TVSquad

(S01E01) The new Adult Swim series from SpongeBob SquarePants writer and storyboard artist Aaron Springer, Korgoth of Barbaria, which also features the talents of Bill Wray (Ren and Stimpy, Mad Magazine) and Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack) does not officially debut until September, but last night a sneak peek was shown. Actually, I don't think this is the first time the pilot has been shown, but it was the first time I saw it, and I have to say I thought it was pretty good, especially if you like creative violence.

Taking place in an apocalyptic future that has slipped into a new Dark Age where evil rules and mankind must battle against ferocious mutants and ancient creatures, Korgoth emerges as a Conan the Barbarian-type who battles evil and brutally slays anyone who gets in his way, or who kind of annoys him. There's a ton of blood and guts in this pilot episode, but it's done in the same kind of over-the-top style that made me fall in love with Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy all those years ago. In this episode alone we see a man take a meat cleaver to his crotch; another man has his arm torn off and the arm subsequently used to beat other men; several men and creatures are split down the middle like a piece of lumber; an evil wizard has candles rammed into his eye sockets; one man has his hand impaled when he high fives another man with a hook for a hand; and the best scene of all involves Korgoth tearing all the skin off the front of another man by yanking on the man's hair (and then throwing ale on the man's exposed viscera). Besides the fun cartoon violence, the episode also had some great monsters, the kind rarely seen outside of anime. While I don't want to make any absolute statements about the series based on one episode, I think Adult Swim may have discovered another great series in the same vein as The Venture Brothers. I'm looking forward to more episodes.