Published by Joe on 05 Jan 2010 at 01:00 pm
January 5, 2010

So it’s official. Here is the final cover of my book coming out this summer. This version of the book is slightly more mainstream, but still holds a lot of information, as well as cool interviews with Steve Hillenburg, Tom Kenny, Everett Peck, etc.
So I’ve been doing some research on companies who have attempted this cartoon channel idea in the past ( most notably “Icebox”.).
Of course , when Icebox made it’s run, it was the big dot com boom, and everyone was throwing money at the internet without have a firm business model on how they could make money. There was an enormous amount of cash infused, and many extremely talented people were hired, funny stuff was produced. But when the investors said “Show me the money”, that seemed to have been a detail that was left out. When the dot com boom went bust, investors pulled out everywhere, including Icebox.
My intention is that we have the talent and the content to pull in quality viewers, but in the beginning we will be a very lean machine in order to get up and running on our own revenue as quickly as possible. It will still take time to pull in viewers and network ( I would love any help others could provide.) but it will all depend on if I and the other creatives provide content that you will want to watch.
I feel pretty confident we will. But in art, you never know how connections will happen.
Chris D. on 05 Jan 2010 at 1:50 pm #
Digging the book cover, mate. Although, bummed the old eBook one couldn’t be used again, but makes sense from a business point of view.
You looking at a tentative release for Kaboing or is still down the pipe a ways?
Mr. PSb on 05 Jan 2010 at 3:05 pm #
I can’t wait to get my hands on that book. Please tell me it will be on Amazon.
Ryan on 05 Jan 2010 at 3:37 pm #
Looks really awesome, how much will it probably be?
Dave on 05 Jan 2010 at 5:04 pm #
Awesome cover!
Douglas on 05 Jan 2010 at 7:51 pm #
Can’t wait till summer, gonna snatch this up as quick as I can!!! Also, can’t wait to see the animation channel. I check a lot of animation blogs, video websites, and anything else I can get my hands on to keep informed about the animation community. Very interested to see the content and how your channel will help animation on the web.
Jestoon on 05 Jan 2010 at 8:50 pm #
Don’t Forget Mondo Mini Shows
Charles Brubaker on 06 Jan 2010 at 12:19 am #
Ah yes, Mondo.
Mondo is probably best known today for its ultra-violent “Happy Tree Friends”, but before that they tried other cartoons.
Among those I remember is “Like, News”, a satirical series that featured a teenager in a news station interviewing celebrities and politicians. It was created by a newspaper cartoonist Don Asmussen. If I recall it ran around 1999-2000.
Another I remember is “Thugs on Film”, which featured two burglars reviewing movies that just came out.
Joe on 06 Jan 2010 at 12:59 am #
How do you all feel about Happy tree friends?
Joe
Ty Code on 06 Jan 2010 at 1:26 am #
happy tree friends? never seen it.
but the cover looks pretty cool, i see that you changed the title a bit.
Chris D. on 06 Jan 2010 at 1:43 am #
Not really my type of humor, but I have a few friends who enjoy it.
Jim on 06 Jan 2010 at 8:14 am #
I loved it when I was first introduced to it years ago, but I never really followed it. I have caught a few episodes here and there since then. Definitely is a humerous show in my opinion! I think it could be a great potential for your site in terms of adding to diversity.
Greg on 06 Jan 2010 at 8:38 am #
I went through a phase where I really enjoyed Happy Tree Friends, I believe I still have one of their t-shirts and DVDs somewhere around the house. I also was obsessed with watching Homestar Runner and Strong Bad. I was always amazed by how nice the drawings came out in Flash at the time. People wrote them off as crudely drawn Flash cartoons, but I noticed the shadows and details the creators put into them. It seemed to really set them apart from the amateur work you’d find on newgrounds.com. Today all those web cartoons seem like something that if you say a quote from everyone knows what you’re referring to, but not many people watch them anymore.
Corey on 06 Jan 2010 at 10:39 am #
Happy Tree Friends to me was hilarious. The shock value of these sugary-cute characters getting ripped apart was totally new to me & I watched every episode that came out for a while. I haven’t seen any recent ones if they still make them. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to do so either, I guess that shock value has died down.
I was actually more a fan of Homestar Runner & still visit the site every so often.
I also like Brad Neely’s cartoons, even though those are more like colored leica reels than actual animation.
I like Neely’s work because too it doesn’t look like every other Flash cartoon on the web. Seems to me if you’re gonna make a cartoon to put online and you don’t have anyone to answer to but yourself, why make it look like everything else?
Anyways, hope that helps a bit!
Joe on 06 Jan 2010 at 10:47 am #
It does help. Thanks.
Joe Murray
Arturo on 06 Jan 2010 at 2:40 pm #
I like how stylish and how clean the animation and designs are in happy tree friends but i find the stories very nasty, there’s so much blood, althought they have good characters. Also if you’re looking for examples, check out http://www.newgrounds.com, it a website where any animator amateur of professional can upload his or her movies or games and anyone can watch or play them. There’s a wide variety of cartoons since everyone can upload in there, also there are some pretty interesting animations by very talented people. They got me into flash animation because some animators there are awesome. You’ve got to check it out.
Arturo on 06 Jan 2010 at 2:42 pm #
Umm also, Why did the book title changed to “Creating animated cartoons with character” from “Crafting Cartoons”? I like more the other title, I don’t know the new one sounds a little bit large for me… just and opinion…
Joe on 06 Jan 2010 at 4:20 pm #
Random House/Watson Guptil already had a lot of books with the word “Crafting” in it. There is also some science to what keywords pop up in a search that directs them to this book. So we changed it a bit.
Joe Murray
david essman on 06 Jan 2010 at 4:52 pm #
Homestar Runner and Happy Tree Friends were two examples of successful web animation. Homestar Runner used the merchandise model(t-shirts, dvds etc.) and have absolutely no advertising on their site. I believe Happy Tree Friends uses a combination of ads and merchandise.
Happy Tree Friends has no dialogue, which helped it succeed around the world.
I think one of Homestar Runner’s reasons for success was Strong Bad emails, which created viewer participation, where viewers send in questions for Strong Bad to answer, some of which are spun off into their own cartoons( teen girl squad and trogdor)which offers some incentive to send in questions.
The idea of making cartoons based on user’s sent in ideas has also been used in the web comic exploding dog http://www.explodingdog.com/ and there are many successful blogs that collect people’s content:
post secret, cute overload, fmylife, etc.) many of which have spawned books
Joe on 06 Jan 2010 at 6:22 pm #
I think it’s been pretty well proven that banner ads are a dead end. Paying commercials before the content is the way to go.
Ty Code on 06 Jan 2010 at 6:34 pm #
ugh, is there really goning to be commercials before the videos? that is one of the biggest turn-offs for me. thats why i watch things on youtube, where they don’t show ads before the videos. dont you think there is any other way to show the ads? like after the video for example.
Joe on 06 Jan 2010 at 7:55 pm #
Unfortunately, thats the only way to pay for the production expenses. But I do plan to offer a membership where you have access to the cartoons without commercials plus cool behind the scenes bonus stuff.
Joe Murray
Joe on 06 Jan 2010 at 7:55 pm #
They will only be 15 seconds. I think thats worth it to pay for the cartoon.
Joe
Chris "boomie" on 06 Jan 2010 at 10:17 pm #
15 seconds sounds reasonable, it’s the least we could do to make sure the cartoon gets online! Though I’m not sure “Happy Tree Friends” is the way to go, since it limits the audience quite a bit. (too much violence) Something just plain funny would do the job.
And if I remember right, there was this old website that was made by a cartoonist long ago. I believe it was rumpus.com. Though it’s long gone now, I remember how big it was too me to watch these funny cartoons online as a kid.
Charles Brubaker on 07 Jan 2010 at 12:49 am #
I honestly don’t understand why people get upset about ads before the video plays.
How is it different from television, which has a crapload of ads inbetween shows. In fact, there’s actually LESS ads on the internet.
Content doesn’t pay itself. Even in the internet you have to make money somehow.
As for “Happy Tree Friends”, eh, the novelty wore off after a while, but it’s nicely done, although the violence can be too gruesome at times.
I love Homestar Runner, though. Been following it for years.
david essman on 07 Jan 2010 at 2:15 am #
15 seconds is nothing, half a tv ad. there are like 8-9 minutes of commercials per 30 minutes of TV. many of them the same annoying ads over and over.
Andy on 07 Jan 2010 at 2:16 am #
As someone who actually worked on Happy Tree Friends, my opinion on it probably means nothing at all, heheheh.
The format worked, and it worked very well. Those cartoons are basically just looney tunes shorts in concept, with the added irony of semi-realistic consequences to the cartoon violence. While the gore and violence was the punchline in HTF, I don’t think it’s necessary to the appeal of that kind of story.
Check out Cluckie the Vampire Chicken, same kind of idea, but without all the over the top gross out blood and guts!
http://freakishkid.com/?p=1050
Something like that would be cool. Still funny as hell.
Andy
David on 07 Jan 2010 at 3:46 am #
So Joe, need any help with the Kaboing-project?
Greg on 07 Jan 2010 at 7:58 am #
I would gladly pay for a membership to cut out commercials. After working in advertising for 4 years, I’m appalled by annoying ads and moronic commercials and also as a society we spend so much on garbage I’d rather spend money supporting causes that I think are worthwhile. If a membership fee would help get the project up and running let me know, I’m in.
Mr. Semaj on 07 Jan 2010 at 3:41 pm #
Happy Tree Friends is not for me, but one of my friends at DeviantArt has shown her appreciation for it thru her cool fanart.
I’m very excited to read this book. I plan on pursuing animation independently, and would love to have tips about distributing works to an online audience.
Joe on 07 Jan 2010 at 4:44 pm #
Thats cool. I expanded the chapter on alternative methods ( mostly the internet) to get a series out there. I did a lot of research, and actually motivated myself to say, “well , I should do this to show that it can be done.” As you all have pointed out, others are doing it to a degree, but I want this site to be a little different in it’s approach.
Joe Murray
Ty Code on 08 Jan 2010 at 1:03 am #
well, one 15 second isnt that bad, i was thinking of a full minute ad before every video
David on 09 Jan 2010 at 5:45 am #
Why not animate the ads!
Jestoon on 10 Jan 2010 at 10:29 am #
What type of cartoons will be available? Could there be something like Rocko’s Modern Life with lots of hidden References cleverly placed throughout the shows. I love when Filbert sang like sinatra in “Lounge Singer.” I just love your Cartoons!!!
Jestoon
Joe on 10 Jan 2010 at 12:05 pm #
Thats a good idea David. We have been batting that around.
Joe Murray
Von on 14 Jan 2010 at 3:10 am #
Sounds like a plan Joe, I think going through the internet (at least at first) in this day and age is the best plan. I’ve never run something like that but I’d imagine it would be slightly more cost effective than trying to produce a show for TV. short ad’s don’t bother me – and if the cartoons are good then people wont mind.
Tommy on 14 Jan 2010 at 11:52 pm #
I want to make my own animated show.
Joe on 15 Jan 2010 at 12:42 am #
You should Tommy.
Joe
Ben on 24 Jan 2010 at 3:43 pm #
I am definitely going to buy this!! I’m very excited, I’m still contemplating if animation is the direction I want to head, but for now comics still suit me ^^
Haxed.net » Something to buy on 25 Jan 2010 at 10:57 pm #
[...] lurking the internets I came across a post by Joe Murray. Apparently Mr Murray has a book “coming out this summer.” I’ll be sure to add [...]
tom bancroft on 17 May 2010 at 11:34 am #
This book looks great Joe! I do feel a little weird because my book through the same publishing house (Watson/Guptill) is “Creating Characters with Personality”, which to me sounds similar. It at least sounds like a sequel to yours or vica versa. Did they ever bring it up? Probably not, they hate me. Sigh.