A psychological breakdown

Something which I've been thinking about is adding other characters alongside 'Ron'. I want to take the 'random' element from the protagonist and distill it into a supporting cast. My reasoning for this is the 'random' in the original concept is potentially a powerful surreal comedy tool but in one character, myself and those I've discussed the subject with believe that the personality would be absorbed and lost. So, break it into several, discernable chunks.
What I've observed in shows like 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force!' and 'Ren & Stimpy' is that a contrast of personalities makes for a watchable cast, with a character like Frylock or Stimpy who are either logical or optimistic enough to get us through each episode intact. We might want to subvert this like they do occasionally but for now, I'm going to stick with the basics that I'm starting to pick up.


I'm thinking at the moment of having 'Ron' as a happy-go-lucky character with his sock puppet as an overly agressive contrast, so we get just in those two characters already a flexible range of possibilities and reactions to events.

To contrast with those two strong personalities, I'm thinking of incorporating a meek, nervous character who operates close by, maybe a neighbour who suffers from a nervous disposition and is frequently disturbed by the actions of the main cast. I'm not certain about this paticular personality as of now, because I don't want the setup to turn into a kooky, "Normanmeyer's being frightened by the 'un-normality' of the Adam's family" situation so, I need to watch that this character isn't very dull or cheesy.

(If you don't understand that last point, the Normanmeyer's were a run-of-the-mill American family who were used as a direct contrast to the Adams family in the cartoon show which was very cheesy. Not the contrast itself, but the mood of the cartoon in general. I would post a picture of them up here but honestly, I've had some trouble locating one. I'll put one up if I gets one)

I could also use a mysterious silent character as an ice-breaker or punch line-deliver-er in the main cast. This sounds a bit complicated so, I'll mention Silent Bob. His character usually stands by the sideline whilst the rest of the cast do all the talking, simply miming agreements or confusion or other light expressions until critical points in the narrative when his intervention can influence unexpected inciting moments or conclusions, e.g. when he comes out with a pearl of wisdom just as no one else can call anything to mind or by acting almost on intuition to a dangerous situation and saving all of his friends. This character is a leveller, a creator of equilibrium and a proverbial kick in the arse for plot lines.

Maybe some kind of rudimentary animal could suit this position, like anthropomorphic Brian from 'Family Guy' only, with less personality. Ironically here I think I would specifically want this character to have little of what we would normally call character. Well, if I intended to make him or her mysterious that is. I suppose Silent Bob has character, and he's very expressive, but I have this idea currently for having a very intimidatingly silent and mysterious version of this archetype and for that, I'd need what was outwardly a very 'blank slate'.


As for anymore characters... Maybe some kind of observer over the whole thing or a narrator? Not sure if it's necessary really, doesn't feel like it at the moment but it wouldn't hurt to have another character who can either explain what is going on or maybe just another way of introducing plot lines. Like 'Ron's no. #1 fan stalking him everywhere and thus being able to tell us exactly what he's been up to or something similar.

Split over how to develop

I'm a bit stuck over how to start developing the character and what direction to take him. As I can see currently, there are two distinct paths. One is of complete random mania and the other is a more Adult Swim surrealism path.

My intention is to make characters which follow up both of these paths using a quick personality and some coloured pictures and then show them about to intended audience members and Tony to see which direction to continue in.

First colour of a 'ronnie'

This might not be what he ends up looking like at all, I'm just trying some colours out on some of my doodles.

EDIT: I've been told by a few of the potential audience members that I've shown this blog to that this kind of drawing of the character is very 'cartoonish' and doesn't feel very 'adult'.
This is concerning to me obviously because I wanted the character to feel like it could have a serious potential, or just not be disregarded as a kids cartoon.
How to solve this..? I'll come back to this post when I've gotten some advice or thought more about it.

Sketch Doodle ideas for character.

These are some doodles for ideas for the character, on his form and his actions. I'm using red curly hair here purely because that was the hair colour of the character given to me in the roughs Tony showed me.

The pig, Isreali and the boy in a dinosaur costumes are side characters I'm thinking of.

I'm finding it difficult to proceed beyond the point of just doodling the character doing random things because by default, the character lacks alot of definition and it's really difficult to tell what direction if any is a correct one.
I mean, alot of the drawings I've done here show 'Ronnie' (working name) with a very elasticated kind of body, showing explosive random potential through his form, with a sock puppet which he talks to so.. there is a 'random' mania element there or as some kind of goblin or animal or popular cultural icon like Shakespeare. The seperate elements on their own might be amusing and all but it's bloody difficult trying to pin him down. What I'm suspecting from alot of these drawings is that the character would end up being some screaming deranged mess which would satisfy the quota of being random I guess.
THIS kind of random:



Who knows, a completely manic character might work. But I would wager that the show it starred in would need a couple of other characters to counter and contrast it's personality. You know, like the genie from Disney's 'Aladdin'?. His character is built around the comedy style that Robin Williams is good at; fast paced schtick that changes direction constantly through various voices and impressions of personalities.


My guess is that without the blander personality types to distill 'Genie' through out the film, you would lose interest in him quicker.

Animation examples

The kind of audience Tony is wanting to aim at is around mid teens and up, basically being anyone who would watch cartoons online. The feel of the cartoon is to be surreal as Tony requested.
'Surreal' can be interpreted in a number of ways and one of the ways I think Tony would be particularly keen to avoid would be a 'surreal' cartoon which just involved senseless violence just for the sake of it because he would feel like I was copping out and not doing anything really worth watching. I believe though that violence used effectively could certainly be a very useful tool in entertaining this audience so I will probably end up working some of it in somewhere.

What we've got here are some examples of what I feel relates to what we're trying to achieve here; some of them along the lines of what we want and maybe one or two that really stray off the mark.



'Happy Tree Friends' from Mondo Media is an example of a twist on cutesy characters commiting paradoxically horrific and violent acts upon each other.
I don't know quite how I feel about this show. My understanding of why someone would watch it would be for the inventive if somewhat predictable deaths and not for the characters, who do have their own personalities but they pale in comparision to the amount of timing and development poured into the more violent aspects of the show. I like the visual style, the animation and the sound effects but usually I find the jokes to be too shallow for my taste. Thats not to say it's not good for a quick chuckle if you're waiting for something else to load, I just wouldn't spend a half hour of my time watching it.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/123073

In a similar vein of small animal anarchy comes 'Retarded animal babies' or 'RAB' for short. You'll have to follow the link above if you want to watch it because the hosting site doesn't allow for embedded video.
I like RAB because its alot more unpredictable than shows like 'Happy tree friends' and although the comedy it employs is very crude, it's fluctuating mood and temprement works well. After ten or so episodes, the colon, cursing, boob and dick jokes tend to wear a bit thin but the purely surreal plot devices seem to be enough to keep a hugely dedicated fan base watching. Unexpected one-liners also seem to do this.
Maybe this cartoon shows that on the internet, something hyper surreal, if interesting enough, can be enough to draw continual interest. I'm not convinced just yet though. I would prefer to be part of something that was a bit more substantial.


Now, they're not strictly INTERNET cartoons, but, up until recently in the UK, it's difficult for people outside of America to view them due to differences in legislation between Cartoon Network of America and the other international branches of Cartoon Network. Thus, alot of the international fanbase for the show stems from uploaded episodes, which is how I came across it. There is a varying 'feel' to the kind of content and comedy that features on Adult Swim, typically action/thriller based Animés and surreal cartoon animations.
The shows are all aimed at an 18+ audience so this is pretty relevant research!




12 oz mouse: Fast. Scribbled drawing style throughout and vastly erratic storylines which tend to have a light theme of alchoholism and bank robbery. The protagonist (Mouse) is a cocky drunk and that is pretty much the driving force of the show.



Sealab 2021: Based on the Hannah Barbera cartoon -Sealab 2020. Here's what Wiki says:

The show is set one year after the time frame of Sealab 2020. During this year, the crew's professionalism and morals have slowly degraded, causing the crew to spend more time goofing off in various ways rather than doing any serious work. None of the episodes share any connection or ongoing plot. As a result, continuity is frequently ignored; for instance, the entire installation is destroyed at the end of many episodes, and cast members are often killed in horrible ways.

The show hosts a series of well thought out and.. enigmatic characters.

Captain Hazel "Hank" Murphy is the ostensible leader of the crew. Unfortunately, he is also the most deranged member and quite unfit for service; instead of providing any real leadership, he's either running a pirate radio show, ordering crewmembers to steal cable so he can watch his favorite show "Chopper Dave", complaining about his missing Happy Cake oven, or playing golf near the station's reactor core. He once became addicted to scorpion venom.

Captain Bellerophon "Tornado" Shanks earned his position as Sealab's new captain by answering a help-wanted ad. A retired football coach and lovable redneck, he has all of Murphy's shortsighted idiocy combined with a Southern charm. Tornado's leadership qualities have led him to coach the crew in a football game against killer robots, declare Sealab a sovereign nation (named Sealabia), warp the minds of Sealab's orphan population, and assert that a huge tumor on his head would go away through prayer alone.

Debbie DuPree (voiced by Kate Miller) is the token female of the crew (other than "black debbie"), a marine biologist, and blonde and beautiful to boot. Being the token female, she tends to get upset when the guys do chauvinistic things but is also a stereotypical dumb blonde. She has an on going sexual relationship with Doctor Quinn and slept with Murphy at least once. She is slightly promiscuous and an exhibitionist, often ripping open her shirt for various male characters. In the episode "Butchslap" she tells Marco that being a filthy whore is "all she knows". In the last season, she becomes devoutly religious, going so far as to speak in tongues.

Derek "Stormy" Waters (voiced by Ellis Henican) is the station's resident pretty boy. Very childish, he's all looks and no brains most of the time; he barely knows what's going on around him. He greatly enjoys coleslaw. His stupidity has gotten him into trouble several times, mainly with "Black" Debbie. It is wholly possible he has hidden intelligence but he usually ruins any displays of intelligence he shows through equally stupid actions afterwards or revealing where he learned something. This was displayed in the "Stimutacs" episode, where the drug gave him "total cognizance of every synapse in [his] cerebral cortex", making him the smartest crew member and giving him the ability of mind over matter. He also knows how to make a Dagwood sandwich underwater. He has a habit of exclaiming "Holy Bejesus!" whenever something happens.

Inspiring stuff. See, these characters with their oddball attributes and a complete disregard for continuity give way for the surreal to pour in from every direction. The same can be said with all of the shown 'Adult Swim' stuff really, so I'll just show the last remaining examples and let the clips do the talking.



Aqua Teen Hunger Force!



Squidbillies



Frisky Dingo.

When I find other examples worth talking about I'll post them up but this will do for now.

Some computer doodles

Before some research examples and the utter abundance of hard-copy pencil and pen sketches I will upload here, here are some pictures I've knocked out to show some ideas.
They're quite erratic-looking, as ideas are really but basically they're examples of me feeling out what emotions the character might express frequently and what that might look like. There are also some ideas for themes of episodes or side characters.





Fear and concern, very blue emotions shown here. You can see here I'm using a much looser drawing style than Tony's and this is for a couple of reasons. It's faster when idea generating and usually I find it's a quick way of making an image more kinetic and eye catching.

Scary guffaw. Quite gruesome looking! Maybe if he was going mad. Or this could be the ghost of a hari krishna who died in an abandoned public restroom. Now THERE'S a plot hook if there ever was one! >.>


A sock puppet which here looks very lively and dragon-like, despite the drool. The general idea of this is that the character would have a sock puppet with him which he whispers to, or is much more involved in the stories, by being an actual character, perhaps alot wiser or much more crazied than the protagonist; anything to supply some kind of contrast of character really. Maybe the puppet could inform most of the character's important decisions or could try to purposely attempt to disrupt him. It could be a blood thirsty maniac but it's spirit is trapped in a lowly sock puppet. In this case, maybe the character aquired it through some voodoo ritual or found it in a bin when he moved in, which used to be the house of said maniac who blew himself up or made some crazy deal in which he'd be this puppet for some reason. Or maybe it was bestowed upon 'Ronnie' by a crazy god child or something.
Anyway, you'll see it pop up in a fair few of the sketches.

This is what I can only describe as an aztec yam. Maybe 'Ronnie' eats these regularly or is under the delusion that he started life as one or that one of them in particular is actually his mother. I like the sworls around the yam, they make it very mystical.

Yeah, I'm not even totally sure whats going on in this picture. I think his body consists of only the top half of his head, his legs and his arms which now come out of his ass. Either that or they're pink tusks. Also he's bald and has attempted to paint his own hair back on using a mixture of rose water and chocolate milk. Obviously.

This is 'Ronnie' being heart-broken over his delusion that the sun no longer pays him any attention like is used to. Or maybe he's right! Either way, I like how non-surplussed the sun looks here, possibly rolling it's eyes back as if to say 'oh jesus, not him again'.


Woodland nighttime lightning-strike fun. Possibly nude running in the dark in the middle of a storm. His eyes looked glazed over; he's seen something darker than a thousand midnights.

And here, in the guise of some sort of bean. could be a side character.

This is where the side characters really come in though.


HIS DOG (?) WITH NO EYES! or it should have none, but a strange grey dot has appeared in the left one completely ruining the effect .. . .

OR A DOG COSTUME.

A friend (CatJess) gave me the idea for 'Ronnie' to have a 'number one fan!' who follows him around relentlessly or turns up at inoppertune moments and makes poor mimickry of 'Ronnie''s habits. I think it's a pretty good idea for a creepy or adorable side character but I think he will become annoying the fastest his personality at the moment is based on a more pathetic version of the protagonist's.

Here he is dressed as a potato/peanut.
And here, as some kind of dog animal.

Three possible episode ideas or themes. Well, i guess eggs and ham are one really because they're very Suess-centralized. The idea with 'ghost worms' is some sort of plot around discovering a graveyard for worms or having to find a continuous supply of worms or worm-like things for some spectre to consume. Really, I just liked how the colours and the shapes in that image went together so I'll run from there.




And here he is with a sailors cap and some hairy hairy arms. And he loves it.