Joe Murray

Joseph David "Joe" Murray (born May 3, 1961 in San José , California ) is an American animator . He created the cartoon series Rockos Modern Life and Camp Lazlo .

biography

Joe Murray has been an artist since he was 16. He later worked as a political cartoonist for a newspaper in San José . He was hired as a designer for an agency and invested his wages in self-produced animation films. When he was 20, Murray started his cartoon company Murray Studios. His first attempts at animation film were made in 1986 when he was studying at the California Institute of the Arts . Murray's most successful animated film was titled The Chore . The two-minute film was produced in 1987 and earned it the Student Academy Award in 1989 .

Since 1988 Murray worked for MTV as an animator for commercials. In 1991 he left MTV in the hope of pursuing his own projects. He created Heffer Wolfe for one of his animated advertisements for MTV , which will later appear in Rocko's modern life .

My Dog Zero

My Dog Zero was released in 1992 and was Murray's first color film. With a grant, Murray hired twelve people to color the film. The film was shown on television in the United States.

Rocko's modern life

In 1993 Murray created the animated series Rockos Modern Life and was also executive producer of the series, which was produced until 1996. Rocko originally appeared in the unpublished comic book Travis , which Murray wanted to sell to fund the film My Dog Zero . But the sale of the comic book didn't materialize. After the third season, Murray decided that Stephen Hillenburg should produce the fourth season. Murray retired altogether after the fourth season, taking a break from the animation business and writing and illustrating children's books.

Camp Lazlo

After the long break, Murray decided to get back into the animation business. In 2005 he created the animated series Camp Lazlo , which he sold to Cartoon Network . A total of five seasons were shot before the series was discontinued in November 2007. On September 8, 2007, the film Where's Lazlo , which is based on the animated series Camp Lazlo , won an Emmy for Outstanding Animation Production. Once the final season of Camp Lazlo airs, Murray plans to make a short film called Fish Head in 2009 .

KaboingTV

Murray founded KaboingTV, a cartoons-only internet network that he funded through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.com . KaboingTV started on March 11, 2011.