Knishmas!

The Chowder holiday special Hey, Hey It's Knishmas airs this week, Thursday at 8pm. I'm very proud of how it turned out and I hope everyone out there enjoys it. I think we've made a good, classic holiday story with a weird Chowder twist. One of our color stylists had a book of vintage Christmas wrapping paper and, as you can see, we went bonkers using them as patterns.





And here's the opening city pan, beautifully painted by Joe Bingelli. Enjoy it now before it gets covered up by the titles.

ASIFA Auction

If you live in NY and like animation, go to the ASIFA art auction tonight. It's hosted by Tom Warburton, creator of Kid's Next Door. Check out all the info at his blog. There's lots of art from Cartoon Network creators and other awesome artists. Here's a doodle I donated. See if you can find the rest of the cast hidden in there:

Chowder Comic

DC's monthly Cartoon Cartoon comic book featuring different Cartoon Network shows just ran their first Chowder story! I wrote it and, rather than typing it up as a script, scribbled it up as a rough layout. So here are the roughs I submitted, including the cover sketch. The comic should be available in stores now.

Also be sure to watch a new Chowder this Thursday night at 8pm. There'll be no new Chowder next week because of Thanksgiving, but tune in the following Thursday, December 4th, for our big holiday special!

New Chowder Tonight!

Beginning this week, there will be more than a month of new Chowder premiers! Tonight's episode is one of my favorites, Panini for President/Chowder's Babysitter. The artwork above is from a deleted scene.

And get ready for our big holiday special in mid-December, Hey Hey It's Knishmas! It turned out great. I'll post more about it as we get closer.

Oh, and be sure to grab the Chowder vol 1 DVD! It has the first five produced half-hours on it (10 stories total), each presented in their original wide-screen format. You'll see more picture than was shown on broadcast, plus an animatic for Chowder's Girlfriend.

Chowder Marathon

Catch a full day of Chowder, this Sunday starting at noon on CN.

Real World Food Counterparts

I've been asked if all the characters on Chowder are named after food. Yes they are. Usually when I come up with a character for the show, I make a list of foods and try to find the name that seems to fit. And for those of you who were curious, here are the real world equivalents:

MUNG DAAL
Mung Daal is a thick, spicy stew made with the mung bean, sometimes spelled as "moong dal." The bean is used in a variety of Asian cooking. If you've had bean sprouts, then you've eaten mung beans. Originally Mung was going to have an Indian accent, but I decided against it early on.

Here's a picture of the bean.

And here's a picture of the finished daal dish.



ENDIVE
Endive is a type of chicory: a bitter, leafy vegetable. Belgian endive is considered kind of fancy. Combine bitter and fancy and it seemed to fit the character of Endive pretty well.



GAZPACHO
Gazpacho is a cold, uncooked tomato soup, sometimes chunky almost like a salsa. I dunno why it suited the character, but it fit right away.



GORGONZOLA
A veined, Italian bleu cheese. I hate bleu cheese. It's one of the few foods I dislike. So it seemed appropriate to use for a character that didn't get along with Chowder.

Underfist this Weekend!

Art by Maxwell Atoms.

If you like Billy and Mandy, be sure to watch the spinoff special "Underfist" this Sunday night at 7pm.

It was a real labor of love by Maxwell Atoms. If you look hard enough, you can see his sweat in it. There's even a B&M marathon leading up to it featuring all the Underfist heroes: Fred Fredburger, General Skarr, Hoss Delgado, Jeff the Spider, and Irwin.

Visit Maxwell Atoms' blog for more info.

The Arborians

Well unbeknownst to me, a new episode aired last week. Luckily if you missed it, they've got it up on the CN website.

Watch the full 11 minute episode here! There's a sneak peek at "Underfist" there as well. It airs this Sunday, October 12 at 7 pm. Be sure to watch it!

Arbor was played by Ron Perlman. He was awesome! And the best part was the Nicky Jones (who plays Chowder) was speechless to be in the same room with Hellboy!

Nine more!

Well we got picked up for 9 more half-hours. We're all very excited, but not sure what to make of that number. It's not a full season, but it keeps us going. New Chowders will air this November, right around the election. In fact, we're premiering with an election-themed episode, "Panini for President."

There's a Chowder DVD coming out in November as well. I'll post more info as I know it.

Here's a piece I drew early on for an internal Cartoon Network calendar. The painting he's chewing on is temporary placement art.


Thanks to those who came to the SF talk last week! And thanks to Martine at the Commonwealth Club and Travis at the Apple Store for putting it on.



Oh, and comments have been turned off for a while.

Friday in San Fran

Live in San Francisco? Have nothing to do Friday night? Then stop by the downtown Apple Store at 7 pm. I'll be giving a talk about Chowder courtesy of the Commonwealth Club. Why the Apple Store? I guess because they agreed to host it. And since Chowder is on itunes, it's sort of cross-promotion.

Location: Apple Store, One Stockton St.
Time: 7 p.m.
Cost: FREE

P.S.
Please keep the comments civil and under control. If it isn't about a post or a question you have, then save it for a forum. And I promise I'll try to answer some frequently asked questions soon.

ComiCon 2008 - The Video

Here's a video with highlights from the Con. You'll even see me and my chest make a little cameo. Plus you'll get peeks at some voice actors and awesome costumes. It's like being there with but with 80% less farts to walk through!

ComiCon 2008

The con was fun as usual, even thought it was a bit crowded. Nothing in particular stood out to me this year, but I did snag a few good books and t-shirts. There's a really great collection of Jules Feiffer comic strips from the Village Voice that Fantagraphics is putting out. The Chowder signing and panel went very well. Thanks to everyone who showed up! We had a lot of great questions and enthusiastic fans.


Here are some Chowder fans waiting in line. Thanks for the drawing Cammiluna!


Some fan art.


Here's me, Tara Strong (Truffles) and Dwight Schultz (Mung).




And here's a little treat we found...

Never leave the con without some Enchanted Wood!!!

Apprentice Games - the big 20!

Tonight's Chowder is another epic half-hour story. It marks 20 episodes that have now aired, and the end of our official first production season! There'll be a break before new ones air, so hold tight. We've got some good ones coming. In the meantime, here are some of the new characters debuting tonight.

We get to meet Ceviché, the apprentice to Paté. You may recognize Paté as the guy who sang "I'm not your boyfriend" on stage in "Chowder's Girlfriend." Well we decided to make him a reoccurring character, and he's a Master Dancer! You'll see more of the two of them in future episodes.


Since the story is about Gorgonzola and Chowder, we felt it was time to see who Gorgonzola studied under. So meet Stilton, the Master Candleholder. He's not much of a role model, but he's all poor Gorgonzola has.


See you all at ComiCon! If you're there, be sure to check us out on Sunday - we've got a signing at 10:30-11:30, then a panel at 1pm. Mung, Chowder, and Shnitzel will be at the panel as well!

Banned From the Stand/ Creme Puff Hands

New Chowder tonight! Only one more after this week, then we'll have aired all of the first 20! Next week's episode is our other half-hour special. More info on that that one soon.

If you're going to the ComiCon next week, be sure to come to the Chowder signing and panel, both on Sunday.

Nick Magazine Biography Comic

For those who didn't get to see it, here's the full version of that two-page comic from Nickelodeon Magazine that ran a few months ago.

Shnitzel Quits

Tonight's episode is a special one - our first full half hour story. What happens when Shnitzel has had enough abuse at Mung's and goes to work for the enemy? This picture should give you a clue. I even make a guest appearance as myself. Then tomorrow there'll be an all day marathon of Chowder from 8 am till 8 pm. Have a fun and safe 4th everyone!

Chowder Bowl

I was just told about this. It was set up at the San Diego Zoo. I have no idea about any other details, but it sure looks cute.

Bluenana / Lead Farfel

There's a new Chowder on tonight. It's a good one. The first half's got Panini; the second half's got Shnitzel. And hopefully this week not everyone will be watching the Laker game while we air.

Let the New Chowders Begin!!

I hope you're all ready for new episodes, because starting this Thursday night, you're going to get two whole months of weekly new episodes! Spread the word and help us get good ratings so we can keep making more! We're still at 8pm Pacific/Eastern. And hang around right after for CN's new animated comedy show, Flapjack.

Plus, the network will finally start airing the puppet segments over the credits! (Not on premiere nights, but in repeats.)

And for those who wonder why the new episodes are being billed as "Second Season," I think that's really more of a promotion thing since there's been such a big break from our first run until this one. The real seasons are every 20 half-hours we produce. Currently we're in the middle of season 2 production.

I'm also told that there's work happening on Chowder DVD's. Stay tuned for more.

Chowder News

Word is officially out that we have our second season pickup. We actually got this a while back, but had to keep mum about it. The network wanted to be able to announce it at the upfronts in April. CN has extended our run to 40 half hours. (The first season was 20, so they gave us 20 more.) We're well into season two and the episodes keep getting funnier and funnier.

It's our monthly new episode premier this Thursday night! In "At Your Service," Mung and Chowder become Endive's servants for the day. This is one of my favorites. Here's a peek at Endive's bathing suit.


In "Chowder & Mr. Fugu," Chowder is forced to spend the day chaperoning the catering company's most valuable customer around town. Mr. Fugu is a balloon man, and his valet, Foie Gras, is a "Lucky Cat." If you listen carefully, you'll notice that Foie Gras is voiced by George Takei.



The good news is that starting soon, there'll be a whole slew of Chowders premiering every week. So be ready!

Chromeo

Here's a band a friend of mine turned me on to. It's pure 80's fun and they know it. Give in and enjoy.



"Bonafide Lovin" - a nod to the "Money for Nothing" video.


"Needy Girl"


"I am Somebody" - This is actually a DJ Mehdi song featuring Chromeo. 30 points if you know where the vocal sample comes from.

Nickelodeon Magazine

I did a two page comic for this month's Nickelodeon Magazine. They asked me to write a short biography about my career path and how I got a cartoon show. Here's a little sample:



In a month or two I'll put the full version up.