John K Pitches A Cartoon Show At 2009 San Diego Comic Con

In the spirit of full disclosure, let me just say I am a big fan of John K's work. John has such a unique style and vision and such a vast knowledge of cartooning, it just blows my mind. Most of all, his cartoons always make me happy. -Mr. Fun

This is pretty neat. John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren & Stimpy, pitched a George Liquor cartoon to a group of Comic Con attendees this year. I assume he has since then pitched it to actual TV execs.

Love his blog by the way. As a cartoonist myself, I visit nearly every single day. Here's a good post proving why John is The Ghandi Of Cartoons.

Disregard the fact that John has only had one huge-scale cartoon hit in Ren & Stimpy (not to mention the fact that he got very screwed over by Nickelodeon) and disregard the fact that yes, some of his ideas are strange (maybe stranger than even I would accept, and I am one strange guy)... the man is very much a cartoon genius.

So here's the pitch in two parts, check it out:

John K's Cartoon Show Pitch, Part One

John K's Cartoon Show Pitch, Part Two

A couple of observations:

1) We can confirm that yes, John K is insane
2) I never knew John did such a great job as the voice of George Liquor (originally voiced by Mike Pataki)
3) I'm not sure what the odds are of this cartoon actually being picked up... it seems a bit disjointed and a little hardcore

What do you make of this? He did a nice job getting his pitch across I think. I really love John's overall approach to cartooning (how The Masters used to do it) and his sense of style/technique. I like his approach to directing too. And I love his spirit and quirkiness. But I just don't know about a cartoon called "George Liquor." Nickelodeon actually edited-out the "Liquor" portion of his name when the character appeared in Ren & Stimpy back in the day. I'm not sure much has changed since the 90's. If anything, isn't the world even more politically correct now? Sadly, I think it may be. On one hand I can see a network like Spike picking up a short called George Liquor. On the other hand I'm not so sure the old-school, kiddie vibe meshes with the hard edge of George. It's almost as if the cartoon is trying to appeal to two totally different demographics: adults and little kids. I suppose that may not be terrible in and of itself — it's the recipe for most successful cartoons, actually — it's just strange to see a character like George Liquor (with his cigarettes and boozing) hanging out with little children. Ren & Stimpy were animals. These are kids. I know it's a frickin' cartoon, it's just an odd combination to me and I'm not seeing people accepting of it.

Then again, maybe he's going after the Family Guy crowd.

So. If you were a TV exec looking for new cartoon programming, would you consider this? I welcome your comments...