What am I becoming

     It's likely dawning on you that I never shut the fuck up about cartoons.  I'm sure most of the people I know start rolling their eyes now when I start, because they know I'm about to get very insistent that they start watching some show they've never heard of and probably won't like.  Believe me, I get it.  There are lots of non-animated shows to watch, and some of them are even worth watching.  Game of Thrones?  Some of the best television there has ever been.  It doesn't even need my usual sprinkling of butts and guts, it's already jam-packed with them.  So believe me, I'm not saying there are no good shows that aren't animated.  I'm just saying, why not draw some butts.

     Last time, I talked about cartoons borne of the internet.  This time, I'm going to drone on about traditional broadcast cartoons.  I'm even going to try to keep myself under control a little bit and not bore you to death.  Let's get started.

The Venture Brothers - Remember the old Hanna-Barberra adventure cartoons? Johnny Quest, Herculoids, Space Ghost, etc etc.  This is a spoof of all the funnest elements of those.  It starts off as one-off episodes mocking the general theme, and turns into one of the most plot-heavy shows on t.v.  Of all the shows I try to convince people to watch, this is the most difficult.  It doesn't become excellent until about halfway through the first season and people these days don't have time for that kind of thing.  Whenever someone goes through the effort though, they're hooked.  There aren't a lot of shows I get antsy waiting for, but this tops the list.

Related shows -The Tick - The creators of Venture Bros cut their teeth working on this, and Ben Edlund himself has written a few episodes of Venture Bros.  It wouldn't be much of a stretch for both of these shows to take place in the same universe.

Archer - I might be a little biased towards this one.  I'm a giant fan of the 60's spy esthetic, and this show uses that as a backdrop for people to be sarcastic dicks to each other.  Adding to my bias is the fact that this show stars H. Jon Benjamin, who has ridden his exactly 1 voice to the top.  Similar to the Venture Brothers, actual plot points are secondary to people hanging out and shooting the shit on irrelevant topics.  I hate to describe the dialogue as "smart" because it makes me sound like I'm all sophisticated and above low-brow humour.  I'm not.  I just enjoy when people put this much goddam effort into making me laugh.

Related shows -Frisky Dingo - Previous to Archer, series creator Adam Reed made Frisky Dingo.  It's very similar to Archer in structure and style, with a backdrop of superheroes and villains rather than spies.  Everyone is still a smug dick.
                         Sealab 2021 - Adam Reed's first show.  Like Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, this show is made from recycled footage of old Hanna-Barberra cartoons.  It's "random" humour done right, with nary a mention of weasels or cheese to be found.

Bob's Burgers - Wow, a funny show on Fox? What the fuck happened, did someone really high up die? If you're sick to fucking death of Seth Macfarlane, you'll be happy to know Bob's Burgers is the exact opposite of what he makes.  Once again starring Jon Benjamin, as well as a slew of very funny people, show creator Loren Bouchard gives us a show that is reminiscent of King of the Hill and early Simpsons; genuinely funny and weirdly heartfelt.  I really hope this show doesn't tank like The Simpsons did.

Related shows - Home Movies - Further riding the Jon Benjamin train, this was a wonderful show that is the spiritual predecessor of Bob's Burgers.  Not Loren Bouchard's first show, but definitely one of his best.  Also starring Brendan Small, who can occasionally be found in The Venture Brothers.

                          Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist - I don't know if this is the first Loren Bouchard cartoon, but it's the oldest I know of.  This was on it's way to becoming a huge success until South Park kind of pulled the rug out from under them.  Nothing against South Park, it's a funny show, but the fact that this show isn't more popular is a travesty.

                           Metalocalypse - From Brendan Small, this show isn't directly related to Bob's Burgers, but Small has worked with Bouchard enough that there is a large stylistic crossover.  Once again, my love for shows where characters ignore the plot and talk about dumb shit shines though.

    Ok, that's enough of my running my fucking mouth.  I did some more drawing.  I was trying to push further down the path of drawing gross dudes, but at some point I think I flipped over and now everything is just uncomfortably sexual.  Have a look, you'll see what I mean;

     This isn't my best drawing, I was trying to do a quick gesture drawing and add detail afterwards.  Believe it or not, though, this is a pretty accurate depiction of how your character in Altered Beast kicks.  I never figured out why such a jacked up dude would kick like a little girl, but I guess who would call him on it?  After that I decided to try slowing down and make things look a little better.

     I always figured that grabbing a power up would feel really good.  Apparently I can't draw that without making things awkward.  After this I just said fuck it and went buck wild.

     You can't tell me those aren't fantastic manboobs.  I'm still having problems with hands but hopefully those glorious floppers are distracting you from that.

     I'm going to try to make things more gross and less sexual.  I don't know what the hell happened.  I'm sorry you had to go through that.  I could have just not posted them, but how honest would that be? "Hi I'm Nick Woods I never draw fat men deriving inappropriate pleasure from surges of power." LIAR

     Until next time bro-dawgs!