underground

Animation historian Jerry Beck mentioned a very cool new site set up by Nick Magazine (that's "Nick" as in "Nickelodeon") that features drawings of Nick characters as interpreted by other Nick animators or underground and alternative comic strippers. The concept originated in Nickelodeon Magazine, which has a section called "The Comic Book" that features underground cartoonists --or so I'm told, since I don't subscribe to Nickelodeon Magazine. The Live Journal site is a nice bit of synergy between Nick and the underground artists, and something I'm sure I'll be checking out a lot in the future. Here's Avatar as drawn by Butch Hartman of The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom. The picture on the left is Jimmy Neutron as drawn by comic artist Jake Parker. I think I prefer his version to the original.

Cartoonist Tony Millionaire is pitching an animated series based on his "Maakies" comic strip to Cartoon Network. Who the heck is Tony Millionaire? If you don't know, stop reading this, go to Maakies.com, and enjoy one of the best underground comics ever, a combination of drunken, sea-faring animals, surreal plotlines, and the stylistic approach of the great comic strip legend E.C. Segar. Then, while you're enjoying those strips, have someone else read the rest of this post and tell you about it later. I have not found any official news on this, even on Millionaire's site, but cartoonist Keith Knight mentioned on his blog that he saw a brief clip of the series at The Staple 2006 in Austin. Animated shorts based on "Maakies" were also shown on SNL a few years ago.

Update: Very special thanks to reader owen, who found this interview in which Millionaire talks about the new series. Also thanks to Robert for the direct link.