Animation writer on Daniel Spellbound, Teen Titans Go, Harvey Birdman, Danger Mouse, Spider-Man, Magic School Bus and more. Kind of a nerd. Maybe a dork.
This illustration was done for a CN Upfront - in the times before Adult Swim aired every night. It’s also, I believe, the only original AS art piece to have illustrations by Seth MacFarlane.
No one forced the studios into a streaming model. They had a business that did well and made lots of money. But they all wanted to chase that Netflix stock price.
They’ve obliterated their own businesses, overpaying themselves and then calling their workers unreasonable.
Animation Writers: Why are kids not watching the series I worked so hard on?
Also Animation Writers: Let's use a reference to a show that ended 37 years ago as a button to this scene.
Once the Cartoon Network City era started, we wanted to incorporate as much of the look possible into the upfront. Designer Matt Crouch and I decided to make a CN Owner’s Manual
When this illustration for a Cartoon Network Upfront was made, we knew that CN would be transitioning to the “City” look - but we weren’t quite sure what the final would look like yet.
I grew up in the South. If you're like me, your social media is flooded with people asking why would there ever be a problem with showing Photo ID to vote.
This article is the best I've seen at explaining the issues and is a good resource to share.
When I started at Cartoon Network, they had a tiny handful of originals and mostly played Scooby Doo all day. AS didn't exist! 20 years later, original animation is everywhere!
The news today isn't great. I feel for our peers who lost jobs. But as an industry, we are STRONG!
YouTube is NOT stealing your audience.
People are watching YouTube channels because they get fresh new content on a regular basis (usually at least weekly).
Hmm. What struggling medium used to put out large numbers of episodes on a regular basis?
Teen Titans meets Total Spies meets Megas XLR! This image is wild because it appears to be a completely new illustration! Typically, anything Titans was drawn by Bryan Mon but this is NOT his style at all. My best guess is it was drawn by Darrel Hunt.
To my friends who work in Animation: Things may be choppy now and maybe a bit scary. But sites and fans who do not work in our industry are inflaming rational fears into outright panic and terror. We need to stay vigilant for each other and for our own mental health.
So here’s the truth: animation writers got paid less than WGA writers - in part - because traditionally, advertising rates on children’s shows are much lower than adult shows (which is why Adult Swim and Nick at Nite are “separate” networks than CN and Nick. Gotta get that ad $)
When new shows were launched on Cartoon Network, we made promo kits and swag to send to clients and media. I worked heavily on the Teen Titans launch and kept my set of Teen Titans Coasters.
We crammed as much imagery as we could all over this thing, which was a bit unusual for us. The book and DVD also came in one of those plastic-y kind of folders that car manuals came in. We went all out!
Here is some more of the pre-Cartoon Network City look that was made for Cartoon Network Upfronts. I really love we got Quackor and Baby Daffy together. Talk about obscure!
This account has the entirety of the live stream from the ATHF movie premiere and it is a real moment in time for Adult Swim. Everyone from Mike Lazzo to a marketing intern makes an appearance in this thing eventually.
When you talk about animation, we can - and will - stack our ratings/cost against current live-action shows. But the one thing NO ONE talks about is the ridiculously long tail on animation profits. Let's look at some recent examples:
This page was about CN’s Get Animated campaign. Mainly style guide art - but I believe Mike Kunkel may have illustrated Juniper Lee here - the show was still about two months away from premiering.
This art was made before Family Guy even aired on AS. We sent our drawing to Seth for approval. He sent back a redrawn Peter (and Bender’s arm). I remember very clearly how excited the designer and I were to get this art.
Here’s a “map” of the city - but I don’t think it linked up to the real CG. Camp Lazlo was almost a half a year away from premiering but he gets a call out. Also - kind of rare to see Kiva appear and not Coop or Megas.
The average 1-BR rent in LA is currently $2648. The script fee for an 11-minute animated show is $4828. In order to JUST make rent, a freelancer would need to write TEN episodes (after taxes and rep fees). That is a TON of writing and it almost never happens.
#PayAnimationWriters
Atomic Betty was surprisingly all over this thing. There must have been a reason why but it escapes me. All the character art is style guide… except for the funny Ms. Bellum cameo in the bottom left.
We had some extra pages left to make the double-page spreads work, so we added some troubleshooting and maintenance guides. The faces in the guides are cameos from Duke, Tom and Dan: Graphic Designers for Adult Swim and Cartoon Network.
Way back in 2002, Holiday Inn Express was doing a tie in with Adult Swim. I pitched a spot that included Space Ghost failing at talking a live action person out of jumping off a building. The Holiday Inn ad agency guy told me: I’ve found that death never really sells anything.
@Janeandhermedia
@ScratchyDerose
I love Andy, both personally and professionally. Not downplaying his importance to SGC2C - which is huge - but a LOT of people played a big part in the creation of this show. Jay Edwards. Lazzo. Clay. The one who I feel gets overlooked the most is Khaki Jones.
The first freelance episode I wrote for television was adapted into at least two books and a toy set from Mattel. It had two new characters who went on to make over 25 more appearances. I made less than $4k total.
#PayAnimationWriters
As a dude who worked at CN for years, from On-Air to writing Titans Go to even Villainous, I was stunned to see so many rad references to projects I’ve worked on for the last 2 decades. Huge thanks and congrats to
@tobytobyjones
@ianjq
and the entire OK KO team on Cartoon Nexus!
- CODA streamed in 975k US Households.
- Power of the Dog 3.4 million US Households.
- Encanto has topped the Nielsen streaming charts over 3 months, at one point hitting over 1 million Households a week.
Streaming is POWERED by ANIMATION.
#NewDeal4Animation
For many shows, the Union Minimum rate for Animation is just the rate.
You can write on a hit show, your episodes can get merchandise and turned into video games and novels. It doesn't matter. The studio is NOT budging on that rate.
#NewDeal4Animation
Pretty cool that $1 million dollars is not enough to get a starter home in the LA/North Hollywood area and that even decent 2 bedroom rentals in LA are creeping up to the exact same amount as guild minimums for an 11-minute script.
#newdeal4animation
This post is my nightmare. It blew up in a way I would never expect. It’s a joke, not a rule.
I was viewing a show that had a heavy handed reference to a show that ended in 1972 (and does not stream) and a reference to a song from 1974 that still can’t be played on the radio.
In the 2000's, at Adult Swim, we'd have writer table reads for every episode. Scripts were made considerably better.
I haven't had that happen once in the last 12 years. We're increasingly siloed but being asked to produce the same level of entertainment.
#NewDeal4Animation
I have been working in television animation for the past 30 years & two of my most successful projects were not produced under the conditions that artists face today.
Did you know that there's a significant gap between the pay of Animation Guild writers and live action writers? Please read Our Mission Statement, and click through to the Animation Guild website for more information.
#PayAnimationWriters
Oh hey! My old pals at Adult Swim asked me to write this edition of the Daily Planet. I got to watch several episodes and...
Y'all - My Adventures With Superman is VERY good - and it keeps getting better as it goes. Lois, Clark and Jimmy are just so much fun to spend time with.
Thank you to
@adultswimpr
for sending over this copy of the Daily Planet newspaper discussing the upcoming series!
Tune into the two episode premiere of My Adventures with Superman on Thursday, July 6th at midnight on
#AdultSwim
and next day on
#Max
!
…the studios have moved into a post-advertising world (for now), so that rule NO LONGER MAKES SENSE. If SpongeBob is the most streamed library show on P+, it doesn’t matter one bit that in the olden days, Frasier would have made more money.
If animation is too hard, simply:
•create a bunch of costumes
•get professional lighting and cameras
•shoot an entire scene
•import it into your computer
•edit it
• get a series of plug-ins
•render it all out
• still end up with something that looks like dog ass
When Adult Swim was still new(ish), we placed centerfolds into Rolling Stone to promote the block. This Sea Lab one was an outtake from a commercial I did:
Check out
#TransformersBotBots
- NOW STREAMING on Netflix! Very grateful to write an episode combining three of my favorite things: Transformers, Malls and Soft Pretzels.
And let's not even start with live adaptations of animation where the creators get nothing - <cough cough Ahsoka>
Animation is so beyond profitable - and we deserve our share in those profits. As we head into negotiations, if you are a cartoon fan, please
#StandWithAnimation
So proud to announce that I am the Executive Story Editor of Daniel Spellbound. This is EXACTLY the show I would have loved as a kid. It is going to melt your face in 2022!
PS. Everyone knows the rule is bullshit at heart, but it’s caused a lot of false division. You’re seriously gonna tell me a Dan Schneider show or Kicking It is worthy of being WGA and getting higher rates but Gravity Falls and Avatar were not?
This is especially pronounced in Children's Entertainment. Putting out several new episodes for weeks (or days) in a row, to compliment the older episodes was standard.
Dropping 10 episodes at once and then waiting 8 months to drop 10 more does not build a kids brand.
Alan Moore: Superheroes are for children.
Me: ah! That totally explains all the extreme sexual violence you wrote in to Swamp Thing, Marvelman, The Killing Joke, Watchmen, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...
On Netflix, Teen Titans Go, Adventure Time and Gumball pull in ridiculous streaming numbers - despite not being available in the US. These shows are over a decade old.
Gravity Falls is STILL in Disney+'s top ten, despite being over a decade old. Sponge Bob is MASSIVE for P+.
One of my best friends, Jeff Mednikow, storyboarded the Bowser sequence in the trailer. He's easily one of the most talented animators I've ever known and I am super proud of him.
Animation writers get paid a small fraction of live writers, but the results for the networks are often MUCH higher. Here's an example:
What We Do In The Shadows airs on FX and gets an average of 400k viewers.
Spongebob airs on Nick and gets an average of 600k viewers in 2021
These shows compare very favorably to Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang and Seinfeld - ESPECIALLY when you factor in the costs. But that's just streaming numbers. Animation also pulls in merch sales decades after the fact.
"There's no money for animation," claim people who use animated characters as their corporate mascots and own several cable channels, streaming services, theme parks, licensing divisions, stores, and video game developers devoted to animation.
#PayAnimationWriters
@erinnthered
Hi! I have worked at several cable networks and have written on several tv shows, video games and movies. I don't know everything, but I know a little about what I'm talking about.
No one is currently buying Lost merch. But if you want a shirt from 1999's Courage the Cowardly Dog, all you have to do is pop down to Target.
And when Marvel was banging the drum for Deadpool, what character did they highlight? X-23, who was created for animation.
I just referenced Fast Times at Ridgemont High in a writers room and no one else has ever heard of it and now I have retired from very old age. Good bye!
Happy 30th to Space Ghost Coast to Coast!
SGC2C challenged everything I thought about animation and comedy. I never worked on it directly, but I don't think I'd have this career without it. I am lucky to count most of the crew as mentors, friends and occasional frenemies.
The story from studios always was kids show make less (heavily debatable, especially when you count merch sales and series longevity), so animation writers should be paid less. BUT…
Writing for tv is such a weird career. It's easy to get caught in the day-to-day of it. But I'm feeling very grateful and lucky today to have worked on properties like GI Joe, Spider-Man, Teen Titans, Danger Mouse and Transformers.
10-year-old me would have lost his mind.
One of the coolest things about working in animation is that some days, you get to tell a professional actor stuff like: "Ok, now make a sound like you're bursting out of of solid silver and turning into your full demon form."
Waiting a year for 10 episodes is fine for an adult. But for a 6 year old, a year is a significant chunk of life. Yeah, they may still be interested in your cartoon in a year, but they'll have way more brand loyalty to a YouTube personality who has uploaded weekly unboxing vids.
Ten years ago today, Teen Titans Go premiered.
It’s exceedingly rare for any show to last this long, let alone an animated one. I started working on Titans way back in season one and I’ve never been far away, including doing the NBA All Star Slam Dunk Contest two months ago.
@MikeKalinowski
@EricRogersHere
@mktoon
When I ran DC Nation on the Cartoon Network side, Zack went above and beyond to be nice to me on a couple of occasions, including sending a very nice note. That was more than what some actual execs on the block did. If nothing else, he is a very nice man.
@NiftieIndies
Businesses have to turn a profit to stay in business. You can open a pizza restaurant that sells $1 pizza and there may be giant public demand, but if it costs you $2 to make a pizza, you aren't going to be in business for long.
Daniel Spellbound is back for Round 2 on Jan 26! If you want to see original IP flourish at Netflix... If you want to support a POC creator and all Black lead cast... If you just like KICK ASS animation... If you can, please RT to get the word out!
Almost every statistic shows that audiences want series with LARGE episode numbers. Seinfeld, Friends, even Suits, Grey's Anatomy and NCIS are still dominating streaming because they have 100s of episodes to watch.
Don't lose heart! Don't let others shade your drive. If this is a career you want, there is a place for you in it! I have never seen the industry as strong as it is right now.
My aunt sent me “Let’s Go Brandon” garbage and like an idiot, I engaged. When I pointed out that Biden has a speech impediment - just like her father - she went full scale nuclear.
I’m not sure we will ever recover from what Fox News did to this country.
Did you know that there's a significant gap between the pay of Animation Guild writers and live action writers? Please read Our Mission Statement, and click through to the Animation Guild website for more information.
#PayAnimationWriters
20-ish years ago, I made precisely ZERO dollars on the first 2 animated series I wrote on. Writing for the shows were a fun extracurricular for my actual job at the network. Last month, some of those characters were still being sold as toys at Carl’s Jr.
#PayAnimationWriters
But instead of acting on this, here we all are -
Blaming YouTube for audience erosion and wondering why streaming is not sustainable as we piddle out 8 episodes a year of shows that are largely forgotten and unwatched 3years after their debut - even when they were massive series.
It's the same in the family space. SpongeBob, Simpsons, Sonic Boom, Teen Titans Go... they pull strong numbers year after year partially because there are so many episodes.
If you're a freelancer - ALWAYS get everything in writing. And if you're freelancing with a new company - ALWAYS get it signed before you start - even if you've worked with some of the people before.
This message brought to you by a lesson I should have long since learned...
Animation is a team sport and we are a strong community. But also - we are a community of sensitive dreamers. It's easy for us to imagine worst case scenarios.
Don't let people who have never been a part of our art form terrify you for their own personal gain.
This is a time where we need to reach out to each other, form our safety nets and be careful to not amplify fear from uniformed resources in search of clicks and retweets.
Daniel Spellbound is back in the Top Ten at Netflix! And hopefully, many of you will watch it so we can keep it in the Top Ten for a good long while. We worked very hard to make a fun show and I am proud of how it came out! 1/ 6
Please watch the Cartoon Network Special Editon: NBA All Star Slam Dunk Contest tonight at 5PM.
Our crew has been working almost 24 hours straight to have this ready to air! It's been a real labor but I'm very proud of it!
I have worked on a ton of animated series. In my entire career, I have only worked on one series with a room that lasted longer than 3 days. The majority of my scripts were assigned after an hour briefing with the showrunners.
This is not a future anyone wants.
Seconding
@CozyJamble
. I'm in
@WGAWest
&
@animationguild
, but most of my 260 writing credits are kids/family animation. Wrote multiple freelance scripts (2-24 episodes) on series: hard to earn a living, harder to advance. Staff jobs=better pay+showrunner training.
#IAskedForThis
TODAY IS THE DAY!
#DanielSpellbound
is NOW STREAMING on Netflix!
We set out to make the EXACT show we would've loved as kids – and I think we pulled it off. And if you don’t like it – just hit play on Netflix and walk away. I’ll take those views any way I can get them!
Sometimes, I can't even believe I know Andy (and knew Clay). Brak is ridiculous and makes you laugh and never mean - just like Andy! And this segment captures Andy at his best: so good and quick and funny.
Hearing him do this voice again just feels right.