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Ctrl-Alt-Delete Animated Series Announced

Posted by Zonk on from the kickass dept.

Happ-why writes "Tim Buckley, the creator of the Ctrl-Alt-Delete webcomic, has today announced a new animated series." From the site: "The Animated Series will debut in February of 2006, consisting of a brand new 4-5 minute animated short every month. All new material, fully animated, featuring professional voice actors hand chosen from over 1400 auditions. The episodes are written by me, directed/produced by Ryan Sohmer and Randy Waxman, the great guys over at Blind Ferret Entertainment, and brought to life by a professional animation studio."

54 comments

  1. I want to be like him! by Koiu+Lpoi · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Man, the author of Ctrl-Alt-Del is my idol! I too want to sit around all day, play WoW, and draw webcomics!

    That's the life.

    1. Re:I want to be like him! by ElVaquero · · Score: 0, Redundant

      The fact that this is the top post and also modded as redundant is just fucking brilliant.

    2. Re:I want to be like him! by rk87 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Hey, at least he's pretty much always on time with his comics, unlike a certain other webcomic artist....

      --
      I'M NOT ANGRY!
  2. To infinity and beyond by Rs_Conqueror · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The thing that makes this so noteworthy is that this is quite possably the FIRST webcomic to ever become a full featured animated series. I'm quite excited to see who else will follow in Tim Buckly's footsteps. Tyco and Gabe perhaps? You never know...

    --
    Behold, another webcomic!
    1. Re:To infinity and beyond by Mirkon · · Score: 4, Informative

      At the first PAX last August the PA duo said they were working with someone on animated projects, and showed a animated/voiced version of the Cardboard Tube Samurai series of strips they had done that summer. I'm not sure what's taking them so long, but know that when PA debuts animated content it won't be because CAD did it first.

      --
      Glog!
    2. Re:To infinity and beyond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      full featured ?

    3. Re:To infinity and beyond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not the first to have a short video, though. A live action version of Something Positive was done a month or two ago.

    4. Re:To infinity and beyond by Zangief · · Score: 1

      If anything, CAD comics exists, because PA did it first. CAD, at least for a couple of years, was a blatant ripoff of Penny Arcade.

    5. Re:To infinity and beyond by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      Tim Buckley has stated over and over again that he did not even read Penny-Arcade before working on CAD, so it can't possibly be a ripoff. I have also heard him say this in person. I, for one, believe him.

      Besides, CAD has such a vastly different style (Artistically, plot-wise (it has one), and character wise) that I don't understand how anybody could even confuse it with being a BLATANT ripoff. CAD is only 3 years old, so if CAD was a ripoff for "at least a couple of years", that would seem to indicate that it has been for the majority of its run. I really wonder if you have even read CAD (You know, every strip), or if you just looked at a few strips and declared judgement.

      Penny-Arcade isn't the first gaming webcomic either, anyhow. There were a whole bunch that came before it.

    6. Re:To infinity and beyond by Golias · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Besides, CAD has such a vastly different style

      Really???

      Because the first thing to enter my head when I first saw it was, "this looks almost exactly like Penny Arcade, except it's slightly less funny."

      (and by that, I meant that Penny Arcade is not particularly funny, and this strip is not funny at all.)

      IMHO, YMMV, TEHO, yadda yadda yadda...

      --

      Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

    7. Re:To infinity and beyond by ElVaquero · · Score: 1

      Ryan Sohmer, the director of this project, was trying to get an animated series going for his own webcomic, Least I could Do about a year ago. Funny that he ended up directing this thing.

    8. Re:To infinity and beyond by blazzy · · Score: 1

      The very first CAD comic acknowledged its setup was cliche. I always assumed they were referring to strips like penny-arcade.

    9. Re:To infinity and beyond by ResidntGeek · · Score: 1

      Has he? I never heard that... see the fourth comic for proof against.

      --
      ResidntGeek
    10. Re:To infinity and beyond by Zangief · · Score: 1

      I readed CAD until april or so, then it just bored me.

      Lets give him the benefit of doubt about Tim not reading PA before working on CAD. But, he already mentions PA on the fourth comic he did, and some of the even earlier comics have some PA flair to them.

      I am too lazy to search through their archives (the archives of both sites are too clumsy). But CAD has made a strip spoofing Macintosh ads, after PA did the same. Also, CAD has a couple of guys who are supposed to represent the first and second player on a game. PA also did this before. The animated piece of hardware (Divx and the Xbox on CAD) is also a similar idea.

      I think this is more than just coincidence.

    11. Re:To infinity and beyond by Alarash · · Score: 1
      Yeah, Really.

      PA strips are usually shorter (much like PVP), and there is no plot. PA is just a way for its authors to express how they feel about the gaming industry events. CAD is more like a story following a few gamers.

    12. Re:To infinity and beyond by Poltras · · Score: 1

      Not to count dork tower in 2002.

      --
      Of Code And Men
    13. Re:To infinity and beyond by cafard · · Score: 1

      I'm also getting bored by CAD. It was fun when it dealt with gaming, but it seems to linger now in the boring so-called 'storyline'.

      The story involving the xbox robot becoming mad seemed to last for months, and now we have this lame killer-girlfriend thing. Seems Tim's badly in need of inspiration...

      --
      This post is awesome.
    14. Re:To infinity and beyond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The thing that makes this so noteworthy is that this is quite possably the FIRST webcomic to ever become a full featured animated series.

      No, it's not. As a few others have mentioned, Penny Arcade has been in limbo about creating an animated series based on their works for some time now. However, that hardly counts, since nothing came to market yet.

      However, the ill-fated Movie-Comics did have a few animated episodes first. It did not last long, since they only started with flash animated strips in the last few months of the comic's lifespan, but it existed. And, unlike CAD, Movie-Comics was funny on a more consistent basis.

    15. Re:To infinity and beyond by identity0 · · Score: 1

      Ahahaha, I can see it now... some kid will be watching saturday morning cartoons, and then Gabe and Tycho will be on, and be like, "This channel lacks wang. Let's go to Cartoon Network."

      "Mommy, what's 'wang'?"

      And soon thereafter, he develops an unnatural aversion to fruit juices...

    16. Re:To infinity and beyond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There have also been several 8-Bit Theater flash animations done.

    17. Re:To infinity and beyond by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      IIRC, CAD was in development for quite some time before the first comic was ever written. Tim did a whole bunch of work (which he didn't publish) before he did the first comic.

      Once he got further into it, I'd imagine it was kind of hard to avoid Penny-Arcade.

      I mean, they are both videogame comics, there are bound to be SOME similarities. I mean, when I was watching through Babylon 5 again a few months back, I read the entry on The Lurker's Guide to each episode. An ongoing theme was people claiming JMS was giving homages to various other works. JMS became quite annoyed by these constant claims, and continuously said that no, he wasn't referencing Lord of the Rings or whatever else, it was just a coincidence. He actually wrote some jokes about that into later episodes.

    18. Re:To infinity and beyond by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      CAD was in development for quite a while before Tim published the first comic online. Plenty of time to become more aware of the scene he was entering.

      I can see how you wouldn't have heard it before. I've read it online in a few articles/interviews, and heard him say it when he came to Montreal.

    19. Re:To infinity and beyond by ResidntGeek · · Score: 1

      It's in his first book - he wrote for a month before putting them up. A month isn't a long time. Seems like just yesterday Bush was reelected, but it's already been a fucking year.

      --
      ResidntGeek
  3. Inspired to read the first few dozen comics... by jguevin · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...I now wonder, will the animated version be, you know, funny?

  4. dugg by douthitb · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This has been on digg for almost an entire day already...

    1. Re:dugg by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1
      but also on dig we have
      Firefox 1.5 - Is It That Good?
        submitted by Chewxy 1 day 38 minutes ago (via http://1337tech.org/cms/Articl...)
      Is Firefox 1.5 that good as what people taut it to be? 1337tech.org has the numbers to prove it!
      .. um and
      Universal tries to claim it illegal to email their execs
      Don't get me wrong , I often times use calamitous grammar and spelling in my posts ;
      though I was taut it better to do it properly in importenter things
      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    2. Re:dugg by Ragein · · Score: 0

      Hey i tried to bring this to /. I really did i posted it as soon as i saw it and then did it again to make sure its not my fault that the ed's don't ever pay attention to me.
      DAMMIT I WANT ATTENTION

      --
      They fitted George Orwell's coffin with rollers so he could turn over more easily years ago.
  5. Promising by Khyl'Dran · · Score: 5, Informative


    Though I personally am much more a fan of Penny-Arcade, CAD probably lends itself better for an animation because Tim usually presents story and continuity, and this is a brave and pioneering move for a webcomic...And judging from the trailer the animation follows the overall feel of the comic quite nicely, which is good. I remember reading in an interview with Tycho, though, that they had been approached about an animated series once and even had actual scripts safely stored in a drawer...who knows, maybe after this move by CAD we'll see a P-A cartoon...that would truly be amazing...

    The news post forgot to mention that the episodes will be charged though. $2.99 a peice or free if you become a Premium member of CAD...Bummer...I'm pretty sure with the huge readership numbers that website gets he could easily have procured some kind of sponsorship...(Maybe he'd even make MORE money that way because more people would watch the episodes!)...

    1. Re:Promising by MrAndrews · · Score: 1

      I don't know about their particular situation, but it's a real stinker to get anyone in a normal company to sponsor ANYTHING related to video on the web. At least in a meaningful way. They don't seem to value it the same way they would a show on TV, for some reason. And when you're talking about making 4-5 minute episodes with that quality of animation, you don't have much room to play around. At the start, caution is key. $2.99/episode may seem like a lot, but if they can get enough people to buy it like that, they'll get their footing, and I'm sure you'll see the price balance out over time.

      --
      The world's only surviving livewriter.
    2. Re:Promising by RoadDoggFL · · Score: 1

      A user-sponsored scheme seems to work fine for Rooster Teeth Productions (Red vs Blue, The Strangerhood, P.A.N.I.C.S.), $10 makes you a sponsor for the season and some nice consideration when the DVD is made available. But with "professional" voice actors and the like, I'm sure their production costs would be a bit more than recording a Halo match.

      --
      "This is considered plagiarism."
  6. No way! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    The animation will be sold separately for $2.99 an episode, but if you sign up before December 31st, you can get a year membership (12 episodes) for just $1.66 per episode.
    For 4-5 minutes? RIAA is proud of you!
    1. Re:No way! by MrAndrews · · Score: 1

      The **AA deals with fantastically larger volume and giant marketing machines. These guys can probably look forward to a thousand or so paying customers. $1,660 a month isn't that much to live on, split among all the participants. If they were asking for $15/episode, THEN you have a cause for complaint. As is, they're small-fry producers trying to do something cool... RIAA comparisons don't come into it at all.

      --
      The world's only surviving livewriter.
    2. Re:No way! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The **AA deals with fantastically larger volume and giant marketing machines.
      Sore, do not the reality of smaller labels in the RIAA come into the way of your dilussion.
      These guys can probably look forward to a thousand or so paying customers. $1,660 a month isn't that much to live on, split among all the participants.
      Sure, not only are there only a thousand readers of a high profile webcomic ready to part with some green they all get the membership... Anyway, if they are worried that few people would buy they should drop the price or something, but who cares about the boring demand curves.
      As is, they're small-fry producers trying to do something cool... RIAA comparisons don't come into it at all.
      Back in the real world products and services are valued by what they provide and their rarity and the RIAA with their wet dream of $2.99 per song certainly come into it.
  7. This is awesome except... by Prince+Lorak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...we finally get to hear what the characters sound like. I think that that's the worst part of things like this, especially in books converted to movies. We've all been mentally holding the voices of the characters, and now that image (sound, I guess) is shattered because we now know that the new voices are what the author intends them to sound like.

    1. Re:This is awesome except... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was thinking the same thing. Thankfully, they didn't use voice actors for the trailer - it would have potential from turning me off from the static version too.

      They did a decent job getting across the jist of the main characters here without spoiling it with voices.

  8. Re:What would be amazing in a PA toon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is how Penny Arcade would animate - or even refer to - the Fruit Fucker 2000. HBO perhaps?

  9. To another webpage but not even to Adult Swim by Max_Wells_SH · · Score: 0

    What would make this noteworthy is if it was an animated series on cable television. From what I understand, it's just web-based, yes? I don't want to rain on the CAD parade, but making the transition from webcomic to animation isn't a celebratory milestone: Homestar Runner and Ninjai, for example, always have been animation. So there isn't some sort of ladder one has to climb to reach an animation height. Good for Buckley and good for CAD fans, but it's no event in the grand scheme of things. Now if/when Homestar Runner, Penny Arcade, or CAD show up on Adult Swim, that will be noteworthy.

    Also, I'm pretty familiar with CAD, but the penguin and boob-grab/punch are a little Love Hina... not sure if Buckley wants to take it that way in the series...

    --
    I read Slashdot for the articles.
    1. Re:To another webpage but not even to Adult Swim by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Love Hina? I thought the "do something wrong (like landing on a girl's boobies) and get beaten up" joke was a Clever & Smart trademark?

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  10. UserFriendly was first by Knetzar · · Score: 1

    UserFriendly tried an animated series a while ago. It looks like it only lasted one episode though.

    1. Re:UserFriendly was first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Incidentally, User Friendly also stopped being funny a while ago too

    2. Re:UserFriendly was first by wheany · · Score: 1

      Replace "a while" with "8 years", and the above statement is true.

  11. Yay. by Seumas · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    So this whole article is to mention that some random web comic I've never heard of is going animated. Amazing. What will they think of next. Soon you're going to tell me you can get music from the internets.

    I don't mean to be a dick here, but how much was this slashvertisement? I want to get in on some of the action if it's affordable.

    1. Re:Yay. by ElVaquero · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What if it's a justified slashvertisement? Geeks like games, what about comics about games? Seems like more than a few people will see this article and get into the comic/show. Not that I'm promoting the idea of slashvertisements in general, but this seems very different than an established product or company.

    2. Re:Yay. by jimfinity · · Score: 1

      i'm not sure you're right here. despite the fact that you've never heard of the comic, ctrl-alt-del has a pretty big following, and deciding to go animated is a step that few have taken. how webcomic writers have made their money has always been something of a debate, and it will be interesting to see how buckly fares in this new frontier.

    3. Re:Yay. by Seumas · · Score: 1

      Don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to ber a grinch. I really just got the feeling from this that it's not that big of a deal. It's a little like "coke now has a vanilla flavor" being headline news. They aren't the first comic-ish animated web thing (Boondock Saints - I think that's it - has done the same thing as have many others to varying degrees of talent and success). The only difference here is that they're going from strip to animation. I just don't see it as Slashdot-worthy.

      I don't always see things as "slashvertisement!" - but this felt close. Moreso than TheEscapist / Joel on Software / GirlGamers stuff that comes out three times a day on Slashdot. On the other hand, you can see me defending the MAKE xmas gift article a few spots down - so you can see I at least used some judgement to discern things.

      That being said, I have never heard of CTRL-ALT-DELETE, but I will probably check it out. Which just goes to show that Slashvertising works. ;)

    4. Re:Yay. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be reading the games section and not have heard of CAD as well as not grasp the webcomic ties to the gaming community ...

      I'm guessing someone bought "Seumas (6865)" via eBay for the low uid #.

    5. Re:Yay. by Ronnie76er · · Score: 1

      LoL...Boondock Saints...starring William Dafoe...sorry it was funny...

      I think you mean "Broken Saints"

  12. Temped, but I'd like to buy the DVD instead. by vertinox · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Although I'm a big fan of CAD, but $2.99 per episode for something watched online seems a bit steep unless these are downloadable in iPod video format.

    I've actually bought DVD of Homestar Runner - Strongbad Emails and enjoyed them very much and would like to see the same eventually happen with CAD.

    --
    "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
  13. Webcomics and storylines. by MrHen · · Score: 1

    "Though I personally am much more a fan of Penny-Arcade, CAD probably lends itself better for an animation because Tim usually presents story and continuity, and this is a brave and pioneering move for a webcomic..."

    Barring, of course, Megatokyo. In any case, the reason I stopped reading CAD was because it stopped being funny and it seemed as though Tim was trying desperately to make me care about the cast. After he had been selling Ethan as a digital punching bag for all stupidity and mishap (while being funny) I was irritated by the sudden change (mostly because of the lack of funny). Plus I don't like Tim Buckley. He was a complete jerk when I emailed a complaint to him.

    I think the reason most webcomics don't appear to present story and continuity is simply because if you notice it, you aren't laughing.

    Most of the webcomics I read have a story to it (Megatokyo, Real Life, MacHall) not to mention all of the paper comics that have made the transition to the web. Calvin and Hobbes has plenty of story. Even Penny Arcade has story once in a while. Gabe and Tycho know when to use it, however, so as to keep the funny coming.

    It'll be interesting to see what people think of it. I'm certainly not going to pay for anything. I'm not a fan of CAD anymore. Even if I was I wouldn't pay for anything. Not unless I get a preview and it has me rolling on the floor.

  14. Commentary by Kris Straub by HarvardFrankenstein · · Score: 1

    Kris Straub, creator of Checkerboard Nightmare and Starslip Crisis, gives an interesting commentary on this news.

    1. Re:Commentary by Kris Straub by HarvardFrankenstein · · Score: 1

      Derp, perhaps a link would be nice, huh? Linky

    2. Re:Commentary by Kris Straub by SteevR · · Score: 1

      I'm posting this here in case Kris doesn't like it on his blogger page:

      Yeah, his comic is really ... totally unoriginal and horribly unfunny. I really don't like how he's become so popular.

      "PA nor PVP owns the copyright on any of these concepts -- but we've seen them all before! Each of them! A long time ago! And to my mind anyway, done better!" -Kristofer Straub

      I don't think CAD is a bad comic, per se, but I too was astounded by the readership numbers. It's no Penny Arcade by ANY measure, it's not particularly original either (OMG GIRL GAMER, MUST TOUCH BOOBS), but it's a gaming comic and one of the first, and I guess that's enough for some people.

      Now I'm a bigtime fanboy/geek. I'm the kid on your block who owned the ST: TNG technical manual and memorized it. The thing that keeps me out of the culture surrounding many of my favorite things (games, comics, movies, geeky tv shows) are conversations/comments like the ones quoted above.

      Art, especially entertainment, is a matter of craft. When I read an overdone joke in a webcomic, what carries the creator is their craft- Does it fit the characters (i.e. do the characters make it new)? If there is a visual component, was it drawn in such a way as to make more visceral, or to twist the meaning of a joke around in some way? Does the joke lend itself to some irony based on plot or setting? If not a joke, does this overdone theme do the same things?

      This doesn't just apply to jokes and webcomics- how many times can we retell a superhero story (conventional print comicbooks are trying to figure this out)? How many times can we remake some old Star Trek episode in a new series? How many times can we retell the arthurian legend in different ways? How many different ways can the Autobots triumph over the Decepticons, and on how many planets, with how many new kid friends (Whatever happened to the old ones? Were they stepped on?)?

      Point being, if all you can do is argue about who was the most "original", who did it first, you're missing the point.

      Disclaimer: I'm a fan of the triumvirate of the three most popular gaming webcomincs: PvP, Penny Arcade, and CtrlAltDel. PvP comics in PCGamer magazine lead me to the webcomic phenomenon; links on PvP lead me to discover Penny Arcade, which lead to all the (34) others I read. I don't read Checkerboard Nightmare yet, mostly because I haven't come up with the time in awhile to read the archives of a many-year-old comic. That said, I've liked what I've seen of it.

      P.S.

      Yeah, the whole thing is a stretch. Its overpriced content, with a pricing scheme that would make the MPAA proud. 12 times 5 makes 60 minutes- why not a 60 minute long feature, delivered on DVD, and sell it for $20 or so? This matches the "OAV" distribution model common to many anime releases.

      --
      Performing sanity checks on your own beliefs is vital in avoiding poisoned koolaid.
  15. Wonderful! by Phantasmo · · Score: 1

    Who says that webcomics have to be "funny"? It's nice to see some serious, dramatic entires pulling ahead of the pack and innovat...
    Wait, Ctrl-Alt-Delete is...

    It's supposed to be funny???

    I'm not paying $3 for 5 minutes of powerfully unfunny garbage. There are some real gems out there, but CAD is... well, it's the "Joey" of the webcomics world. It's very important that this animated series venture lose buckets of money. Otherwise, webcomics might turn into American TV.

    --

    The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
  16. Big fans, Big bucks by galaxia26 · · Score: 1

    Tim Buckey did it the right way. He didn't start out with a pricey product that was entirely crap.

    He built a fanbase that is very incredibly huge. Two compilation books and a forum later and it seemed to be the best time to create something more. Tim's timing couldn't be more right!

    I predict that he is going to make tons of money on this project.

    Ten books at $10 gets you $100. With his fanbase he can do the same thing with 800 fans with a price of 2.99 but better!