Digest:
A "Bronk and Bongo" image bears a more than passing resemblence to the
APC DVD cover in terms of color (in multiple elements of the image) and
layout.
John K brought it up.
Others in the comments seemed less amused than the original post seemed.
Fred Seibert posted another blog entry praising John, and left a comment
about it in the comments on Blog:Kricfalusi.
John then seemed much less amused than in the original post.
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/
Background material:
http://www.fyresight.com/kristensk/whatsk/seibert.html
"Back Talk
Interview by Steven Heller published in Print Magazine
Fred Seibert, Cartoon Producer
As president of Frederator Incor****ated, an independent production
company in Los Angeles, Fred Seibert created and produced popular
cartoons for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. His involvement in the
cartoon industry began in 1992 when he became the president of
Hanna-Barbera. Prior to that, beginning in 1981, he was promotion
director of The Movie Channel and later moved over to MTV, where he was
responsible for commissioning the design of the ever-permutating MTV
logo and supervising MTV's on-air promotions, advertising, and premiums.
In 1983 he formed a partner****p with Alan Goodman called Fred/Alan, a
thinktank for a wide range of new and established networks, including
CBS, HBO/Cinemax, and others. In 1985, Fred/Alan oversaw the relaunch of
Nickelodeon and came up with the idea for Nick at Nite, the first
television oldies network. As we went to press, Seibert left Frederator
to become president of MTV Networks Online, where he will head
operations of all MTV Web sites. In this interview, Seibert talks about
the state of the contem****ary animated cartoon and his future on the
Net. "
"Heller: What do you consider the most influential cartoon show of the
past five years?
Seibert: "Ren & Stimpy," because the creator, John Kricfalusi, was out
of the factories of traditional Hollywood commercial animation, and he
made it. And John seemed to make it on his own terms. "
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A284251
" "Since I was a kid, I always wanted to make my own Hanna-Barbera
cartoons," he (Kricfalusi) says, "so, when Fred Seibert took over H-B in
the mid-Nineties, I asked, 'Why don't you let me do some shorts of
Hanna-Barbera characters my way?' I showed him the way I drew them –
kind of a caricature – and he said, 'Go ahead!'" "
http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/wa/FredPostcardBook06.06.05.pdf.06.05.pdf-zip.zip?a=downloadFile&user=fredseibert&path=/Public/FredPostcardBook06.06.05.pdf
"So, the next big thing was What A Cartoon!
I had been a consultant to Nickelodeon for many years
before going to Hanna-Barbera. In 1989, the Nickelodeon
programming and business team came to me and said we
really need to get into the original production] cartoon busi-
ness - how do we do it?
I had never really done anything in cartoons. I was really
just a neophyte, an interested media person, but I knew
about the way Looney Tunes, theatrical cartoons had been
made. I said, it seems to me that what they did was make a
seven-minute cartoon, run it before a movie and, if people
liked it, they made another one [featuring the same charac-
ter.] If they didn’t like it they stopped making it.
I suggested a system that I thought made some kind of
sense, but I had no idea how to execute it, because I knew
nothing about cartoons. As usual when you’re a consultant,
they took pieces of my idea and threw out the rest. The piece
that they took, that turned out to be valuable for a couple
of years at Nickelodeon, was that they made pilots, which
was radically different from the way that Hollywood made
cartoons for kids. And that’s when you got Ren & Stimpy.
JS: That led to What A Cartoon!?
FS: When I got to Hanna-Barbera, I knew [Nickelodeon]
hadn’t done the system the way I wanted to do it because I
didn’t think pilots were the thing.
To me, pilots are things that you’ll never show anybody and
they’re messy, they’re all over the place, they’re not disciplined.
My model for everything I’ve done successfully in the media
business, no matter what medium I’ve been in, whether I
was a record producer or in radio was Berry Gordy’s
Motown. I loved the idea that they were all in a house and
the recording studio was here, and the writing studios were
here and the promotion department was here, and quality
control - Berry Gordy’s office - was up here, and when they
needed an extra singer they went to the receptionist and
said, do you sing - I love that.
I always loved the idea of a factory system where the goal of
the factory was unique creative work; where you could dis-
cipline the execution process so that it didn’t get out of con-
trol. I always thought you could get more good, interesting
work out of that kind of creative system. My love of going
to Hanna-Barbera was I always had the sense they had that
system in the old days - and they had lost sight of it.
So I arrive knowing I want to make these short cartoons like
Looney Tunes used to do. I knew Hanna-Barbera was not a
place that talented people felt they belonged. Hanna-
Barbera was a place for three kinds of people - people get-
ting their first job, people on their last job or filling in
between jobs, and people who really had a tough time get-
ting jobs elsewhere.
So here I am, I know that no first-level creative person
would ever come to Hanna-Barbera, and I knew I needed
system to attract them, and where I could try out as many
people as possible - and figure out who had the goods and
who didn’t.
I’d met John Kricfalusi in the meantime, We became very
good friends. He told me lots of stuff - and I listened very
carefully, I was a great student.
[And we] had a sister company that was starting a cartoon
network. We’re a new network, and advertisers and cable
operators respect original programming, they don’t respect
library. If we’re going to get distributors and advertisers
we’ve got to do new stuff.
I actually don’t have many talents, but I’m a good analyst,
and I never do anything unless I know why I’m doing it. If
I fail, it’s because I didn’t know why I was doing it to begin
with. I had just made two series - 2 Stupid Dogs and SWAT
Kats - for 10 million bucks, and they failed within a week.
I said ‘I have an idea how we can get publicity for 48 weeks.
Let’s make a new show every other week - and I can do it
for 10 million. Let’s make it like Looney Tunes.’
I had had my tutorial from John, I had spent a long time
talking to Bill and Joe, not about Hanna-Barbera, but about
Tom and Jerry and how they produced cartoons. I talked to
Friz Freleng and a bunch of other people and they taught
me how they made those shorts.
So I said ‘we’ll make a short cartoon every week. It’ll be a
new character every week, and you’ll run it at your most
popular time: primetime Sunday evenings just before a car-
toon movie. We’ll do it just like the old days, and every other
week for two years you’ll be able to get some publicity out
of it. All of a sudden people will think [you] must be doing
a lot of stuff.”
Lo and behold, Cartoon Network bought it. So I called
John and asked him who should I know? John gave me my
first list.
JS: Who was on it?
FS: David Feiss, Eddie Fitzgerald, a guy named Tom
Minton and four or five other guys whose names are escap-
ing me. The only ones I wound up making deals with were
Dave and Eddie, and Dave went the distance with Cow and
Chicken, which was fantastic."
Flap material:
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/11/someone-is-reading.html
" "Fred Seibert Oct 18th
Manny, other than a Powerpuff Girls Golden Book that Craig McCraken did
in homage to the classic Hanna-Barbera books, this illustration is the
neatest modern-retro painting I've seen in a long time. Thanks."
http://frederatorblogs.com/post/2431
Hey Fred, maybe you forgot about these products I made with you and
Kevin and Bill and Joe a couple years before that Golden Book.
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/03/john-k-package-design.html
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/10/spumco-toys-and-comics-barbie-has-them.html
http://frederatorblogs.com/frederator_studios
posted by JohnK @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
4:27 PM 8 comments "
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=22406604&postID=116242784459654163
"Stephen Worth said...
Isn't the internet remarkable... It simultaneously inspires artists to
learn new techniques from other artists, and guarantees that they're
truly incor****ating only the technique into their own work, not just
imitating the work of others.
It looks like it's time to link to your The Im****tance of Having Lots of
Influences article again.
See ya
Steve
5:03 PM "
"Katie said...
It is a nice looking poster, but certainly less than honorable.
With all the people who gave you crap for the way the APC DVD was
organized and colored, they should be all over this guy just as bad.
However, I'm sure the people who get on your case will be the first in
line to pat this guy on the back.
It's an unfortunate thing when artists form their opinions about whether
something is good or not based on everything EXCEPT the art itself.
It's detrimental to everyone in the industry trying to survive as an
entertainer/artist, and I hope they someday realize that.
5:04 PM "
"Fred Seibert said...
John, I think most everyone I know acknowledges you as the master of all
things retro: cartoons, merch, and music. Thanks for helping us all see
the light: http://frederatorblogs.com/post/2599
6:34 AM "
http://frederatorblogs.com/post/2599
"I've written often about the undeniable, larger than life influence
John Kricfalusi had on me and the cartoon industry , but obviously not
enough. I think it's clear to anyone who pays attention to such things
that John's style of storytelling and animation paved the way for the
biggest hits (like Spongebob Squarepants) of the last silver age of
cartoons. But it's less known that his love for the great graphic
cartoon designs of the late 50s, and the merchandise spawned from it,
has influenced tons of illustrative and sculptural artists too. John's
enjoyment of off-model, happy accidents, his admiration of the dozens of
unsung, quality artists who participated in merchandising is legend
among those who know him.
In fact, when we first met in 1992, John was excitedly telling me that
Hanna-Barbera just had to license do with his vision of the art. I
agreed and we licensed the first such stuff (like the great paint kit)
to him and his future partner.
The great thing I see in this generation is that almost every artist and
creator of the generation that came of age in the 90s has acknowledged
John, both if they're lucky enough to speak in public, and certainly in
everyday conversation. Everyone thanks John and understands that without
him our newest generation would've had a harder time getting heard and
seen. Thanks bud. "
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=22406604&postID=116242784459654163
"JohnK said...
Try acknowledging it with something tangible sometime rather than
spending 12 years and millions of bucks trying to get other people to be
someone that still exists. "
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