Why is John K Stuff open to only invited readers now

Post by **Tyler_Legrand** » October 23rd, 2009, 10:08 am

https://www.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogsp ... pot.com%2F

What could they be plotting

I have a sad.

Post by **eddievalient** » October 23rd, 2009, 11:02 am

John K is a jerk, so I wouldn't sweat it. His cartoons are terrible, but he thinks they're all masterpieces. He personifies what's wrong with the American animation industry right now: an overabundance of low quality, poorly written crap, and I'm not talking about movies, only what's on television. Good TV cartoons are rare these days (Wolverine and the X-Men, Clone Wars, The Brave and the Bold and-possibly-Phinias and Ferb being among the very few good ones). The 80s and 90s were loaded with good cartoons and many of them still hold up today but that level of quality just isn't there anymore. It's very sad.

Post by **EricJ** » October 23rd, 2009, 7:13 pm

eddievalient wrote:John K is a jerk, so I wouldn't sweat it. His cartoons are terrible, but he thinks they're all masterpieces. He personifies what's wrong with the American animation industry right now: an overabundance of low quality, poorly written crap, and I'm not talking about movies, only what's on television.

As has been said before, John K. is to animation what Tim Burton is to film, and not in the good way:
Someone who became so struck on their one-note goofball-eccentric style, they developed a private smitten following of fanboys who believed they were watching something "innovative" just because it shocked the teacher...And now thoroughly believes his own cult-of-personality publicity to believe he's an "expert" on his own profession's background, even though his own personal tastes seem to be limited to the easy, overexposed cheap-culty stuff.

Haven't read the blogs, but I'm guessing either he'd had an influx of comment-response haters after the latest "I'm going to remake Bugs to look like those wacky Bob Clampetts!" project, or else was expecting one and pre-emptively reinforcing the battlements before going forward...
That he decided to velvet-rope the club to those who think He Can Do No Wrong, is...no surprise, following the Burton pattern.

Post by **eddievalient** » October 24th, 2009, 12:10 am

The difference is that Tim Burton has actually made some entertaining movies (Beetlejuice, The Corpse Bride, Big Fish and Batman to name a few) while John K never has.

Post by **Vernadyn** » October 30th, 2009, 1:50 pm

There's a world of difference between the attitudes of John K and Tim Burton toward the field they work in. I have not met either man personally, but after reading John K's blog in the past and listening to Burton's commentaries as well as reading his interview book, I can find very little similarity in the two's views of their fellow workers and their opinion of their own work.

As for John K's blog, I read it the day before it became private, and the comments to his latest post seemed even more fawning than usual (if such a thing were possible), so it's puzzling that he closed it when he did.

Post by **Tyler_Legrand** » October 31st, 2009, 3:02 am

Actually, it's open again now. Hoo.

Post by **Meg** » November 2nd, 2009, 9:30 pm

Ah, good. While I'm no fan of his bitter attitude and find his animations totally unfunny, he IS a talented cartoonist and I've actually learned a lot from his posts about construction, color, and such.

Post by **Jeroen** » November 3rd, 2009, 6:57 am

I don't know in what post I read it but it seems he split his original blog up into 2 seperate blogs.
The more "extreme" visions will still be hidden away from public view.

Personally, while I only agree 40% of the time with what he has to say, I love his blog.
He knows the craft and has some interesting views & tidbits on old cartoons.

The guy is just a little too passionate and frustrated with the world of today, you can clearly see that.
I can't blame him, he hasn't had a decent job to vent his creativity in years!! He did however find a format to vent his frustrations a.k.a, his blog.

He is pretty much "reduced" to a teacher, a job I'm sure he didn't expect to be having yet in this time of his life.
The guy just wants to make cartoons and be left alone, sadly the world does not operate that way and cash doesn't grow on trees yet. (as far as I know, if it does...please share

)

I've always loved Ren & Stimpy and some of the other works he has produced, he lost me with adult party cartoon though...he took that one over the top and then decided to smash it with a giant hammer.

Post by **Ben** » November 3rd, 2009, 7:48 am

Cash doesn't grow on trees, but I've seen plenty of cash cows milked dry.

Jeroen has summed up what I've expressed in some reviews before, that JohnK certainly knows his stuff but, like so many creative artists, might not have the business sense or sensibility to make his work accessible for a mainstream audience. Then again, that's what makes someone like him an artist with an independent voice and not a cog in a bigger (though mainstream) machine.

I can't say I can value his more provocative output since the early Ren & Stimpy days, but the guy knows what he speaks about and does so with an infectious enthusiasm. That it sounds like he sometimes slips into rants is unfortunate.

Post by **estefan** » November 3rd, 2009, 8:15 am

I'm a big fan of Ren & Stimpy and I find it absolutely hilarious and creative. The Ripping Friends? Not so much.

As for his opinion, I don't typically agree with what he has to say (particarly his hatred towards Roger Rabbit, Animaniacs and other Spielberg-produced toons). Though, I have read his blog a number of times and a couple of bits I did funny, mainly one blog where he talked about a meeting he had with DreamWorks execs.

Post by **EricJ** » November 3rd, 2009, 11:06 am

estefan wrote:I'm a big fan of Ren & Stimpy and I find it absolutely hilarious and creative. The Ripping Friends? Not so much..

Even R&S had only two or three episodes ("Stimpy's Invention", and either pick of the Space episodes) that captured what the series was "supposed" to be--
The rest just flailed about indulgently like one of its post-Spongebob imitators.

Like Daria, it tends to attract fans who're more sentimental for a decade (and the neato-giggles of seeing it for the first time), than any actual pining for the show itself...If you really want the individual shows that badly, they're on disk; let it go.

Post by **Tyler_Legrand** » November 7th, 2009, 5:02 am

I beg to differ! R&S has quite a few memorable moments (that I actually like more than Stimpy's Invention/Space Madness):

- Stimpy's monologue about his nipples
- Ren's monologue in Sven Hoëk
- Anthony's dad's eerie interrogation
- Kowalski's demands for meat
- George Liquor's discipline training
- etc...

Coincidentally all those moments are only in the first season.

November 7th, 2009, 5:16 pm

John K is one of my favorite cartoonists, heck I am even friends with the guy. Sure I said a few bad things about him but you got to know that the guy has talent, and I mean good talent. Although my friends call him "cartoon killer" personally these words should go to Seth Macfarlene's face instead of John's.

Post by **EricJ** » November 7th, 2009, 9:17 pm

Tyler_Legrand wrote:I beg to differ! R&S has quite a few memorable moments (that I actually like more than Stimpy's Invention/Space Madness):

And the Log commercial--Nice to have some actual bit of experiential 50's-60's retro spoof as reference point, otherwise most of us wouldn't have had a royal flying clue what the heck Killer thought he was doing.

OriginalGagBonkers wrote:John K is one of my favorite cartoonists, heck I am even friends with the guy. Sure I said a few bad things about him but you got to know that the guy has talent, and I mean good talent. Although my friends call him "cartoon killer" personally these words should go to Seth Macfarlene's face instead of John's.

No, John (Cartoon-)K(iller) directly or indirectly subjected us to the "Lost Toon Generation" of the entire 90's, long before Seth's Medically-Diagnosed-ADD Generation got it hands on it--
To the point that any animators working for kids, funny and cable now think they "have" to go for the kitschy quasi-retro John K. look, even if that's not what the point of the show was supposed to be...Literally as if they've forgotten why they'd started doing it in the first place.

Looking at "The Mighty B's", or "Fairly Oddparents", it's not as if someone was deliberately trying to conjure up a style or a decade, but more as, "What, y'mean there another style?

"
If it wasn't for the Anime Invasion arriving at the end of the 90's, discerning cartoon fans would've been permanently sold down the toilet fifteen years ago.

Post by **Meson** » November 8th, 2009, 11:18 pm

That's because John K's 90's stuff made money, and companies love copying things that make money. It's less risky that way. Things are changing though (mostly because anime made oney once), but yeah.