Cartoons...

. . . have always captivated me. I never grew out of them, and I don't mean "I watch Adult Swim, and think the cartoons are edgy." Don't get me wrong, Adult Swim has done some pretty awesome stuff for cartoons in the eye of the general public, and some of the stuff on the show has really sort of pushed some limits. 12 oz. Mouse comes to mind, ushering in some of the stuff that now comes across as bat-shit insane, such as Superjail, which I love.

Yet so much of these cartoons really are no more weird or bizarre than the cartoons of the late 80's and 90's that were just sort of off the deep end at times. Some older readers may recall that in the 90's and early parts of this decade, MTV seemed to have a deep interest in animation. Many remember the seminal series such as Bevis and Butthead, Daria, Celebrity Deathmatch, and Aeon Flux.

I would say (and I only speculate in the case of the latter most, because I have yet to see it) that these titles live on for good reason, but I daresay many people have long since forgotten shows such as Liquid Television, Oddities, and Cartoon Sushi.These three series were anthologies of typically short cartoons, and often gave rise to other more popular series, such as Bevis et al. and Aeon Flux. But mostly, the segments were one off projects that showcased new faces in animation. Oddities showcased only two cartoons as I recall, both action cartoons, “The Head” and an adaptation of The Maxx comic series. At the time these shows were on the air, my local cable provider either did not offer MTV in expanded basic, or my folks had blocked the station. I eventually caught these shows either as late night reruns several years later or at my grandmother’s house on spring and summer breaks. I have begun looking for videos of these to share for your enjoyment, and expect to see more of those titles filling in the gaps between record uploads on these pages. But what prompted all this?

I decided to diversify the blog for two reasons. First, my record collection is stagnating with my current unemployment. I did luck out and get a bunch off cool CDs when the station had to get rid of everything, and I did get some new records a while back that I am excited about. But ripping takes time I don’t have during the school months and that leads into reason two- I can post more often without compromising my school work or quality of the blog. So I guess we should get started…



I found Rad Boy and Jack Mac on the New Bomb Turks’ myspace. The cartoon is very much a prtoto Bevis and Butthead in some respects, with similar themes such as underage drinking, which kind of makes a proto Superbad, except the cops aren’t cool, and they die. Oh well. The plot revolves around Jack Mac and Rad Boy’s plans to go to a party, but its BYOB. They drive to the store, steal some beer, and begin rocketing down the highway until they collide with a truck hauling nuclear missiles for the government. Along the way, they run over a dog, cause two cops to get hit by a train, a couple car crashes and ultimately the destruction of an entire city.

Animated by Wes Anderson, the cartoon aired in the mid 80’s on USA network’s Night Flight. Anderson was one of the original Simpsons animators for the Tracy Ullman Show and was occasionally a director up to season 7, and went on to work with Fox on King of The Hill as well as some early Futurama. I think more interestingly, is Archer’s new project as supervising director on ABC’c upcoming The Goode Family, a new Mike Judge creation. The new project sees character designs that hearken back to the caricatures of Bevis and Butthead as opposed to the somewhat more realistic King of the Hill. Since the 80’s, Wes Archer has moved into more of the role of crew as opposed to the creative side of things. For The Goode Family, Archer was brought on to direct the pilot and seems to be on board for later episodes. Expect to see the show in the summer season on ABC.