Channel Frederator Blog

The Comics Journal (#292) is a Deitch Family Extravaganza. The intro claims that the issue contains 120,000 words about this brilliant and complex family…and I wouldn’t be surprised! The Gene Deitch section is of interest to animation fans as he discusses his time at UPA, Jam Handy, Terrytoons, and his later years producing animation in Prague. There is also an exhaustive interview with undie/indie comcs genius Kim where he covers the far-flung experiences that feed his extensive body of work (a stint as a merchant seaman, underground comics days in San Francisco, interviewing silent film stars and death row inmates for background—not to mention a good story involving Robert Crumb and a pie!) Also featured are chats with lesser-known-but-brilliant-in-their-own-way brothers Simon and Seth. I devoured this issue!

(TCJ has posted some additional material that was cut from the Kim Deitch interview here. About 20,000 more words or so, along with lots of sketches and preliminary artwork. If you just can’t get enough!)

Also, don’t miss the Kim Deitch retrospective that opens this month at MOCCA in NYC.

After the jump, a Gaston LeCrayon cartoon from Gene Deitch days at Terrytoons. (Color shift alert!)

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I just discovered a blog chock full of interviews with animation artists. Fulle Circle Productions is hosted by student Jason E. Anders, who is particularly enamored of the Spumco/John K. crowd, including Katie Rice, Kristy Gordon, Eddie Fitzgerald, Fred Osmond, Kali Fontecchio, and Nick Cross. The interviews are in-depth and there’s a generous smattering of original artwork. Definitely worth adding to any blogroll.

(Artwork above by Katie Rice with original Spumco notes and splats.) [Read more…]

I’m really excited to announce this month’s winner of the Cartoon of the Month prize! We had 8 films from episodes 136, 137 and 138 in the running this time - a bit low because of the Channel Frederator Awards, but nonetheless stiff competition! In the end, Pushkin took home the prize!
Pushkin is a great stop motion film brought to us by Trevor Hardy of Fool Hardy Films. I took a few minutes to do a mini-interview with Trevor below. Check it out and then, if you haven’t had the chance to watch it, or haven’t seen it in a while, go watch Pushkin again in Channel Frederator episode 136.

CF: What inspired you to create Pushkin?

I came up for the story line for Pushkin after losing my own cat who thank fully returned a while later but with bent whiskers??? (Don’t ask me?), whilst writing pushkin I watched Sylvain Chomet’s brilliant film, ‘The Triplets of Belleville’ and of course his sets and atmosphere totally inspired me and helped carve the look of the world Pushkin would live in.

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There’s a great interview with animation artist Pascal Campion over at Character Design Blogspot. Pascal has a uniquely delicate style which flawlessly integrates complex arrangements of background and character. Most of his work is done in Flash:

I use color differently than most artists I know, more like a painter actually. I don’t do a clean drawing . I just sketch very loosely something in flash, and I clean it up in color! Which is why my colors are as essential to the piece as the composition itself because they ARE the drawing.

Click here for the interview and gallery.

For more on Pascal Campion, see his website and blog.

After the jump, a short video interview with the man, conducted by ChicagoAnimators.com at San Diego Comicon 2008 [Read more…]

Andrew Farago (a curator at San Francisco’s fabulous Cartoon Art Museum) interviews Jorge R. Gutierrez at the Animation World Magazine website. Jorge is an exuberant artist and Flash maverick with a unique style that brings Mexican culture (especially folk art) into the digital age. He created the Nickelodeon show El Tigre with his wife, Sandra Equihua.

(One of my favorite parts of the interview is where he recalls telling his wife that they were going to become “…the Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo of animation” but “without the, y’know, cheating and the trains hitting you” part.)

For more on Jorge, see the Super-Macho site, the Super-Macho blog, the El Tigre blog (new!), and Nick’s El Tigre page.

You can also watch episodes of Jorge’s earlier web series El Macho here.

—Anne D. Bernstein

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.
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I wish I had a story or two about Zac Moncrief to share with you all, but I didn’t really attend his classes while he taught at Calarts. But what I can share with you was how I felt about him, his teaching methods, when I did crash a class or two of his.

Zac is a very funny person, and was a very sharing and encouraging teacher. It’s to bad he’s not teaching at Calarts still, because the kids there need people like Zac.

Zac, himself, attended Calarts and obtained an internship on the animated film, The Pagemaster. Soon after he moved into the role of assistant animator on Cats Don’t Dance. During his time on Cats Don’t Dance, Fred Seibert (who’s that guy?) had bought a pilot from Zac entitled, Godfrey and Zeek, for the Hanna-Barbera What-A-Cartoon Series.

Zac then found himself doing work on another HB series, Johnny Bravo in the story department.
Some time passed, [Read more…]

Cristina Paulos is an artist/animator out of Las Vegas, Nevada soon to move to New York.
Her and I both met at Calarts in Character Animation, and have become collaborators in the Las Vegas Art Scene as the incredible duo of art fantasticness known as the Double Date Collective. I’ve always loved her film, Rid, which made it’s debut on Channel Fred last week. So I was very happy when she submitted her film to us. Thanks Cristina!
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I’ve posted about Frederator Veteran John Fountain, before. Well, here’s an even better Posting!!!
John Fountain took some time to answer some Channel Frederator Qs early November 2006. Thanks for the Interview John!!!
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Episode 70

Peter Patrick and Persian Puss battle the evil Dr. No who is attempting the unthinkable: Stealing Peter Patrick’s LUNCH!! This short was featured as part of Frederator’s “Oh Yeah! Cartoons” shorts program, and like many creators, Vince Waller has gone on to do some pretty neat things since then.

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