The animation rockstars known as Ghostbot have teamed up with the rockstars know as No More Kings. Frontman Pete Mitchell approached the Ghostbot gang about animating the music video for the track Michael (Jump In), which is off their album titled No More Kings. Mitchell conceived the video and directed (he’s a trained animator, with experience at Disney and Henson), but then handed over the physical production of this Flash-animated project to the San Francisco-based studio.

According to the Ghostbot blog, the band visited the studio along with a few of the folks from Astonish, the record label. On the band’s blog, you can see some stills from a behind-the-scenes video shoot (inset), plus they’ve posted some sample storyboards.

The band members are pop-culture nuts (notice the Knight Rider nod at the end of this video), and there’s another animation twist in their story - their name came from a 1975 School House Rock episode titled… No More Kings.

This month Warner Bros. Interactive and WayForward Technologies are releasing a new Nintendo DS game featuring Daffy Duck. Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck was inspired by the 1951 Chuck Jones short of the same name, and the Flash-animated in-game cinemas were brought to life by the talented Ghostbot team. Below are a few animated examples from the game:

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.

Attaboy, the artist, illustrator, magazine co-creator and toy designer, has a new cartoon on his hands - in fact it’s his first. Too Many Robots is the most recent release from Disney Channel’s Shorty McShorts’ Shorts project, and this particular project was animated by Ghostbot.

You can also click this link to watch the podcast on iTunes.

Proving that much of the viewing public is perfectly fine receiving entertainment in the form of an advertisement, Special Agent Erin Esurance is back in another long-form TV spot. This short, titled Carbon Copy, was produced by Wildbrain, directed by Phil Robinson and animated by Ghostbot. This beautifully animated commercial is over 3 minutes long, and it saves the subtle sales pitch for the very end.

Thanks to Pierre in the Cold Hard Flash message boards for the tip.

Back in October, a series full of brand-new 7-minute Happy Tree Friends episodes launched on G4 TV. In fact, there’s 39 new episodes and they’re being released 3-at-a-time, Sundays at 5:00pm and 12:30am. Also, starting next week, the series will air Saturdays at 2:30am.

And now Cold Hard Flash has teamed up with Mondo Media to offer an online exclusive! It’s a full episode from the TV series with a commentary track from the production team. If you’d prefer to hear the episode without the commentary, just click the track at the bottom of the player window. So without further adieu, I present your hosts for the episode titled From Hero To Eternity.

Kenn Navarro - director
David Ichioka - producer
Ken Pontac - story editor
Warren Graff - story editor

It should be mentioned that 2 great production studios helped this effort along - Ghostbot, who designed and animated the pop-up style title sequence and Fatkat Animation who animated the entire series. Be sure to check out photos from the Fatkat HTF wrap-party over on their blog. I think we all missed a helluva party.

The first season is already planned for a DVD roll-out just in time for the holidays. On December 5th, Happy Tree Friends: Season 1 will deliver 9 full-episodes, commentary tracks, storyboards and a behind the scenes look at the production.

If you just can’t get enough Happy Tree Friends, head on over to the Cold Hard Flash interview with Kenn Navarro, the co-creator of the show. You’ll notice that Kenn mentions that they were tinkering with the idea for the TV series way back in the Spring of 2005 when I first interviewed Kenn.

Back in September, CHF ran a story about Renegade Animation’s work for CBS’ Innertube. This broadband network is pushing a new Flash-animated series called ‘Animate This!,’ which features CBS stars telling stories which are subsequently brought to life with animation.

Renegade’s latest stars Jennifer Love Hewitt fondly remembering her singing debut at a state fair.

Notice how the series is sponsored by the Flash-animated commercial series from Esurance. These spots are beautifully animated by the gang at Ghostbot, and produced by Wildbrain. On that same topic, check out their latest work, a spot called ‘Basher-Bowl,’ which the Ghostbot gang call “arguably (the) most action packed Esurance spot we’ve done…” You can see it over at the Ghostbot site now, and on their blog, they’ve posted some thoughts on the production.