to Los Angeles. There are some pix of John K’s studio (but none of the man himself).

Also, there’s a photo of some guys. Very cool guys. Who apparently had a very cool party at the Chateau Marmont. Which we can only dream about.

Can you identify them? Answer after the jump. [Read more…]

Written By is a magazine published by the Writers Guild of America West. The Summer 2008 issue just came out and the theme is “Age of Animation”. The Cartoon Cover boy is Matt Groening, and you can read an except of his interview here. (One interesting tidbit that I didn’t know is that Bart’s name came from a bad novel that Groening wrote in high school. Bartholemew Simpson was the narrator who was “haunted by the fact that he looked like a beaver.”)

The issue is well worth purchasing: it includes interviews with Seth McFarlane (by Family Guy showrunner, David A. Goodman) and Brad Bird, an opinion piece by Mark Evanier, excerpts from unproduced animation scripts., and of course coverage of the history and present state of animation union organizing (by both the WGA and local 839). [Read more…]

This is a great find, which I was turned on to via the Disney History blog.

In this five part series, we hear about what goes into making Disney animation, from the artists and creatives themselves.
[Read more…]

The Gnomon Workshop is releasing a new instructional DVD called “Conceptual Storyboarding: Story Telling and Struggle, Storyboarding Techniques with Derek Thompson.“

The DVD will cover topics such as Developing Story Concepts, Sequence Building, Shot Design and Construction, Improving Story through Character, Editorial Thinking, Troubleshooting Story Problems, Action and Movement, Simulating Camera Moves and Sequence Pitching.

Derek’s credits include work on “Men in Black”, “Star Wars: Episode III”, and “WALL-E”.

You can purchase the DVD here.

-Floyd Bishop

Disney/Pixar’s “Wall·E” had a huge weekend, with over 62 million dollars in it’s first weekend. It has been a great year so far for animated films. Have you seen “Wall·E” yet? What did you think?

-Floyd Bishop

Apple has posted what they are calling an animated comic for “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army”.  It feels a lot like an advanced animatic more than anything, but it is a pretty nice piece. I’m not sure if they plan on doing any more episodes than just this one, but it would be great to see a whole series of them.

 -Floyd Bishop

Stan Winston, special fx, creature and make-up artist has passed away after a seven-year battle with myeloma. He was 62.

Stan’s work included such movie creatures as the Terminator, the practical dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park series, and special effects in “Iron Man”.

There is no word yet as to what will happen with Stan Winston Studio, which has been hard at work on several upcoming films.

-Floyd Bishop 

While the new “Incredible Hulk” film follows the television show sequence of events, this 1966 cartoon shows the true Hulk origin from the comic books. Some things change because of artistic direction, and some things change because world events are not what they were when stories like these were first written. That being said, there was a Hulk film in 2003 by the same studio. What has changed this time around?

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaBy4×6rEAs]

“The Incredible Hulk” was the top film this weekend, so we’ll have to wait and see how it does during it’s entire run when compared to the 2003 film. I still like the Kirby style art in the cartoon.

-Floyd Bishop

While there is a lot of negative buzz about this film on many animation forums, the fan community is eagerly awaiting the release of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”. While I wasn’t too excited about this project when I first heard about it, the newer trailers look promising.

It really would have been nice to see a theatrical release of the 2D Clone Wars series which ran on Cartoon Network a few years back.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to the new film?

-Floyd Bishop 

Click on the Image to watch the episode!

Channel Frederator Awards Announce Winners
First Network to Celebrate the Internet Where It Belongs - Online!

NEW YORK, NY - June 10, 2008 -

Channel Frederator, the largest Internet cartoon network in the world and one of the founding networks of Next New Networks, today announced the winners of the Channel Frederator Awards, recognizing extraordinary talents in animation and the internet. The Second Annual Channel Frederator Awards is available to watch online today at http://www.channelfrederatorawards.com/.

Winners were announced in all seventeen Freddies categories that range from “Sick Sick Sick Award” to “Best Flash Film.” Channel Frederator’s prestigious Vanguard Award, went to Dan Meth, a New York-based independent animator.
[Read more…]