Fred Seibert's Blog

Steve Tompkins in his Nickelodeon writing office, with The Gashlycrumb Tinies poster

If this gets too complicated, I’m sorry about that…

Last week I was walking by the office of one of Fanboy & Chum Chum’s executive producers, Steve Tomkins*. I noticed his cool poster of Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies, which he was obviously very proud of and it got me to telling him of my unusual, casual run in with Gorey’s work back in the day.

My soft spot for Gorey comes from a particular circumstance. In 1976, I was working with the composers and musicians Michael Mantler (who I posted about last month) and Carla Bley, when Mike released his LP which used Gorey’s writings as the libretto for his compositions called “The Hapless Child and Other Inscrutable Stories.”

Get your own at Scribd or explore others: Culture Music music poetry

I’d never heard of Gorey (his Amphigorey hadn’t quite crashed into the mainstream), and Mike had always had a taste for interesting authors he liked to compose to (like Harold Pinter or Samuel Beckett.  And Mike’s always unique casting had me quadruply intriqued (Robert Wyatt for the prog-rockers, Mike (on trumpet), Carla, Steve Swallow, & Jack DeJohnette for the jazzbos, and Terje Rypdal all of them). Check out a track, and pick up some MP3s.Michael Mantler > The Sinking Spell

So, while it’s always fun saying hi to Steve*, I got an extra cultural dose of nostalgic inspiration the other day. Thanks bud.

* By the way, in addition to doing a hilarious job on Fanboy & Chum Chum,  I found out about another unsung showbiz story. Who knew that Steve Tompkins created Ari Gold on Entourage?

It’s no small thing when a political candidate can not only inspire millions of people to vote for the very first time, but can also motivate the notorious cynical and skeptical communities of artists, musicians. and writers. You’ve all seen the famous Obey poster from last spring supporting Barak Obama’s candidacy. Maybe you’ve even caught some of the other great graphics his historic role has galvanized.

Now’s your chance to join the fray.

Obey, Manifest Hope, and MoveOn.org are sponsoring a new art contest for fresh, sharp, Obama graphics. 2D and 3D art, from painting to photography to sculpture, no matter what you’re talent there’s room for you.

Enter and win, the deadline’s August 18, 2008.

I suppose you’d have to be a certain age to appreciate this poster my old ad agency created in the 1980s for Nick-at-Nite. Or any of the other ads we made for them. But I wanted to put them up anyway because it’s some of my favorite work from those days (and it’s funny). My partner Alan Goodman and I conceived the idea for the network and built it for Nickelodeon in 1985, and Fred/Alan Creative Directors Bill Burnett and Noel Frankel created the campaign. (You probably know Bill from his cartoon life as the co-creator of ChalkZone and a number of Oh Yeah! Cartoons.)

For whatever it’s worth, I’ll throw in the first written description we put together for Nick-at-Nite, two or three years after it went on the air. You might note that it’s also the first linking of Nick-at-Nite with TV Land (”Hello out there from TV Land!” a variation of the 1950s original “Hello out there in TV Land!”), the precursor to MTV Networks spinning off the 24 hour network called TV Land.

Anyone who’s known me for just a little while knows I’ve got a jones for posters. So almost every year starting in 2002 I’ve commissioned a New Year’s poster from some of our favorite artists.

This year is a big one for Frederator. “Original Cartoons since 1998″ has been our slogan for a decade, as good excuse as any for a special poster.

This year’s –which we send out to some of our closest friends and associates– was designed by Los Angeles studio Adams-Morioka. Sean Adams and Noreen Morioka have been the graphic designers most associated with Frederator Studios from our founding in 1998. They’ve designed our logo, one of our coolest set of postcards, and the first annual Channel Frederator Awards program, among dozens of other ephemera. If all that wasn’t enough they’ve also authored a couple of must-have design books in the last couple of years. I’m flattered they agreed to design for us at this very special moment.

Happy New Year, everyone.