John Kricfalusi

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John Kricfalusi (born Michael John Kricfalusi on September 9, 1955, in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada) is an Emmy-nominated animator better known as John K., creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show and The Ripping Friends animated series, The Goddamn George Liquor Program, the first animated series made using Macromedia Flash, as well as the founder of animation studio Spümcø International. Kricfalusi is sometimes credited as Raymond Spum.

For many years, Kricfalusi (pronounced /kris-fa-lu-si/) drew low-end studio television cartoons (the best one in Kricfalusi's opinion was the The Jetsons revival) before being 'rescued' around 1985 by director Ralph Bakshi (whom Kricfalusi had worked for before at 2 brief periods in 1981 and 1983). Kricfalusi and Bakshi were going to make a film called Bobby's Girl, but that film fell through when Tristar's president stepped down. Kricfalusi's first finished project was directing the animation for The Rolling Stones' 1986 music video of Harlem Shuffle [1]. But Kricfalusi's most famous project under Bakshi was the short-lived but highly influential series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, based on the classic Terrytoons character. The Bakshi/Kricfalusi interpretation was in many ways more creative than the original, yet also considerably more bizarre: the series was aired on CBS, but after two seasons, complaints from viewers prompted the network to cancel it. John K. also worked on another cartoon series at the time around Mighty Mouse called Galaxy High, where he worked on character designs on some of the aliens in the series.

Kricfalusi went on to found his Spümcø International animation studio with partner Jim Smith, creating the controversial Ren & Stimpy Show. Spümcø sold the show to Nickelodeon in 1988, but after several years of battling with the network's executives over content and missed deadlines^{[citation needed]}, Kricfalusi was ultimately fired from production of the series in 1992, leaving the production of the series in the hands of Nickelodeon and Games Animation.

In 1996 John Kricfalusi created the first internet cartoon series using Macromedia Flash, The Goddamn George Liquor Program. He followed this up with Weekend Pussy Hunt, the second Flash Cartoon.

Since then, Kricfalusi has worked on various projects including some web-based cartoons, Björk and Tenacious D music videos, some Yogi Bear cartoons (including Boo-Boo and the Man and Boo Boo Runs Wild), two Jetsons cartoons (Father & Son Day and The Best Son), and the short-lived FOX Kids TV series The Ripping Friends. Most recently he has written, directed, and starred in new Ren & Stimpy adult cartoons produced for Spike TV, a network which has allowed the animator much more freedom to work with the lewd and bizarre themes that make his art distinctive. However, after only three of six episodes aired, the new Ren and Stimpy show was also cancelled.

Kricfalusi provides several audio commentaries in Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volumes 2 and 3 (DVD sets of classic Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons) and appears in some of the bonus featurettes as well.

On February 13 2006 Kricfalusi started his own weblog, All kinds of stuff. His blog is known for his wealth of knowledge about animation history and for frequent criticisms of modern animated shows.

In September 2006, his animated music video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Close But No Cigar" from the album Straight Outta Lynwood was featured on the DVD side of the DualDisc album. The song is about a man who ends relationships with women who have one minor flaw he cannot get past. The video features John K's animated cat, Cigarettes.