Fred Seibert's Blog

Blogged by my Next New Networks partner Tim Shey:

Have you ever watched Indy Mogul and thought to yourself, “Hey, this Erik guy is one sharp looking dude”? Well, you’re not the only one. Daisy Whitney from TV Week thinks so too. She’s compiled a list of The Hottest Male Web Hosts, and our very own Erik Beck is up against Eric Gunnar Rochow from Greenhouse. So if you’ve ever entertained those thoughts, now is the time to let those feelings rush forth. Vote Now! Polling ends Friday, May 2nd.

GO ERIK!

Elliot Cowan came by the other day to show us his storyboard for a funny short called “Snake.”

We met Elliot through his membership on Channel Frederator RAW late last year. We featured his cartoons in Episodes 86 & 106 and in our & “48 Frames…” contest, we’ve hung out at the New York Drinking and Drawing’s, and he gave us a nice, thoughtful, Christmas present.

Thanks to Elliot for kind permission to post some of his storyboard.

Mailed the week of April 21, 2008

Frederator Postcards Series 1, 1998
Frederator Postcards Series 2, 1999
Frederator Postcards Series 3, 2000
Frederator Postcards Series 4, 2003
Frederator Postcards Series 5, 2004-2005
Frederator Postcards Series 6, 2007-2008

Mailed the week of April 14, 2008

We finally have gotten word on the airing of Random! Cartoonsfrom Nickelodeon. It’s looking like December of this year. More details to follow when they’re available.

Random! Cartoons logo
Designed by Michael Lapinski
Inspired by Darron Moore

Frederator Postcards Series 1, 1998
Frederator Postcards Series 2, 1999
Frederator Postcards Series 3, 2000
Frederator Postcards Series 4, 2003
Frederator Postcards Series 5, 2004-2005
Frederator Postcards Series 6, 2007-2008

Ed Ludvigsen & Brian Belanger came by on Friday to introduce themselves. Ed’s an art director for an online agency in Westchester, New York, and Brian’s a comic book artist and writer in Manchester, New Hampshire. They pitched us their project Skullduggery.

Thanks to Brian for kind permission to post his artwork.

Leave it to idea man/writer/comedian David Burd to perfectly rewrite Wally Wood’s “Cartoonist’s Credo” for the modern world the same day I posted it.

For reasons I can’t remember, during a conversation the other day with Dan Meth I mentioned a card my old friend idea man/writer/comedian David Burd used to hand out (when he was working on MTV networks IDs for us in the 80s) called “The Cartoonist’s Credo.” I couldn’t remember the exact wording but it seemed applicable to our conversation.

I emailed David and he wanted me to make sure to give credit where credit is due to the originator, Mad’s Wally Wood, and that I should link to www.impko.com. And he sent me a pile of the cards too! Thanks David.

The guys at ShadowMachine Films (fantastic home of Robot Chicken) and I friended each other on MySpace a while back and I stopped by to visit their production studios last week.

Matt Senreich and Seth Green were just the kind of great guys you’d expect if you’re a Robot Chicken fan, so great in fact that I never got around to taking pictures with my crummy phone camera like I wanted (well, here’s a few). If you’ve ever been in a stop motion studio you know why I wanted to give you a virtual tour. Ah well, next time.

Mailed the week of April 7, 2008

Animation art by Marv Newland
One frame from “the Marv Newland Film” for Frederator Studios
Music by Joe Venuti

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Frederator Postcards Series 1, 1998
Frederator Postcards Series 2, 1999
Frederator Postcards Series 3, 2000
Frederator Postcards Series 4, 2003
Frederator Postcards Series 5, 2004-2005
Frederator Postcards Series 6, 2007-2008

There’s always someone who blows up the conventional wisdom and then the world is never the same. Ralph Bakshi is the one in animation, and we can all thank him every day.

Jon M. Gibson and Chris McDonnell have written Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi and filled it with insights and tons of art that will remind a lot of people why they thought it would be cool to be in the cartoon business, suggest to others why they wonder why they got in, and introduce everyone else to the person some of us always describe by “What can you say about Ralph?”

I should add I was thrilled Jon & Chris mentioned the couple of shorts of we did with Ralph in the 90s at Hanna-Barbera. It was an honor he chose to work with our then experimental program (I guess it’s in keeping with the man) and helped introduce our wacky idea to the world. Thanks Ralph.