So, John Kricfalusi, you whizzed on the electric fence, didn't you?

For the 3 people on the planet who haven't heard about the scandal around John Kricfalusi yet, here's a link to a brief synopsis on Cartoon Brew.

Of course, for anyone who has known (or just known about) John K for any length of time, this news comes as no shock.  It's like being told that Liberace was gay or that right now, at this very moment, a bear is shitting in the woods somewhere.

'Another Buzzfeed exclusive!"

Yeah, the guy is pretty much Henry the VIII without the giant turkey leg.

I feel the need to talk about this situation because John K is the reason I started this blog in the first place.  I, like many aspiring artists, was a big fan of the Ren & Stimpy show since it first came out way back in the early '90's.  The first time I had heard anything negative about him was during one of my first days of animation school.  In animation history class, when it came time to talk about the time period when Ren & Stimpy debuted, all the teacher said was, "John K is a jerk!" and left it at that.  Then, after that, I had joined a few online forums where animation is discussed.  There I found all sorts of praise for John as well as an equal amount of anger and vitriol.  I read all about that loud red-faced tantrums as well as, as one member of a forum posted, "John K lives like he's still in high school".
So then, around the start of 2006, I heard through the internet grapevine that John K himself was starting a blog where he could talk to his fans directly.  Almost immediately, I got myself a blogspot account and was on my way. I made my own blog posts where I had put up artwork of mine and I  commented on his posts.  One time he even made a comment on my little blog.

Oh, I fully admit that I was totally there doing that 'NOTICE ME SENPAI' thing trying to show him my art work and whatnot.  He did eventually weigh in on what he thought about my work's quality, and yeah he pretty much said I drew like a 10 year old.
Something like that is never pleasant to hear of course.  But, at the same time, I'm not going to let one man's opinion get me down. I know what my talents are and I plan to us them whenever I can.  Since that time I've worked on a few animated projects and have self published 2 comic books.
John and I butted heads at other times too, but it was about animation history mostly. I always countered his sycophantic compulsion to Bob Clampett's tall tales about himself with my researched facts (from other animation historians such as Michael Barrier).  I most certainly didn't discuss morality with him.  I think a discussion like that with the likes of him would have broken my brain.

Yes, it was quite evident that John K has a fetish.  I do remember seeing evidence on his blog of him flirting with young women still in or just freshly out of their teenage years and feeling a slight bit uncomfortable looking at that.  But, I just chalked that up to him being an "eccentric artist' and just minded my own business.
And, of course, much of his depravity naturally spilled out into Ren & Stimpy as well as any other projects he worked on.  One example that I found rather egregious was the ending of The Altruists, one of the Ren & Stimpy episodes that was on the Adult Cartoon Party on SpikeTV.

It ends with a police officer walking over to the main female character and fondling her breasts.  I'm not saying John shouldn't have done that. He and his crew are free to make any artistic decision they want.  All I'm saying is I personally would not have made that artistic decision. I believe he defended this by saying "it's a male fantasy. It's what every man wants to do to every sexy woman they see. I'm just providing that fantasy."  Y'see, I personally find just blatantly putting one's sexual fantasy into a story to be quite tacky whether it's written by a man or woman.  More often than not, a sexual nightmare or at least a 'less than ideal' sexual experience is much more endearing to an audience.

But at the same time, it's absolutely possible to separate the artist as a person from his/her body of work. John's influence over the entire animation industry has been immeasurable.  His work has inspired just as many people as it has nauseated.  There is no scandal large enough to take that achievement away from him.  Below I've embedded one of my favourite moments from one of Ren & Stimpy's best episodes just to give anyone unfamiliar with his work just a taste of what his animation legacy is about.



As lofty as John's achievements are, however, he's not to big to be held accountable for his actions and he's certainly not above receiving ridicule for said actions.  So, in that spirit, I'm posting my quick little satirical artwork aimed at Mr. K

Would John K himself consider this a well done drawing?  I don't entirely care at this point.

I will just end this blog post with one final message to John K.

Good sir, thank you for your tireless efforts to revive the exuberance and glory of the golden age of animation as well as your constant rebellion against the corporate executive tyranny that continues to suffocate the animation industry.  However, when it comes to your dysfunctional ways of dealing with human relations especially with young female artists, like the Michael Jordan meme says, 'Stop it!  Get some help!'

Oh, and I also wish a long healthy life filled with success for survivors Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice as well.

10th Anniversary Post

Looking through the archives of this little blog of mine I can see that my very first post on here was made on February 18, 2006.  So, that means that as of about today, this blog is now 10 years old.  Happy birthday, Bloggy!!!  In that time, my blog has been a showcase for my artwork, a place to plug the comic books I've created, my musings on any part of animation's history, and even sometimes as a soapbox for my unabashed opinions.  In that time, I also started my sister blog right here which I only use as an online soapbox.
I initially started this blog back then simply because I had heard that famed cartoonist John K. had just started one.  I had admired his work ever since I first saw Ren & Stimpy back around 1990 or '91 so I thought this would be a chance to express my appreciation for him in person.  I certainly did that.  I also had about 3 arguments with him, but if you've heard anything about his demeanour the you know that it's quite hard to NOT argue with him about anything.  Even his closest friends can attest to that.  In those early days, John's blog was always a beehive of fans giving their praise as well as non-fan trolls being irritants.  Some of his opinions on animation and society could really get the masses riled up on many occasions.  It was quite exhilarating to be a participant in all of that.
John doesn't update that blog of his as much anymore.  I suspect that's because he's finally found work. Conversely, with that drop in activity, so too I've found that the traffic for blogspot in general has dropped off somewhat.  But nonetheless I still find time to make posts here on my blog whenever I can.  Even though the traffic for this blog is at about a ghost town level I still like to update it whenever I can.  I feel an obligation to update because I still remember 2 trolls that attempted to silence me at some point.  My continued posting is in absolute defiance to them and any other haters lurking around.  But I also continue to blog for another reason that Nicole Arbor articulated when she answered a question of mine on one of her videos.  She said, "If I had 500,000 people mad at me and only 1 person that likes me, I would do it for that 1 person."  So that's what I'm doing here.  For that 1 person, whomever he or she may be in which ever country or territory on this planet, this post and this blog is for you.

Although I did notice that I got a huge amount of traffic from Russia back in January of this year.  I have no idea what could've caused that or what kept it going for the duration of January, but whoever the individuals were, thank you.  You could've left at least one comment though, maybe posted a borscht recipe or something.

The header at the top of this blog says "my art and anything else I like".  So, on this anniversary blogpost, I will now indulge in that very thing.  I intend to have lots of fun making sport of one of the stupidest online comics ever written and drawn.  Others have made fun of it elsewhere and now it's finally my turn.  It's the Adventures of Politically Incorrect Man by Alli Kirkham found on the web-site............. um......... Hooray for Estrogen or something like that.  Here is that comic in its entirety:

Yep, there is someone out there that thought making this was a good idea.  I won't be putting down the quality of the artwork here even though it is atrocious.  There are several comics, animated or otherwise, that do just fine with sub par artwork.  Dilbert's a good example.

Scott Adams would be the first to admit he's not tremendously skilled at drawing.  But at the very least the staging is still clear.  We can tell exactly what's going on and the dialogue flows naturally.  Not a trace of ambiguity.  In the PIC comic above there is much confusion.  In other people's criticism of it, they seem to be absolutely baffled by how the two opponents are even fighting each other.  Like this guy below:



I had to really examine the fight scene at the end myself to see what they were doing.  Eventually I figured out that PIC man is throwing things at the "Respectful" lady who is then deflecting them while she says her monologue.  When a reader sees your comic you have less than a second to grab their attention and present a scenario with your visuals.  If they have to squint and struggle for any length of time just to comprehend what's happening in a panel, they will get frustrated and bored and thus move on rather quickly.  When that happens, your audience is as good as gone.  The following panel is another example of poor staging:

No no no!  You can't just have a character say "you pushed me".  This is NOT ancient Greek theatre.  You can't just have actors describe the action in order to overcompensate for lack of ability to build elaborate sets or stage big action.  Show don't tell.  Comics are a visual medium with the ability to conjure up all sorts of fantastical environments where anything and everything is possible.  Don't just say it, DRAW IT!!!

Another major flaw I noticed is that the supposed menace of Politically Incorrect man doesn't seem all that menacing.  As you can see below, all he does is fly in and say stuff.

How is that a big threat in any way?  My guess is that this only feels threatening to anyone who actually equates words (most often found in critical tweets or facebook comments for example) to real physical violence.  If that were indeed the case, then why would someone such as Spiderman even bother to shoot webs or anything?  He could easily defeat his opponents like this:

OOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!! White-haired lady DESTROOOOOOOOOOOOOOYED!!!  Next Spiderman will defeat Dr. Octopus by saying some very mean things about Syrian refugees.

Now I have come to talking about the big elephant in the room that is my biggest objection to this comic,  which I'm certain would even be more than a little bit obvious to a blind hyena with a brain tumour in a cave on Mars and has been dead for 7 decades.   I am of course referring to the protagonist's attitude towards free speech.

I can't believe this needs to be explained at all but in this political climate it tragically must be done.  Look here:

That is the 1st Ammendment in the Constitution of the United States.  It states clearly its policies about keeping speech free.

This is from Canada's Bill of Rights.  It also lays the ground work for any laws about public speech in Canada.

The Council of Europe has a similar declaration.  These laws about free speech applies to every single country in Europe.

Here's what it says in Japan's constitution about free speech.  It is an absolute guarenteed right too.  You can find some iron clad law in every constitution of every free democratic nation on Earth.  Politically Incorrect Man has all of that on his side.  The only concepts that "Afro Lady" uses to combat PIC is "being rude" or "being a jerk".  Those are vague, nebulous ad hominums that mean different things to different people at different times.  There is no way that any concrete laws can be based on them.

She also condemns PIC Man for keeping these "rude" people free from consequences.  In her opinion, anyone who says "politically incorrect things" should fully receive all the consequences they deserve.  But, wait just a minute.  Just recently, noted 3rd wave feminist activist Anita Sarkeesian went to the actual United Nations begging for her to be able to post whatever opinion she wants WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES.  Another outspoken 3rd wave feminist type named Lena Dunham made a similar declaration.  She wants to be able to say anything she wants on Twitter without receiving any of the consequences and has even completely vacated Twitter until her demands are met.  So what exactly are you saying, Mx Cis Alli Kirkham?  Are you advocating the "consequences" for some speech but not for others?  That's rather anti-democratic I'd say.
 In fact,  here I fixed the comic's end so that it more adheres to what you're trying to accomplish:

Rat's all, folks!

You're welcome!

Now that that's done, I'd like to take Miss Kirkham to school once again.  This time I will show a comic of mine that I made many years ago.

You can find the full comic on this post right here.  Go ahead and put it through the same scrutiny I gave the PIC Man comic.  I triple dog dare everyone.  Comment on the artistry, the staging of the elements, the flow of the story, and the overall message.  I personally would say that my example is a better way to make a comic about "political correctness".

Well, that's my post.  It's been a fun 10 years.  I look forward to many many more.

Two Belated Birthdays

I missed two birthdays recently. John Kricfalusi's birthday was on Sepember 9. He turned 51. One of his "partners in crime" Katie Rice had a birthday on September 12. She turned..................... 87 I think. I'll have to check on that. Anyway, I'll chalk this up to better late than never and post them now.

I did something different with their birthday wishes. Here, I present their worst nightmares so that the rest of their days will seem great by comparison no matter what happened to them that day. A rather nice gesture on my part I should say.

First, John K.'s nightmare:


Ren & Stimpy make a guest appearance on South Park!!

Now, Katie's nightmare:



She has to draw guys!!

I hope these pictures brighten their days and make their birthday seasons a merry one.

Friz and John

Anyone who has visited John K.'s blog knows that he is not too fond of Friz Freleng's work at all. If Mr. K. did indeed conduct an interview with Mr. Freleng I imagine that it would look something like this:
(That's Eddie Fitzgerald laughing on the left by the way along with Friz in the middle and of course John on the right). Those of you reading this who don't know who Friz Freleng is, "google" him immediately after visiting my blog. You won't be disappointed. Everyone else, feel free to express an opinion of either Friz Freleng, John K. or Eddie Fitzgerald in the comments section.