From Tim…..

Comic Book Club is a weekly live comedy / talk show about comic books at The Pit in New York. It’s three stars have also signed on to be the hosts and writers of PulpSecret’s daily news show.

Anyone want to go with me tonight? 9:30, here in midtown.

Set yer orbs upon this beautiful piece of animation commissioned by the BBC and animated by a company who goes by the name of Rufflebrothers. Some really nice designs and smooth animation to boot! It seems it was done as publicity for their ongoing Dickens series. There’s even a Scenes menu where you can jump around from scene to scene and learn more about the characters in the cartoon. Dickens has never been so much fun! Yay!

-Mike Milo

Ryan started up his adventurer video podcast. He’s traveling around India right now. His podcasts are really great. He has a list of adventures that he is trying to complete.

check it out at ryanestrada.com

Episode 69

“The key to being a successful recording artist is…the smell…” This is a great short about a strange musician named Earl Boone. I asked Tom DesLongchamp about his process making this film, and some other questions that I thought were fun. If you don’t think they’re fun questions, well…then they don’t think you’re fun either.

MELISSA: Earl Boone is definitely a strange character, Tom. Explain how you came up with this idea.

TOM: Several years ago, my older brother gave me a Yamaha keyboard that he had lost interest in. I took it in and named it Abraham. It was loaded with over one hundred melodies that you could play along with, so I called up my friend Josh to assist me with a test drive. That was the evening that Earl Boone was born. The soul, funk, and R&B song presets transformed Josh‘s vocal cords into that of a 50 year old, bearded, white, overweight, ex-soul singer from South Dakota.

MELISSA: So, what about “Boone’s” songs? How did you write those?

TOM: Immediately, Josh began to mash the keys and shout, but he couldn’t think of what to sing, so I opened up a word processor and started to type lyrics for him. As he sang the first line I had written, I was writing the next one. The rush that ensued within us paved the way for over 100 hours of recording during the next two years. Earl Boone Is Alive is the exciting union between those recordings and our visual ideas of who/what Earl Boone is. Click HEREhear full versions of songs and other songs.

MELISSA: How long did it take you to animate?

TOM: I worked on the project for 3 months. I was juggling two other projects, so it probably could have taken less time.

MELISSA: What is your animation background?

TOM: I started doing stop-motion with my parent’s video camera when I was 12. A couple years later, I heard about Flash 4 and bought it. Currently I’m an animation student at the Rhode Island School of Design. I focus on 2D character animation.

MELISSA: What was the most difficult process of making this short?

TOM: A week before production started, I had a crazy accident involving the wind and a tarp. I broke my kneecap,
elbow, and cracked my left eye socket. I had a cast on my drawing arm, but I could still draw ok. It was just hard to get around. Aside from that, getting ideas for imagery was the hardest part i suppose.

MELISSA: What do you do when you’re stumped creatively?

TOM: I usually stop working and do something that’s completely intuitive, like riding a bike, or climbing onto the roof… pretty much anything where I’m not concerned about doing it “correctly”. Hanging out with my friend Josh (voice of Earl Boone) usually helps too. I also pet the cat and think about my childhood. Several people emailed me a link to Adventure Time on youtube within several hours of each other. Stuff like that helps me when I’m stuck as well. That’s also how I found out about Frederator.

Well, we’re certainly glad you found us. Great film, Tom!

Melissa

Click here to subscribe to Channel Frederator or go to iTunes. Please send your suggestions to promotecartoons@gmail.com.

The Japanese have sure learned to embrace cuteness. Check out this article in the Herald Tribune on how the Japanese Government is using cute cartoon characters to help soften the image of authority figures such as the police and the Military.

-Hadley

One of my new internet partners, Tim Shey, wrote this post about the issue of Net Neutrality. Basically, without it the cartoons you post might never get seen by the largest audience unless you make deals with the big communications company. Bad for all us I think.

Wondering what all the fuss over Net Neutrality is about, and whether you should get involved? The good people over at SavetheInternet.com have put together a new video that pretty clearly explains their take on the issues and stakes involved.

The first attempt by big corporations to charge tolls for a fast lane on the Internet was roundly defeated due to popular outcry, but now the coalition of organizations and citizens behind Save the Internet are looking to make net neutrality a law. Please visit their website if you’d like to sign the petition and spread the word.

Feast your sockets on this occular candy!

In 1989, Beavis and Butthead brought in a new generation of cartoonists, a new style and voice for film makers. It was the coolest show I had ever seen.

Sure, it was drawn terribly but it was funny as hell and I watched it incessantly. I confess sometimes, I still laugh like Butthead, just because it makes my still makes my wife laugh after all these years! I know I’ve seen every episode and it’s still as fresh and irreverent as it was when I last saw it back int he early 90’s.

It also made me realize that film was more about character than it was about the design. Yes, it’s important to have a well designed character (and some have extremely strong feelings about this) but if they have the personality of a wet soap dish then it’s not compelling enough to watch. Beavis and Butthead had buckets of character!
C’mon admit it. You KNOW someone like these guys don’t you? Maybe you ARE like one of these fellas!

Don’t worry, I’ll never tell.
-Mike Milo

From Wikipidia:
The two characters made their debut in a 1992 low-budget short film entitled “Frog Baseball”, in which the two played baseball with a living frog as the ball. The 40-second animated film was featured in Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation that same year.

Mike Judge has said that he imagined Beavis and Butt-Head as slacker students at the real-life Highland High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he lived. Specifically, he first created Butt-head as his idea of the archetypal slacker high school student, incorporating the look, name, and voice of a friend who invited anyone to kick him in the rear-end, calling himself “Iron-butt.” He modeled Beavis after a nerdy classmate, and styled the voice after his own interpretation of what a typical “frybrained teenager” would sound like, incorporating the raspy laugh of the aforementioned classmate.

Definitely NOT for kids, but really really funny and very well done!
-Mike Milo

Yo ladies and gents! Have a gander at this artsy piece… Peace out!
-Mike Milo

Congrats to HAPPY FEET and THE DANISH POET for winning best animated film and short, respectively.

…not to mention Scorsese, but that’s a different blog.

-Jake