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#1 The MLaaTR Sketchbook
6 8 1 0 9 7
By
Fred Seibert
Edited by
Pancho Nakasheff
The FredFilms
Professional Library
#7
About the author
"Algebraic!"
"Totally math!"
"Rhombus!"
Frederator
Postcard Series 6.35
36 BEST OF ORIGINAL CARTOONS
PRODUCED BY FRED SEIBERT 1981-2023 37
Adventure Time
..........................................
Created by Pendleton Ward
"Mathematical!"
Which begat...
Adventure Time
Story Notes
February 3, 2009
"Rhombus!"
"That's...Bizonkers."
Adventure Time
Storyboard panel
"Oh my glob!"
"Elemental!"
(Facing page)
larienne
(Left)
zachsmithson
(Facing page)
pikadiana
Elvis Presley
vinyl record album
RCA Victor
1959
78 BEST OF ORIGINAL CARTOONS
PRODUCED BY FRED SEIBERT 1981-2023 79
Bravest Warriors
..........................................
Created by Pendleton Ward
Developed by Breehn Burns,
Will McRobb & Chris Viscardi
Bravest Warriors
2014 Annual
82 BEST OF ORIGINAL CARTOONS
Catbug
..........................................
Created by Breehn Burns
Title cards by
Annie Chiu, Fred Seibert and Lee Rubenstein
2005-2006
Did they ever! The lines were out the door with
a several hour wait, coming from all over, even
flying in from Europe, Australia, and the East
Coast, our viewing doubled. We were a hit!
Blog illustrations
by Jeaux Janovsky 2008
Jessica Borutski,
now an animation industry
mainstay, holds her coveted
Freddie statue for
Best Flash Cartoon.
2007
92 BEST OF ORIGINAL CARTOONS
Channel Frederator Network
..........................................
YouTube
The
Channel
Frederator
Network logo
Illustration by
Eugene Mattos
1997
Design by Jen Dean
2013
Frederator
Postcard Series 43.1
2018
Channel Frederator's
YouTube thumbnail frames 2014-2018
Thanks again!
–Nat
Kickstarter rewards:
Postcards
Blue-ray DVD
Membership Card
Sticker set
2014
Frederator Postcard
Series 34.3 2016
Fan photography:
Left, top to bottom:
1-800-you-wish,
alfonsina-p,
carmelvardi
Opposite page:
(top) CYuuka
(bottom) @hikkinon
PRODUCED BY FRED SEIBERT 1981-2023 131
Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space
..........................................
Created by Natasha Allegri
Finally!
Ideal!
Costume Quest
lead actors (l-r) at a
cast & crew screening,
August 2018:
Allie Urrutia,
Gabriella Graves,
Sloane Letourneau, and
Issac Ryan Brown
Channel Frederator,
The Leaderboard &
Cinematica
YouTube thumbnails 2015-2018
Clockwise,
from above:
Family Guy,
Back to the Future,
Sims 4,
Five Nights
at Freddy's
Fanboy & Chum Chum
..........................................
Created by Eric Robles
Frederator
Postcard Series 8.1
October 2, 2009
Sketches by
Eric Robles
Promotional posters
Man-Arctica!
glow in the dark from
Jazwares 2010
Frederator Postcard
Series 38 2017
164 BEST OF ORIGINAL CARTOONS
PRODUCED BY FRED SEIBERT 1981-2023 165
Cartoon Hangover Select
..........................................
YouTube/VRV
Next page:
(top to bottom)
CYuuka,
Nico Huber,
carmelvardi.
168 BEST OF ORIGINAL CARTOONS
GO! Cartoons
..........................................
Created by Fred Seibert
Graphic design
inspirations from
Reid Miles'
Blue Note Records
vinyl album covers.
My perfect combination.
Thumbnail 2018
Logo design by Alexandra Batchelor
A Leaderboard
spin off channel:
Rainbow Six Siege
Moments & Highlights
2018
Thumbnails 2016-2018
"Dirtball Pete"
"Hugo and the
Really, Really, Really Long String"
2004
Wubbzy creator
Bob Boyle in
his backyard.
Pasadena, California 2006
My productions try to
be practical. "Wubb
Idol" was written as
a movie and as eight
discreet W!W!W!
episodes. That way,
it was programmed
as a feature film or
for traditional TV play.
Clever, yes?
226 BEST OF ORIGINAL CARTOONS
PRODUCED BY FRED SEIBERT 1981-2023 227
The Meth Minute 39
..........................................
Created by Dan Meth
Frederator Postcard
Series 9.10 2010
Frederator Postcard
Series 21.16 2014
Johnny Bravo
..........................................
Created by Van Partible
238 BEST OF ORIGINAL CARTOONS Getting there, though, took some trial and error.
When Seibert took over Hanna-Barbera, he says, it they’ve got ideas. That’s how 2 Stupid Dogs got into
was losing $10 million a year, and he had no previ- Hanna-Barbera.”
ous experience with cartoons. He was nervous. But
Turner reassured him that it couldn’t get any worse. It was also the founding principle of What a
Cartoon! At first, the old hands at the studio found
“Think about it this way,” Seibert recalls Turner tell- this confounding, but the younger generation saw
ing him. “They haven’t had a hit since The Smurfs their chance and took it. 2 Stupid Dogs may have
in 1981. If you come in and have a hit, people will been a commercial flop, but it was staffed by a slew
think you’re a genius. And if you don’t have a hit, of young animators, most of whom were hungry
they won’t blame it on you!” former California Institute of the Arts students —
among them, McCracken, Tartakovsky, Hartman,
It was a rocky beginning. All Seibert knew when he Renzetti, Feiss, Thompson, Moncrief, Paul Rudish,
walked in was that he loved the classic shorts, the Andrew Stanton, and Conrad Vernon — and all
kind that Hanna and Barbera, and Warner Bros. but Stanton and Vernon would go on to be involved
before them, had been known for in their Tom and with What a Cartoon! Of those, all but Rudish, who
Jerry days. (The kind that, as reruns, made up the was instrumental to both Dexter’s Laboratory and
bulk of Cartoon Network programming for its first The Powerpuff Girls, pitched their own shorts.
couple of years.) Upon telling his staff about his lack
of animation experience, “half of them quit imme- They pitched those shorts to a greenroom full of
diately,” Seibert says. And many of those who stayed nearly 20 people, which Seibert had organized
found his unorthodox methods frustrating — or at because, he says, “I was so scared that I knew noth-
least preferred the days when anyone in the office ing.” The room contained representatives of Car-
who pitched an idea got the green light and the cash toon Network, such as Mike Lazzo (the network’s
flow to take it to series. original programmer, the creator of Space Ghost
Coast to Coast, and, by 1994, its vice-president of
After two swings and misses — SWAT Kats: The programming, who went on to found Adult Swim
Radical Squadron and 2 Stupid Dogs — Seibert and finally retired from the company earlier this
became worried. It was 1994, and Nicktoons were year), Hanna-Barbera staffers, and What a Cartoon!
firing on all cylinders. So he went to Turner and executive producer Larry Huber, who would serve
convinced him to let him start making cartoons as a mentor to many of the creators who came up
“like they used to do in the great days of theatri- through the program. That greenroom became a
cals,” he says, “one cartoon at a time,” just to see hive of cartoon expertise that would determine
how people liked them. Ten million dollars later, what a new era of programming would look like
that’s exactly what Seibert did. — and whether the creators who brought in their
pitches would get a chance to be a part of it.
Hanna and Barbera, along with Looney Tunes leg- .....
end Friz Freleng, taught Seibert how the old shorts Talking about those early days, the four creators
were produced, and Ren & Stimpy creator John whose shorts ran in 1995 and were eventually
Kricfalusi — now disgraced for his sexually preda- adapted into shows — McCracken, Tartakovsky,
tory behavior but one of the leading lights of a new Partible, and Feiss — describe a studio environment
generation of animators at the time — advised him bursting with creative energy, camaraderie, and a
as well. Then Seibert opened a call for pitches for genuine dedication to taking risks. Of their shows,
what would become What a Cartoon! and in doing three of them (The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Labora-
so, turned the industry’s established norms upside tory, and Johnny Bravo) were based on student films
down: No one would be paid to create storyboards made just a few years earlier, and the fourth, Cow
for their pitches, but if those pitches were turned and Chicken, started as a bedtime story that Feiss,
down, the creators, not Hanna-Barbera, would own who was about a decade older than his fellows, had
them. come up with for his daughter.
“The way it worked throughout the ’70s and ’80s While The Powerpuff Girls was the last of these
was a studio would come up with a cartoon, they shorts to go to series, it was the first to air. In fact,
would pitch it to a network and then the artists who McCracken says he was initially told it would go
worked at the studio would make it,” McCracken to series even before What a Cartoon! launched,
says. “But in the early ’90s, there was this push: although that changed once incubating shorts
Let’s go directly to the cartoonists who want to 239
PRODUCED BY FRED SEIBERT 1981-2023
make cartoons and have characters and ask them if
became the priority at Hanna-Barbera. He, Tarta- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. And once he got
kovsky, and Renzetti (who would work on both of the go-ahead from Hanna-Barbera to produce the
their shows before launching My Life As a Teenage first Cow and Chicken short, Feiss, an animator as
Robot at Nickelodeon in 2003) all attended Ca- well as a director, did something almost no one
lArts together. Tartakovsky, the Russian American in the animation industry does: He animated the
creator whose Dexter’s Laboratory short “Changes” entire pilot by himself.
— adapted from a student film following, appropri-
ately, an extraordinary set of changes — aired only “I would work at night animating, and it took ten
six days later, says their schooling had prompted months to complete the seven-minute pilot,” he
them to stick together. recalls. “During that time, I would animate, like, 30
seconds here and 30 seconds there. My art direc-
“I already lived with Rob in college because we tor, who did all the backgrounds, was a guy named
both moved out to L.A. from Chicago, so adding Deane Taylor out of Australia. At the time we
Craig to the mix was very funny,” Tartakovsky says. were doing the Cow and Chicken pilot, he was also
“Both Rob and I are very independent, and Craig is working for MGM and he was in Dublin, so he was
more of a hang-on kind of guy. If we were ordering sending scenes by FedEx to me from Dublin and I
dinner, he’d want to jump in. He was almost like was animating them as they arrived.” Although the
our little brother in a way, even though we were just production was grueling, Feiss says, “it was one of
a few years apart — Rob was older than me, and I the best times in my career, those ten months. It
was a little bit older than Craig — so it was this very was the most freeing, creative thing that I had done
funny dynamic. And artistically, we were all very up to that point.”
like-minded. We were all supporting each other’s .....
strengths and weaknesses.” The process wasn’t always easy or straightforward.
Tartakovsky, McCracken, Feiss, and Partible all
Partible, a Filipino American creator who gradu- mention nerve-wracking focus-group sessions in
ated from Loyola Marymount University, had just Dallas and Tucson. While Tartakovsky did well with
turned 23 a few months before the first Johnny Bra- focus groups, the others weren’t always so lucky,
vo short aired one month after Dexter’s Laboratory. and the lukewarm reception The Powerpuff Girls
And unlike all the other creators but Feiss, he had received was part of what kept McCracken’s short
every part of his short produced in L.A., including from going to series until two and a half years after
the animation, which then, as now, was usually sent Dexter’s Laboratory.
overseas to be completed at a cheaper rate. Another
unique thing about Partible’s experience, he says, “It didn’t test well. It didn’t test well with boys
was the opportunity he had to learn a very new — and I don’t think it tested that well with any-
technology: computer animation. body — so it didn’t get picked up to go to series at
that point,” says Linda Simensky, who came over
“I was hired at a very low rate to do this short, but from Nickelodeon in 1996 and was named senior
because I was getting paid so little and computer vice-president of original animation at Cartoon
animation was just starting up, they said, ‘Hey, why Network and an executive producer on Dexter’s
don’t we teach Van how to do computer animation Laboratory. But McCracken’s storyboards for Dexter
while he’s doing this short?,’” Partible recalls. “So we had won her over, so she advocated for Powerpuff
tried this new system called the Animo animation with Mike Lazzo and the original Cartoon Network
system and ended up using it to scan all the draw- president, Betty Cohen, but to no avail. “Then I
ings in and ink and paint them on the computer begged Mike: ‘Let’s just let Craig develop it further.
and then we put them all together. So Johnny Bravo He does the funniest boards. I would really like to
was the first cartoon on TV that was done using a work with him again, and if we did another show
computer.” with this team, we could keep them all onboard.’
And of course, we did.”
Like the other three, Feiss got involved in the
industry early. Unlike the other three, he’d been Hanna-Barbera was throwing a lot of stuff at the
working in it for over a decade by the time the call wall, and plenty of creators saw their shorts air
for What a Cartoon! pitches came around. He had but go no further. Pat Ventura is a perfect exam-
worked at Hanna-Barbera before but was living up ple: An acolyte of Tex Avery, he was the one who
in Northern California at that time, working for first suggested to Seibert that the shorts be seven
minutes, à la the old theatrical shorts, rather than a
240 BEST OF ORIGINAL CARTOONS
clipped three minutes. Seibert initially saw Ventura
as a perfect fit for the program, and in a way he was series, Oh Yeah! Cartoons, which resulted in hit
— he went on to create six What a Cartoon! shorts, shows of its own, including Hartman’s The Fairly
more than any other creator. But none were ever OddParents and Renzetti’s My Life As a Teenage
green-lit for a series themselves. Robot. A later effort, Pendleton Ward’s first Ad-
venture Time short, would premiere on Nicktoons
Then, of course, there was the gender disparity. Network and be anthologized as part of Frederator’s
Animation has long been something of a boys’ show Random! Cartoons before getting picked up as
club, but at Nickelodeon, at least Arlene Klasky a series by Cartoon Network and launching a whole
was a co-creator on Rugrats. All of the 48 What a new generation of creators itself.
Cartoon! shorts were created by men. And while
some women were involved in the process (Co- Another Cartoon Network anthology show, The
hen and Simensky, plus Ellen Cockrill, who was a Cartoon Cartoon Show, would replace What a
development executive on a number of the shorts, Cartoon! and produce hits of its own, including Hi
and others) and went on to have fruitful careers on Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Grim & Evil and its spinoff The
the business side of the industry, and some female Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and Codename:
artists were also involved, the creative vision was Kids Next Door. Many of these creators and exec-
driven by men. utives would go on to become some of the biggest
names in the industry, and some of them are still
“I think it was just the climate at the time – there working today: Simensky is head of content at PBS
weren’t a lot of women who wanted to make Kids; Tartakovsky wrapped up his beloved Samurai
cartoons, and if they did, they weren’t getting into Jack in 2017 at Lazzo’s Adult Swim and is currently
CalArts for whatever reason,” McCracken says. “I rolling out new episodes of another show, Primal;
think there might’ve been four girls in our class. and McCracken is working on a new show, Kid
There were women at Hanna-Barbera who were Cosmic, for Netflix. Even if they aren’t still creating,
background painters and ink-and-paint people they set the stage for today’s landscape: Ward’s Ad-
who’d been working there for decades, but it was venture Time, Rebecca Sugar’s Steven Universe, and
a bit of a boys’ club. But once we sold Powerpuff, I a slew of other hits very well may never have existed
brought on Cindy Morrow, who I’d gone to CalArts had it not been for What a Cartoon!
with and was hilarious, as a storyboard artist. And
I met Lauren [Faust], my wife, on Powerpuff. She “This current era of animation was just beginning
came in on the third season.” at that point,” Simensky says. “There was a lot to be
learned about how to make cartoons for TV. So we
Simensky adds that, while there were a lot of female all learned a lot, and those of us who could stayed
board artists and a lot of women doing big jobs on with it.”
the production side, it was difficult to find women
creators – partly because of Cartoon Network’s That a program rooted in the history of the art
target audience and partly because of the history of form was so instrumental in pushing it forward
animation itself. “I remember taking pitches, and only shows how important it was for studios to take
the problem was that Cartoon Network was really chances on creators — to let them, as Partible puts
geared toward 6- to 12-year-old boys,” she says. “I it, “take back our cartoons.” And that’s exactly what
think at this point in history, there are many more they did.
women who can easily create for a larger audience
because they grew up with shows that were for John Maher is an award winning journalist and poet living in
more than one gender.” Brooklyn, NY, one of the two founding editors of The Dot and
..... Line, and an editor at Publishers Weekly. He's written for The
Los Angeles Times, New York magazine, Vulture, Esquire.
By the time the last What a Cartoon! short ran com, Thrillist, Real Simple, Polygon, Paste, MEL Magazine,
on Cartoon Network on November 28, 1997, the Observer, Literary Hub, Book Marks, Electric Literature, The
American animation landscape had changed for Comics Journal, Entropy, The Book Report, Luna Luna Mag-
good — and for the better. Long gone were the old azine, Yes, Poetry, The Adirondack Review, Time Inc. Books,
days of formulaic, 23-minute action-adventure and Outcryer, among others.
cartoons. After Turner Broadcasting System and Illustration from the collection of Van Partible.
Time Warner merged in 1996, Hanna-Barbera was Reprinted from Vulture.com
moved to the Warner Bros. Animation studio, and
Seibert left to launch Frederator Studios in 1997,
which he just left this year. Frederator went on to
partner with Nickelodeon on another anthology
"Frederator!"
..........................................
Production tags
The Frederator
Lego conference table,
designed by the
Frederator/NY team.
Frederator Postcard Series
..........................................
We promise:
“NO!”
Creative directors:
Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert
Producer: Tom Pomposello
Logo Design: Corey & Co., Boston
Production companies: Buzzco Associates, NY;
(Colossal) Pictures, SF; Broadcast Arts,
Washington DC.
.....
Myers's Rum Video Network 1987
Creative directors:
Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert
and Steve Dessau
Producer: Tom Pomposello
Logo Design: Arlen Schumer
Production companies: Charlex, NY; Joey
Ahlbum, NY; International Rocketship/Marv New-
land, Vancouver BC; Alan Goodman, NY.