MetaFilter posts tagged with flash and cartoon

I Brought You Some Coffee! Is It ... Boiling Hot?

MikeHarris — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:39:52 -0800

On a Friday in the waning months of the 20th century, a Macromedia employee was getting ready to meet with the creator of Beavis & Butthead the next Monday to demonstrate Flash v.4's new feature, synchronized audio tracks – a feature he needed to learn over the weekend. So he put together the simplest model he could: a floating skull sans lips, tongue or physique. The meeting was postponed, so the employee continued to spitshine the animation and put it on his website. His friends e-mailed their friends, and soon, everyone met a heavy-metal animated floating skull demon and his adorable little devil pal. Sparks had created Radiskull, who will kill you one by one. (Atom) Nowadays, one can throw a rock and hit about 40,000 web cartoons. However, Radiskull and Devil Doll was one of the very first web cartoons out there, and is still considered one of the best by many nostalgic Internet "old-timers." As Sparks introduces the character in the Radiskull book later released (yes, there was a book, as well as three issues (1, 2, 3) of a comic), Radiskull – a portmanteau of "radical" and "skull" – is "a huge disembodied skull with glowing eyes, thick black eyebrows, a mouth full of long, sharp teeth, and a spiky purple Mohican that magically always seems to be side-on. He's got a taste for boiling coffee, refers to himself in the third person, likes pain, and dreams of ripping up small towns with his mighty jaws. Since he's just a skull, he moves around by levitation, which he finds extremely tiring. That means he needs a lot of sleep." As for his little red-suited pal, "Devil Doll is short and bubbly, with a cute grin, button eyes, a big yellow head, and horns. He's enthusiastic and outgoing, grins compulsively at the thought of mayhem, and rides a growling Harley-Davidson. He can breath fire – and fireworks – and he's a cool dancer. He's got lots of energy, and can never get enough of rocking and rapping with Radiskull." The initial episode, wildly popular (and noticed on Metafilter), soon had its follow-ups:

Hella Weenie (Atom), in which the pair bring justice to a Ned Flanders-esque neighbor with a cruel streak;
Radiskull Hate Snow (Atom), in which Devil Doll and Candy Angel first meet (Mefi);
Love 'n' Stuff (Atom), in which the pair independently pine after each other in Hades Minor and Heaven Academy #999, respectively (Mefi);
Angel This is Wrong (Atom), in which Candy navigates from Heaven into the ether in-between the universes, warned off by the Rappin' Dishonorable Judge Radiskull;
Wicked Nikki (Atom), in which Nikki the Succubus attempts to corrupt Devil Doll and Candy finds Hades locked tight;
Radiskull's Cave (Atom), in which Devil Doll tries to make his buddy okay with his angelic crush; and
Candy in Hell (Atom), the last produced episode of the series, in which Nikki learns that marshmallows and cotton candy aren't to be taken for granted, but manages to get in one last act of malice.

The series ended up having a hugely creative fan base. A.V. Phibes' "I was a Teenage (Give or Take 8 Years) Radiskull & Devil Doll Addict" is one of the more amusing, but there were also handmade dolls, cosplay, remixes, artwork, and tattoos. The series had a sad end in real life: when dot-coms crashed, Macromedia laid Sparks off in the summer of 2001 along with almost the entire staff of AtomShockwave at the time – but, as Radiskull and Devil Doll was created by Sparks while Senior Designer there, the company owned the copyright to Radiskull and Devil Doll – and proved spectacularly unwilling to work with Sparks on somehow releasing to or cooperating with him in continuing the series, or even getting out the partially completed ninth episode, "Hot Date." USA Today briefly touched upon Sparks' story in a 2002 news story. (In fact, Sparks receives no money even from the book, unless you buy it at his site and he gets the small Amazon referral fee.) Sparks released a music video preview for what was supposed to be his next endeavour, Dickie & Jackie, but nothing else was seen of the series. Sparks had a brief flurry of activity on three online repositories at the beginning of this year – Post-It Note Art by Joe Sparks, his blog, and Sparkmical – but none have been updated since February 2009. Fans interested in the back end of things might be interested in Sparks' production notes for Episodes 1 & 2 and Episode 3, as well as some notes on how he works. Now, ahem, it's time to kick it with some Sparks-supplied Radiskull and Devil Doll MP3 jams (YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!):

"I Am the Radiskull, I Will Kill You One By One",
"Very Bad",
"We Roll and Rock",
"Candy Candy Baby",
"Angel, This is Wrong",
"Bring On the Pain!",
"Rock Heart", and
"Gift from God".

(For some retro nostalgia, check out the "preloading notes" before each video, in which you're told to avoid 8-bit color if possible!)

JERRY JACKSON OMG

Beautiful Screaming Lady — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:59:26 -0800

OMG JERRY JACKSONS WEBSIGHTS THE WEBSIGHT OF POPELAR ANIMATER JERRY JACKSON

HI I'M ON METAFILTER AND I CAN OVERTHINK A WORLD OF BEANS

JHarris — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:32:04 -0800

Tales of the Beanworld ("A most peculiar comic book experience") recently resumed publication after a long hiatus. It's a strange and abstract mix of Native American mythology and culture, with a strong ecological focus, into an wonderfully charming cosmology. While it certainly invites, uh, overthinking, it's also entertaining on a purely casual level.
A sample short Beanworld story is on the Dark Horse Comics Myspace page.
If you have questions about it, the BeanWeb just may have answers, along with illustrations from the comics. There is now a Beanworld Wiki to supplement it, and creator Larry Marder keeps a blog where he talks about things bean.

Okay, now that it's properly introduced... the real point of this post is to link to this awesome Beanworld Flash cartoon, animated by Fashionbuddha and with music by They Might Be Giants!

Where the wild things are

FunkyHelix — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:28:29 -0800

Build your wild self using a flash game from the New York zoos and aquarium and the wildlife conservation society. Just something cute for Tuesday.

Dove of Brutality!

thirteenkiller — Mon, 07 May 2007 06:00:47 -0800

Bible Fight [Flash game]

Grandpa had become a mean thing

JHarris — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:31:59 -0800

I Am Babycakes , created by Creased Comics' Brad Neely (who did that "Washington" video seen some time ago), is the good-natured, incredibly dark musings of a man-child who lives with his dad/wizard, roleplays ("I had described to my friends the most beautiful demon"), writes songs, and fills both his diary, and his days, with emptiness. Alternating funny, then sad, then cool as one turns it over in the mind. Or I think so anyway. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 (All links NSFW due to language.)

Flash cartoons

tellurian — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 16:04:01 -0800

Magic Butter produce NSFW flash cartoons. Don't believe me? Have a look at Miss Muffy and the Muff Mob - Lubin' Da Hole Wit 'Sco or Porkchops - Approaching Pork Horizon (Part Two).

Plus I'm hungry for shit.

Citizen Premier — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 01:38:42 -0800

If you're sick of random, crude, sloppy , incredibly NSFW cartoons featuring juvenile humor, you'll love Sick Animation!

I feel fresh as a bagel!

Ufez Jones — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:37:35 -0800

Homestar Runner is 10 years old. (flash)

Dad's Home and Walk Smash Walk

jonson — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 07:20:53 -0800

Sakupen is the online name of a musician/artist who made two of my favorite flash music animations (warning: first link goes to artist's myspace page w/audio). The first one, "Dad's Home" is a mayhem filled coffee buzz set to Cab Calloway's Reefer Man, and the second, "Walk, Smash, Walk" is about a robot whose job is to Walk and then Smash and then Walk some more. Wildly different styles, but both are captivating; large versions of both cartoons can be viewed here.

Kate and Jack's cartoon beach party

LordSludge — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:41:17 -0800

LOSTed -- Flash Friday (you don't *really* need the language pack)

Poor He-Man

armoured-ant — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 08:34:20 -0800

Where are the toons now? ~~Friday~~ Saturday Flash Fun. Probably NSFW.

A New Bitey

mygothlaundry — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:55:33 -0800

There's a new Bitey of Brackenwood cartoon. (flash, music) Ex Disney cartoonist Adam Phillips has taken flash animation to a new level in works like The Hitchhiker and the two previous Bitey of Brackenwood shorts, available here, both of which have won numerous awards, including TGSNT and Flashforward.

If he buys a car, he's doomed to be victim of chaos, traffic and mechanics stinginess.

painquale — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 23:52:57 -0800

Neuro is a new Flash cartoon by Bruno Bozzetto, an Italian animator most well-known for creating the character Mr. Rossi. In 1965, Bozzetto was the only Italian to create and produce an animated feature film in over 20 years. Check out the rest of his excellent site, which includes a bio, clips from his older work, and some more recent Flash cartoons. I recommend the short Europe and Italy.

Bush vs. Kerry Flash Cartoon (like we needed another)

Veritron — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 14:54:53 -0800

Yet another political flash cartoon! Anyone else getting tired of hearing the same bland crap about the upcoming election? This flash cartoon somehow manages to be funny anyway, even though its subject has been done to death. It's brilliant, and definitely worth a look.

Sweet Italian Flash

misteraitch — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 03:20:00 -0800

Naive is a beautifully-presented site featuring some cool games and cartoons. Note: Flash. Via akihi.

Ummm....

XQUZYPHYR — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 05:43:21 -0800

Take just about every anime/Japanese culture cliche you can think of, and make it into a Flash cartoon with occasional French subtitles. You might get something like this.

Going Back To Jive County

skylar — Tue, 02 Dec 2003 01:51:54 -0800

Attack of the Disco Furball! The cute animated character has become something of a staple for alterno-pop videos - from the runaway milk carton in Blur's Coffee and TV to the big-nosed moper in Moby's Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad. But new heights of weirdness are reached on this Flash video called Jive County which shows a be-stetsoned one-legged bundle of hair bouncing to an electro beat.

Reluctant Vegetarianism And Meat-Eating, Combined!

MiguelCardoso — Wed, 05 Nov 2003 09:09:01 -0800

Wannabe Vegetarians Or Hypocritical Carnivores? Do you enjoy eating meat but hate the way it reaches your table? (More inside.)

I Love Egg

mr_crash_davis — Sat, 04 Oct 2003 22:06:11 -0800

I Love Egg

Russian DJ Flash Mixer

mr_crash_davis — Fri, 26 Sep 2003 14:56:21 -0800

From Russia, with love.

hit it

johnny7 — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 10:28:37 -0800

Killer cartoon. Yet to get through all episodes.It's a class act so far. (via coolios & flash)

schlaager — Fri, 21 Jun 2002 09:39:15 -0800

Happy Friday. Warning: morbid Flash cartoon. Morto the Magician. Via Everlasting Blort.

aj100 — Fri, 05 Apr 2002 11:50:54 -0800

The new oddtodd cartoon I don't think that anyone has posted this yet. Oddtodd has released his newest cartoon. Man, I love that guy. He is da tits. (For those of you unfamiliar with that saying that means he is good/great/cool... you know, da tits.)

Potsy — Thu, 04 Oct 2001 18:33:55 -0800

Find the terrorist. If only things like this got forwarded as much as that Gordon Sinclair piece.