A first look at Nicholas Brendon’s new character!
As Nicholas mentioned in his audioblog last week, we’re happy to offer you the first glimpse of Super Cat, as well as a letter from the show’s creator, Ben Thompson. But first, the legalities: All items are copyright Ben Thompson. Please do not reproduce on other sites.
Now, the letter:
Hello all, Ben here. Jacqui asked me to write up a bit of information about my new series, Super Cat. Well, what to say, really? For starters, as everyone here probably already knows (the only reason why Jacqui would ask me to write anything up) is I’ve asked Nicholas Brendon to be the star. He voices the character Super Cat, a lazy Super Hero who hates his sidekick. More specifically, his sidekick (SpongeBob’s Tom Kenny) is not only disliked by the show’s namesake, but also not wanted. Bill Winkey (a.k.a. sidekick) is simply a neighborhood pest that follows Super Cat out on his capers, and usually ends up cherry picking the victory … stealing all of the kitty’s much-wanted glory and limelight.
The two main characters, Super Cat and Bill Winkey, are tied together by Super Cat’s gardener, Gus the Elk, played by new actor Wes Wlasiuk.
The pilot is currently in preproduction, and we are hoping to get a proper budget from Cartoon Network this February…ish. Send them a message saying we want to see Super Cat!
A few last things to mention. Nicky has just been officially made a writer on the show, joining the ranks of myself, Brad Berglind and Jim Morrison (you heard me hippies!) And if things go well, we’ll be making an appearance at Dragon Con this September in Atlanta. The artwork I’ve given Jacqui to post had been beautifully created by Ken Sims II, a man of great talents, and little recognition.
I may post up a clip from the pilot, depending on what my lawyer says. 
If anyone has any other questions, please feel free to email me at SuperCatTheShow@gmail.com.
I hope everyone likes the show!
Sincerely,
Ben Thompson
Click the poster for a link to a larger image:
In the pilot, Super Cat takes on Evil Cow:
And here’s a view of Super Cat in action — click the sketch for a larger image:
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kara said,
January 9, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Ben,
I didn’t realize this was a new series. It sounds really funny. Can’t wait to check it out.
But an evil COW? That’s UTTERly ridiculous.
kara said,
January 9, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Hey Ben,
If you need any character inspiration please feel free to use my chocolate lab Bailey Bear! I think she would make a marvelous villain or hero…or even a tail wagging bystander. Personally, I think she’s great. But I am a little biased.
http://www.zoto.com/site/#USR.kbarrett::PAG.lightbox::TUN.faves
Kara
Caryn said,
January 10, 2008 at 1:50 am
I don’t think the Evil Cow is a good character to follow through with. The facial expression looks rather masculine, but as we know all cows are female. I think there could be another nemesis that could be explored here.
Ruth said,
January 10, 2008 at 6:30 am
Hey Ben,
I like the art work. The story idea of the hero who hates his annoying sidekick, who keeps stealing his glory sounds like it will be really cute and funny. I’m also really excited to hear that Nicky will be involved in the show as a writer, as well. (:
I showed it to my kids, ages 2-6, they seem to like it and said they wanted to see it, too. My oldest who is the ringleader of the cartoon watching when he’s home from school, seemed to really like the looks of Super Cat, himself. So, we’ll be excited to see it come out on tv and we’ll send Cartoon Network a message.
Sincerely,
Ruth
chris said,
January 10, 2008 at 12:22 pm
The most evil bovine since Taurus Bulba… man that shows my age. I love the tag line of the series… In a city without a hero, it will have to do. Sounds like many a hero that I have liked in the past. Can’t wait till it comes out.
Ben said,
January 10, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Hello all, I know that it is hard to think of a cow as being evil, but you have to understand the circumstances. He started out as a peace spreading pacifist, but there was much confusion, (with his first name being Evil) and Evil kept on being accused for terrorist acts done by freedom fighting activists. Eventually, he just snapped and decided to be bad. If you have to do the time, why not do the crime, right? Evil Cow is one of Super Cat’s worst nemesis’s as he tends to shoot the heroic kitty with milk, S.C’s one weakness. One day, we may all find out the tragic tale behind Evil’s hermaphrodite status, but it all depends on whether or not Cartoon Network lets me keep the udders.
Ben said,
January 10, 2008 at 3:16 pm
By the way, chris, Darkwing Duck memoirs maketh an old man not.
John said,
January 10, 2008 at 4:28 pm
This is awesome! The sketches are great and dude, that is one evil cow! I can’t wait until this airs! Thanks, Ben, for giving us an update on the show and thank you, Jacqui, for getting us the info as well.
Congrats, Nicky, for joining the offical writers for the show.
Thanks, guys, for updating us and I can’t wait to see the pilot ep.!
Anna said,
January 10, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I can’t wait to see Nicky and Tom working together. Will Super Cat have my children? Good luck! I’ll be watching out on Cartoon Network for this one!
Kim said,
January 10, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Hi Ben!
Looks brilliant – am so excited to see it.
I love Evil Cow’s motivation, I feel him.
xoxo
Kim
(Ps: touche on the Darkwing Duck comment……”When there’s trouble you call DW”..love that show)
Alice said,
January 10, 2008 at 8:15 pm
really looking forward to seeing the show!
Alice
Josh said,
January 10, 2008 at 9:33 pm
True story?
Shannon said,
January 10, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Ooo, I love the picture of Supercat running through the city. Sounds like a really cute, funny idea for a show. Here’s hoping you can get a clip up on the site for us!
Nicky as a writer? Cool! Good for him.
Question: the poster art looks like computer animation, but Evil Cow and Supercat are drawn 2 D on the bottom. Is this going to be a traditionally animated show, or a computer animated one?
Kate said,
January 11, 2008 at 7:35 am
Super Cat sounds like a great show…cant wait to see it!!!
Ben said,
January 11, 2008 at 8:07 am
Hi Shannon, good question.
The promo poster looks so good because it is done with gouche (really not sure on the spelling there) water paints, and placed over a charcoal background. In a perfect world (with a perfect budget) we’d do this in 3D with motion capture technology, and cell shade the world with the “gouche” water colors. The show also sort of jumps between super dramatic lighting (when Super Cat is having a fantasy) and reasonable lighting (when he is in inaction or has his fantasy broken by Bill or somebody.) Hence the charcoal background.
There is a chance that we will only be able to afford flash/traditional animation. If so, the art will still look more computer generated than the Evil Cow and Super Cat sketch. These are promo sketches used for pitch. They, along with the pilot storyboard, are colored with paint pens for that “home grown” feel.
There is an argument among the production staff about this topic, actually. Some feel that traditional gives the show more of a classical feel, and others think it would just be really cool if we could get the show to look like the poster.
Any thoughts on this?
Sara said,
January 11, 2008 at 11:47 am
This looks great Ben! Can’t wait to see it.
Shannon said,
January 11, 2008 at 11:55 am
If you want my $.02, I actually prefer traditional animation to computer, which has the tendency to look too slick, smooth, and devoid of warmth and emotion. Facial expressions tend to be better in traditional animation as well. “Supercat” sounds like it’s going to be a bit of a takeoff on traditional superhero cartoons, and I think the jokes would hit better if the show was done in the same style of animation.
I rarely enjoy computer animation on TV, save for the traditional enhanced with cell shaded computer animation, as done on Futurama.
Evil Cow sounds kind of hilarious to me.
Katherine Thomas said,
January 11, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Wow! This show looks so cool!!! I totally love *Nicky* too!!! This will be a Super success when it airs. Best of luck and looking forward to watching soon.
Kat
ps Keep the cow! It’s ironic.
potterfanatic said,
January 11, 2008 at 11:54 pm
This looks so cool, I always thought cows were evil, though I am wondering how many “Udder” puns are in the episode. I’m gonna guess 12.
Ben said,
January 12, 2008 at 10:27 am
Actually, there were two or three udder puns, but I wrote them out in the final version. Udder puns are fun, but we try to stay away from stereotypical things unless we are making fun of them. I’m glad people seem to be liking the sounds of Evil Cow. We all enjoy coming up with fun villains. Some of the staff favorites are: The RANO, (Radioactive Nippled Octopus…he shoots radioactive beams out of his nipples) Craig, the Emo-Gothic Cowboy, (catch phrase: “My world is darkness! Yeee Haw!”) and the Hair Furor. (He controls disembodied body hair.)
…We may have to remove the word “nipple” from the RANO’s name. If we do, you guys can have the skinny on what the real name is.
Thanks for the 2 cents, Shannon, that is exactly the argument the “purists” on staff are making. In the end, we’ll go with whatever looks better.
Ben said,
January 12, 2008 at 10:29 am
…I used the word “fun” three times in two sentences. … naughty writer.
John said,
January 12, 2008 at 2:14 pm
The RANO sounds like an awesome character, but I’ll undeerstand if CN isn’t so pro for the name. I still think it’s cool, though. Hilarious.
I was reading the other comments and was really interested in the animation style (I had been wondering about it myself) and to be honest, I think traditional type animation woudl be pretty cool just because it’s sort of old school, but I could really imagine it being in the newer style animation as well. (I’m pretty torn on the thought, obviously)
Either way, I’m sure the show will still rock.
kara said,
January 12, 2008 at 5:45 pm
“There is an argument among the production staff about this topic, actually. Some feel that traditional gives the show more of a classical feel, and others think it would just be really cool if we could get the show to look like the poster.
Any thoughts on this?”
- Just my 2 cents but traditional is the way to go. I’d love to see an homage to the old Bugs type classics. Some of those old cartoons had great visual style and they used some cool classical music. For some reason I’m thinking of some of the eps that had to do with that pesky Martian.
Now, back to the matter of pitching my dog Bailey for your series. She’s a chocolate lab – big, brown and bouncy. Seriously, she is super hyper and occasionally breaks free and speeds through the neighborhood like some kind of deer on crack. I was thinking that she would make a great love interest for your cat. Cause that’s kind of crazy, isn’t it? A big dog in love with a Super cat? I think it would be funny like the old cartoons about the cat and the skunk. Hey, no pressure – I’m just putting it out there. Just think about it…;)
As for evil cow…still UDDERly ridiculous. Ha ha. He was a pacifist? That’s gold. I like the Hitler character, too. And Emo Cowboy sounds funny. But I don’t get the octopus character. What is an octopus doing on land? I mean, c’mon. And how is a cat going to fight an octopus? Cat’s don’t even like water ( I should know. I have two). It’s like their cryptonite, right? Hey, I hear that Calamari are supposed to be really smart, though. Almost as smart as dogs. So maybe he can have a Calamari sidekick who’s the real brains behind the operation. Maybe you can substitute Nipple for Nuclear (if they make you lose the word nipple) and then RANO could maybe be some sort of Russian octopus that got mutated because of radiation from Turnoble or some other crazy nuclear accident. Just thinking out loud here, dude. But hey, who doesn’t love an evil russian nuclear mutated octopus hellbent on global domination? You could make it even funnier if he keeps talking about how great communism was and Super cat can give him a hard time about how Communism didn’t work.
Anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see it.
kara said,
January 12, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Here’s a villain idea for ya,
How about Rabid Squirrel? He nuts about nuts. He has vast squirrel army that is hellbent on taking over Central Park. He can change on a dime and go from being menacing looking and fierce to sweet and innocent looking (think: cat from shrek doing his cuddly face). His bushy tail can also be used as a weapon. Maybe he and his army have been at war for years with the pigeon clans…
Okay, I’m getting a bit carried away. But, dude, rabid squirrels are scary.
Ben said,
January 12, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Good thoughts, Kara. I’m planning on writing a love interest for him in the form of a Mink (I’m going to try and get Angelia Jolie to voice it, mainly because I want to meet her) but maybe in the same episode, an oafish dog falls in love with Super Cat, and breaks in on his moments impressing the Mink. If I go this path, I’ll name the dog Bailey.
…As for the RANO, we had thought of using Nuclear, actually. The beams will still come out of the place where his nipples are, but it’ll be a behind the scenes secret. As for his sad tale of creation, why he is on land, why his nipples are nuclear, and why he only has six legs, one of the jokes we use with him is he never gets to finish his story. He always starts (perhaps, we think, he is only a criminal because he is misunderstood?) and then is interrupted by somebody.
As for Hair Furor, the original sketch was actually based off of Hitler. He even had a red arm band. We all had a good laugh, and then changed him drastically.
If Jackie is up for it, I may post up some more villain pics in a few weeks.
Ben said,
January 12, 2008 at 6:11 pm
…Bill Winkey has a pet rabid weasel named Foamy… you’re channeling the show pretty well there Kara.
(Freakazoid reference on the “Foamy”…if anyone remembers.)
kara said,
January 12, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Ben,
You Rule!!! Bailey is very excited. Seriously, she drooling and wagging her tail and doing backflips. What? You didn’t know dogs could do backflips?
That’s hilarious about RANO.
Hair Furor sounds funny. I hope you get to sneak in a little mustache or something. I hope Super Cat doesn’t cough up any hair balls around.
LOL.
P.S. Angelina sounds perfect for your mink. I hope you get to meet her. And I’m sure Nick won’t mind working with her either.
kara said,
January 12, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Beer…foamy?
Catherine said,
January 13, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I think that Supercat sounds like the sort of cartoon that I could make me laugh my pants off. I can’t wait to see it all come together.
potterfanatic said,
January 17, 2008 at 1:00 am
Ok, so the villains so far are Evil cow, The RANO, (Radioactive Nippled Octopus) Craig, the Emo-Gothic Cowboy, and the Hair Furor. This is so gonna be the coolest cartoon ever. I’m laughing from the names so the characters themselves are gonna make me need to invest in a box of adult diapers.
Joss’d the Podcast » Episode #006 - Head Tilts and the Doctor Crosses Over said,
January 23, 2008 at 12:20 pm
[...] Nicholas Brendon Supercat Info [...]
Amy said,
January 26, 2008 at 8:19 am
Hey, Nick and Ben
Congrats, on the possible new series it sounds funny. I know the Nick has been on Criminal Minds and just finished shooting and movie which is great. But when is this strike going to end so you can get this series up and running. I would watch it in a heartbeat. I helped make a movie this summer too. The name of the movie is called Cornhole “The Movie.” It is a mockumentory based on Cornhole the game. I was a blast to work on. I had a great time. The people that I worked with were great and I miss them a lot. Working on this movie was a laugh a minute. Go to http://www.cornholethemovie.com and check out the trailer for yourselves. Tell me what you think. Bye for now. Peace out.
Teresa said,
February 1, 2008 at 8:20 am
Ben,
It sounds and looks great, you can’t miss with Nick Brendon helping you.
Emily said,
February 8, 2008 at 8:14 pm
can’t wait! looks cute.
Emily
» Nicholas Brendon audioblog update Feb. 9, 2008 » nickbrendon.com: The official Web site for Nicholas Brendon said,
February 11, 2008 at 9:23 pm
[...] for my availability for the first episode back, which is a good thing. And we’ll find out about Super Cat, I think, soon, which is great, [...]
groonk said,
February 19, 2008 at 5:58 pm
oh, god. that cow scares me.
but i *will* keep an eye out for Super Cat.
» Nicholas Brendon IS Super Cat: The first video! » nickbrendon.com: The official Web site for Nicholas Brendon said,
February 21, 2008 at 8:27 pm
[...] Thompson, the creator of Super Cat, has posted a two-minute preview a scene from the first episode on [...]
Akki M said,
March 2, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Oooh, a cartoon satire. I haven’t been this intrigued since the PowerPuff Girls came out. (I was 6.) Congratulations to Nicky for joining the writers. His voice is actually perfect for most acting, it’s so versatile, so it’s good to see him try out other areas of, um, acting. And ooh, Tom Kenny? I’m a devout SpongeBobbist. This should be brilliant.
EvilCow. Ah, the misunderstood HeShe cow. I want to say I’ve been there, but, um, no. I like his voice – who does that? The RANO seems amusing, but I REALLY don’t think you’ll be allowed to call it that.
Quick question: Will this be aired in UK? Please say yes.
» Nicholas Brendon audioblog update March 20, 2008 » Nicholas Brendon at nickbrendon.com: The official Web site said,
March 20, 2008 at 8:58 pm
[...] going to Atlanta to finish writing the show … the cartoon that I’m teaming up with Ben Thompson, who is the writer of Super Cat. And, so, we were supposed to go to New York on Monday to pitch all the shows to the Cartoon [...]