Kids Next Blog

since the KND have taken this production blog and gone underground... i've created a new place to tell you about all the new stuff we're up to at warburtonlabs.

check it out HERE!

but please... feel free to roam about the grounds of kidsnextblog. there's tons of important KND information archived here just for you.

you know what i hate?
blogs that don't get updated.
and with all the new stuff i got going on nowadays, i barely get a chance to tell you more about the KND.
not to mention the fact that there's not really much to tell ya anymore.

but here's what i CAN tell ya before numbuh eleventy billion signs off with one last blog post:

1. you're still sending me lots of sweet, wonderful e-mails telling me how much you love the KND and how you want us to make more but i haven't been able to answer 'em like i used to. but i sooper quadruple give you my ultimate guarantee i read every one of 'em and i love ya for it!

1.5. there are NO current plans for future episodes of KND... but nowadays everything comes back at some point or another. i've got a feeling we haven't seen the end of them yet.

2. as of right now, we're still doing KND comics for DC's cartoon network action pack. i'm still writin' 'em and maurice fontenot's still drawin' em. not sure how long we'll be asked to do it, but pick 'em up at your local comic store while you're there. we're talking about maybe possibly giving away some sooper top secret info about the DCFDTL in a future issue!

3. also as of right now, i'm developing a new show with disney... it's nothing like KND, but if it's lucky enough to become a real series (which wouldn't be for a looooong time)... i'm hoping you guys love it!
all i can tell you right now is that there's a pig in it. and if you don't like pigs... well...

4. my debut first ever world premiere children's book '1000 times no' hits the shelves in spring of 2009. wanna see a sneak peek? of course you do.



5. on my 62 thousand mile list of things to do, i plan on getting a new blog started with all my latest news. who knows when it'll drop... but it's in the works.

6. and lastly, thanks to all you KND operatives who've made this blog a regular stop. it was a thrill meeting ya'll and i hope you keep the spirit of KND alive somewhere inside of you.

and so...



this has been numbuh eleventy billion, supreme commander of global KND forces.
it's been a pleasure serving with you.
stay young.
stay cool.
stay true.

kids next door rules!

END TRANSMISSION

So I had a very cool weekend in Washington DC!

I went on tour with the USO!

What's the USO, i hear some of you asking?

It's an awesome non-profit group that helps support the US military and their families, and these days they need all the support they can get. It's not political... it's not about whether you believe in the war or not... it's just about helping out the folks who serve, many of whom have it pretty rough.
(You can learn more about them at http://www.uso.org.)

Sooper triple amazing voice actress Candi Milo (the voice of Numbuh Two's Grandma, Dexter, Madam Foster and a KA-MILLION other voices... http://candimilo.com/) organized the trip and brought along me, total rock star Joe Murray (creator of Rocco's Modern Life and Camp Lazlo) and almost the entire cast of Comedy Central's Reno 911 (Carlos Alazroqui, who plays Officer Garcia on Reno is also the voice of Rocco AND Lazlo... as well as 'The Kid' on KND!) And while Reno 911 is definitely NOT a show for the young kiddies, EVERYONE in the military LOVES them!

Here's some of the awesome stuff we did:

• Visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed and Bethesda hospitals and their sick children in the pediatric wards. One kid was even watching Camp Lazlo when we walked in- man, was he pysched to meet Joe Murray!
Most of the soldiers were wounded by bombs and despite their injuries were ALL so upbeat and positive. There was a great guy named Luis who had lost his hearing from a bomb blast so we talked with him by writing on a dry erase board. Turns out he's a massive KND AND Lazlo fan so Joe and I made sure to draw him some extra-awesome pics!

• Drew more pictures, signed autographs and gave away TONS of cool Cartoon Network stuff at bases Quantico, Belvore and Fort Mead on Family Deployment Day. So many of the kids' parents are overseas now, so it was great to do something to cheer 'em up!

• We even got invited for a tour of Marine One Security's hangar! They're the guys who run the fleet of helicopters that you see landing on the White House lawn and stuff. We even got to sit in the seat where countless Presidential butts sit! Definitely not something you get to do every day!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_One



Here's me and the Reno 911 cast. If you think their show is funny... try riding around in a bus with them for a couple days. My stomach hurt from laughing so much! And everywhere we went, people FLOCKED to meet them.



The rockin' Candi Milo signing stuff for the kids!



And Joe Murray drawing probably his eleventy hundredth drawing and not breaking a sweat.

'

This was the second time I did a visit for the USO and I can't wait to do it again!

So along with the sooper fun 6 or 8 page KND stories we do for DC Comics ACTION PACK, there's another little thing we do them. It's called called 'KND vs DCFDTL'. They're simple one page stories with no dialogue... kind of an homage to Mad Magazine's 'Spy vs Spy'. We try to get a different artist to do each set of 3 pages and they're allowed to draw the KND however they like. The crazier the better!

In addition to mega-talented KND stalwarts like Maurice Fontenot, Kim Arndt, Mike Cavallaro, and Children's Book Hero Mo Willems, we've had amazing artists like indy comic sooperstar Peter Bagge (Hate, Apocalypse Nerd) and Todd Nauck (Wildguard, Teen Titans Go!, Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man) and Phil Moy (Legion of Super-Heroes)! Even KND fan art favorite Scott Benson got to do an awesome set! At this point, i think we've had at least 60,000 different artists do some KND vs DCFDTL comics... or at least 25.

I don't have a lot of images handy... but here are a bunch of the rough pencils along with some color scans!

MAURICE FONTENOT (rough pencil)
this one's STILL one of my favorites... that title panel makes me swoon.



TODD NAUCK (rough pencil)
i love love lOVE seeing the DCFDTL drawn so REAL!



TODD NAUCK(color scan)

''

PETER BAGGE (rough pencil)
how cool is it to see Numbuh Three drawn in that classic Bagge style?



SCOTT BENSON (rough pencil)
I've made no secrets about how I feel about Reiko-san's art. Utsukushii ne?!



PHIL MOY (color scan)
Hippo's rule.



MO WILLEMS (inked page)
For me, Mo's style is like peanut butter... it tastes great with ANYTHING.
(Mo hates peanut butter, by the way. And ketchup.)




If any of you out there wanna draw your own KND vs DCFDTL, go for it and maybe we can post 'em up!

Before the Kids Next Door had their own show... they were side characters in another show I was pushing Cartoon Network to do called Kenny and the Chimp. Only the one pilot 'Diseasy Does It' was made, which the KND weren't even in... but here's the page from the K and C show bible:



Some interesting facts:

• The name Kids Next Door came from the fact that they lived NEXT DOOR to Kenny.

• Originally, the KND weren't a global organization fighting adult tyranny... they were just five kids looks for trouble.

• At first, all their technology was high-tech and shiny... but the folks at Cartoon Network remarked that Dexter had already cornered the market on that kind of gear so they asked me to come up with something else.
The result? 2x4 technology... something that would become one of the coolest things about the show.

Through the crazy 6 seasons (plus) of KND, we were pretty lucky to have very few stories rejected, but there WERE one or two that felt the cold, bitter bite of the axe.

An example, you say?

Well, how's about one of the coolest episodes you'll never see-
Operation: TREES (Tale Recalls Earlier Environment Seussonically)

But more on that later...

As you well know, every season we had at least one 'ART' show- an episode where we tried to do something different. And by different I mean, 'make the crew's life miserable'. Because when you try to do something different, it often means a LOT more work for the people designing, boarding, coloring and animating.

But they always ended up SO COOL!

Some examples of 'art shows' would be:

FLY - an episode done with just music and NO dialogue.
REPORT - a story told in five completely different art styles
ARCHIVE - an homage to a certain awesome anime DVD
LOVE - a Westside Story-ish musical
FOODFITE - a heavy metal rock opera
SCIENCE - a show revolving around 2x4 tech commercials

Well, at some point in the middle of the series, I wanted to do a tribute to the mighty, mighty Dr. Seuss.
An episode in his rhyme style AND with all the KND characters and backgrounds designed in a Seussian tribute. After all, 2x4 tech does owe a lot to his contraptions, right?

So we wrote an episode loosely (well... not very loosely) based on the Lorax- a book with a message that stands up pretty darn well these days.

But since we were SO close to the Lorax, and SO close to Mr. Geisel's design-style... we had to ask permission from the estate of Dr. Seuss. And after a lot of waiting around... we got an emphatic and very loud, NO!

So it got put on the shelf...

But here it is for your perusal.

Personally, I still get all teary at the end when Numbuh 362 finishes the story.

But I'm a sap.

So just because Codename: Kids Next Door has long since kicked the bucket, it doesn't mean we don't have any buckets left to kick around.

Specifically, check out this KND popcorn bucket circa 2002.



These were distributed at Loews theaters just before the show premiered.

Imagine what a proud daddy i was when I went to see the very first Harry Potter movie, and everyone's walking around with the KND on their popcorn buckets.

But you CAN pick your shows!

Or at least ya could once or twice...

A long time ago, in a galaxy called Atlanta, the folks at Cartoon Network decided to let the viewers pick which of the networks pilots would become a series. The first time they did, there were only three to choose from:

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
Whatever Happened to Robot Jones
Longhair and Doubledome

And vote the viewers did!

Billy and Mandy, as you know, won and went on to make 6 seasons... but Robot Jones got one season of love, and Longhair and Doubledone got a 2nd try at a pilot.


A couple years later, Cartoon Network decided to do it again... this time with ten (count 'em) TEN sooper huge pilots:

Kids Next Door
Captain Sturdy
A Kitty Bobo Show
Ferret and Parrot
My Freaky Family
Yee Haw and Doo Dah
Imp, Inc.
Swaroop
Utica Cartoon
Major Flake

And in the spirit of competition... we were asked to make campaign posters. Here's mine:



I don't think we ever were able to clean up all the glitter and gold spray paint i got all over the apartment.

But like the spaz I am... I had to take it even further. I made up these postcards:






(don't bother sending anything to that address... i don't live there anymore!)

I sent 'em EVERYWHERE. I dropped off piles in comic shops, toy stores, pizza parlors, schools, and snuck them into people's bags when they weren't looking.

I posted on all sorts of internet animation forums, chats, message boards, pokemon trading card game websites, etc screaming 'VOTE FOR MY CARTOON!'

And when the Big Pick Weekend FINALLY came, I had to find out who won JUUUUUUST like everyone else. By watching it on TV.

First they showed the 2nd runner up...

I was THISCLOSE to the TV...

"pleeeeeeease don't be my cartoon please don't be my cartoon..."

It was My Freaky Family...

I breathed a sigh of relief and sat through the 7 minutes of my friend John Macintyre's cartoon and then a 17 hour commercial break (of what felt like 17 hours).

And then they aired the first runner up...

My face WAS even closer to the TV screen than before, if that's possible....

pleeeeeeeasedon'tbemycartoonpleasedon'tbemycartoon..."

It was 'kitty bobo'.

So i sit through 7 minutes of my friend Kevin Kaliher's cartoon... who helped me do layouts for KND, no less! And then there's ANOTHER 32 year commercial break before they show the winner of the Big Pick Weekend...

My nose is smooshed against the TV... my wife has me in a headlock...

We wait...

Not breathing...

Now, for those of you intimate with the KND pilot, 'No P in the Ool', it starts with a black screen. After a second or two you hear a phone ring.

All I needed to hear was half a beat of that phone ring and I knew.

My wife screamed and started running around the apartment like a lunatic.

I just put my head down on the floor and exhaled.

Then the phone rang all night.

Dude...


Final tally:

Kids Next Door 60,631 27.4 percent

A Kitty Bobo Show 28,770 13.0 percent

My Freaky Family 25,022 11.3 percent



You can read more about the Big Pick Weekend over at the ever informative Toon Zone:

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=3857

So continuing on the topic of sooper rare KND magical items, I'd like to introduce you to my library of KND stories- one of only 4 or 5 complete sets!

The idea came from Head Writer of Wrongs Numbuh 9, Numbuh 9, Numbuh 9 (that's the mighty Mo Willems, for those not in the know). When he worked as a writer on Sesame Street, they would give each of the writers a bound volume of all the stuff they'd written at the end of each season. Mo continued that tradition when he made Sheep In The Big City, and then suggested we do it for KND... mainly because he likes to have lots of books on his shelves to make him look smart. Me? I could be sitting smack in the middle of the New York Public Library and still look dumb.

As you can see, there's a book for each season, one for the special episodes (GRIM ADVENTURES and INTERVIEWS) and one for our sooper giant movie, Operation: ZERO!

You can also see my Sheep book (with the four episodes I directed) as well as some of my Hayao Miyazaki books that I keep hoping will rub off onto the KND books.







Question: How awesome would it be if one day these were published for real?

Answer: Your awesometer doesn't go that high.

So I've been getting KA-THOUSANDS of e-mails asking if there is EVER gonna be a complete set of KND episodes on DVD!

And the answer is:

Yes, there IS a Limited Edition Complete Set of KND DVD's!

But UNFORTUNATELY it's limited to about 5 sets we burned for those of us left on the KND crew when we were finishing up..

Here's my ultra triple rare set, complete with plain, off-the-rack DVD wooden storage case!









Former KND color supervisor Numbuhless did a really cool job taking some of our most awesome backgrounds from the show and using them for the images on the 17 discs... they almost look like a REAL set you could buy in stores, right?

edit: doops! numbuhless just told me that it was actually numbuh 440 who designed the discs... my bad!

But it's not...

And no, sooper sorry... but we CAN NOT NOT NOT burn you a set even if you beg, plead, threaten, cry, scream, and/or offer us sixty buh-million dollars. So please don't ask.

HOPEFULLY, one day Cartoon Network will make a REAL set that we can ALL enjoy, but until then, this is all I've got!