Wow! Thanks for all the positive feedback, guys. I felt good about
Underfist, and it's nice to know you guys agree. It lets me know that I haven't gone
totally crazy.
I don't know how I'll ever be able to address all the questions, but I'll do my best.
It's true that I no longer work for Cartoon Network. My contract expired about a month ago. Am I upset that I'm not there anymore? Yes and no. I'll miss my old crew and my friends, but I've been doing the same show for almost a decade. That's a long time to be doing
anything, especially for someone with
Ultimate A.D.D. like me. It's time to move on.
That being said, I'd consider doing another
Underfist special or a series with CN if they wanted it. I have no hard feelings toward CN and I believe in the
spirit of the direction they're taking, at least. I'm glad they're finally differentiating themselves from Nick and Disney. They're really embracing TV-PG, and I think I could make a killer show for that demographic.
But for now none of that's on the table so why dwell on it? I'm young, dumb, and full of cartoons, so let's get this party started yo!
I'm getting a pitch together for a brand new kid's show as we speak. I'm not sure I've ever felt this good about series pitch. It updates Cartoon Sci-Fi for this century, it's weird, it's fun, and it's an action/comedy. But if
Underfist was a step in a different direction than
Billy & Mandy, then this is two more steps, slightly to the left.
No, the
other left.
I'm also working on a second freelance board for C.H. Greenblatt's
Chowder, and simmering on the back-burner is a possible pitch for prime-time. On top of that, I've been meeting with a lot of really cool people at some exciting places, so who knows where I'll end up?
Doing something like
Homestar Runner would indeed be awesome, as far as freedom is concerned. I don't think it would help me buy more vodka, though. And I'm almost out.
I was bothered by the spoilers in the Toonzone review, but I wasn't bothered that it was a negative review. For one thing, it
is a kid's show. I try to make the appeal broader than 6-11, but I don't even try to make something that'll "appeal to everyone". You can't please everyone. And if you try, you just end up making something really weak, soft, and generic. Plus, I've had people whose job it was to
support me tell me I suck. Everyone's got an opinion, and I don't listen to
any of 'em. As Jeff said, "My dad doesn't listen to nobody, and neither will I!"
Back to Underfist-- Yes, I changed the visuals on purpose. Partially because over time you find better or cleaner ways of doing things, but mostly to differentiate it from Billy & Mandy.
I did over 1,000 storyboard pages for Underfist over the course of three months. That's about twenty-four panels a day. And even then I needed some help getting it all done. Underfist required almost double the number of drawings as a straight comedy board because I really wanted to pose things out for the animators, and because the action scenes were so packed with characters, explosions, and mayhem.
Here are around twenty pages of the board from the first Hoss fight, if you're into that kind of thing.
Thanks again for all the kudos! Smell ya' later!
