TVSquad

All of these pilots are available to watch on Adult Swim Fix right now. They'll air on television this Sunday.

Superjail:

Superjail is made by Augenblick Studios, the same animation studio that made the animated segments for Wonder Showzen. The same sick and surreal sensibility that resulted in such Wonder Showzen "classics" as "D.O.G. O.B.G.Y.N." is present in this series about a gigantic jail that's run by an eccentric Willy Wonka type if Wonka happened to take that extra step from "crazy loner" to "completely batshit insane." The blood and guts and overall surreality of the episode can be pretty funny, but I think its success will depend on how the story and characters develop. I can dig bunnies being skinned alive and men being sliced up with chainsaws, but if that's all this series offers it'll get old rather quickly.

You can watch the first minute of Adult Swim's newest shows here.

The pilots are:

• Fat Guy Stuck in the Internet, based on the internet series "Gemberling" from John Gemberling and Curtis Gwinn
• Drinky Crow, based on Tony Millionaire's Maakies comic strip
• That Crook'd Sip, from Nick Wiedenfeld (Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law) and Jacob Escobedo
• Superjail
• Let's Fish

Here's some animation news from the past week:

We've been telling you about the Robot Chicken Star Wars special for some time now. If you're a fan, you've probably already seen the trailer, but if not, here it is.

Also, I found another Drinky Crow clip. It's at the end of this post. Based on the snippets I've seen of this series so far, I think they've really captured the weird, violent humor of Tony Millionaire's strip.

Here's what's coming up on Adult Swim:

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, as mentioned previously, has received an order for thirty new episodes.

Moral Orel has also been picked up for a third season (which I already knew, but I was sworn to secrecy until it was officially announced). Also, the latter half of the second season kicks off this Sunday.

Here's some animation news from the past week:

You can see a short clip from the new Drinky Crow series for Adult Swim here. The series is based on the Maakies comic strip by Tony Millionaire. It debuts May 13.

Also in Adult Swim news: our pals over at Joystiq picked up on news of a Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law video game that'll be released this fall. There's not much news on the game just yet, other than it'll be developed by Capcom for the Playstation 2 and PSP.

Interesting things in the world of animation have happened. I will now tell you about them:

First of all, if you're a fan of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, or you have kids who love the show, the recently-released DVD Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure is definitely worth the purchase. In this made-for-TV movie --which originally aired on Cartoon Network-- Billy, Mandy and Grim must race against Boogey (a.k.a. "the Boogeyman") to retrieve Horror's Hand, an ancient artifact that give its possessor the power to conjure up everyone's deepest fears, but only if one conquers their own fears first. Kids will enjoy the silly characters and booger jokes, and there are plenty of pop cultural references for adults: within the first five minutes of the movie we're treated to homages to Terminator 2, Stargate, Star Wars and Fractured Fairy Tales, just to name a few. Also, there's a nice lesson about facing your fears that ties all the random insanity together.

In April, I mentioned that underground comic artist Tony Millionaire was developing a series for Adult Swim based on his Maakies comic strip. The strip, if you haven't had the pleasure of reading it, is a twisted ode to alcohol, love, the sea, and the Lord our God slicing open a talking monkey with a knife. It's everything you want in an alternative strip: it's sick, well-drawn, incredibly funny, and will make your grandmother actually vomit tears. Its sensibility is perfect for Adult Swim, so I was thrilled to hear that Millionaire was developing it for the cartoon block. The title floating around the Web is The Drinky Crow Show, but who knows, that could change. The Adult Swim schedule grid, recently updated, does not have the show included in the grid, but the name "Maakies" is scrawled below under the heading "pilots." Hopefully this is yet another sign that we'll be seeing it soon, and let's also hope they do it justice. Come to think of it, this would be the second Adult Swim original to be based on a comic next to Boondocks, correct?