On October 4th, Nicktoons debuted a new Flash-animated series Making Fiends. Long in development, the series is one of the few projects to have successfully jumped from the web to TV, joining series like Happy Tree Friends, Yam Roll, The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers, Queer Duck, Pucca and 30-Second Bunnies Theatre. The Nicktoons brass is surely taking advantage of the series’ darker edge – and hoping to use this Halloween season to catapult the show to ratings success.

A big congrats to Amy, series director Dave Wasson, and the entire Flash animation staff, including Aglaia Mortcheva, Shoshana Stolove and Rob Fendler (help me fill this out, gang). To help celebrate the launch of the TV series, Amy Winfrey, the creator of the show, has posted the title sequence on YouTube, which you can view below:

I attended the Comic-Con panel, and here is one of the (shaky) videos I shot. It’s Dave Wasson detailing the production:

The Nick.com website has also released the Making Fiends Fiend Creator, a Flash-based character generator that allows fans of the show to generate their own Clamburg residents.

And don’t miss the next episode, which airs this Saturday, October 18th at 11:30 AM ET (8:30 Pacific). Check the schedule for more air dates. If you’re looking to get your hands on the original Making Fiends web shorts, DVDs are for sale at Amy’s site. Lastly, back in 2007, we interiewed Winfrey on her jump from the web to TV.

The LA Weekly, the alternative weekly newspaper, features Stefan Bucher’s monsters on the cover this week, but inside readers will find a famous Flash-animator. Amy Winfrey is the topic in Making Fiends: Amy Windrey’s Animated Vendetta, a favorable article by Gendy Alimurung about the upcoming Nickelodeon series Making Fiends, which started out as a web series. Congrats to Winfrey on the immenent series launch – we’re all pulling for you.

In related news, this same topic was posted at CartoonBrew.com last week, and I have yet to read one cross comment about Flash. Perhaps it’s because few folks know the series is produced in Flash (the LA Weekly article doesn’t mention Flash), but I’d like to believe that the software is starting to catch a break or two. Getting really tired of defending Flash, aren’t you?

Pascal Campion, like many of us, is headed off to Comic-con today. In honor of his departure, he created a short Flash animation, which you can see over at his website.

I’m also heading down today as well, and if anyone wants to meet up, I’ll be attending the Making Fiends panel at 5pm on Friday in room Room 7AB. I’ll be wearing my trusty brown CHF tshirt and sitting in the back right of the room. See you in San Diego!

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Back in 2006, Amy Winfrey’s Flash-animated web series Making Fiends was discovered by the Nickelodeon gang and promptly placed onto their online video site, Turbonick. After the Nick audience fell in love with Clamburg’s Charlotte and her unlikely pal Vendetta, the network ordered a full season of TV episodes. The premiere date has yet to be announced, but a few promo clips have surfaced at the Nickelodeon website, as well as a behind-the-scenes sneak preview which you can see below. The clip is hosted by Chris Hardwick, the voice behind Otis on Nick’s Back at the Barnyard, and we meet the series creator Amy Winfrey, the voice of Vendetta, Aglaia Mortcheva, and Supervising Producer, Dave Wasson, who created Cartoon Network’s Time Squad.

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.