Holiday drawing from John K's blog, published on 7 December 2015.
John Kricfalusi, often shortened to "John K.", is a Canadian animation director, most famous as the creator of the TV series 'The Ren & Stimpy Show' (1991-1995), which gained both controversy and a cult following. Kricfalusi has worked within the classic animation tradition, with a strong emphasis on cartoony comedy and physically impossible gags. At the same time, he subverted this retro style with absurd plot lines, gross-out comedy and mentally unstable characters. In the 1990s, 'Ren & Stimpy' was the bold and experimental animated television show that influenced many similar series. It also inspired a series of 1992-1996 comic books, published by Marvel, with which Kricfalusi had no personal involvement. Later in his career, Kricfalusi was a pioneer in Internet animation, but none of his later cartoons ever matched the success of 'Ren & Stimpy'. Kricfalusi also had a brief career in comics. In 1981, he made a one-page 'Flintstones' parody, published in Weirdo magazine. Between 1995 and 1997, animators from his Spümcø studio also drew four comic books based on Kricfalusi's animated characters, which were often scripted by him. His style and particularly his vision about cartoony animation has inspired many artists in his wake.
Early life
John Kricfalusi was born in 1955 in Chicoutimi in the Canadian province of Québec. His father, Michael Kricfalusi (1929-2020), was of Ukrainian descent and worked for the National Air Force. Stationed in Belgium and Germany, the Kricfalusi family lived in these countries for a while, before returning to Canada in 1962. By all accounts, Kricfalusi's father was a conservative and strict disciplinarian with a severe masculinity complex. He submitted his children to very specific rules, including what kind of spoon, knife or fork they should use during meals. If they didn't live up to his standards, he would yell at them or beat them. Whenever his father was enraged, Kricfalusi shut himself off mentally, observing his dad's facial expressions and mannerisms. He noticed that during these tantrums, his father visibly looked emotionally conflicted and frustrated. Sometimes, he could barely hold back his tears. In interviews, Kricfalusi explained that his grandfather from his father's side was a priest and even more authoritarian. Having lived through harsh times, he valued hard work, responsibility and discipline essential to survival, principles Kricfalusi's father inherited. He was worried that his own children would turn into "wimps". When John Kricfalusi was 11, his father hid a stack of Hugh Hefner's Playboys in his son's bedroom out of fear that "he'd become a faggot." Kricfalusi later reflected that his initial reaction was to throw them away, but as a horny teen, he couldn't bring himself to do this. For most of his teenage years, he had no clue where these nudie magazines came from and so he lived in constant fear that his dad might discover them. It wasn't until years later when father Kricfalusi was a bit tipsy at night, that he finally confessed the truth.
Being a geeky boy, Kricfalusi was an easy target for bullies, but his graphic talent helped in fending them off. He drew dirty jokes and sexy women for them, while amusing other boys with naughty sex cartoons of popular TV characters, like The Flintstones. In high school, one of Kricfalusi's best friends was Michael MacDonald, who in adulthood became a successful stand-up comedian. While Kricfalusi adored comics and animated cartoons, his father didn't approve. Once the boy spent an entire summer on a self-made comic book, intended as a gift for his father. But when he gave it, his dad allegedly shouted: "You worked the whole summer on this?!", and threw it in the fire. Kricfalusi recalled that when Walt Disney died in 1966, his father saw this as a perfect moment for his 11-year old son to "grow up". The only animated series Michael Kricfalusi had a soft spot for was Bob McKimson's 'Foghorn Leghorn' and Kricfalusi cherished the moments they watched these specific cartoons as one of the few times they shared a bond.
It doesn't take a psychiatrist to observe how much of Kricfalusi's personality and work has been shaped by this upbringing. Many of his former colleagues have acknowledged his deeply repressed childhood traumas and father issues. Kricfalusi has always stressed out that he likes and respects his father. Like him, he also values craftsmanship, discipline and dedication very strongly, while refusing to compromise. At the same time, Kricfalusi acknowledged that he has a love-hate relationship with authority figures and "manly men". Considering them great sources for comedy, Anthony's father in the 'Ren & Stimpy' episode 'Anthony's Dad' (1993) and the character of George Liquor were directly inspired by Michael Kricfalusi. Ren's father in the episode 'Ren Seeks Help' (2003) combined Kricfalusi's grandfather and father into one person, and was actually voiced by his father. Additionally, many scenes in Kricfalusi's comics and cartoons feature characters who undergo mental breakdowns or fly into a raging fury. A lot of imagery is deliberately created to set readers or viewers off.
'Jimmy, the Turtle Food Collector', from the first Spumco Comic Book (Marvel Comics, 1995). Art credited to Jim Smith and John K.
Influences
Among John Kricfalusi's main graphic influences have been comic artists like Milt Gross, Milt Stein, George Lichty, Dick Shaw, George Clark, Gene Colan, Gene Hazelton, Jack Kirby, Marie Severin, Chester Gould, Al Capp, Jimmy Hatlo, Jack Cole, Walt Kelly, Johnny Hart, Brant Parker, Bud Blake, Charles M. Schulz, E.C. Segar, Virgil Partch, George Baker, Floyd Gottfredson, Carl Barks, Dale Messick, Howard Post, Dan Gordon, Gus Jekel, Billy DeBeck, Harvey Eisenberg, Mel Crawford, George Herriman, Cliff Sterrett, Hank Ketcham and the artists of Mad Magazine (particularly Harvey Kurtzman, Basil Wolverton, Paul Coker, Mort Drucker and Don Martin). In the field of animation, he looks up to Looney Tunes directors like Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Bob McKimson, Frank Tashlin and especially Bob Clampett, who is his personal hero. Kricfalusi admires Clampett's wackiness and experimental spirit. He allowed his animators to draw scenes in their own styles, rather than slavishly stay on model, something that Kricfalusi has tried to do in his own work as well. Kricfalusi was even largely responsible for making Clampett's cartoons more generally known among modern-day audiences. Kricfalusi additionally loves Pat Sullivan & Otto Messmer ('Felix the Cat'), Max Fleischer ('Betty Boop', 'Popeye') and Jay Ward ('Rocky & Bullwinkle'), but has defended less critically lauded animators too, like Ub Iwerks, Walter Lantz ('Woody Woodpecker'), early Hanna-Barbera (especially 'Tom & Jerry', 'Huckleberry Hound', 'Yogi Bear', 'The Flintstones' and 'The Jetsons'), Paul Terry ('Mighty Mouse', 'Heckle and Jeckle') and Bob McKimson. Kricfalusi has also praised specific animators who have worked for some of these directors, like Ed Benedict, Preston Blair, Bob Cannon, Ed Love, Grim Natwick, Rod Scribner and Jim Tyer.
To him, all these pioneers used impressive technical draftsmanship to create funny "cartoony" pictures. Kricfalusi feels that cartoons should concentrate on doing things which can't be duplicated in live-action. He prefers caricature, exaggeration, physically impossible gags and overall goofiness. In this regard, he also shows a soft spot for occasional "off-model" mistakes, so Kricfalusi has also expressed liking less technically elaborate animation like Terry Gilliam's 'Monty Python' cartoons and Gene Moss and Jim Thurman's 'Roger Ramjet' for their pure simple fun. He is less enthusiastic about Friz Freleng and Walt Disney, whose cartoons he considers to be too generic. Kricfalusi once named Disney a very conservative man who was ashamed of being a cartoonist, and as a result, Uncle Walt made all his cartoons more realistic and downplayed the cartooniness. Other studios copied this style and soon it spread to most of the industry. But Kricfalusi still considers all cartoons from the Golden Age of Animation to be miles ahead of anything made today and respects Freleng and Disney from a technical standpoint. Apart from the stellar graphic and dynamic style, Kricfalusi did praise Disney for organizing his ideas in a hierarchical pattern to make everything read clearly. He also admires his talent for haunting moods and atmosphere, or as John put it: "No one could touch Disney for those kinds of scenes, then or now."
Kricfalusi has always stressed the importance of looking beyond cartoons and comics for inspiration. He has equal admiration for illustrators like Al Hirschfeld, Frank Frazetta, Norm McCary, Hawley Pratt, Al White, Mel Crawford and Gustaf Tenggren. He also loves musicians like Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Frank Zappa, Hank Williams, The Louvin Brothers, Marty Robbins, Burl Ives and Johnny Winter. In terms of comedy, he has been influenced by The Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, Monty Python and the sitcoms 'The Honeymooners’ and 'All in the Family’. He has been equally fond of Hollywood actors with interesting facial expressions who chew the scenery while acting, like Pier Angeli, Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan and Peter Lorre (on whom the voice of Ren was based). Their highly emotive styles formed a perfect inspiration for John Kricfalusi's cartoon characters.
As most of his artistic heroes are from the past, John Kricfalusi's work has a retro look and feel. In his opinion, the medium went downhill in the mid-1960s, when individual skills and craftsmanship were abandoned for a more free-spirited approach that often devolved to sheer amateurism. Kricfalusi has disliked most modern-day comics and cartoons, since they are made by business executives and cartoonists who simply copy what they have absorbed on television since childhood. According to Kricfalusi, this had led to endless rehashing of the same plots, designs and clichés. In his own work, he always tried to avoid formulaic imagery, finding inventive ways to portray character's emotions instead of standard "on model" expressions. Since animation is a visual medium, Kricfalusi disregards scripts, because plots should unfold from characters' personalities. Therefore each of his cartoons were storyboarded, since animation is a visual medium.
Among the few modern-day cartoonists Kricfalusi admires are Peter Bagge, Bill Watterson, Jamie Hewlett, Jeff MacNelly and Berkeley Breathed. In terms of post-1960s animation, respects Ralph Bakshi, Terry Gilliam, Bill Plympton, Mike Judge ('Beavis and Butt-head', 'King of the Hill'), Genndy Tartakovsky ('Dexter's Laboratory', 'Samurai Jack'), David Feiss ('Cow & Chicken'), Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz), Stephen Hillenburg ('SpongeBob Squarepants'), Brad Caslor's animated short 'Get a Job' (1985), some Pixar films and some anime for their use of color and giving audiences occasional "cute girls" fan service. Kricfalusi also liked Matt Groening's 'The Simpsons' back in the early years of 'The Tracey Ullman Show' (1987-1989), when they were animated more crude but cartoony.
Character lay-outs for 'The Jetsons' episode 'Haunted Halloween' (1985). These expressive sketches were in fact used for the episode, albeit in a watered down version.
Early animation career
Between 1976 and 1979, John Kricfalusi studied at Sheridan College in Ontario, but dropped out. He felt the teachers focused too much on free experimentation, rather than practical graphical skills, and learned more from self study. In 1979, Kricfalusi started his professional animation career at the small Calico Creations studio, where he learned the basics of the animation process. While he enjoyed his time there, he soon moved up to bigger studios, namely Filmation (1979-?), DIC Entertainment and Hanna-Barbera (1984-1986). However, their factory mentality depressed him severely, and nobody seemed to enjoy their job. All cartoons were low-budget and strictly made as throwaway children's entertainment, typically based on some popular TV show, media star or toy franchise. Animators were required to stay "on model" and had to obey censors and network executives. There was no room for innovation, individuality or showing off skills. To him, the designs were sloppy and the animation wooden. To save costs, specific scenes and poses were constantly recycled. Up to that point, Kricfalusi had always believed that no good modern cartoons were made due to lack of talent. As he observed, the hard truth was that there was plenty of talent: people simply didn't get the chance to express it.
In 1981, Kricfalusi applied for a job at Ralph Bakshi's studio. In the previous decade, Bakshi had revolutionized animation by making films for mature audiences. While Kricfalusi didn't like Bakshi's graphic style, he did admire his streetwise attitude. Likewise, Bakshi enjoyed Kricfalusi's cartoony drawings and showed him a short he was working on, 'The Cigarette and the Weed', asking his honest opinion. Kricfalusi stated it was "the worst thing that I ever saw", whereupon Bakshi hired him because he admired his guts "and wanted to teach him a lesson". For about a month, Kricfalusi worked on a couple of animated shorts which Bakshi wanted to sell to film theaters, but the plan failed. Meanwhile, Kricfalusi and Bill Wray made a one-minute animated short, 'Ted Bakes One' (1981), about a chicken who tries to squeeze out an egg. They managed to sell the short to cable television, but otherwise it has remained largely under the radar.
Comic page drawn anonymously by Kricfalusi during his Hanna-Barbera days, and published in Weirdo #9 (Winter 1983).
Hanna-Barbera
In 1984, Kricfalusi was hired by Hanna-Barbera as a lay-out supervisor and designer. Feeling it was a dream come true, he said he would have been "perfectly happy to just draw their classic characters for the rest of his career." But unfortunately, just like at any other modern animation studio, he had to follow the company rules. Out of frustration, he and inker Bill Wray drew a one-page comic with The Flintstones, named 'Cave Nudes'. The page featured the familiar running gag where the mail boy throws a stone newspaper at Fred, knocking him down. Here, however, Fred is knocked out, while the paper boy has sex with Wilma, much to her delight. Kricfalusi signed the work with the pseudonym "Billy Bunting", and hung a copy on every wall of the studio's producers' wing as a way of rebellion. According to legend, all copies were collected by his colleagues in less than an hour. The comic gained wider notability when cartoonist Jeff John gave a copy to Peter Bagge, chief editor of the alternative comic magazine Weirdo, who published it in issue #9 (Winter 1983).
At Hanna-Barbera, Kricfalusi wanted to create designs for a reboot of 'The Jetsons’ and showed some of his ideas to Bob Singer, who was in charge of the series' animation. While Singer felt he had talent, he preferred to let him first work on 'The Smurfs’ (based on Peyo’s comic of the same name). Kricfalusi didn’t want to wait that long, especially since he hated 'The Smurfs'. He considered resigning, but then decided to go to the head office, in the hope of meeting either William Hanna, Joseph Barbera or the head animation director, Alex Lovy. As luck would have it, he saw Lovy, approached him and begged him to take a look at his portfolio. Lovy was so enthusiastic that he took Kricfalusi straight to Joseph Barbera, who shared the same sentiment. The next day, William Hanna called Kricfalusi and acknowledged that they all loved his designs, but felt bad about reassigning somebody from Singer's team so he could replace him. Instead, he made him another offer: he would train a lay-out crew of 'The Jetsons’ in Hanna-Barbera's sub-department in Tai Pei, South Korea, where most of the animation on the series was done. That way, he could still create the designs he wanted. Kricfalusi felt this was ironic, since nobody in Singer's team liked working on 'The Jetsons', because their designs were so hard. But, in the end, he went anyway, because it was at least a better deal.
Once he arrived in Tai Pei, Kricfalusi discovered that basically nobody there knew much about animation lay-outs, so he could make up his own rules. He told his crew that they would act out the storyboards, so the animators could draw the characters' actual expressions in function of the plot. He went so far as to ask the U.S. studio to send him cassette copies of the voice actors' performances, to get a better idea of the vocal inflections when drawing the faces. While most of the South Korean crew didn't speak English and had the lines translated to them, they could at least now hear the line delivery. Many people thought Kricfalusi was crazy, but he persisted and learned that, even with low-budget animation, he could still make cartoons with an individual style, closer to original sketch drawings than the cleaned-up end results that generally aired on TV.
Cel from a 'Mighty Mouse' short.
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
However, John Kricfalusi wasn't the only animator fed up with the modern cartoon industry. In Hollywood, he met some of his idols, like Milt Gross, Bob Clampett and Rod Scribner, who became his mentors and kept up his spirit. In 1985, Kricfalusi was contacted again by Ralph Bakshi, with whom he had briefly worked together four years earlier. They collaborated on an animated film, 'Bobby's Girl', intended as a parody of teen movies, but never finished because the project failed to find an investor. More successful was their music video for the 1986 Rolling Stones song 'Harlem Shuffle', which combined live-action footage with animated characters. The income made it possible for Bakshi to establish his own TV cartoon studio, Bakshi Productions, where Kricfalusi was promoted to director. He reorganized the studio to function the way cartoons were made during the Golden Age of Animation (1928-1960). Instead of writers, the artists became the creative forces behind each cartoon. They came up with characters, gags and stories. Several directors would now work on different episodes in different units. Just like Bob Clampett, Kricfalusi let his animators experiment. He disregarded scripts altogether, putting emphasis on storyboards. All Bakshi and Kricfalusi now needed was a show they could sell to executives.
During a pitch meeting, where all of Bakshi's suggestions were rejected, Bakshi lost his temper and blurted out that he owned the rights to Paul Terry's animated character Mighty Mouse. The executives accepted this reboot, even though in reality Bakshi didn't even own the rights yet. He was lucky to obtain them and soon the animated TV series 'Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures' (1987-1988) aired. Starting out as a basic reboot, the animation style soon got wackier and more surreal. Kricfalusi and his animators drew in a cartoony style, with lots of exaggeration and jokes that broke the fourth wall. Various episodes reference stuff the target audience probably wouldn't understand, like TV reporter Ed Murrow, Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Ayn Rand's novel 'The Fountainhead'. The episode 'Don't Touch That Dial' (1988) satirically criticised meddling executives and the bland, uninspired cartoon series that "tormented" the small screen, like 'The Flintstones', 'The Jetsons', 'Scooby-Doo' and 'The Real Ghostbusters'. Mighty Mouse's original stinger line, "But enough lies and hypocrisy - now a word from our sponsor!" had to be altered to: "Here's what television is all about... a word from our sponsor!" Thanks to Bakshi, Kricfalusi and his team enjoyed remarkable creative freedom, because he shielded them from executives and censors. He only had to remind them from time to time to keep Mighty Mouse the focus of his own show.
At the time, 'Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures' surprised viewers, but received good reviews. Together with Matt Groening's 'The Simpsons', which had debuted half a year earlier as 15-second animated segments on the 'Tracey Ullman Show', it looked vastly different from anything else on TV at the time. Looking back, Kricfalusi felt many episodes were a bit hit-and-miss, because it was such a relief for everybody involved to finally animate scenes the way they wanted. But their experimentations were a good learning experience. Several future big names in the industry started their career on the show, including Mike Kazaleh, Jim Reardon (writer and director for 'The Simpsons', co-writer of the Pixar film 'Wall-E'), Andrew Stanton (director of 'Wall-E') and Bruce Timm ('Batman: The Animated Series'). Wendell Washer voiced the character of Chester P. Chieseler.
Unfortunately, the show was canceled in 1988 after only 19 episodes, when religious leader and activist Donald Wildmon misinterpreted a scene in which Mighty Mouse sniffs flower buds as cocaine sniffing. Given Bakshi's notoriety in adult animation, Wildmon and other conservative activists were convinced that he deliberately wanted to "corrupt" young viewers.
Beany and Cecil: The New Adventures
Meanwhile, John Kricfalusi had already found another classic cartoon show to reboot, Bob Clampett's 'Beany and Cecil' (1988). Produced by DIC Animation and broadcast on ABC, the series was nevertheless canceled after five episodes. Kricfalusi tried to take an offensive route, while the executives wanted to keep everything child-friendly. Now without somebody like Ralph Bakshi to shield him from censors, he was again forced to use scripts and obey executive notes. Bob Clampett had passed away four years earlier, so his opinions about this reboot will always remain an open question. His relatives weren't too pleased with Kricfalusi's version, but still remained loyal to him in his quarrel with executives and censors.
Spümcø
While 'Beany and Cecil' was quickly forgotten, it did leave Kricfalusi with a whole team of like-minded and skilled animators: Jim Smith, Bob Camp, Mike Fontanelli, Gabe Swarr, Bill Wray, Sherm Cohen, Scott Wills, Vicky Jensen, Bruce Timm, Glenn Barr, Jim Gomez, Bill White, Mark O'Hare and Lynne Naylor. On 29 December 1989, they founded the studio Spümcø, which - despite its slogan - really isn't the "Danish word for quality". With a dedicated team at his support, Kricfalusi could finally bring his vision to the screen.
Still from the Ren & Stimpy episode 'Sven Hoëk' (1993).
Ren & Stimpy
In 1991, Kricfalusi and his crew pitched an animated series for the brand-new children's channel Nickelodeon, 'The Ren and Stimpy Show' (1991-1996). The show revolves around Ren Hoëk, a grouchy chihuahua, and his dim-witted friend Stimpy, a chubby Manx cat. The program is a stylistic parody of a typical 1950s-1960s cartoon show. During its half-hour run, it featured two episodes of seven minutes each, alternating with fictitious commercials running in between. Just like classic cartoons, each episode featured an illustrated title card to set the mood. The soundtrack consisted of famous classical melodies and happy 1950s/1960s easy-listening music. In a tribute to Jay Ward's 'Rocky and Bullwinkle', Ren and Stimpy salute their young viewers at the end of every episode.
However, despite its retro feel, 'The Ren & Stimpy Show' was far more demented and subversive. Ren and Stimpy undergo all kinds of bizarre adventures alongside equally strange side characters like Mr. Horse, Powdered Toast Man, Muddy Mudskipper and the ultraconservative neighbor George Liquor. Characters move in strange ways, distorting their faces in extreme expressions. Backgrounds sometimes shift to odd, spotty colors, an idea borrowed from Bob Clampett's 'Baby Bottleneck' (1946). Certain scenes are punctuated by gruesome close-ups, literally painted to contrast with the animated scenes. The series broke new ground for a children's show by featuring sexual innuendo and gross-out comedy. Jokes about farts, belches, nose picking and icky body fluids were one of its trademarks. Characters often yell at each other or experience extreme nervous breakdowns. In 'Space Madness' (1991), Ren goes insane from being in outer space for too long. In the same episode, Stimpy erases history. In 'Son of Stimpy' (1992), the cat thinks his fart cloud is his lost son. Mr. Horse shows the duo a walrus in 'Rubber Nipple Salesmen' (1992), while the mammal begs them to "Call the police...". In 'Ren's Toothache' (1992), Ren pulls out the nerve endings of his teeth with pliers. The most often discussed nightmarish scene can be seen in 'Stimpy's Fan Club' (1993), where Ren lies awake at night because he wants to murder Stimpy. In 'Jerry the Bellybutton Elf' (1994), Stimpy climbs inside his own belly button and meets a psychotic elf inside.
Cell from the Björk music video 'I Miss You'. The 'Fred Flintstone' shampoo bottle is a nod to Kricfalusi's childhood, when he owned a similar object.
Ren & Stimpy: success
While some moral guardians were concerned, 'Ren and Stimpy' effortlessly became a cult show. Especially when MTV started to rerun episodes, since the channel had a far more global viewership. Children loved the gross-out comedy and were intrigued by the unpredictable plots. Some older viewers were excited by the wackiness and edgy scenes that got past the censors. It was certainly incomparable with any other children's program. 'Ren & Stimpy' is particularly beloved in Eastern Europe, since the animation is very reminiscent of classic (and surreal) cartoons made during the Soviet era. The fact that Ren & Simpy claim to live in Yugoslavia presumably also adds to its popularity. Clips from 'Ren & Stimpy' were also used in the live-action comedy films 'Clueless' (1995) and 'The Cable Guy' (1996).
'Ren and Stimpy' attracted notable celebrity fans, including Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain. During a radio interview with Howard Stern, Billy West (the voice of Stimpy), claimed that Cobain once visited Nickelodeon with the intention to write a song for the show, but was rejected. In some versions of this anecdote, he was refused entrance, in others he brought a song recording with him but it was deemed "terrible". In still other versions, he was rejected by either the executives or Kricfalusi himself, who had no idea who Cobain was. Interviewed in July 2019, Kricfalusi stated he couldn't remember the rock musician visiting the studio and on 10 May 2022, West himself also denied the rumor on his Twitter account. Other pop musicians who loved 'Ren & Stimpy' were Billy Gibbons (of ZZ Top), the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Def P, Björk and Frank Zappa. Kricfalusi animated the music video to Björk's song 'I Miss You' (1995). Zappa named one of his compositions, 'Ask Dr. Stupid', after a recurring segment in 'Ren & Stimpy' and guest starred as the Pope in the episode 'Powdered Toast Man' (1992). Additional media stars starring as special guest voices were Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker in 'Star Wars'), Phil Hartman (the voice of Troy McClure in 'The Simpsons'), TV host Rosie O'Donnell and comedic actors Gilbert Gottfried and Dom DeLuise. Extra notable celebrity fans were Hollywood actors Robin Williams, Scarlett Johansson and Mayim Bialik (Blossom in 'Blossom' and Dr. Amy in 'The Big Bang Theory').
In the animation industry, 'Ren & Stimpy' drew respect from Mike Judge ('Beavis & Butt-Head', 'King of the Hill') and Matt Groening ('The Simpsons'). The latter praised 'Ren & Stimpy' in the early 1990s as "the only good children's cartoon on TV". He hired its animators to create a parody of the show watched by Bart Simpson in 'The Simpsons' episode 'Brother From The Same Planet' (1993), with lay-out by Chris Reccardi. On the cover of the Simpsons musical album 'The Yellow Album', a Krusty doll can be seen with the message: "The Simpsons salute Ren and Stimpy", spoofing a similar doll on The Beatles' album 'Sergeant Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band' saluting the Rolling Stones. Decades later, Kricfalusi animated two opening segment couch gags for 'The Simpsons', namely in the episodes 'Bart Stops To Smell the Roosevelts' (2012) and 'Treehouse of Horror XXVI' (2015), where the yellow family is remodeled in a Kricfalusi-esque style.
Sketch of Ren & Stimpy by John Kricfalusi.
Ren & Stimpy comics
In October 1992, Marvel Comics launched a monthly 'Ren & Stimpy' comic book series. The very first book (which actually has the cover date December 1992) was originally sold in a polybag with a few "scratch and sniff" air foulers. The stories were scripted by Scott Benson, Steven Boyett, Martin Reilly, Dan Slott and Barry Dutter, with artwork provided by Darren Auck, Stephanie Gladden, Matt Maley, Ken Mitchroney, Rick Parker, Mike Kazaleh, Ty Templeton, Bill Wray and Mike Worley. Inking was done by Buzz McKim and the veteran artist Fred Fredericks, coloring by Ed Lazellari, Paul Mounts, Chia-Chi Wang and Evan Skolnick, while the lettering was provided by Susan Crespi, Brad K. Joyce, Jeff Powell and Loretta Krol. The comics were also translated into Dutch by Juniorpress.
Kricfalusi himself had no involvement in Marvel's 'Ren & Stimpy' series, though did see some of the preliminary work. He felt it looked so bad that he refused to be associated with it and also forbade his animation crew to work on the title. In 1992, when Kricfalusi was fired from his own show, he and Bill Wray had a falling out, so Wray no longer saw any qualms in working on the 'Ren & Stimpy' comic books. In total, Marvel published 39 'Ren & Stimpy' comic books, from November 1995 on under the Marvel Absurd imprint. The final issue came out in July 1996.
Storyboard for 'Stimpy's Invention' by Bob Camp.
Ren & Stimpy: behind-the-scenes problems
Although 'Ren & Stimpy' enjoyed high ratings, there were lots of problems behind the scenes. John Kricfalusi was a notorious perfectionist who spent many hours trying to get his cartoons just right. He wanted his crew to "never repeat the same drawing twice" and avoid animation clichés at all costs. He focused on the backgrounds, colors, opening credits, voices and music. Film historian Jerry Beck recalled that he once visited the studio and saw Kricfalusi looking at no less than 50(!) differently colored animation cels of the same scene from 'Stimpy's Invention', because he just couldn't decide what color would look "the best". Although often depicted as a difficult boss, Kricfalusi was just as hard on himself as on his crew. Out of all 17 episodes he directed, co-wrote and co-animated, there was always something he was unsatisfied with. The only short he considered nearly perfect happens to be all fans' favorite episode too, 'Stimpy's Invention' (1992). In this memorable episode, Stimpy makes a helmet for Ren which forces him to be happy forever. This leads to a crazy dance set to the Burl Ives parody 'Happy, Happy, Joy Joy'.
Kricfalusi often had to convince executives, producers and censors to put in certain insane and disturbing scenes. Often they were rejected for being too weird, disgusting or frightening for young viewers. The episode 'Man's Best Friend' was refused airing because of a scene in which Ren beats George Liquor with an oar. 'Sammy and Me' was rejected because Stimpy gouges out his eye and puts a fake one in his socket. As a result, several episodes missed their deadlines or went over budget. On 25 September 1992, during the second season, Kricfalusi was fired from his own show. Several colleagues in the animation industry, including Matt Groening, criticized this decision and defended him. 'The Ren & Stimpy Show' continued for three more seasons. Since several episodes had been in production before Kricfalusi was fired, many of his scripts and ideas were still used for inspiration. While the animation and overall style maintained a quality level, something of the original spirit was lost. The gross-out comedy and psychotic scenes were toned down, in favor of more bizarre scenes for weirdness sake. Kricfalusi sued Nickelodeon on the basis of the original contract, which stated that the rights of the show would return to him after five years. The case was eventually settled out of court, with Kricfalusi being paid off to let it all rest.
In 2003, 'Ren & Stimpy' made a comeback on SpikeTV, with Kricfalusi back in full creative control. Expectations were high, but this reboot, 'The Ren & Stimpy Adult Cartoon' (2003-2004), disappointed many viewers. The gross-out comedy, sadism and mental breakdowns that characterized the original series were now too much pushed to extremes. The tone was also more adult, with characters openly smoking and more gratuitous nudity and sexual innuendo. Kricfalusi claimed that the network pushed him to make the show more "mature". Whatever the case, many old-time fans disliked the end result. Ratings quickly dropped and 'The Ren & Stimpy Adult Cartoon' was canceled prematurely after only three episodes. Since 2020, another reboot of 'Ren & Stimpy' was announced, with many of the old studio animators and voice actor Billy West returning for a planned revival on Comedy Central. Kricfalusi, however, was not involved with any facet of its production. It took until July 2024 before the first episode was finally broadcast, albeit only on Comedy Central in France.
Still from 'Boo Boo Runs Wild'.
Post 'Ren & Stimpy' projects
After being fired from 'Ren & Stimpy' in 1992, Kricfalusi made several attempts to launch new cartoon shows. Although he no longer legally owned Ren & Stimpy, he still had the rights to his characters George Liquor and Idiot Boy, whom he used in several of his new series. George Liquor remained the anally retentive ultra-conservative authoritarian, while Idiot Boy is a mute, mentally-challenged teenager. Kricfalusi was a pioneer in Internet cartoons, creating the online shorts 'The Goddamn George Liquor Program' (1997) and 'Weekend Pussy Hunt' (1999). Both lacked enough interest and crowdfunding to continue their storylines after the first few episodes. In 2001, a new show by Kricfalusi premiered on Fox Kids: the superhero parody 'The Ripping Friends: The World's Most Manly Men!' (2001-2002). But he only got involved half-way into production, and lost creative control over it. The program only lasted one season.
The best received work of his later career were his extreme parodies of the Hanna-Barbera shows 'Yogi Bear' and 'The Jetsons'. In 'Boo Boo Runs Wild' (1999), 'A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith' (1999) and 'Boo Boo and the Man' (2002), Ranger Smith is depicted as a forest ranger obsessed with the rules. Yogi's sidekick Boo Boo (voiced by Kricfalusi himself) decides to return to his roots as a "drooling, wild bear". In 'Father and Son Day' (2001) and 'The Best Son' (2002), the futuristic Jetsons are depicted as a dysfunctional family. Surprisingly enough, Hanna-Barbera allowed Kricfalusi to use their trademark characters and reimagine them in his own style. The shorts premiered on Cartoon Network's sister channel Adult Swim and have often been repeated since.
Spümcø comic books.
Spümcø comic books
Between 1995 and 1997, Kricfalusi and his team published four comic books under the title 'Spümcø Comic Book'. The first issue was published by Marvel, the other four by Dark Horse. The stories feature zany, gross-out humor starring Kricfalusi's characters George Liquor and Jimmy the Idiot Boy. They also mark the debut of two characters he later reused in his Internet cartoons, Cigarettes the Cat and Dirty Dog. Kricfalusi intended it as "a cure to political correctness", because "if there's any place where you should let out all of your frustrations, it's entertainment. Everybody has evil dirty thoughts. (...) Our comic book is all about humanity. It's about the things that you really think about but you're afraid to say to anybody. (...) It's in color, but it's printed on crappy paper, like old comic books. It's not trying to be slick or anything." Among the writers and artists were Jim Smith, Vincent Waller, Mike Fontanelli, Shane Glines, Rich Pursel and Kricfalusi himself.
The comics didn't sell well, and quickly faded into obscurity. This also prevented the release of follow-up stories. In 2013, a hardcover collection, edited by Craig Yoe, was released by IDW, but only featured the first and fourth issue. In the light of the 2018 sex scandal regarding Kricfalusi, Yoe has announced that he will not reprint these comics again. He went so far as to destroy his remaining inventory of the hardcover reprints.
Graphic, written and audio commentary contributions
John Krifcalusi directed various animated TV commercials for Comcast, Raketu, Pontiac Vibe, Stüssy, F'Real, Old Navy Flare Jeans and Nike. Kricfalusi designed the album covers for 'Oh Joy!' (1993) and 'Famous Recording Artists' (1995) by the punk band Shitbirds. He additionally helped out former 'Ren & Stimpy' animator Elinor Blake, who recorded a musical single, 'Voo Doo Doll/ Kooky' (1993) under the name April March. Kricfalusi wrote the liner notes and made a caricature of her for both this single and the cover of her album 'Gainsbourgsion' (1995). The opening track from the latter album, 'Chick Habit', was later used in Quentin Tarantino's film 'Death Proof' (2006). Kricfalusi also animated the music videos for 'I Miss You' (1995) by Björk, 'Fuck Her Gently' (2001) and 'Classico' (2001) by Tenacious D, and 'Close But No Cigar' (2006) by "Weird Al" Yankovic, while also producing artwork for Miley Cyrus' 2014 Bangerz Tour. He also designed the poster and opening credits of the film 'Utopia Means Nowhere' (2020).
Between 1993 and 1994, Kricfalusi wrote several articles for the magazines Film Threat and Wild Cartoon Kingdom under pseudonyms. These later got criticized for mostly being written to promote his own cartoons. Kricfalusi provided audio commentary for DVD releases of classic 'Popeye', 'Betty Boop' and 'Looney Tunes' cartoons, though refused to do more out of anger over the modern recolorisation of some of the shorts. In 2012, he wrote the foreword to the 'I Say, I Say... Son!' (Santa Monica Press, 2012) by Bob McKimson Jr.'s about his father Bob McKimson and uncles Chuck McKimson and Tom McKimson.
Blog
In 2006, Krifcalusi launched his own blog, 'John K. Stuff', which has featured interesting advice for young animators on various principles and skills. They are illustrated with pictures, frame grabs and screen shots from specific illustrated books, comics and animated cartoons. He has also paid tribute to many of his influences. While highly subjective and occasionally somewhat tedious ranting about modern times, the blog provides great insight into Kricfalusi's background, vision and how to interpret his own work.
Sketch for a 'Ren & Stimpy' end scene.
Recognition
In 1992, Kricfalusi won an Annie Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation". His animation for Björk's music video 'I Miss You' won the 1997 Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject, while 'The Goddamn George Liquor Program' received the 1999 Annie Award for "Outstanding Achievement in an Interactive Production". In 2008, Kricfalusi won a special Winsor McCay Annie Award for his entire body of work. A year later he received an Inkpot Award (2009).
Controversy
Since the end of the original 'Ren & Stimpy' series, Kricfalusi tried to revive his career multiple times, but to little avail. All of his attempts suffered from budget restrictions, executive meddling and his painstaking perfectionism. Krifcalusi has an obsessive disdain for cartoon scriptwriters and feels that plot isn't all that important in animation. Many people disagree on this viewpoint and have pointed out that this is a major reason why his later cartoons often met with lacklustre or bad reviews. To many, the shorts look and feel underdeveloped. Former colleagues credit Kricfalusi with opening their minds on what animation can be, but his erratic behavior unwillingly sabotaged many shows. He was so demanding that they rarely got anything done to his fullest satisfaction. They got behind schedule and missed deadlines, and curious fans eventually lost interest. Some of his animators outright stated that most of what he forced them to do was a "waste of time" and of little use at other cartoon studios. Even fans only single out the original 1991-1995 'Ren & Stimpy' show as his best work, alongside 'Boo Boo Runs Wild'.
With his blunt criticism of modern-day animation in interviews and on his blog, Kricfalusi also made himself highly unpopular in the animation industry. He focused on the abundance of stock clichés and lack of cartooniness, "great" drawing and dynamic animation. In some cases, he just based his opinion on publicity stills, without even watching the films and shows. More than one observer has pointed out that most of his criticism feels like professional jealousy and frustration. Particularly considering Spümcø was shut down in 2005, leaving him with fewer possibilities to fund new projects. Suffering from alcoholism and heavy fatherly issues, in 2008 Kricfalusi went into therapy. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ADHD and put under medical treatment. Since then he has found more stability in his personal life and in 2016 even reopened his animation studio as Spümtwø.
However, bad press caught up with him on 29 March 2018, when he was accused of indecent acts against underage girls. Former animator Robin Byrd was only 15 years old when she was employed at Spümcø. At age 16, she had a relationship with John, who was 39 at the time. Another former animator, Katie Rice, never had an affair with John, but alleges she was a victim of his sexual harassment. She was 14 to 15 years old when they started communicating by phone and email, where he made sexually suggestive comments. At the time, she thought nothing of it and, at age 18, still went to work for him. While his lewd conduct continued, she stressed that he otherwise never did anything physical to her. Apart from Kricfalusi's relationship with Byrd, his attorney has denied most of the allegations.
On 11 May 2018, Kricfalusi issued an 11-page personal public apology. He acknowledged that there is some "general truth" about his "inappropriate behavior in the late 1990s and early 2000s", though remembered some things "somewhat differently, some not all. The writer exaggerated and presented some things out of context for tabloid consumption." He revealed that he too was a victim of a public harasser for about four years which "helped me to understand how these girls I admired might have felt." Kricfalusi stated that he didn't expect forgiveness, but wanted to explain his "obsessive and possessive behavior" in the past which "drove the people I loved best away." He spoke openly about his mental issues, for which he has been receiving medical treatment since 2008. He concluded his text by apologizing to Robin and Katie and his family and loved ones.
Legacy and influence
While John Kricfalusi may be a polarizing artist, he has remained influential. He revitalized TV animation in an era when creativity and originality were at a low. Many people owe their careers in the industry to him. He brought fresh energy to the medium, breaking several barriers of what was possible in a children's cartoon. Kricfalusi's work featured a strong, personal vision, while simultaneously allowing his crew to add their own individual stamp to the art style. 'Ren & Stimpy' pushed innovative graphic experimentation further than any other animated TV series in the early 1990s.
His work inspired the look and the style of several other TV cartoon shows (often because his former animators worked on it), like Donovan Cook's '2 Stupid Dogs' (1993-1995), Bil Kopp's 'The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show' (1995), Genndy Tartakovsky's 'Dexter's Laboratory' (1996-1999, 2001-2003), David Feiss' 'Cow and Chicken' (1997-1999), Craig McCracken's 'The Powerpuff Girls' (1998-2005), Stephen Hillenburg's 'SpongeBob Squarepants' (1999- ), Maxwell Atoms' 'The Grim Adventures of Bill and Mandy' (2001-2008), Jhonen Vazquez' 'Invader Zim' (2001-2006), Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon's 'Rick and Morty' (2013- ) and Paul Rudish's 'Mickey Mouse' (2013-2019) and 'The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse' (2020-2023). Many other TV cartoon series from the 1990s and 2000s on started using simpler graphics, looser animation and an overabundance of gross-out comedy. Famous cartoonists who admire John Kricfalusi's work have been Matt Groening (who placed 'Ren & Stimpy' at number 36 in his personal list of "100 Favorite Things"), Cal Schenkel, Ralph Bakshi, Mike Judge, Tim Kelly, Matt Furie and Tom Borremans. In 1997, the Sojourner Mars rover inspected rocks on the planet Mars, two of which were named after Ren & Stimpy.
Books and info about John Kricfalusi
For people interested in Kricfalusi's work and opinions about classic and current animation his personal blog johnkstuff.blogspot.com is highly recommended. An unauthorized book about the history of 'Ren & Stimpy' was written by Thad Komorowski: 'Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story' (Bear Manor Media, 2017), with a foreword by Billy West. In 2020, Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood directed a documentary film, 'Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story' (2020), which featured interviews with former staff members, including Kricfalusi himself.
'Remote Control Jimmy', with art credited by Mike Fontanelli and John K (Spümco Comic Book).