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Anime Weekend Atlanta - Day Two - Power Puff
Talk
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This picture wasn't taken at an anime convention or a comic book show.
It was taken at a pickup truck and monster truck festival, where people
care more about horsepower than cels and paint. The people who operate
souvenir booths at these events have to carry merchandise that sells well,
so it's important to note what they're displaying. Under the noonday sun
stood Spider-Man, Scooby-Doo and...the Power Puff Girls. It was a clear
indication of the impact that these deceptively simple drawings have had
since they started as a Cartoon Network feature a couple of years earlier. |
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| Stephanie Gladden is one of the artists who works on the Power Puff
episodes, and she represented the Cartoon Network at the convention. "The
Cartoon Network has never represented itself as the `if you're sick of
Nickelodeon, watch us' network," she said, noting that the Cartoon Network
has been looking for an audience of children and adults - and plans to
produce some late-night shows that are intended to appeal to a more mature
audience than kids. |
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The Power Puff Girls were one of several series commissioned by the
cable service, and Craig MacCracken's creation has proven to be among the
most popular of the new shows. "He's a very sweet guy," said Gladden about
MacCracken. "He likes it when people draw the girls and care for them." |
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| The Power Puff show is part of the West Coast - versus - East Coast
artistic split in modern animation. MacCracken studied animation at Cal
Arts on the West Coast, while other shows (such as Courage the Cowardly
Dog) came from East Coast creators who gravitated toward New York and the
Rhode Island College of Art and Design. "The West Coast animators are most
used to a team way of living," said Gladden. "In New York it's not unusual
for a person to do a cartoon in his basement. In California, you do a storyboard
and send it off to somebody to animate." |
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