Superjail!

[SwimMod_Luuv]

Post your questions and comments for George Fort here!

George Fort is artist, animator, and designer for the Venture Brothers and Superjail!, and has also worked on television shows the Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and Maya & Miguel.

[railroadengine]

Dear George,
How do you get your ideas for the things you put in The Venture Brothers?
The strange robots and monsters and really wacky villains are a nice touch along with the background action.
How do you arrive at these things?

[SwimMod_Luuv]

Venture Brothers and Superjail! have such vastly different looks and vibes, is it that different a process between the two shows?

[railroadengine]

They would sort of have to be.
But what could inspire those 2 looks?

[Dark_Lord_Khrima]

Both Superjail and Venture Bros have a lot of fighting, but Superjail's style is to kill off as many people as possible, while Venture Bros doesn't have nearly as extensive a death count. Which show's fight scenes are more fun to animate and plan out? Also, exactly how do you go about planning out and animating those long slaughter scenes in Superjail? They are amazing.

[CGPee]

Which episode of Superjail was the most fun to create?

Conversely, was there any episode that was a headache or just plain difficult?

[poisonbella]

Hi George great of you to join us! It is so cool that shows and even cartoons that we might watch....uh.....sorry i messed up that sentence! yes the venture brothers and superjail are totally different styles. i like superjails style its like a bored high school student;s scratches they do, which adds to the appeal i believe. was that the look you were going for? also venture brothers is great! how do you actually animate it? by hand???

[scrapyard]

dear george fort

u are aesome

do u ever like decorate cakes that look as awesome as superjail???

[GeorgeFort]

Uhh purple. of course its purple.

[GeorgeFort]

hey railroadengine. On the Venture Brothers, I work closely with the creator, Jackson Publick. He comes up with all the awesome villans and stuff for the show. When it comes to the backgrounds, he gives notes and sketches and ideas of what is needed for a particular scene. Then I take it from there and we bounce things back and forth. Publick is great at knowing what he wants and it's always fun working with him on his show. We joke around a lot which is great. 

---

railroadengine wrote:
Dear George,
How do you get your ideas for the things you put in The Venture Brothers?
The strange robots and monsters and really wacky villains are a nice touch along with the background action.
How do you arrive at these things?

---

[GeorgeFort]

---

SwimMod_Luuv wrote:

Venture Brothers and Superjail! have such vastly different looks and vibes, is it that different a process between the two shows?

---

Yes, it's a different process between the shows. The way we create the art is different as well as the art direction. On SUPERJAIL! the backgrounds are done in flash while on The Venture Brothers the final backgrounds you see are painted in photoshop. The aesthetic and story differences come from the different creators. Christy Karakas has an awesome engergy and amazing flow of creativity which makes Superjail really exciting to work on. Chris McCullouh has a very cool, slick sensibility and a great sense of humor. Working on both of the shows is great and it's always fun switching gears and doing different styles.

[desantoos]

There appears to be an improvement in the quality of the animation in the Venture Brothers from season to season (I think Doc Hammer even commented on it in one of the DVD commentaries). In particular, there appears to be more detail. Are there more artists, or is there just more specificity by the creators to get what they want on the show?

Also, how does the South Korean CGI animation (like the sequence when Sgt. Hatred first arrives on the Venture Compound in Season 3) get put into the show?

[GeorgeFort]

---

Dark_Lord_Khrima wrote:
Both Superjail and Venture Bros have a lot of fighting, but Superjail's style is to kill off as many people as possible, while Venture Bros doesn't have nearly as extensive a death count. Which show's fight scenes are more fun to animate and plan out? Also, exactly how do you go about planning out and animating those long slaughter scenes in Superjail? They are amazing.

---

I agree. On these shows I supervise the Backgrounds not the characters. I like the crescendo of the fights in Superjail. For me, it was about building up an energy and giving a good payoff at the end. I love "Dream Machine" "Terrorarium" and "Combaticus" for that reason. Build, build, build and then kick ass action finale! I think that intense fast paced slaughter ending thing really worked and was really fresh.

Venture Brothers usually uses fighting in a different way, however there is that crazy finale at the end of "The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Part 2)" where all those Hank and Dean clones get slaughtered. Makes you think..

[GeorgeFort]

---

CGPee wrote:
Which episode of Superjail was the most fun to create?

Conversely, was there any episode that was a headache or just plain difficult?

---

For me, I enjoyed working on "Dream Machine" the best. The story was just so much fun and is was so genuinely surreal! It came right after working on "Combaticus" where I was drawing giant attacking statues and blood and guts scattered around an arena. That was the most fun I had ever had on a cartoon and then we started on "Dream Machine" which tipped the scales of awesomeness for me.

Superjail is a difficult show to do. I must say as much fun as it as was, it was all headaches at the same time. Long ass weeks.

[GeorgeFort]

---

poisonbella wrote:
Hi George great of you to join us! It is so cool that shows and even cartoons that we might watch....uh.....sorry i messed up that sentence! yes the venture brothers and superjail are totally different styles. i like superjails style its like a bored high school student;s scratches they do, which adds to the appeal i believe. was that the look you were going for? also venture brothers is great! how do you actually animate it? by hand???

---

I love the style Christy Karakas created for Superjail. I agree it adds a freshness to the show. I think it's great to see things that look different sometimes. It's like another character in the show. The funny drawings themselves.

The CGI that goes into Venture Brothers seems to go well. Chris McCullogh seems to enjoy using it from time to time and I think it works out well. And yes, VB is animated by hand.

[GeorgeFort]

---

scrapyard wrote:

dear george fort

u are aesome

do u ever like decorate cakes that look as awesome as superjail???

---

I will now. You're invited to the cake party

[GeorgeFort]

---

desantoos wrote:

There appears to be an improvement in the quality of the animation in the Venture Brothers from season to season (I think Doc Hammer even commented on it in one of the DVD commentaries). In particular, there appears to be more detail. Are there more artists, or is there just more specificity by the creators to get what they want on the show?

Also, how does the South Korean CGI animation (like the sequence when Sgt. Hatred first arrives on the Venture Compound in Season 3) get put into the show?

---

Well, there have been some new artists in later years. I came on as Background Supervisor at the beginning of season 3. Liz Artinian also came on to supervise the Background painting. Most of the desingers were new too, so naturally things began to look different. The creator Chris McCullogh wanted to make things look as good as possible so we went in and redesinged a lot of things. I'm proud of that stuff. Go team Venture.

[scrapyard]

sweeet

cant wait 4new eps of both supjail &ventr bros

proly the 2best shows on adultswim

sides aquas

GR8 JOB

[CGPee]

That's amazing! Combaticus was the first episode of Superjail that I saw and it completely had me hooked from the first moment. My friends taped it on their DVR and we would rewind and watch it (and all the other episodes) to see what things in animation we missed. I can see how all of it would be a headache

Thanks for answering these questions for us fans! I'll be back with more eventually

[NOTdubbed]

Dear Mr. Fort,

Is Superjail! based off of an acid trip?

[GeorgeFort]

Nahh. It just makes fun of acid trips sometimes.

[Majikthise]

What is your favorite room in the Venture Compound?

[GeorgeFort]

---

Majikthise wrote:
What is your favorite room in the Venture Compound?

---

I think the living room is nice. I'd like to have a drink from that mini bar in there. I really enjoy drawing the OUTSIDE of the compound though! and Guild stuff. Love drawing the Guild stuff.

[viperxmns]

I'm a big fan of the crazy trip segment in the Superjail episode "Don't Be a Negaton". Just curious, looks to me like Yellow Submarine served as an inspiration for that bit, is that accurate?

Love your work!

[Boogerfiend]

You mention that you're giving the basis of what you need to draw & then ideas get bounced around back & forth. Have you ever gone off of the rails & created stuff that that didn't get the go ahead? Do you ever get into Superjail style battles over what material needs to be created?