“The bit characters were hysterical.

I liked the use of the city, the music, the narration. Comedy-wise, it was fresh.”

JUST WHAT IS JOE DESTRUCTION?

Joe Destruction is a cartoon. One that wants to become a series. Our company, Shadow Productions, built a pilot. Then we built this website so that those of you who don’t live in Burlington, Vermont can watch our cartoon, listen to some radio capers, and learn more. If you do live in Burlington, you can come to a local showing, or if we like you, we’ll even show it to you here at our studio. Anyway, we want to make this a regular gig, either on TV or the web.

Joe Destruction is a creation of Shadow Productions, a recording and animation studio located in Burlington, Vermont . Shadow Productions has been writing and producing radio and TV ads, radio drama and comedy, and music since 1990. Joe Destruction has his roots in a radio theatre program that ran for a year in the early 1990’s. His success as a radio character led Shadow Productions to give him an actual body and bring him to the screen as an animated character. The style is a play on film noir, with Joe and most sets being primarily black and white. The humor is absurd and occasionally dark, but accessible, never scatological and we promise no nudity or gore that’s not actually funny. As was the radio theatre, Joe Destruction, the TV show, is aimed at people in their late teens and older; audience research has shown that the show particularly appeals to both men and women aged 30 and up.

We’ll sell you a DVD of Joe’s pilot episode, “The Case of the Exploding Cats” if you want. Look at the scroll bar on the left of the page to find out how to get it. We guarantee you’ll be the first person you know to own it. We’ll sell you a cool Joe Destruction t-shirt, too--that is, if you weren’t one of our random survey winners.

We hope you like Joe’s odd little world. If you have something to say about it, we’d love to hear from you. Thanks.

--The Joe Destruction production team

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As one of the two main artists on the “Joe Destruction” production team, Tanya Fletcher is responsible for creating much of the drawn (versus digitally photographed) look that comprises the cartoon. Tanya lives in southern Maine. She received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon. Tanya is a figurative artist who also works in multiple medias including painting, sculpture, and animation. She shows regularly and has exhibited throughout New England. Tanya is also known for her mural commissions. Spanky, Tanya’s Jack Russell terrier, has been silently fuming that she was not chosen as the model for Kenneth the Dog in the cartoon, and is currently planning something “big, really big.”

Since being drawn to Vermont by a communications degree from Castleton State College, illustrator Steve Clem has become involved in many art forms from theatre to street clowning to painting, to a comic book he self-published, The Burning Man. Steve primarily works in pen and ink illustration, often using a computer to add color and final touches and/or animation. His artwork has found itself on everything from building signs to television commercials, and even a certain detective cartoon called "Joe Destruction". Steve lives in Burlington with his wife and their canoe.

Doug Lang

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Read the full script of Joe's next adventure: Joe Destruction in the Case of the Spanked Senator

Future Plotlines:

“The Shopping Cart War”

JOE AS NARRATOR: I passed one of those shopping-cart guys the other day. Apparently, he hit it big in the lottery. But instead of giving up the business, he just got himself a lot nicer rig. Balloon tires, gas shocks, motorized, and a retractable roof. It’s a sweet ride.

SYNOPSIS: In this episode, warring shopping cart guys make Joe’s neighborhood a mess. Joe, because he’s indestructible, is asked to play peacemaker. All sorts of shopping cart gags appear in this episode such as a Ben-Hur style “chariot” scene, colliding carts, NASCAR-style races, drive-by cart attacks, etc.

In the sub-plot, Joe’s Ma gets mixed up because she just wants a cart to use for shopping.

“The Kid"

JOE AS NARRATOR: Driving is impossible anymore. A few years ago someone musta declared half-price day at the discount brain store and ever since, morons had been running every light they could find. At first they got away with it. Then everybody tried to get away with it. Now it’s superglue gridlock. So every morning, it’s the same thing. People pile into their cars, drive about a minute to the first intersection, where nobody pays attention to any light at all, then everybody gets hopeless stuck like dinosaurs in a tar pit and honk at everything in sight for the rest of the work day. Some guy in the editorial pages the other day suggested that if we all started going by the lights, we’d make it to where we’re going. It was like it was a novel suggestion.

Anyway, this worked for me since my car didn’t run anyway. I could sit in it and go nowhere, just like the people whose cars were registered and inspected and not up on cement blocks.

VIDEO: Joe walks across the hoods and roofs of all the cars, accompanied by invective from the drivers.

SYNOPSIS: Drive-by shootings have gotten impossible due to gridlock. The first few dim bulbs who tried it found themselves quickly apprehended—not by cops in cars (the cops tried that repeatedly before realizing the inherent futility) but by fat cops on foot who appreciated that the footrace was, at least temporarily, a thing of the past.

To get around this problem, people are now using guided missiles as the new drive-by shootings, and Joe’s office keeps getting hit. Billy has taken to wearing full body armor and carrying an umbrella. Naturally, he serves tea out in the elements, and has a teddy bear join them. They work in a bombed-out building without a roof, while the place next door, obviously a den of unfettered criminal activity, is untouched. Joe is imprisoned, the police naturally assuming that if he keeps getting hit, he must be somehow conducting criminal activity. While in jail, he is introduced to a suspect the police believe is doing the launching. Known as “the kid,” he is actually a kid, a precocious young genius who heads up a group of other young geniuses advocating for funding for their middle school. Joe is sure the kid is innocent, though the kid tries to implicate Joe even as Joe is trying to get them both off the hook.

In this episode, Joe learns that his Ma is indestructible as well, as she visits him during one of the raids. Joe’s Ma actually solves this crime, abetted by Kenneth the dog.

The sub-plot here is Kenneth’s search for his birthplace. He discovers it as a result of things blowing up. It had been urban-renewed and is now urban re-renewed.

“Trumped”

JOE AS NARRATOR: Where I live, the term “urban myth” has a different meaning. Instead of guys with a claw for an arm on Lover’s Lane, our myths come around at election time, when politicians pass through, generally in military jets or, if they’re really brave, armored campaign busses where the roof gunner shoots flyers out his cannon. In my neighborhood, what those flyers have to say is generally referred to as urban myth. That’s OK, ‘cause people in my neighborhood tell a few myths of their own. Like they’re going to vote for the guy. Gets ‘em every time.

SYNOPSIS: Joe meets up with a superheroine who’s smarter, quicker and much more glamorous than he. She’s solving all the city’s crimes and making his business even shakier than it is. She’s always one step ahead of him. But does she know too much? Is she somehow involved with stirring up crime in order to get there first and capture the glory?

The subplot of this issue is love. Joe’s Ma wants him to find it, he wonders why he doesn’t have it, and he finds himself with a secret admirer.

“What Lies Beneath”

JOE AS NARRATOR: For years, there’ve been rumors of wild animals and gators running loose in the sewers. I guess people are scared or something. Out there in the city where they have stores and concert halls and high-end hotels, they call ‘em a menace. In my part of the city, we call ‘em pets.

SYNOPSIS: Radioactive gators are supposedly loose in the city’s sewers. The authorities turn to Joe. “Are you radiation-proof?” they ask him. “Dunno,” he answers. “I guess we’ll find out.”

Joe discovers an entire zoo of escaped pets, both domestic and exotic, who have forged their own new jungle beneath the city. Should he tell anyone? And where are the gators, anyway?

The subplot is that Billy has been studying very foreign languages—as in, how to speak with animals.

“Mojo Muumuu”

JOE AS NARRATOR: Even in my part of the city, sometimes the Nielsen folks come around to find out what people are watching on TV. Coming here always screws up their numbers, though. For one thing, hardly anybody watches TV; the 24-hour show we got going on outside the window is better than anything you could make up. For another thing, it’s hard to find people to get their opinion when they don’t want to be found. And for a third thing, does it count as your viewing habits when you’re watching someone’s stolen TV, or does it count as theirs?

SYNOPSIS: There is a large chain-smoking woman in a muumuu wearing a German army helmet who lives in Joe’s building. One day, she disappears. She’s accused of committing a crime, but Joe thinks she’s just a large, harmless woman in a muumuu wearing a German army helmet. He must prove her innocence even though she’s vanished and he really doesn’t know anything about her other than that she occasionally verbally abuses him as he comes and goes. The problem? A visiting dignitary—at least everybody thinks that’s what he is, though nobody knows, as he speaks in an odd patois and does not appear to be from any recognizable country—claims that his mojo has been stolen. Because this dignitary and the case are so suspect, the local authorities are reluctant to put real police on the job. Thus, the job falls to Joe.

Subplot: Joe repeatedly encounters and is threatened by an odd pair of enforcers. A big guy with a teeny voice hangs out with a tiny guy with big voice. The big guy can’t threaten anybody over the phone, so he has the little guy do that. The little guy does the talking when they show up to pound somebody. To make matters more confusing, the big guy’s name is Tiny and the little guy’s name is Hulk. Hulk orders Tiny around. Turns out it’s because of a way-overdue library book.

“No, You Didn’t”

It ain’t no secret: Money talks in any city. So while the rich folks down by the waterfront get their streets cleaned, their garbage picked up, their derelict cars removed and the stuff just piles up in my part of the city, it’s no surprise, you know? That’s OK. See, we live upstream.

SYNOPSIS: Joe is asleep. A cockroach whispers in Joe’s ear that he wants to hire him. “I got money,” he says. Joe agrees. “I wasn’t always like this. I was a person. I want you to find out who did this to me.” Kenneth, Joe’s dog, looks at Joe, at bug, at Joe, at bug. Eats bug.

JOE: Kenneth, you just ate my client.

SYNOPSIS: The theme of this episode is transformation. Joe meets a “superhero” calling himself Metamorphoman, who thinks his special power is that he can turn into all sorts of things, except that he never knows what these things will be. In reality, he staggers around in dirty tights. He tells Joe, “See, I’m a lamppost.”

JOE: Naw, you’re a guy.

METAMORPHOMAN: Lamppost.

JOE: OK, you’re a lamppost.

METAMORPHOMAN: See?

SYNOPSIS: Metamorphoman is convinced he committed a crime disguised as something else. Joe’s job is to convince his own client that he didn’t. When Metamorphoman changes himself into an explosive device to blow Joe up, Joe has a dilemma: Joe can’t be blown up by real explosives, but he has to convince Metamorphoman that he hasn’t changed into real explosives despite the fact that Joe didn’t blow up. The more Metamorphoman tries to blow him up, the more he proves to himself that he can indeed change into different things.

“The Aquaist”

JOE AS NARRATOR: My building got torched the other day. The fire department used to come around for fires, but they got tired of turning their backs to fight a fire and having the neighborhood kids steal their fire engine. Around here, that ain’t a crime exactly; it’s driver’s ed. Or, they’d use the truck to pick up a few extra bucks doing windows with the retractable ladder. That’s called entrepreneurship. But it was a long, dangerous walk back to the station at the other side of the city, even if you were wearing a helmet and carrying an axe, so fires pretty much have their way around here. So, a fire in my building wasn’t so weird. What was weird was that somebody put it out.

SYNOPSIS: In this story, the city’s political figures are more than happy to let Joe’s part of the city burn. Their problem is the Aqua-ist, an individual who’s putting all the fires out. Joe has been called on to catch the Aqua-ist by—naturally—being at the scene of as many fires as it takes. Joe exposes the city’s plot, but is thwarted by a slick ad campaign proclaiming, “Fire is a good and natural part of the environment that allows new, stronger buildings to grow.”

The subplot is that Kenneth wants a job (Billy is the one who determines this). Fire dog seems to be his calling, but he learns that he has the natural ability to help the Aqua-ist as well and all he has to do is drink lots of water. Will he stay with Joe or go to his destiny?

“Poor, Poor Pitiful Me”

SYNOPSIS: Joe is walking down the street, looking blown up, sipping a cup of coffee. Someone throws change in, coffee splashes out. He looks into his cup. “Aw, damn. I was enjoying that cup of coffee.”

Joe has hit rock-bottom. He needs a case. He’s so poor he magic-markers socks onto his feet.

So, he takes a typically ridiculous case. Joe goes undercover to infiltrate a gang. His disguise is a big gold chain. Billy attempts to teach him to speak street slang. He is utterly unconvincing, but during the course of their hazing/ initiation rituals, the gang discovers they can’t blow him up, so they let him hang around with them, figuring he might be useful. His job is to head off a hit. Dr. Tim at the FB-er, NRDC lab later shrinks him to bullet size in order that Joe might, when shot, ensure that he does not strike the target.

In a subplot, Billy is taking evening courses in fashion design. He outfits Joe in ever more-ridiculous outfits for his meetings with gang members. He also dresses Joe’s Ma in a very scanty outfit, much to Joe’s (and the viewer’s) dismay.

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FEEDBACK

Press Reviews Viewer Comments Survey Summary

SO, WHAT DID YOU THINK?

“Great visuals—brilliant usage of animation and real pictures. The music totally supported the story. Nice pacing and strong characters. I want more!”

“The animation was great—nice job!”

“LOVE Kenneth. Good references to politics and the 1980’s. Newspaper headlines very clever.”

“As a teenage viewer, I would say the concept was very comical and creative. I enjoyed the humor, and the characters were strong. I would have enjoyed it more if the humor had been more random, but I really loved it. It reminded me of the animated TV series, ‘Aquateen Hunger Force.’”

“Joe Destruction is certainly an original concept!”

“Great animation and music—professional quality.”

“I think some of the subtle jokes got lost because they are so subtle. WE get them, but I wonder about a broader audience. Overall, GREAT visuals, music, writing, etc.”

“I think this program will appeal to adolescent males and older.”

“Really excellent!”

“Clever, great music, great animation; admire the vision the effort, the professionalism—bravo, Shadow!”

“Creative animation with textures and live objects mixed in.”

“I think this is unique and great—I watch a lot of online animations and things similar to “Joe Destruction” but this is by far the best!!”

“I think it could develop a strong cult following.”

“The use of digital photography and animation is a great idea!”

“Transition technique great!”

“GREAT animation and sound/music quality. Good story, funny!”

“Impressive animation, variety of characters and musical accompaniment.”

“BRAVO!”

“Somewhat like “Maus” visually. Great job!”

“Billy and Joe are a good team!”

“I love Billy. I hope he is gay!”

“Music and sound effects worked very well. Writing was off-beat and consistent.”

“It is really funny! It should be longer!! I love the animation. Keep up the good work!”

“It had a strong aesthetic. The writing was good in that there were many funny pieces. All in all, a VERY impressive work.“

“I really enjoyed the integration of the animation and digital photography.”

“As a series, the characters would have a chance to fill out and gather a following.”

“Put it on Comedy Central.”

“Great idea! Great start! Very professionally done—excellent artistic values. Great voices. Keep going. Liked the combination of animation and real photos.”

“Animation worked very well. I liked mix of digital photography and art.”

“Great job!!! Creative!!!”

“Great job, guys! The pacing was solid. I loved the segues.”

“Background were very good to excellent. Mixing in photography was excellent to spectacular.”

“Loved Billy’s comments while on treadmill, dog burping across cigar, Agent Bob dropping things on Joe. Loved plot depth, music.”

Constructing Joe

BY Ruth Horowitz

(published 07.14.04)

Lots of classic TV started out on the radio. Think “Dragnet,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Superman,” “Joe Destruction.” Joe who? The name might not ring a bell unless you were listening to Vermont radio in the early 1990s. The farcical noir serial was one of several weekly, two-minute programs broadcast on WNCS in the days before it became The Point. The same company that produced the original audio mini-drama unveils its first animated DVD, “Joe Destruction and the Case of the Exploding Cats,” at a semi-private showing Wednesday at Burlington’s Wyndham Hotel.

For the folks at Shadow Productions, the Wyndham event celebrates a milestone. The Burlington outfit has been creating radio and TV advertisements, music, animations, radio drama and comedy for 16 years. They’ve spent the last five building the 45-minute pilot, which they hope will eventually find its way to the small screen — either via television or, more likely, the Internet. If that doesn’t pan out, claims writer and company founder Matt Dugan, “Exploding Cats” will demonstrate Shadow’s ability to produce full-length features.

On a recent afternoon, Dugan and most of the other players behind “Joe Destruc-tion” are meeting at company headquarters: a converted apartment in a North Willard Street Victorian. Besides its low-key location, the gathering is notable because so few are involved. Dugan is joined by Steve Clem, one of the two artists who rendered the characters; Shadow co-owner and technical director Doug Lang, who animated the still images and produced the score; and event coordinator Alex Bell, who provided a number of the voices on “Joe Destruction.” The only principals missing are Tanya Fletcher, the project’s second artist, and Joe Egan — the voice of Joe Destruction.

“Personally, it amazes me that such a small group of people was able to do it,” Clem comments. A sign-maker by day and the creator of a comic book called The Burning Man, Clem says he and the others worked on “Joe” between other projects, “grabbing odd minutes here and there.”

And learning on the job. Not surprisingly for a project that started out on the radio, it was originally dialogue-heavy, Lang says. “The visuals got more sophisticated as we got better at using the technology.” But “sophisticated” is a relative term. Compared to a classic Looney Tunes, the animation is stiff and primitive. “That’s part of the charm,” Lang suggests. It helps, he admits, that the lead is “not a really expressive character.”

Joe is a dead-pan, uni-browed, stubble-cheeked, sad-sack private eye with one distinguishing talent: He cannot be blown up. In “The Case of the Exploding Cats,” the CIA recruits him to herd some nasty, steroid-popping felines who have chowed on kibble laced with explosives. Aiding Joe in his mission are a decoy ice-cream truck, a whisky-guzzling mutt and Joe’s wildly loyal assistant Billy, who wields a mean lasso and dresses in color.

That’s not insignificant, given that the visuals are all in gritty black and white — except for Billy’s plaid vests, various explosions, the happy faces on the ice-cream truck’s hubcaps and other select details. Characters move against backdrops built from digital photographs that were taken in Burlington and assembled to simulate a big city. Local viewers might recognize the tiled façade of Bove’s. In Joe’s run-down office, the cracked plaster wall is borrowed from beneath the Winooski Bridge, the furniture comes from Recycle North, and the newspaper on the desk is Seven Days.

Lang’s mix of drawings and photography gives “Joe Destruction” a cool, collaged look. His loungy, acid-jazz soundtrack fuels the pseudo-urban feel. What stands out most, though, is the writing. It’s dry, PG-13-rated, and laced with self-referential shtick.

“Al was my resident heavy,” Joe divulges in one scene. “You know, the guy in private-eye stories who comes out of dark places and beats you up. When I went into this business, a heavy was one of the things I needed to get. Like an ex-wife. But I couldn’t afford one of those.”

“Quit your narrating, Destruction, and get ready for your beating,” Al interrupts.

It’s not exactly “The Simpsons,” but it’s not bad. And as Dugan points out, it’s a lot more economical to produce: around $100,000 per episode, compared to a million. That lower price tag means a single show could be funded by a single advertiser. If “Joe” were distributed via broadband, rather than traditional broadcast, its sponsor could market to a more defined niche. And the PI wouldn’t be vying with Homer Simpson, but, say, Homestar Runner — the armless, baby-talking, propeller-hat-wearing hero of a popular Web-based cartoon.

Will Joe’s fame explode? In what medium does he stand the best chance? And who, exactly, is his target audience? Dugan and his crew hope clues from Wednesday’s premiere will help solve the case.

© Seven Days Newspaper, 2004

After Dark: Toon fans spend night deconstructing 'Destruction'

By Modisane Kwanza

Everybody's a critic.

And, that is exactly what the creators of the cartoon "Joe Destruction and the Case of the Exploding Cats" were counting on Wednesday night at the Wyndham Burlington hotel.

Shadow Productions, a recording and animation studio in Burlington, screened the latest cut of the 45-minute cartoon for a crowd of about 90 guests Wednesday. Joe Destruction is a character that appeared in the company's radio programs in the 1990s.

About eight years ago, the company set out to develop a low-cost style of animation using the latest computer technologies to create a cartoon with rich sound and a unique look. Joe D. was chosen as the guinea pig.

The audience gave a second lively ovation as the lights came up. At a lectern, a beaming Steve Clem, one of the artists and the productions Webmaster, waited for the applause to die down. The screening was just the night's first act, one that had been about five years in the making. Now, the second, and perhaps most crucial phase, was about to start.

"I ask everyone to take a look on the back of your chair. On the handle, there is a piece of tape," Clem said. The chairs with tape meant the sitter had been randomly chosen to participate in a focus group that night. Those who didn't have tape were asked to fill out a survey underneath their chair.

Writer/director Matt Dugan was more interested in the detailed responses on the surveys than the audience's immediate reaction. "We'll see what the surveys say. That's why we're glad to fill the place," said Dugan, who founded Shadow Productions in 1990 with producer/composer Doug Lang.

Alexandra Spichtig and Kyle Roberge, both of Essex, huddled over the surveys on their laps.

"Great artwork, especially the way they merged the digital photography in the background with the drawings," said Spichtig, who was invited because she was familiar with Shadow Production's work.

"It's the first time I've seen the whole thing," said Spichtig, 32. "I thought it was great."

Roberge, 31, said the digital effects and the blending of the photography were incredible. "Best I've seen in a cartoon."

That's reassuring for Shadow, which took a gamble with the project.

"None of us had experience in animation. I'd never done cartooning," said Joe D. artist Tanya Fletcher, a painter from Maine.

The 11 members of the focus group sat around a long table with forum leader Kurt Gruendling.

Gruendling asked what they liked about the cartoon, what things didn't they like, what would they change or improve on in future?

It didn't take much prodding to open up this bunch.

Walter "Mack" McIntosh liked the story, and the animation style. Clio Smurro, 14, of St. Albans loved the choice of jazz music and believed that it matched nicely with the scenes.

This was a group who knew their toons and they compared Joe D. to their favorites: SpongeBob SquarePants, Futurama, The Simpsons, South Park, Looney Tunes, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Family Guy. (The executives at Cartoon Network would have been in heaven.)

They talked about their favorite characters in the cartoon with Joe's sidekick Billy and the affable Agent Tom, leading the way.

Smurro broke the room up when she asked, "Was that based on Tom Messner?" referring to WPTZ-TV's weatherman.

The group dissected the cartoon with precision and they uncovered flaws. The music at times drowned out the dialogue; more color would offset the grays in the background. Roberge said he watches cartoons closely to see if the lip-synching is in tune and sound effects match up and he noticed the timing was off a bit.

The consensus was that the cartoon was too long and that it would benefit from some tightening; and that the beeping and mock profanity, courtesy of Agent Bob and Profane Beth, were over the top.

Heather McIntosh said she did 20 years in the Navy, and became quite familiar with cussing, "but there's a time when it can go overboard. That's my only complaint."

McIntosh, 48, is Lang sister's. She and her husband used some of their vacation to travel from Munfordville, Ky., to be at the premiere. "I'm really confident," she said. "Doug has always been the creative type. This is the first time I've seen in front of me, what he's been doing."

There wasn't agreement on every issue. Some thought Joe D. was too violent; others said it was silly comic violence in the style of Wile E. Coyote.

And not everyone was turned off by Profane Beth's cussing. "I'd liked her because she was so out there," said Sarah Wentworth, 15, of Enosburg Falls.

In the end, the three men and eight women had a few parting shots: "great start," "keep developing it," "concept is unique, creative," "good solid beginning."

Now that Joe D. has had his test run, Shadow has to decide what to do with him and his motley crew. The solid responses from the Wednesday premiere, Lang said, have generated many ideas. The company could possibly pitch Joe D. or even a different project to the networks and there could be more previews ahead.

The more immediate plan, Dugan said, is to post "Joe Destruction" for download on the Internet where maybe it would take on a life of its own.

Whether Joe D.'s story is to be continued remains to be seen.

© The Burlington Free Press, 2004

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