Interview: Christy Karacas

By Shelby Hohl

FPH had the chance to chat with animator Christy Karacas about his new cartoon Superjail which is currently airing on Adult Swim. We picked his brain on everything from gaining artistic exposure to new wave punk band Les Savy Fav. Read on fellow scribes, within lie magnificent secrets to creative justice!

Where did you get the idea to do a cartoon about a hallucinogenic jailhouse run by a Willy Wonka-style warden?

I had an old pitch that was a reality jail show. When we had our meeting with adult swim I brought it up and it wasn't really what they were looking for so we were like, how about the most insane, crazy, jail in the universe? A 'superjail'? Little did we know that there are real 'superjails'...without all the psychedelia of course. Also, it was kind of constructed to be a place/show where anything could happen giving us the freedom to do whatever we want creatively.
How large was the crew it took to produce the cartoon?

About 25 people on staff, 4 sound people, the composer of the score and a ton of interns.
The crew is extremely talented and hardworking-I can't say enough good things about them! If any animation people are reading this--if someone’s resume says 'superjail' on it HIRE THEM IMMEDIATELY cuz it means they are great-hahah.
It’s made at Augenblick studios in Brooklyn entirely in house which is also pretty cool.
Your student film Space War, garnered you a lot of attention and even was featured on MTV's Cartoon Sushi. Did you produce the whole project yourself? If so, how long did it take you to make it, start to finish?

Yes. That was my degree project I did my senior year at Rhode Island School of Design. It took about 6 months maybe? It was A LOT of work as I did it all myself-drawing, animating, sound etc...plus that was all hand drawn-no computers. Ha.

Are we expecting a season 2 of Superjail?

Yes! (I think so...cross your fingers)


Can we expect any Superjail merch? shirts? DVDs?

Definitely. Not sure what exactly, but definitely DVDs. the rest is up to adult swim. I hope there are action figures. That would be awesome. I want the warden troopers from season finale more than anything.
Suggest a book and a band!

The stars my destination (a.k.a. tiger! tiger!) by Alfred bester. It’s amazing. It was written in the 50's but reads like the newest coolest craziest sci-fi adventure...kind of a 'Count of Monte Cristo' in space. A band-Les Savy Fav-they are one of my favorite bands-they are also amazing.

Do you think it would be of benefit to Mr. Spock to have a handlebar moustache?

Only if it was logical.

Superjail, Bar Fight, and Space War are notorious for their very graphic and intense fight scenes. What kind of stuff inspired you to go the route you did?

I love the cartooney violence in the fights but it’s also about the movement and the challenge of the 'choreography' of the fights-trying to keep them intense and interesting. Influences are obviously classic cartoons like Popeye and Looney Toons, but also weird psychedelia...kung fu movies, action, anything cool really.

What do you think about the current state of animation --- where do you see it going/ where would you like it to go?

When you say 'current' I’m assuming you mean TV/movie animation entertainment right? I’m not the biggest fan of 'current' animation. I would love it if it went in a more hand drawn looking and more importantly cartoony fun visual direction instead of 'scripted sit-com' direction. Seems like that's the only thing the networks want. I’d love a show that was purely visual with no talking...i'm not huge into the whole '3-d' thing either. I do love the Pixar movies-they are amazing. Maybe it’s a love or nostalgia for what you grew up loving? I dunno. There’s also tons of crazy independent animation that’s really cool but doesn't really exist as 'popular entertainment' so most people don't even see it. I like a lot of that kind of stuff. Festivals are great way to see that kind of stuff-and the Internet, even though watching stuff on the computer kind of sucks.

If you could pit any two cultural icons against each other in a skin shredding death match --- who would it be? And who would win?

I think I’d rather watch two cultural icons get drunk together. Jim Morrison and Harry Nilsson would be pretty cool.

You play guitar in a band out of New York called ‘Cheeseburger’. Any particular reason to go with that name? Planning on touring anytime soon?

The name is iconic-its fun-classic-all American-badass. What’s better than a cheeseburger? We are working on our second record right now. If it is on time--we're kind of behind schedule right now--we were supposed to tour spring 09-so i'm not sure if we'll wait till next fall or what...you can stay posted on our my space page (myspace.com/cheeseburger)
Do you have any recommendations for aspiring artists to help them further expose themselves?

Work hard, be productive, and to expose yourself to many different things. Also don't worry too much about being 'current' or 'selling'. You have to be true to the kind of stuff you want to make. The short film Barfight that we made is what got us on Adult Swim's radar. The funny thing is that it was rejected from every film festival we entered it into and there was a three or four year gap until they contacted us (we made Barfight in 2000!). Kind of insane when you think about it.