China, IL Interview – ‘Friends That Don’t Know They’re My Friends Yet’

Just havin’ a brew with ma dudes, my bros, my buds.  Normal friend stuff. NY Comic Con 2013, the usual.  Oh, and that’s just Brooke (who does voices for the show).  We’re not like an official item yet because of like, her not entirely knowing who I am and the minor detail of her already being in a relationship, but like – it’s a slow boil right now – prob gonna be a thing soon.  Hangin’ with a Hogan, this is just standard Saturday morning stuff bro.  Don’t get all weird about it.

Let’s say this may or may not have been an interview.  If it was, which I’m not sayin’ that it is, [because – I mean look at that picture – that’s some friend ish] I asked some questions and they had answers.  Mostly just friend stuff.  But also answers.  To possibly questions.  For this website.  Deers with boobs.

I JUST GET SO CRAZY, PLAYIN’ WITH KITTY CATS.  I JUST GET SO CRAZY, PLAYIN’ WITH KITTY CATS.

Let’s start out with some cool trivia that you can use in any mid-west-cartography-centric pub quiz.  Is China, IL a real place?  Brad enlightened all our asses:

“It turned out to be!  I thought I was just fucking around.  You know how there’s like Paris, Texas? I thought ‘That’s stupid – you’re lazy’ … I’m just goin’ big, I’m gonna name it China, IL”

Amazing.  Citizens of Paris, Texas – Brad Neely (the show’s creator) thinks your town’s name is lazy and I’m sure he would love to hear from you regarding this.  Please start tweeting him now.

I love music.  Brad makes music for the show.  The songs get stuck in my head and I go around singing them – which in turn makes everyone in Pathmark think I’m a giant weirdo.  This is my burden.  He really does too many things well.  Here’s words he said about song makin’s for the show:

“Sometimes we’ll start with the idea of like ‘we’re gonna make fun of the Beach Boys, so better get after makin’ those songs’ – but most of the time we write an episode and we’ll say ‘okay, right here we’ll have a montage, so we’ll need a song there’ and [then] in two months you’ll have to write that song”

Dan Weidenfeld (executive producer for the show) added friend-ily:

“We always know thematically… what the song will be [about], but there’s no lyrics – there’s no style of song even.  So Brad has to create that down the road – but, we know what function it will have within the story usually [from the start]”

God I want to write a rap for this show so bad. I might just have to whip up a ‘Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys’-esque rap about kitty kats that i’ll play during DVR re-runs of the Diamond Castle episode.  Just so we’re clear, I’m not going to cover the kitty rap that Bubbles already did, I’m talking an original joint.

Some guy at the table that thought he was smart and witty but was terrible and looked like this asked a question about character design and the animation style.  Ma boy Brad obliged that fart-knocker:

“It’s just the way that I’ve drawn for a long time, [starting with] single panel print comics, and then moving into some stuff that I did for the internet.  Whenever we got into animation, I couldn’t do it all myself, we kind of had to do something that was a little more manageable [like] pass it out and have strangers draw it.  So, it kind of got a little streamlined but I think that it moves right.  We have a lot of rules [for our animation] but we try to really listen to the voice actors … and draw according to that – try to bring out that emotion that they [give]”

Homey Dan added:

“…all the characters function and move not in a cartoonish way, but as if they’re actually human … I think that differentiates the show from so many other shows that are out now because it actually feels kind of real but is absurd and crazy in a lot of other ways too”

Now I know I haven’t mentioned Brooke yet, let me give her some time here. Oh no, what is the photo that just happened to be laying around:

I had no idea what Brooke was actually going to be like, seeing as the last time we crossed paths she was on Hogan Knows Best and I was in my living room.  I am happy to report that she can keep up with the boyz and was tradin’ wise cracks with the gang like a pro.  She’s kind of like the Sweet Dee of our posse.

I asked Brooke what it was like getting into voice acting, she kicked all the biz atcha boy (AW SNAP AUDIO):

Listen here dog

Listening is really the only way to give that scenario justice. Brooke, you cut right to the core of me girl. Right to the core.  With your flowing golden hair and tough-as-nails leather jacket. To. The. Core.

Well, that was pretty much it.  Dope city.  Shout out to ma boy ChefRich who was holdin me down at the table. Thas ma dog.

Checkout my past reviews for China here (I am reigning guru round this bitch regarding said show) and you’ll see that this shit is good. Real good.

Now go watch China, IL you fucks. Ma clique need that ‘toon money.

@Achilles_Word