Defense Of John K.

It's funny, because what little I've seen of the Spielberg cartoons is much, much better than what little I've seen of Ren & Stimpy.

@ Psychopulse

Well, those shows sucked.

John K is definately an important presence in 90's animation. He's very passionate about the stuff he DOES like, but, while immensely talented, he doesn't seem able to collaborate with others (any more, anyway) or tolerate a creative situation in which he doesn't have absolute control. The most recent things I remember hearing about him directing are the Tenacios D video for "F*** Her Slowly" and an episode of that show "Class of 3000" that aired on Cartoon Network for about 5 minutes...

I love everything John has to say about art and he makes very strong arguments on how shitty the animation quality is in most current cartoons. However, he doesn't seem to care (and has openly admitted) if a poorly drawn cartoon is written well, or for that matter, if a well-drawn cartoon is written terribly. He seems to believe that visuals alone matter in animation, which is simply not true.

And yeah, he's an asshole to people as well.

What I've seen of his racist caricatures were all in good fun, and there's nothing wrong with objectified cartoon girls. Or objectified cartoon guys. Everyone with a sex drive naturally objectifies someone or something in their mind, there should be no shame in doing so openly.

edited 12th Jun '11 1:24:27 AM by scythemantis

... That would mean that he's pretty much responsible for driving me away from Western Animation and into the aesthetically pleasing clutches of anime. Huh.

This. His contempt for the writing quality factor is bothersome to say the least, and often comes as purely personal vendetta against the non-cartooning cartoon writers.

He must really hate Rocky And Bullwinkle.

I don't want to meet anyone who doesn't like Rocky and Bullwinkle.

I don't know that he doesn't value writing, per se, but he certainly despises the way cartoons are currently written. Again, I think it has to do with control. Back during the classic age of American Cartoons, the director was the controlling figure in the cartoon. The writer wrote to the director's specifications, supplying dialog and gags and whatnot. Now, the director is simply told to animate the script he/she is given, which John K. probably interprets as "Make it happen, Art Monkey!" He thinks it downgrades him from an auteur to a technician.

Then he should follow the Bruce Timm route and be an agreeable writer/artist/director instead of just bitching about those who can do what he can't. Timm does all three things well, and you don't see him badmouthing those who do either thing.

edited 12th Jun '11 12:35:03 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Y'know, every time I read about John K., I think of all those comedy bits people have done with a Jerry Lewis Expy, where he goes into a rant about how Hollywood just doesn't understand artistes.

edited 12th Jun '11 1:09:08 PM by lee4hmz

"Make it happen, Art Monkey!"

I laughed so hard. I'm still laughing.

But yeah, John K is a major league douche.

It is kind of funny (and bizarre) to think of writers as the all-powerful creativity-sucking monsters of the production process. Usually executives or marketing fill the role, with the writers getting the shaft pretty brutally.

I never got the impression of him being a misanthrope since he's nice to his fans and some of the more controversial episodes of Adult Cartoon Party was due to fan requests. He even admited to being the one who censored the infamous sex scene and could see why people were grossed out by the muscus eating scene.

Isn't He crtical of his own work?

edited 12th Jun '11 3:09:59 PM by ThirtyH

He is, from what I understand.

Also, yeah. Weird.

It would be much better, or at least more productive, for John K to adopt an approach more akin to Bruce Timm's, or Michael Dante Di Martino and Bryan (can't remember how to spell his last name)'s from The Last Airbender. I don't see him doing it, though. He really seems to enjoy being the renegade, underappreciated artiste. Now, according to Cartoon Brew, he's designing ancilliary merchandise for Marvel Comics, which means technically he's working for Disney...

Oh, John loves Rocky and Bullwinkle. The art is crude, but he finds the shapes, colors and staging to be pleasing, which it is.

Some examples of animation he hates include the Fairly Oddparents, Rocko's Modern Life, Scooby Doo and the Simpsons.

Am I the only one that doesn't actually hates John K?

I admit it, I don't agree in every subject with him, but...in a personal level, I have learned a lot of him, even if I'm more of a writer than a cartoonist (and he would probably hate me anyway) I like some of his ideas, and I like his approach to animation; I'm not saying that cartoons should be "cartoony" all the time (as much as I would like to) but...you know, animation it's expensive, maybe you should use it in something that you wouldn't be able to make in real life in a convincing way.

I don't hate John K. I think he great and awesomely talented. He's also infuriating.

@Anthony H

Of course not, despite all his beefs with the industry and etc, the man knows what he's doing in animation and his work proves it. He is still very likable.

I don't exactly see how you can hate him more than any other cartoonist(unless your entire life is bent on wearing a pair of SCORCHING red hot rage goggles!!, but this isn't a measure of popularity or negative reception. Heh, if we wanna stoop to that then by all means.. let's break out the juicy gossip and slander!

I just respect him as a animation buff and harbor no resentment towards him nor do I have an infatuation with him.

Defending John. K though? Heck yeah.

You forget about the work of Fresh TV, Johnny boy

He hates Rockos Modern Life?

A lesser me would've raged

Pretty much this. He's completely right about the (lack of) quality of modern animation but his opnions on writting (and some of his other nuttier thoughts, stuff like "Walt Disney ruined the medium with his inferiority complex.") mean I can't agree with his thesis as much as I'd like to.

That being said, I don't hate the guy. These two pages make a surprisingly good effort at humanizing him.

I'm quite sick of people bashing John K. for what he says on his blog.

He had a positive influence on the 90s animation boom, and depending on who you are, you might think his cartoons are the most hilarious things ever (me). Can we discuss him without mentioning his opinions on animation?

With that said, I've met John K. and he's a nice person. He dislikes a LOT of cartoons I like, but I don't appreciate him because of his opinions on animation. I appreciate him because of 1. how he kickstarted the 90s animation boom and 2. because I just plain like his cartoons.

He did not kickstart the 1990's animation boom. Disney's Renaissance animators, Matt Groening and the animators who worked with Steven Spielberg were doing it before him and the people at Klasky-Csupo, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, Pixar and Aardman advanced it and later surpassed John K. due to continuing to keep pace (something that John K. couldn't do due to mediocre follow-ups and ego) and not putting the ego ahead of the quality.

You met him? Aaaaaaaaa..

And it would be interesting to see how opinions of people who haven't met him differ after they do.

My opinion? I respect what he has to say and he could very well be a polite and friendly person to talk with in terms of behavior, but I'd actually rather not get involved with his views, and actually, I fear if I ever do meet him. His roster as of late confuses me (he only made a few very short animations for music videos, an Adult Swim bump, and a sequence for Class Of 3000, all in the past 7 years- not a lot).

edited 13th Jun '11 8:52:18 AM by kyun