Original Cartoon Title Cards from Frederator Studios ©2011, JoeJack Inc. All rights reserved.
ChalkZone, The Fairly Oddparents, Fanboy & Chum Chum, My Life as a Teenage Robot , Oh Yeah! Cartoons, and Random! Cartoons , TM & © 2011, Viacom Intl., Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, TM & ©2011, Bolder Media, Inc. and Starz. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, What A Cartoon!, TM & © 2011, Cartoon Network. A Time Warner Warner Company. Company. Used by kind permission. The Meth Mintue 39, Nite Fite, Ape Escape Cartoons , ©2011, Bellport Cartoons Company, Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. Frederator Studios and the Frederator Fredbot robot are registered trademarks of JoeJack, Inc. All rights reserved. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. Cover design & illustration by Carlos Ramos Frederator Fredbot robot designed by Arlen Schumer/Dynamic Duo Studio ISBN-10: 1456353888 / ISBN-13: 978-1456353889
First edition, March 2011, Frederator Books
The unconsidered art
of the cartoon title card.
For almost a century, the art o the cartoon title card has not been disparaged, disregarded, or dismissed. It has been completely ignored. And by the 1970s it had almost completely disappeared. So, it was no easy task to fnd someone who could write the introduction to this book o Frederator Studios’ title cards. Maybe on the internet there was someone with a writer’s writer’s eye who had a ew choice words to say about decades o cool illustration and graphic design? Nothing. iv
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There are several places that display beautiul vintage cartoon cards, usually or flmographic or historical purposes. But, or all the pages devoted to critical analysis and display o another pop culture icon, the movie poster, there wasn’t a ull paragraph o consideration that turned up about the kind o art we’ve got in this book. Well, I’m no art historian, so there won’t be any scintillating s cintillating examinations here. Just let me point out that it might be worth checking out the dozens o talented artists and creators who have shared their work with us. All sorts o styles are represented, rom homage to the one and two color cards we saw in the silents, to sumptuous, nuanced illustrations that are hard hard to appreciate appreciate in the 10 seconds they’re usually displayed on television. Breadth Brea dth o crat is also demonstrated here, rom simple typography, pencil on paper, computer generated images, even paper cut outs. Within minutes o ruminating about cartoons or the frst time --proessionally, that is; they probably started dominating my mind as soon as my parents got their frst TV-- there was no choice. The model or my productions needed to be the great shorts during the golden age o the early ear ly,, mid-20th century: Looney Tunes, the Disney’s, the MGM’s, even the frst TV shows o Hanna-Barbera. And there was no joking about the template. Our flms would hew as close as possible to these classics rom ront to back. Beautiul titles with the studio logo, character name, episode name, seven minutes o Frederator Studios
squash & stretch hilarity, hilarity, and “The End.” No deviations, please. It took a ew years to get anyone to agree that we could even make these kinds o cartoons (thank you kindly, Scott Sassa and Ted Turner). And, among the creative posse making the frst 48 shorts there wasn’t one push back about the idea o the title cards, they loved everything cartoon. It helped that I was the president o the studio, but that really had nothing to do with it. The talent we’d lined up were champing at the bit to reintroduce --no, reinvent-- the very idea o cartoons, since the production industry and the networks had almost completely abandoned the orm almost 30 years beore. Disney had long seemed embarrassed by their ‘cartoon’ roots, but even the 1980 revival o the amous Warner studio couldn’t admit their strength and named itsel “W “Warner arner Bros. Animation.” Our team trained themselves in a business that had turned its back on their love, but they were undeterred. When we announced our complete dedication to the orm, they lined up in orce and embraced every aspect o our program, eventually creating a tidal wave o success that made cartoons the dominant orm o animation throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The networks were another story. It’s air to say that we’ve had resistance to title cards or almost every one one o the almost 20 series that have been sprung rom our three shorts series o the last 15 years. It's never the budget issues, which would have been my frst arguments against them, i I’d been vi
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so inclined; it is not inexpensive to make between 50 and 150 o illustrative, fnished artwork per season. No, unortunately unortunately,, there's probably a ailure o imagination. “Other series don’t do it.” Cartoon title cards indeed seem to be an unconsidered art, at least everywhere else. Everywhere but but here. This art is no longer longer ignored, so please east your eyes or as long as you might wish. I guarantee some gorgeous rewards. Fred Seibert New York, 2011 Fred Seibert founded Frederator Studios in 1998.
From "Mind the Kitty," created by Anne Walker, for Random! for Random! Cartoons Frederator Studios
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What A Cartoon! 1995-1998
Created by Fred Seibert Title card art rom video grabs or cartoons by Ralph Bakshi, Miles Thompson, David Feiss, John John R. Dilworth, Genndy Tartakovsky, Tartakovsky, Joe Barbera, Pat Ventura, Butch Hartman, Michael Ryan, Bill Hanna, Bruno Bozzetto, John McIntyre, Van Van Partible, Seth MacFarlane, Rob Renzetti, Craig McCraken, Robert Alvarez, Joey Ahlbum
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Oh Yeah! Cartoons 1998-2002 Created by Fred Seibert Title card art rom video grabs or cartoons by Seth MacFarlane, Carlos Ramos, Mike Bell, Miles Thompson, Bill Burnett, Larry Huber, Pat Ventura, Ventura, Rob Renzetti, Dave Wasson, Byron Vaughns, Harvey Kurtzman, Vincent Waller, Tim Biskup, Butch Hartman, Steve Marmel, Antoine Guilbaud, John Eng
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The Fairly OddParents 2001-2010
Created by Butch Hartman Title card art by Andy Suriano, Bob Boyle, Teri Teri Shikasho, Dan Chessher, George Goodchild, Ernie Gilbert, Gordon Hammond, Nadia Vurbenova-Mouri, Honore Gauthier, George Taylor, Frank Rocco, Holly Kim, Mike Dougherty, Kristin Donner
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ChalkZone 2002-2005
Created by Bill Burnett & Larry Huber Title card art by Guy Vasilovich Vasilovich
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My Life as a Teenage Robot 2003-2006
Created by Rob Renzetti Art direction by Alex Kirwan Title card art byStudios Joseph Holt Frederator 57
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Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! 2006-2010
Created by Bob Boyle Title card art by Xxxxxx Steve Xxxxxxx, Daye, James Xxxx Xxxxx, Burks, Paige Pooler, Xxx Don Xxxxx, Fuller, Xxx Bob Xxxxxx Boyle Frederator Studios 71
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Random! Cartoons 2008-2009
Created by Fred Seibert Title card art by Adam Muto, Doug TenNapel, TenNapel, G. Brian Reynolds, Russ Harris, Lincoln Peirce, Niki Yang, Bill Plympton, Pendleton Ward, Paul Linsley
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The Meth Minute 39 & Nite Fite 2007-2008
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Ape Escape Cartoons 2009
Title card art by Karl Toerge
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Fanboy & Chum Chum 2009-2010
Created by Eric Robles Title card art by Steve Lambe, Chad Woods, Patrick Morgan, Roman Laney, Eric Robles
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Adventure Time 2010
Created by Pendleton Ward Title card art by Phil Rynda, Paul Linsley, Nick Jennings
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Rejected art for "The for "The Enchiridion!"
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From "Samsquatch," created by Adam Muto for Random! for Random! Cartoons
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From "Thom Cat," created by Mike Gray for Random! Cartoons
