I produce cartoons and media networks.
Being in the animation business I am, of course, around a lot of world class artists, and they have a tendency to draw everyone in sight. Even me.
But, in our line of work, it’s not often that a Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist like Steve Breen does it.
Thanks Steve!
PS: No, I don’t color my hair.
Searching for Frederator logos on my flickr I accidentally looked at “Everyone’s Uploads” instead of my own and Michael J. Patrick’s illustration of the Fredbot popped up. I’ve got no idea what prompted him to do a take on Arlen Schumer’s original design, but he kindly allowed us to use it in this series of Frederator variations. Thanks Michael!
From the postcard back:
Congratulations!
You are one of 200 people to receive this limited edition Frederator postcard!
www.frederator.com
The Fredbot Variations
Illustration by Michael J. Patrick
Series 16.3, mailed October 17, 2011.
Postcard ©2011, Bellport Cartoon Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
I fell in love with this graphic the first time I went to B Bar in New York City and imagined it would be a perfect location for a Frederator studio.
(Photo via Rauch @ flickr)
From the postcard back
Congratulations!
You are one of 200 people
to receive this limited edition
Frederator postcard!
www.frederator.com
An alternative history of Frederator
Mash up with Bowery Bar, New York City
Series 14.6, mailed October 3, 2011
Scott Nash —fantastic kid book illustrator and author, graphic designer, and brilliant strategic thinker— has honored me with his great work and friendship for over 25 years. Here’s a really swell piece on Scott from his home state of Maine.
This last Frederator postcard of the summer is by animator/artist Ben Ross, one of our favorite FOF’s. Ben’s done a lot of great work for us over the years, contributing to Channel Frederator Episode #2 in 2005 and designing Fredbot variations (including the papercraft for this year’s New Year’s poster), not to mention the one for the Adventure Time recap Mathematical!.
This postcard’s artwork was first used as the Frederator Blogs logo, but I liked it too much to keep it so tiny (and it looks mega-cool on the skateboard I made, but never really told anyone about).
We’ll be back with fresh postcards in the fall.
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From the postcard back:
Congratulations!
You are one of 200 people to receive this limited edition Frederator postcard!
www.frederator.com
The Fredbot Variations illustration by Ben Ross
Series 16.2, mailed August 3, 2011.
©2011, Bellport Cartoon Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ben Ross at a 2008 New York Drinking and Drawing. Photograph by Jared Roessler.
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Frederator Postcard Series 13.5, mailed July 13, 2011.
From the postcard back:
Congratulations!
You are one of 200 people to receive this limited edition Frederator postcard!
www.frederator.com
An alternative History of Frederator
The Pulps
©2011, Bellport Cartoon Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Frederator Postcards, Series 13.4, mailed June 15, 2011
An alternative History of Frederator
The Pin-ups
Mashed up with Edward Runci’s illustration
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More Frederator postcards
It’s probably my own ambivalence issues with authority, or maybe my impatience with “the system,” but I love the DIY culture we’re living in right now, so three articles caught my eye recently. Two are personal victory stories, and one maybe points to a different kind of future. (Impatient animators can scroll downwards to the graphic novel story at the bottom.)
A lot of people come and pitch me projects and get annoyed when we don’t agree with them on the quality of their work. I usually counsel for them to do them independently, though often that just annoys them more. But, more and more often creators are doing it for themselves. It’s not like I think we know what’s good and what’s not, just what strikes our fancy. Any artist probably knows more than we do, and the people in these stories prove that point in spades.
Artist and illustrator Molly Crabapple is a friend of my ex-partner Tim Shey and with the help of the web has figured out how to avoid the whining in a fading business. Now she’s using Kickstarter as a patron to give herself a 28th birthday present, a Week in Hell. Pulling together then community she’s built for Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School she asked for $4500 and today is closing with over $20,000 in funding.
Even better is the New York Times article about my hero of the month, Amanda Hocking of Austin, Minnesota. Like many of you she’s been writing stories since she was a little girl, but at 21, dejected by publishers’ rejections she took to self-publishing e-books on Amazon.com. It wasn’t that easy, she had to work hard to make her writing more attractive to her readers, and now she’s made over $2 million.
Hocking is at a loss to explain the phenomenon. “I’ve seen other authors do the exact same things I have, similar genre, similar prices” — like many self-published authors, she prices her books radically below what traditional publishers charge; typically hers cost between 99 cents and $2.99 — “and they have multiple books out. And they all have good covers. And they’re selling reasonably well, but they’re not selling nearly as well as I am.”
Talent helps, but it seems to me Amanda worked hard for people to like her books.
Sad that regular folks couldn’t buy her stuff in the places books sell, like Walmart, Amanda just signed a traditional publishing deal with St. Martin’s Press.
Lastly, a couple of weeks ago Todd Allen at Publisher’s Weekly crunched a few number and imagined the possibilities: Is Kickstarter the #3 U.S. Indie Graphic Novel Publisher? Sure, he admits it’s apples vs. oranges —“It perhaps isn’t natural to look at Kickstarter as a publisher. Functionally, it exists somewhere between a direct-to-consumer pre-sales program and a PBS/NPR pledge drive.”— but there’s something happening here.
What’s all this add up to? Well, to me it means get out of your own way. In the world we’re living in, if you don’t get something made and in front of an audience there finally no one else to blame but the person in the mirror. If you’re talented, don’t wait for someone else to tell you so. Go out there, find your own audience. They’ll tell you what they think, and after all, aren’t they more important than Viacom, or DC Comics, or Random House? You’ll have satisfaction in doing what you think is right, and if you hit the bull’s eye you’ll make some money too.![Frederator [hearts] Kickstarter](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3625/5734473378_9fc9234df0.jpg)
This week’s Frederator postcard is a CG Fredbot* variation illustrated by Mexican artist Ernesto Carrillo. It’s the beginning of a new series (Series 16 over the last 13 years, for those who’re counting), variations on the original Frederator robot that Arlen Schumer designed and illustrated for us to celebrate our launch in 1997.
Last April, brick artist Nathan Sawaya completed a commission of a Lego Fredbot* that we’ve used for a production tag on some of our shows. The sculpture itself was so cool I thought maybe a stylized photograph of it would be super for an upcoming poster.
Routing around Flickr I stumbled across the Ernesto’s beautiful Lego photos and asked him what a Fredbot photo would cost. His price was perfectly reasonable, but in these anxious, recessionary times I got cold feet and decided it could wait.
A few weeks later Ernesto wrote and linked to a series of amazing Fredbot CG illustrations he’d made on his own. They were so unbelievably sharp I knew we needed to share them with our community. Ernesto kindly gave us permission to print up one of our limited edition cards.
From the postcard back:
Congratulations!
You are one of 200 people to receive this limited edition Frederator postcard!
www.frederator.com
The Fredbot Variations
Illustration by Ernesto Adolfo Carrillo Valdez
Series 16.1, mailed June 8, 2011
Postcard ©2011, Bellport Cartoon Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
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More Frederator postcards: Series 1-15
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* The “Fredbot” term for the Frederator robot was coined by artist/designer Frank Olinsky, for our 2006 New Year’s Poster.
