Bustin' th' Lid Offa Kidvid, Yo

An old friend of mine---WE'LL CALL HIM "JOHNNY Y."--- recently expressed concern over the fact that I might soon be involved in television animation geared towards children. "i [sic] don't think that [the networks] would be interested in your brand of humor if it were for the kiddies," he said, and I quote. Where this concern came from I can only speculate, as Johnny fancies himself a swingin' bachelor, and has no young 'ens of his own. In fact, I have always found children to be a key source of inspiration in my work, if not the primary one. Kids are great, and I enjoy figuring out what makes them tick, which would only naturally lead to wanting to figure out what they might want to be entertained by.

The biggest mistake in the history of children's entertainment has been the repeated insistence from those in charge to deliberately
condescend and
pander to their target audience. Of course, kids should be looked after and protected in every regard, and entertainment should never have negative repercussions on any viewer. But kids like conflict, and scary things, and a good story they've never seen before, just like us grown ups. They're smarter than most of us give them credit for, and deserve to be challenged now and again.

With this in mind, please have a look at my latest Family Friendly show idea,
"MAN HUNT."


By the way...for REAL hard-boiled hijinks, go to
Cartoon Retro and seek out "Flint Michigan".

Slow Jed's Caffeinates My Soul

My friends Deb and Andy have taken a crummy liquor store and transformed it into Slow Jed's Mud House, a first-rate coffee shop now open for business in Averil Park, NY. The decor is as cozy as it is nifty. Everything's yummy and smells nice. There's live music and free internet access, too. Most impressive of all is how Deb and her staff go out of their way to make everyone feel comfortable and special.


I hope I'm not giving away any trade secrets when I mention that Jed himself is a caricature of the owner's brother when he was a kid. This was easy work for me... everything was right there in the photos I was given for reference. The actual signs were made by Frank Smith, whose paintings of dragons and kittens in outer space are without equal. I was amazed at how faithful he was to my original designs.