Our 2008 Comic-Con coverage continues (2 months after the event), with our Tom Fulp interview. Fulp, as you may know, is the founder of Newgrounds.com and also a partner in the gaming company The Behemoth. In this 3-minute interview below, we cover the launch of Castle Crashers, new figurines for sale, tricks for succeeding on Newgrounds (be original and team up with other talented folks) and Tom’s continued collaborations with animator Dan Paladin. And make sure you pay attention to the people standing behind us wearing what looks like toilet seats around their necks. Oh Comic-con, how I love you.

This isn’t our first interview with Tom. Check out Tom The Tank Engine, our 2-part interview from 2005. And another big thanks to the team at Mondo Media for the help producing this interview - especially to Jason Costello and Nate Johnson, the man behind the camera.

The long-awaited follow-up to The Behemoth’s side-scroller Alien Hominid has officially launched. Last week Castle Crashers went live on Xbox Live Arcade, and the reviews around the web of this Flash-animated game are resoundingly positive, including this IGN video review below.

Congrats to the gang at The Behemoth, Dan Paladin and to Tom Fulp, who is also the founder of Newgrounds.com.

Online gaming has gone bonkers. According to a recent study by Parks Associates, “despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities.” And the majority of these online games are produced in Flash. Just browse the king of game sites - MiniClip. Their library is almost entirely Flash-based.

The gang at The Behemoth knows a thing or two about this phenomenon. Founders John Baez, Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp saw the immense success (10 million downloads) of Alien Hominid at Fulp’s site Newgrounds.com, and spun off a popular platform version. Their next conquest is a platform side-scroller called Castle Crashers, a game set for release this year on Xbox Live Arcade. Like Alien Hominid, a great deal of the game’s production is being produced in Flash.

While we await the official launch date, The Behemoth has tempted us with this environment design video. Dan Paladin is at the wheel. You know his work on Dad ‘n Me and Synj vs. Horrid.

And for those not familiar with Castle Crashers, here’s the trailer:

Whew! I thought LA had traffic, but I believe the Comic-Con crush takes the cake. I often stood in the same place for minutes at a time, waiting for the surge of people to thin out and move forward.

Human pinball aside, I always look forward to Comic-Con - its where I often meet Flash animation gurus who I’ve only shared email exchanges with. I spent several hours chatting with Shad Petosky and Julia Vickerman from Puny Entertainment, talking about the up-and-coming Minneapolis studio. They introduced me to Yo Gabba Gabba’s Kevin Lee, and we talked about upcoming premiere on Nick Jr.

Speaking of Nick - I also spotted a banner for Making Fiends, Amy Winfrey’s Flash animated series scheduled to launch on Nickelodeon. From what I’ve heard, a significant portion of production has wrapped, so the premiere can’t be far off.

Like last year, I bumped into Tom Fulp who heads up Newgrounds.com. I picked up a t-shirt and discussed some new figurines they’re planning to release, their upcoming game Castle Crashers, and Tom’s commitment to getting his hands dirty on the games and animation produced out his Philadelphia office. But I met someone new at the booth - John Baez, one of the founders of The Behemoth, the game studio behind Alien Hominid. Baez and Fulp have teamed up on this venture, which has received a great deal of press and awards.

I scheduled some time to meet up with Ghostbot crew, who I’d only shared emails with, dating back to the CHF interview in 2005. But first I dropped in on their autograph session, where Alan Lau, Brad Rau and Roque Ballesteros were busy inking some of their signature characters for waiting fans. Afterwards we talked Flash animation, series development and some recent work for Warner Bros. I’m planning on writing up before long.

Six Point Harness artists Saharat Tantivaranyoo tipped me off about 8fish, a relatively new Flash animation studio based in Sandy, Utam. They were showing off 3 original series concepts and screening samples of their work.

Just walking the floor, I also spotted a banner for ABC Family’s new Flash-animated series Slacker Cats. The primetime series has been touched by several LA-based studios, including Film Roman, Six Point Harness, Renegade and Animax and it is schedule to premiere on August 13th.

Lastly, I happened by the College University booth, which sat adjacent to Newgrounds and the Behemoth. I talked with Mike Parker, swapped stickers and had a look at their latest DVD release, which features season 2 of College University. Mike and his brother Andy have also been hard at work on Clock Suckers, which airs on collegehumor.com.

Here’s a tip - start planning for next year - as I’m sure hotel rooms are already getting booked up.

I spent two days at Comic-con in San Diego this past weekend, and witnessed one of most intense people-crushes I’ve ever seen. Ticket sales were actually halted on Saturday, with attendance estimates ranging from 125,000 to 150,000, up from 104,000 last year. As you can see in the photo below, the concept of a ‘personal space bubble’ was hard to come by.

I was hunting down as many Flash animation names as I could, and using this event as a barometer, I can safely say Flash animation is a healthy industry. I met:

- One of the founders of independent animation company Net Hat Co
- the two chiefs of Titmouse Studio, Chris and Shannon Prynoski who premiered Metalocalypse
- Bob Boyle, who showed an episode of upcoming Jetix show ‘Yin Yang Yo!’
- George Elliott, founder of Elliott Animation, who are animating ‘Yin Yang Yo!’
- Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, the creators of Nickelodeon’s ‘El Tigre’
- Tom Fulp (photo) of Newgrounds and The Behemoth, who was showing of his new 2D platform game ‘Castle Crashers’
- Brooke Burgess, whose ‘Broken Saints’ series is out on DVD August 1st
- The guys behind ‘College University’ and ‘Dr. Shroud’

I’ve also posted about 20 photos from my San Diego adventure over in the Message Boards.