I don’t know who these crocodiles are, but their clothes look familiar.

-Floyd Bishop

“Two Witch Sisters”
Random! Cartoons
Created by Niki Yang
Directed by Niki Yang and Andrew Overtoom
Premieres Saturday, December 6, at 1:30 p.m. on Nicktoons Network.
Frederator Postcards Series 7.3, mailed November 20, 2008.

– Eric

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
Frederator Postcards Series 7, 2008-2009

By Natasha Allegri.

– Eric

HEY ALL YOU RANDOM CARTOON FINSTERS AND FINKSTERETTES!!! HERE’S A LITTLE RAT FINK ACTION THAT POPPED INTO MY HEAD, ON THE WAY DOWN INTERSTATE 5 TO NICKELODEON TODAY. IT WAS A LARGE RAT FINK IN A HOT ROD PEDAL CAR. HERE’S THE RESULT. TAKE CARE AND HAVE A FINKY TIME!!! TAKE CARE AND I KNOW WE’LL TALK SOOOOON! YOUR CARTOON DRAG FINK PALS….RAT FINK AND JEFF 

Fanboy and Chum Chum storyboard for episode #118, “Brain Drain”, written by Scott Kreamer and storyboarded by Niki Yang. As always, click through for larger sizes.

– Eric (Homan)

Cracked has posted their list of the 7 most terrifying Disney movie deaths. The list does not include their live action films. If it did, Old Yeller should be somewhere near the top.

I would move Clayton from Tarzan up to the #1 spot from #4. I half expect to see him hanging from the Tarzan Treehouse (formerly the Swiss Family Robinson tree house) at Disneyland each time I go.

I also wouldn’t have listed Syndrome, and instead filled that spot with the witch/queen from Snow White. That was pretty terrifying. The storm is building, the lightning is crashing all around, and then the cliff edge crumbles, sending the witch down… then the rock falls after her. The scene ends with her two vultures smiling as they descend and the shot dissolves away. Very creepy stuff.

What’s your favorite?

-Floyd Bishop

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?

The m.o. behind the writing on Adventure Time pretty much has the guys working together in the writers’ room coming up with outlines through both words and pictures. Crazy, right? My point is the process has been very collaborative, and ideas are always accompanied with visuals. Above is a page of story notes for “You’re a Beautiful Dancer”, which we may or may not see go beyond this stage. It’s the work of Adam Muto. Click on the image to go to Flickr for much, much larger versions.

– Eric

From episode #116 (not #114), “Secret Shoppers”. Design and color by Steve Lambe.

– Eric (Homan)

“MooBeard the Cow Pirate”
Random! Cartoons
Created by Kyle A. Carrozza
Directed by Jeff DeGrandis
Premieres Saturday, December 6, at 1:30 p.m. on Nicktoons Network.
Frederator Postcards Series 7.2, mailed November 17, 2008.

– Eric

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
Frederator Postcards Series 7, 2008-2009