Fleen: The Awkward Christmas Dinner Of Our Obligation To Existence

Dammit, Stop With The News Today Already

I’ve got a job, people. Anyway, Scott Kurtz has major news today — PvP is going animated. This is one of those ‘value-added’ deals that digital comics are capable of, one of the things you hear about all the time at San Diego panels, but don’t often see carried through to completion. In this case, it will involve traditional 2D animation (not Flash), with production and a voice-acting cast from Blind Ferret Entertainment (which is the shop of Ryan Sohmer, of Least I Could Do fame). From the esteemed Mr Kurtz:

Ryan [Sohmer] called on three separate occasions to talk to me about making a PvP animated seires.

And three times I said â€œNo way!â€?

Saying â€œnoâ€? has been my default answer to anyone inquiring about animating PvP. Over the last five years Iâ€™ve had a lot of offers and inquiries from people in show-business, and had a total of four different representatives pitching PvP around Hollywood at various times. But, as always, I would rather bypass the normal route and do it myself. I want to retain ownership, start small and grow big. I want to learn the process. You canâ€™t do that in Hollywood. But, I can do that with Blind Ferret. It just took Ryan a couple months to finally convince me of it.

Kris [Straub] and I are co-producers and co-writers on PvP The Series. We write the scripts, determine the direction, look and pace of the show. This is an incredible opportunity to learn the process, get our hands messy, work with animators, direct voice actors, learn script writing, work post-production and soundâ€¦all of it. This is a chance to take PvP and make a whole new animal with it, without having to sell it away to a faceless studio who doesnâ€™t really understand it.

An opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime; how could we not take it?

PvP: The Animated Series is going to be a subscription feature, and it’s going to depend in large part on pre-orders to pay for all the animators and voice actors and production. Pricing for a year’s subscription will be $19.95 until January 1st, then jump to $29.95; the program is due to launch on February 1st.

Sight unseen, it’s too soon to determine if this is going to be a roaring success, a noble failure, or something in between, but given the pedigree of those involved, I’m tending more towards the “success” end of the scale at this time. We at Fleen will do our best to bring you interviews with the principals, and keep you up on the progress of the show.

Meh.

I agree.

I wouldn’t pay for it with CAD, and even though I like PvP a lot better, I probably don’t like it enough to pay for 4 minute animations, professional or not.

I would be more willing to buy this if it were on a service such as iTunes, and I could pay for each episode as I got them.

Sorry for being the first one to state the obvious, but isn’t it kind of weird that — after diging into CAD for creating a subscription-based online animated series produced by Blind Ferret — Kurtz is now creating a subscription-based… online animated series… produced by Blind Ferret?

Maybe changing your mind isn’t the death-knell of integrity it once was.

[…] I’ve been on vacation and part of it has been avoiding the computer. Tonight though I saw a Comixpedia artical that linked to a Fleen write-up that mentioned a Blamination thingy. Ok jumping to the meat of the thing. […]

You’re right, Nic! It’s completely innocuous, like switching over from apple juice to orange juice. (After calling everyone in the orange industry a whore.)

It’s only whore-ish when everyone else does it.

Addendum to clarify to Sam: while my initial reaction was the same as yours, I’ve taken issue with stuff Kurtz has done in the past, so I’m trying doubly hard to be fair. If that makes sense.

Yeah, that is weirdly hypocritical in a way. I thought I remembered him dissing the animation as well? I like how he spun not getting syndicated in the fact that he says he made a choice in the matter when every syndicate turned him down. And same message here, saying he’d rather have an animation on his own and not through a corporate hollywood thing like Nicklelodean or Cartoon Network, where obviously he says he had people shop things around, but no one was buying.

Good luck with that though.

I’m still wondering what this all means for Blamimation.

I don’t see it that way, Ideahead. I remember Scott saying that he couldn’t get the syndicates to agree to the terms he needed, where he would retain certain rights. That’s different than being flat-out rejected. And he said that he would hope for a major television deal, except that it seemed to much to think about right now.

I’m not interested in finding out if he is contradicting what he said, I know he’s outspoken and seems overly critical sometimes, but that’s not really my worry. I’m just saying it’s not something I will very likely spend money on.

I don’t think it is a crime against humanity or anything. I just thought it was strange.

I hope it turns out well! I liked the voice actors. Not really sold on the animation yet, but maybe it will improve in the final production. Combining Kurtz’s “flat” character designs with such smooth animated movements and perspective turns looks a bit bizarre in places… I kind of wonder if they would work better with a more abrupt animation style like, say, Fairly Oddparents or the Clerks cartoon.

In the Q&A thread on his forums, Kurtz has basically said, “Yep, hypocrite, my bad!” So I think he isn’t completely trying to spin it as an entirely different situation.

While it would be classy to see him more publicly recognize it, I don’t think it too likely to happen – or important enough to really matter in the fate of the project itself.

I am interested to see if they can pull of the transition from comic to animation. It won’t be easy – the sample clearly shows they are still trying to get the rhythm down – but if they do pull it off, the results could be really impressive.

“In the Q&A thread on his forums, Kurtz has basically said, â€œYep, hypocrite, my bad!â€?”

Omg, that’s the first time this has happened? Right?

Speaking of which, the whole “hypocrite”-angle was the first thing that entered my mind when I saw the announcement, and thus I tried to find some old school-terrific google material to doublecheck if my memory served me right.. but I can’t find Kurtz’ post where he flames Tim anywhere.

Can it be that he altered a post that’s in the past, ain’t that illegal or at least a sin? Will this have an effect on the space continium-thingie? :)

[…] Interviews, Gary, Multimedia Editor’s note: Been a busy year for Scott Kurtz, what with the Eisner, the convention travel, and the killer revamp on the PvP site. And Kris Straub’s released four books, a CD, and a new website. So how else to deal with all those demands on your time other than diving into co-producing and co-writing a new animated series for the web? Kurtz and Straub were kind enough to take the time to answer some questions about the upcoming series, how to use Flash to good effect, and Scott’s Dad. Fleen: So, an animated PvP; you guys dipped your toes into these waters about a year ago. What do you see as the advantage of working with Blind Ferret Entertainment over doing more of the Blamimations? […]

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Dammit, Stop With The News Today Already

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