Welcome back! I was busy since finals week was on the first week of May.
Without further ado, I want to talk about the current state of indie animation, especially on Twitter.
I want to say that I support the WGA strike since it occurred on the same day my previous blog post went up. Writing is a challenging feat with the horrible state of the entertainment industry. I have respect for the writers, so they should deserve fair pay.
It's disheartening to see what's been going on Twitter for the past few days, especially with Boxtown, an indie animated series produced by Charlie Gavin, the director of "Strange Planet" and storyboard artist.
Setting aside the criticism of the prominent voice actors, it's heartbreaking to see people saying they won't fund it because it is too "corporate."
Come here, come close to me. I want to define something for you.
Indie animation is produced by independent artists/animators or a collective of production members NOT MADE WITHIN THE BIG NAME STUDIOS IN HOLLYWOOD OR MULTINATIONAL CORP.
Wait.... that sounds like the concept of indie games. We have games from Nintendo, Blizzard, and Activision.
We have games produced not from the studios like those, like Eric "ConcernedApe" with his IP, Stardew Valley. It's considered an indie game.
Wait a minute, how is that different from the indie animation?
So the "corporate" is not an excuse to criticize that. Sure, you're allowed not to like it or like the art style because it doesn't cater to your taste. But tsk, tsk, tsk. By the way, the so-called CalArts style isn't real.
Doesn't it occur to everyone that we need to simplify animation to make things on time for people to consume the media? Or the corporate says that it's cheaper if we make this particular style. Uh-oh, notice I said they wanted it to be cheaper to do this style.
If we could make everything we wanted, the animation would take a long time. As said in my previous post, we're all understaffed, underpaid, etc.
So give us money for stability in our lives, and there will be more time to do magic outside of the simple and restricting style; trust us, we want fantastic animation as you do.
We could probably make more stylistic decisions if we were paid enough or more than just minimum.
Artists are supposed to be starving so we can consume their hard work, sweat, and failing health. Woe is me! Why can't everything be like this [generic show]
That's how you sound.
Hating indie animation production asking for money is overrated. If you're so upset with it, talk with the corporate to allow money to pay their artists better so we can do stuff outside of "animation you see every day." it's not our decision to make these things; the executives do.
With this unnecessary hate, you got some creators afraid to fund their shows, asking for not all the money needed, just the minimum, for their production. It's sad to see some of them asking for advice from other creators who have had some luck with the successful Kickstarter campaign. I can't believe this is real, but I know it is.
So please forgive us for being so "selfish" to ask for money so we can make something in our free time for you to enjoy the animation that's out of our pockets, time, and health.
Reconsider your hate. No thanks to you, all of you "animation fans"
That's why I also stand by the WGA strike. Writers deserve more pay to make scripts for the show, something you all enjoy. Shows like Abbott Elementary are exemplary and can get more promising if the writers get more pay to be more stable in hellish LA housing and our inflation.
Anyway, stay masked and healthy and support unions that support the artists.
SPOTLIGHTS:
Belphegor's Traveling Circus franchise: Cirqueobee
Belphegor’s Traveling Circus (BTC) is an adult comedy and adventure series that follows Belphegor, the soul-collecting demon who happens to owe an outstanding debt of 6 million souls to his devilish boss, Lord McPhisto. With the help of a surprising friend, Prince Cheshire, they both travel from the dark depths of the spatial plane of Hell. Gathering up the misfit aliens across the OuterWorld's galaxies, he must assemble the greatest traveling circus the mortal realm has seen!
Belphegor's Bouts of Foolery (BBoF) is a slice-of-life animated comedy that serves as the prequel to the main series, and it is set 6 years before the main events occur.
Cirqueobee (Cirque) is the creator of both exciting series. She shares that she has been a massive fan of animation since she was a kid. Wanting to make a cartoon of their favorite things; villains, circuses, demons, aliens, and clowns, the COVID pandemic lockdown allowed her to make this a reality.
While developing the BTC as the show and eventually BBoF, she saw the current state of the entertainment industry, also with what's happening with Netflix and HBOMax's massive purge of the cartoons; she told me that she had that mentality, "fuck it, I will do this myself," as she threw her hands up in the air. She plans to keep her series indie as of now.
Getting to work with the indie show she runs, she had to learn how to animate in Adobe Photoshop during the lockdown.
Her inspiration, especially about the traveling circus across the galaxies, was from Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The demon and hell aspect was drawn from her personal experience and love for mythologies. Other influences are Bojack Horseman, Villanos, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Star Trek.
I asked her why she decided to arrive in the indie scene. She shares that she was already aware of the fanmade animation project but wanted to do more and direct something original. She stayed for a few years with the fan project that seemed to be not moving to the next production stage.
After deliberating about making the BTC a reality, she left the project. With that, she thought that she had to do it on her own, but learned that she didn't have to put on all hats of the production. She found a community of fantastic indie voice actors, artists, and other directors who shared similar goals and passions as her.
Being part of that community made her feel like she belonged there, and she was confident to make this franchise reality amongst the fantastic projects by others.
Cirque tells me that BBoF is ongoing, with the episodes available on the official Youtube channel! She has completed the script for the episodes, which will be ready to be produced shortly. While the show is comedy driven, with the characters' antics having a loose plot, she plans to make a solid plot-driven episode.
As for the BTC, Cirque aims to start crowdfunding through Patreon or Indiegogo, or probably Kickstarter, for her pilot as the franchise is well known as the team grows. The pilot script is edited and completed but needs a large team and funding to make this reality.
She plans to release the fully complete pilot on the Youtube channel, and once it's finished and released, she hopes it will be a more fully produced series with many episodes.
Merchandising will be happening as well in the future as the support grows. It will feature pins, stickers, posters, and maybe plushies and shirts!
I asked her about her upbringing influencing this series, and she shared that BTC was just made for her, not for any of the audience. Suppose someone finds her series fun and loves it; Cirque says everything makes it more worthwhile.
Despite people assuming that Hazbin Hotel or Helluva Boss is an inspiration, she says she wasn't and has not seen both shows. She says her religious upbringing inspired her idea. She would usually hear the Bible mentioning demons that would end the world in the form of dragons or devils that came to Earth to seduce people into evil. She also dove into demonology research and came across Ars Goetia and stories such as Faust and Dante's Inferno.
Becoming invested in demons and the occult was her way to rebel against her religious upbringing, the same one that told her that her purpose in life was to be a "good housewife," and that influenced her experience as the creator.
Also, Cirque says that seeing others managing their projects (either excellently or poorly) became the central heart of the storytelling that she wants to do, despite it being comedic.
"Being a creator is hard, and through Belphegor as our creative protagonist, we can see him work through those same hardships we all face when pursuing our dreams and even learn with him," Cirque says.
As I finished interviewing, I also had a religious upbringing, I found myself relating to her experience. So I hope she makes her franchise dreams a reality! It would be exciting to see another take on Hell!
Support Cirque and her projects:
Sunnyside Magic High: Amin Shirazi
Sunnyside Magic High is an upcoming indie-animated musical pilot inside Cora's magical, fantastical world. It follows 4 magical royals who attend the prestigious academy, where they hone their magic and learn how to become of their respective kingdoms one day.
We meet these four royals:
Crescenta, a bold and insecure princess from the Kingdom of Stars
River, a people-pleaser bookworm from the Water Kingdom
Hazel, an intuitive yet native princess from the Nature Kingdom.
Zephyr, an aloof yet loyal prince from the Wind Kingdom.
Ooh, the natural magical core system, am I seeing?
Though their lives aren't perfect, they learn how to heal and embrace their authentic selves together. However, with the looming threat of tainted potential on the horizon, things might not be good as they think. While singing their way throughout life, will these four be able to chase after their destinies and become the powerful rulers they were meant to be?
Shirazi is an Iranian writer and director based in Vancouver, Canada, and they arrived on the indie scene as a young kid; they were into storytelling as their passion. Whether writing short stories during the class or creating silly characters in their head, it was their main outlet.
Storytelling is their way of making sense of the world, and that's when they came up with Sunnyside Magic High, a world ruled by beings enchanted by the magic of the cores. Shirazi pursued other projects for a few years after forgetting about SSMH. They learned a lot about the indie animation world, such as knowing where to find voice actors, how to create a casting call, promoting projects on social media, writing/editing videos professionally, etc.
In 2020, Shirazi returned to the idea of SSMH; they revamped the story structure and rebooted almost every aspect of the project. It became a new and original story, just with the same title. Eventually, they contacted some incredibly talented creatives and formed a diverse team of dedicated artists. Since then, they have been improving daily and trying to make SSMH the best thing. All of that while navigating the whirlwind animation pipeline that ends with a beautiful result.
Shirazi shares that as a South Asian and Middle Eastern person, their identity and representation while capturing the beauty of the culture have been the top priority. Sick of feeling like an alien, not seeing themselves on the screen, they wanted to see a brown girl rocking a sari, blasting monsters with extraordinary energy, or a flamboyant boy being brave and daring. Shirazi says that the representation in the show takes place on a foreign planet with unique magic and fanatic creatures. They do this by in the kingdoms: each kingdom is inspired by the nations that are in the real world, down to the culture, clothing, food, etc. With this, they give the royals the magic of their cores and the power of their varying upbringings, values, and tradition.
I also relate to Shirazi, as I am from a Mexican and Guatemalan family, and it's hard not to see many accurately represented people. I get that I see a lot of Mexican guys who wear red sweaters in the cartoons. I like it, but it's getting stale, so I can see why Shirazi wants to see the rocking sari!
Shirazi also tells me they're a psychology nerd, loving how humans work; what we do and say has a story behind it and how history influences and observes our behavior. Psychology will be a very prominent element throughout the series. Mainly it comes to the character interactions and the big moments in the plot.
I also study psychology quite often in high school and university, even though my major is Art and Media Design at Gallaudet University; it's fascinating to see how famous psychologists, especially behaviorists and social psychologists, study interactions. I just finished a course like this last semester at the local community college, so I think it would be amazing!
SSMH, at its core, is about healing. A story about the struggles of humans being vulnerable: opening up to new people. Cultural identity and crisis. Generational trauma. The royals in the show are the heirs of the kingdom, who have no say in their future, how they want to express their authentic selves, and how to set their boundaries. The show is about people-pleasers and perfectionists. It's meant for everyone who has ever longed for someone to validate their existence. It's about how powerful unconditional love and self-love can be.
Support Sunnyside Magical High and Armin Shirazi: https://www.sunnysidemagichigh.com
The Howling Hood: Micheal Hegwood
I interviewed Michael Hegwood, the creator of The Howling Wood.
The Howling Hood happened after a short period of ghostwriting commissions and working in comedy; he wanted to create a comic/graphic novel. But he ran into production issues with the illustrators, unable to continue the projects. After discussions with his friends and colleagues, he decided to test the waters with his indie production.
The Howling Hood is about people who are underprivileged but highly skilled, and they receive a call for the chance to get paid after the break-in at the Brick House Banks. They get the chance to become a Huntsman, and they're willing to risk their necks for a paycheck.
He plans to create at least one full TV-length episode on Youtube and continue to work on this project as other projects he has. He tells me that if he can create one episode that captures his vision and people connecting with this project will make it worthwhile for him.
Fascinated with mythologies and how different myths in different cultures seem to overlap, with no connection, such as the concept of the Big Bad Wolf is such a prevalent figure in so many cultures or how many pantheons have a powerful warrior demi-god man who starts off his journey with being a jackass early on, only to be humbled throughout his journey. It's almost like a subconscious drawing people to create the stories.
Influences such as Oda, Cormac McCarthy, Neil Gaiman, Akira Toriyama, and David Lynch, but he says that it's not only limited to single genre or storytelling conventions. He also wants to share more about Slavic culture and mythos to be introduced to American circles so that people wouldn't be alienated or think of it as foreign horror.
I think it's really neat to see the unknown myths being used in this project. I don't know much about Slavic culture, so hopefully, this introduces these aspects more. My friend is Slavic, so I hope they get to see this as well!
Support Michael's project!
The Heros of Tomorrow: Jax and Not Dead Yet Productions
Hello, Jax! This is long overdue, but I always wanted to touch on The Heros of Tomorrow!
This acronym adds a comedic element to the show for me, so I am thrilled to write about this. I didn't have a chance to interview yet, but I figured I would give some thoughts on this!
This adult horror-comedy follows the oblivious himbo named Rufus and his misfit friends as they fight for their lives on Ciruwasa, the planet known for its crime-ridden society.
Wait, did I read "crime-ridden society"? This just got interesting, don't you think so? This show is for mature audiences, as you can see with the simply THOT acronym. Sorry, this got me laughing as I wrote. As I translate it into English for my blog, the sign language in my head is hilarious. Yes, I write from ASL in my head to English.
Rufus, Psy, Ugi, and Yoko must learn how to do teamwork while the group's tensions are high due to their differences. The T.H.O.Ts must uncover Glitch's plans to unleash the bio-terrorism on Ciruwasa and find a way to stop him. If they don't, they might just as well become Meat Puppets themselves.
Jax is an animator and director, and they have worked on Eddsworld: TBATF and seem to be into horror. Jax has been working hard on the catalog that was made for indie genres, so thank you for your help!
For me, as I found T.H.O.T, it immediately got me hooked. It has a dystopian society (I'm a huge sucker for those, come on, did you expect me not to LOVE Hunger Games?) and futuristic elements.
I love the designs they have going in the world of Ciruwasa. I'm curious what our lovable himbo Rufus and his friends will do to save the planet. Hopefully, he doesn't end up being a Meat Puppet, or I will cry and write the fanfic to save my bleeding heart.
Support Jax and our friends at Not Dead Yet Productions: (You must be over 18 to support this project legally!)
The Will of Monsters: Christopher Wade
Also, I did not get to interview Christopher, but I wanted to share my thoughts on this!
The Will of Monsters is a YA (young adult) action adventure fantasy film about Scarecrow Jarrad and his young apprentice Cham alongside a young sorceress, Pai, fighting to survive the terrors of their world.
Their world is full of sinners, abominations, and monsters. It discusses purpose, courage, and prejudice.
The story is very charming and has the vibe of The Wizard of Oz. I am thrilled to see what the young witch Pai and her friends, Pumpk and Cham, do on their journey.
I have seen my share of prejudice as a young kid, and I have done a lot to advocate for people who feel slightly different from the usual standard of society. To fight the terrors of prejudice, we must team up with our friends and people we know to trust to overcome the fear. To have the courage to seek their purpose in life, I think that's something that I would like to have as a kid. And I think this project does similar to this.
I am so thrilled to see this film to come alive with the people behind it!
Honestly, this animation is hand-drawn and has so many design elements in their Patreon. It's incredible what Christopher and their team have been producing, especially designing the magical aspect of the world where their lovable characters reside. The animation is stunning, and it feels whimsical and full of childlike innocence. It's a fresh breath of young adult indie animation.
I cannot wait to see what Christopher has to do with the show's lore, and he says on his Twitter page that he has written so much more of the previous era. Exciting!
Support Christopher Wade and his team on this amazing project: