All this and more has arrived in the annual Adult Swim Upfront press release. It’s the time of year when Adult Swim unleashes a slew of promises of new content to maybe get you hyped for the year, but far more importantly get those sweet advertisers on board and some of that tasty press. There’s a good-looking menu this year.

Adult Swim wants to make sure this year that you know, if you’re not yet aware, that they’re no longer just the period of time between 8 in the evening and 6 in the morning that occupies the channel space that Cartoon Network usually does. They’ve gone multi-platform and they run content 24/7 these days. The Swim website has its own lineup of series that air daily, emanating from Williams Street. You may already know about FishCenter Live, the popular daytime program on AdultSwim.com, which according to the press release now has two million registered users interacting with the show daily, but there’s also Stupid Morning Bullshit, Williams Street Swap Shop, Daytime Fighting League, and Development Meeting as well as the weekly Toonami Pre-Flight. You can check out when everything’s on on the schedule page, and the live stuff gets shown right here. Keep up with your favorites. Try something new. Give it a go if you haven’t before. Adult Swim all day, baby. Nothing’s better than that.

Now, this doesn’t mean the good ol’ TV is forgotten here this year. There’s plenty coming. If you’re interested (which I assume you are, you’ve read this far), here’s the whole slate.

WHAT’S COMING BACK

First, let’s see what old faces will grace your televisions with new content in the new year. The usual acquisitions are still there– American Dad, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Bob’s Burgers, and quite a bit more of the usual suspects aren’t going anywhere. Black Jesus, Check It Out!, The Eric Andre Show, Mike Tyson Mysteries, Mr. Pickles, Neon Joe Werewolf Hunter, Robot Chicken, Rick & Morty, Squidbillies, Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories, The Venture Bros, Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, and the 4 A.M. Infomercials are all set to return. It’s great to see Neon Joe will return, and more Bedtime Stories is always welcome.

WHAT’S NEW: SERIES AND SPECIALS

There will be plenty of new faces this year and a few familiar ones doing new things.

Robot Chicken will continue their ongoing legacy of specials based on other properties with a The Walking Dead special. It’ll be a half-hour long affair that will bring the usual RC crew from Seth Green and Matthew Senreich‘s Stoopid Buddy Studios together with the Walking Dead crew including Robert Kirkman and Scott M. Gimple.

From Funny or Die and creators Nick Corirossi and Charles Ingram comes Montana James, a half-hour live-action special that follows the exploits of explorer Montana James on his hunt for the Holy Grail Cup as he tries to avoid the Order of the Red Arm Band along the way.

Mr. Neighbor’s House is a live-action half-hour special from Brian Huskey, Jason Mantzoukas, Jesse Falcon, and executive producer Rob Corddry. The special is set in childrens’ show Mr. Neighbor’s House, hosted by the titular Mr. Neighbor who tries his best to maintain a pleasant facade despite the rage boiling up underneath. There will be “puppets, animation, stop-motion, spoken word, and mixed media elements” that aim to educate.

Brett Gelman will continue to have dinner with people in Brett Gelman’s Dinner in America, the third half-hour special from Gelman and Jason Woliner. America will focus on the race issues in this country with Loretta Devine (The Carmichael Show), Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson), Joe Morton (Scandal), and Mack Wilds (The Wire) discussing racism in this country. Things go off track, though, once the guests start to respond in a way Brett never expected. Produced by Abso Lutely.

You know Samurai Jack. Everyone knows Samurai Jack. We learned earlier this year that Genndy Tartakovsky‘s story of a samurai fighting to return to the past in which he lived after being sent into the future by the evil Aku would be returning this year. Swim has an entire season of new Jack coming this year. Nobody needs to sell you on this, this is something to be excited about.

Dream Corp, LLC is a workplace comedy in a dream therapy facility with a cast that will change every week. Dr. Roberts (played by Jon Gries) and his team of Dream Corp scientists analyze patients and record their dreams. Created by Daniel Stessen (The Gold Sparrow) and executive produced by John Krasinski, Stephen Merchant, and Allyson Seeger, this one sounds like a bunch of fun.

Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace is something I’d rather the press release explain to you, because it’s perfect:

This quarter-hour live-action comedy series features sketch comedy troupe Million Dollar Extreme. A super pure tragicomedy rosary of pious prayers bringing unity, joy and excellent living to the people of all sizes, sexualities and colors, this series stars misandrous comedioterrorists Sam Hyde, Nick Rochefort, Charls Carroll, and is directed by Andrew Ruse. World Peace will unlock your closeted bigoted imagination, toss your inherent racism into the burning trash and cleanse your intolerant spirit with pure unapologetic American comedy. Open your eyes or you’ll get thumb goggles, for what naive slob expects hemlock medicine to taste of milkshake? For the record, none of us plan on killing ourselves, and if we do it’s CIA or Mossad.

If you don’t know Million Dollar Extreme, that description is a pretty decent taste of what’s to come when this airs. If you’re curious about their work, MDE is on YouTube.

For those who miss China, IL, and I’m sure tons of people do, there’s some new Brad Neely on the way in his new quarter-hour sketch show, Brad Neely’s Harg Nallin’ Sclopio Peepio. One-offs, songs, shorts, and more from Neely. What’s not to love? There’s even some preview stuff on YouTube already:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8VBMFXaEW_8%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Fans of Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington‘s action web series Decker can look forward to Decker: Unclassified, which will follow Agent Jack Decker fighting terrorists alongside code breaker Agent Jonathan Kington. This looks like it’ll be a television series this time around, instead of just a web series.

Way back in 2000, studio Production I.G. had a hand in a series alongside Gainax that starred a kid named Naota, who would one day come across a woman named Haruko riding a Vespa and wielding a guitar. She would hit him on the head, creating a portal through which robots would periodically emerge, created by the local corporation Medical Mechanica. Things would soon get nuts, there would be a huge battle, some amazing animation, some great music, and Haruko would ride off for good. It’s 2016 now, and Adult Swim has asked Production I.G. if they’d like to go on back to that universe, and hey, wouldn’t you know it, we have a brand new season of FLCL on the way. The beloved show returns with Medical Mechanica and Fraternity in intense combat and a teenage girl named Hidomi leading an average life one day meets a new teacher at her school named Haruko. Medical Mechanica begins attacking Hidomi’s average town, and Haruko’s the key. FLCL creator Kazuya Tsurumaki returns to supervise as director Hideto Iwai (Last Dinner) has the reigns.

WHAT’S NEW: PILOTS

Pilots are always fun, because if you get to see them, they’re always a nice little peek at something brand new. Sometimes they get picked up for more. Sometimes they’re never considered and you’re left with nothing more than that one episode. But nonetheless, they’re always interesting, even if there’s a good chance you’ll never see them. Here’s a taste of some prospective shows Swim has in the pipeline.

Art Prison is created by Tom Kauffman and Paul Isakson, and Rick & Morty co-creator Dan Harmon will produce. In the live-action half-hour, the inmates of the Prison for the Performing Arts try their best to be successful to save their lives. Starburns Industries is working on this one!

Lazor Wulf is a quarter-hour and it’s animated! It’s also very simple: a wolf who carries a laser on his back is our star and he, according to the press release “believes that love has no limit, that wearing do-rags gives you power, and that Gawd is a lie”. It was created by Henry Bonsu, who shares writing and producing credit with Daniel Weidenfeld.

Finally, Lars Kenseth presents Chuck Deuce, a half-hour animated story of a surfer dude from Northern California who one day gets crushed by a giant wave. When he returns, he has no idea where he’s been or how he made it back, but he’s stuck with hallucinations about CIA agents and sex dolls. He ignores it and goes back to his daily grind, surfing and being a slacktivist, but the questions about what happened linger. The pilot is produced by Chioke “Stretch” McCoy, Matt Iles, and Jenn Tolman.

It is a lot to digest, so take your time to do so. It’ll be a while before everything makes its way to you, but it sounds good, no? There’s some fantastic television on the way from Adult Swim.

Remember to check it all out when it arrives, and watch Swim content 24/7 on the website. The streaming content is also available in the Android and iOS apps, so you can take that sweet content anywhere, and occupy yourself on a bus or train or in a park. There’s nothing else to do in a park, really, so why not pull up a bench and catch some FishCenter? Adult Swim’s always there for you.

The Venture Bros panel kicked off Friday’s Swim panel block with your standard Venture panel– not a ton of news, but a ton of fun. This show and these guys usually put on my favorite panel each year (you only need to look back at the 2012 panel, the “Let’s All Smoking” panel, to see why. That one was wonderful). There was a teaser trailer beforehand that gave everyone a taste of what’s to come in the new season– which will hopefully be online sometime soon– that showed more of the New York City that season 6 will take place in.

Season 6 is coming in February, by the way, which is soon! Even sooner than we expected, too, as it got bumped up to the end of January. It’ll have 8 episodes in total.

The panel itself wasn’t super news-intensive, but Doc did mention that the Triad won’t be making an appearance anytime soon, which is unfortunate news for everyone who loves that group (which should be everyone, really). The season’s going to be chock full of stuff, so much so that a lot had to be cut for time. So that just tells you how crazy it’ll be. There was talk of the art book that was supposed to happen a while back, and it’s still on its way, hopefully by SDCC or Springtime. The book was supposed to be just up to season 5, but they finished season 6 in the time before the book so everyone figured they may as well just include that too. The guys also got some free Fresca from a fan.

Doc also had a new haircut, and it looked great. Just so everyone knows: Doc Hammer’s hair has changed, but for the better. You can actually even check it out over here in our very own John J’s interview with Doc and Jackson!

Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter came next in the panel block. This is a new 5-part miniseries coming to Adult Swim on December 7th at Midnight, and then for the following few nights. This is Swim’s second miniseries ever, the first being The Heart, She Holler— coincidentally, both shows have PFFR folks behind them.

NJWH stars a bunch of familiar faces for those who loved another PFFR production, Delocated!, including the star of that show, Jon Glaser. Jon plays Neon Joe, a man covered in neon and shrouded in mystery who specializes in killing werewolves. He arrives in Garrity, VT (aka, according to all the show information Adult Swim has given out, “B&B Town, USA”) where Steve Cirbus (Sergei on Delocated!) plays Sheriff Dalton who works with Joe to get rid of the werewolf problem, Steve Little plays the town janitor who idolizes Joe and tries to help as much as he could, Scott Adsit plays a tavern owner, and Stephanie March plays Mayor Carol Blanton, Garrity’s lesbian mayor.

We got to see some footage from the show, including a clip where Joe inspects werewolf pubes, which have teeth. There’s also a trailer, which you can check out here:

Those who attended the NJWH panel also got one of the NJWH comic books, which was an origin story before the show that was done by DC and is awesome. If it ever shows up online or is ever purchasable anywhere, I urge everyone to check it out. It adds a little something to the show and it looks great. Also, it’s written by Jon Glaser!

Robot Chicken was also there to round out the Adult Swim panel block. Besides talking of a new season, there was a lot of hype around their third DC Comics special coming up. The special has one heck of a guest lineup including Alfred Molina, Nathan Fillion, Weird Al Yankovic, Alex Borstein, Giovanni Ribisi, Jonathan Banks, Mae Whitman, Hugh Davidson, Dee Bradley Baker, Zeb Wells, Kevin Shinick, Adam West, Burt Ward, and, of course, the usual cast of Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, and Matt Senreich. Check out the trailer for the upcoming special:

Adult Swim didn’t have a ton of time at NYCC this year, but they did have plenty of stuff to show off, and it all looks pretty exciting. New Venture Bros will never not be exciting, and Neon Joe looks hilarious. I’m even kind of into the Robot Chicken special! The horizon is bright on Swim.

Check out new Venture in January, Neon Joe on December 7th, and Robot Chicken DC Comics Special III: Friendship is Magic October 18th at midnight (and the new season starts October 25th, too!).

Keep an eye on Agents of Geek as we bring you other NYCC-related goodies as time goes on. We might have some more for you. And set your calendars for NYCC 2016, on October 6th-9th at the good ol’ Javits Center. Best weekend of the year.

Patience is a virtue, and if you love The Venture Bros, it’s one you have to have. But it’s cool. Because when the show does come back? Oh man, oh man. It’s more amazing than you could have imagined. It never stops being amazing.

I hope you’re ready for your next fix, because it’s coming this coming Monday. The hour-long special, “All This And Gargantua-2” will air Monday, January 19th at Midnight on Adult Swim. And it looks amazing. Check the trailer:

And a couple of choice screenshots:

If you want to make sure you’re totally ready for the show, get your Venture Bros bed sheet set on AsSeenonAdultSwim.com. They’ll probably make it by Monday, so you can be all comfy while you watch your stories.

Tune into Adult Swim Monday, January 19th at Midnight for NEW Venture Bros. It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. It will rule.

The Jack and Triumph Show, the new multi-camera sitcom starring Jack McBrayer (30 Rock, Wander Over Yonder) and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (played by Robert Smigel, of course) will premiere Friday, February 20th at 11:30 PM. Smigel was at the Television Critics Association Winter TV Press Tour and spoke about the idea, acknowledging how odd an idea it is:

“We have a big concern that people are going to look at the aesthetics and just dismiss it,” Smigel told TV critics at Winter TV Press Tour 2015. Viewers could “easily assume these guys are slumming in a multi-cam.” But the whole point of the experiment is to put Triumph into a “format considered kinda lame in 2015 and mess with it,” Triumph’s creator said.

“I wouldn’t call it a parody of a multi-cam, because we stick with the conventions, but we’re definitely having fun with the conventions…We want you to watch the show and get past the fear it’s a corny multi-cam.”

[Source: Deadline]

The show stars McBrayer as an ex-child star who was in a show alongside Triumph in the late 80’s and early 90’s that was akin to Lassie. The show was canceled, and Jack’s life took a bit of a nosedive– but after some time, he’s recovered and living with his mother, until one day, Triumph finds himself in Jack’s life once more.

The show is at least partially the product of a segment the two starred in on Conan, in which Jack goes to a hot dog stand in Chicago where he’s hassled and bullied enough by the employees to leave and return with his friend Triumph in tow to insult the employees right back. Check it out, it’s pretty good:

The show will have a 20-episode season, according to Smigel at TCA. [Source: Deadline]

We were able to attend the show’s New York Comic Con panel back in October and what we saw of the show was pretty funny. The panel also outlined some of the guests we can expect (Leonard Maltin, Joey Fatone, Tay Zonday all appeared together in one clip) and what the show’s structure may be (which includes classic sitcom stuff mixed with man-on-the-street segments, the kind of thing that made the Triumph character famous). Our own John J. Galbo attended a taping (a tiny bit was mentioned on the recent Swimcast episode) and enjoyed what he saw, too. So it’s something to look forward to. Speaking of, tapings of the show return in March, so check TheBlackListNYC.com then to see if you can attend.

It all begins Friday, February 20th at 11:30 on Adult Swim.

We have to wait a bit longer for season 6, but there’s some stuff coming up that will give us a long-awaited taste of new content, plus a little something to keep ourselves comfortable in for the long wait.

Adult Swim has been running the AsSeenonAdultSwim.com shop for a couple months now. It has recently been used to sell special, limited-edition, $1 Squidbillies hats each week after the show airs with the hat on Early’s head from that episode. Now, it’s got something even cooler: Swim is presenting a set of Venture Bros bed sheets! The set includes sheets and pillow cases adorned with Venture artwork– the cases have the good ol’ Venture Industries “V” logo, and the sheets are covered with artwork from the show. Check the video out:

If you want the comfort only your favorite show can provide, the sheets are $50 (shipping and handling included!) over on AsSeenonAdultSwim.com.

Put ’em on your bed and get ready to just sit there for a while. Season 6 should show up come 2015, hopefully. But, fear not– there’s gonna be some new Venture Bros to tide you over in January. On Monday, January 19th, at Midnight, Swim, Doc, and Jackson all present an hour-long special. It’ll be the first new stuff since 2013 and since the boys learned about what they really are. So, it’ll be fun.

Excited? Me too. Buy some bed sheets. And watch the season 6 trailer over and over and over until they show up in the mail:

In 2008, Adult Swim teamed up with label Ghostly International to release Ghostly Swim, a pretty spectacular compilation (if you’ve never heard it, go do it, you won’t regret it) of pretty chill, relaxing (at times, less so, in the case of The Reflecting Skin’s unnerving but incredible “Traffickers”), downtempo electronic music. Michna, Deastro, School of Seven Bells, Mux Mool, and plenty others helped put together the free compilation that got a CD release later on down the line.

Now, five years later, the two entities are coming back together to release “Ghostly Swim 2”, a new free batch of music for you to chill out to. It’ll be out for free on Adult Swim’s website on December 23rd, just in time for the holidays. Here’s a track list [Source: exclaim.ca]:

1. Pascäal – “Holo”
2. Shigeto – “Tide Pools”
3. Anenon – “Grapevine”
4. Heathered Pearls – “Supra”
5. Babe Rainbow – “Don’t Tell Me I’m Wrong”
6. Dauwd – “Kolido”
7. Patricia – “Spotting”
8. Lord RAJA – “Spilt Out In Cursive”
9. CFCF – “Oil”
10. Feral – “Mirror”
11. Mary Lattimore & Jeff Zeigler – “I Only Have Eyes for You”
12. AceMo – “Futurism”
13. Nautiluss – “Lonely Planet”

And, while you’re at it, head to Soundcloud to hear Babe Rainbow’s “Don’t Tell Me I’m Wrong” from the compilation. It’s nice.

Get your download on Tuesday, December 23rd, and rock it all holiday long. It’s your holiday present from Adult Swim!

https://twitter.com/ericandre/status/522224246630928386

If you’ve never watched the show, The Eric Andre Show is a bizarre talk show starring Andre and comedian Hannibal Buress welcoming on celebrities to talk about… Well, sometimes it isn’t totally clear what they’re there to talk about. But you can be sure it’s not going to be your standard “here-to-promote-my-movie-only” type of interview, especially since they use tactics to make sure the interviewees are as uncomfortable as possible during the interview without them knowing why (for instance, putting old clams under a chair to make it smell bad, or electrocuting guests slightly). [Source: Splitsider] Along with the interviews, Andre and Buress do a variety of comedy skits that range from Hannibal’s pretzel taste test, to Eric’s invasion of a Civil War re-enactment as one of a couple of slaves running from their master.

Season 2 ended in December of last year with a bunch of well-known guests like Krysten Ritter, James Van Der Beek (both of which were Eric Andre’s co-stars on the canceled ABC comedy Don’t Trust The B in Apartment 23), Dominic Monaghan, Vivica A. Fox, Steve-O, Joey Fatone, and more.

Season 3 sounds like it promises to have more big guests talking to Eric and Hannibal. Eric told Indiewire that we can expect to see Seth Rogen, Wiz Khalifa, Jimmy Kimmel, Lauren Conrad (who walked out on the interview), and Chris Rock will be part of a recurring segment from season 2, “Bird Up“. [Source: Indiewire]

If you need to catch up, the entire two seasons are up on AdultSwim.com. You just need to sign in with a cable provider. Catch up, and get ready for more on November 6th.

Bird up!

NYCC goes by like a blur. Four days (or less, depending on the pass you buy), and so much happening at once that it’s easy to think back a day later and think it was a daydream or something. The memories that aren’t photographed or filmed feel like they didn’t happen, but you have bags of free stuff and stuff you bought, so they had to have happened. It goes by way too quickly and before you can really, totally, 100% savor the event and the atmosphere and all of it, the rug’s pulled out and you’re walking for your train.

That’s how I feel, at least. Don’t know about you.

Sunday was the final day of 2014’s edition of New York Comic Con. There wasn’t an enormous amount of stuff happening Sunday, but we were able to attend the Cartoon Network CN Anything panel this afternoon. It was a lot of fun, and there were some nice little highlights and cute stuff to enjoy.

The panel pretty much covered the entire current CN primetime comedy lineup. Represented were Adventure Time, Regular Show, Uncle Grandpa, Clarence, and the brilliant upcoming miniseries Over The Garden Wall. The panel took up the entire Empire Stage with multiple representatives for each show: Pete Browngardt and Tom Kenny repped Uncle Grandpa; Kent Osborne, Jessica DiCicco, and Jeremy Shada were there for Adventure Time; Rebecca Sugar, Estelle, and Zach Callison for Steven Universe; Paula Spence and Sam Marin for Regular Show; Spencer Rothbell (and also Tom Kenny again) for Clarence; and finally, Elijah Wood, Patrick McHale, and Collin Dean for Over The Garden Wall. It was a full table.

The Uncle Grandpa segment began the panel with a video from Adam Devine of Workaholics (and also Pizza Steve in the show) apologizing for not being there, but telling the room the big secret that he voices every character on every show. It was a pretty funny bit, and had Devine poorly do voices of various CN characters. Browngardt said that season 2 of the show is in development and that they have a Christmas episode on the way that’ll reveal a big secret about Uncle Grandpa. He said something about him meeting someone, and a relationship with them. No real details, so if you’re into the sure, be sure to watch.

Browngardt also said that he had contacted a variety of animators to create and direct Uncle Grandpa shorts in their own style and their own animation. We were treated to one from Michael M. Wartella. There should be a bunch on the way.

Next, Adventure Time‘s members talked about the upcoming season 7. “Ghost Fly,” an episode we were able to see during the network’s screening on Saturday, is the show’s Halloween episode and should be the first new episode back from the show’s break. Osborne showed off some images of drawings given to people working on the show that were used as a process the show’s staff has: a drawing is given to someone, who then uses that simple sketch to write out an entire episode pitch. Some never made it (like the one we saw with a huge cyborg Susan Strong, one where Princess Bubblegum has been turned into a horse and Marceline is simply ridiculing her instead of helping, and one that asks who the buffest man is, with a super-muscled Ice King and Finn), but some did, including the upcoming “Jake The Brick” which has a pretty self-explanatory name.

Another clip we saw from an upcoming episode has Finn’s ghost body floating around as he sleeps on the astral plane, and stumbling upon a party in the Cloud Kingdom:

Steven Universe wound up in focus next. Rebecca Sugar and Estelle had a song together on-stage with Sugar on the ukulele and Estelle singing. It was beautiful, and if you haven’t heard Estelle’s music, you should probably go give it a try. Sugar said that they’re finishing airing season 1 and season 2 is currently in development.

A lot of talk during this segment about music, and it only fit that the clip was a new song from the show. The episode is one that focuses on Lars and Sadie, the employees of the donut store in Beach City. They wind up stranded on an island with Steven, and have to fend for themselves. The two are fan favorites ever since the episode “Joking Victim” and the stuff that happens in the clip got some huge approval from the fans:

The Regular Show segment was up next and was pretty funny as Sam Marin had a skit prepared that starred Muscle Man, Pops, and Benson visiting New York City for the first time and interacting with moderator Eric Bauza. Benson is distraught at the shape of his park after seeing Central Park in the bit. We saw a little more of the upcoming Halloween special, pretty much confirming that what was shown at the screening on Saturday was only half of the episode. The clip includes part of a story that has something I’ve always loved about the show: ridiculous stories that incorporate mundane things from days past (mostly the 80’s and 90’s) in a story where Rigby decides to screen a supernatural tape that is supposed to be the scariest ever made:

Clarence‘s segment came next with head of story Spencer Rothbell. Rothbell will be taking over duties as Clarence’s voice actor from now on after show creator Skyler Page was fired from Cartoon Network. The show rolls on, though, and is one of the funniest shows the network has going. We saw a series of clips from episodes like “Neighborhood Grill” where Clarence sees his teacher outside of school for the first time, “Belson’s Sleepover,” in which Belson has a sleepover, and “The Forgotten” which has Clarence walk home for the first time with a friend after they were left behind at school. The “Neighborhood Grill” clip:

The other clips included one where Clarence was dressed in Belson’s mother’s clothing for a re-enactment of a horror movie scene, and one with an unnamed friend of Clarence’s and Clarence himself lost and in the sewer, which was a wonderful homage to classic sitcoms and even included a laugh track to make the gag just perfect.

Over The Garden Wall wrapped up the festivities. The creator, Patrick McHale, said that the show is a miniseries because “it makes sense.” There was a story they wanted to tell, and it only worked how they wanted it in a miniseries format. The show won’t be so much a comedy like most other current CN shows, but much more serious (and from everything I’ve seen so far, it does that and it is amazing at it). There’s still the comedy and comedic relief in younger brother Greg and some of the other things that happen, but it seems to be a bit creepy, a bit serious, and one amazing TV show (I can not stop praising this show).

We saw one clip, but Cartoon Network has uploaded two to YouTube. It’s possible we didn’t get to see one because the panel ran out of time, but it’s absolutely something to watch. The 6-minute clip is what we missed, and it’s wonderful and gives you a little taste of what this entire experience will be like come its premiere on November 3rd. The other is a short glimpse. Watch these.

I saw an episode of this show on Saturday and I can not stress enough how much people must see it. If you have any interest in animation and good story and good acting and beautiful art, you need to watch this show. It isn’t even going to be that long– 10 episodes across 5 nights– so you have zero excuse. November 3rd. Come on.

More than anything, this panel was a celebration of these shows and a little new-ness thrown in. That’s fine, too. They threw in some games in between segments, and one girl during the Q&A brought a ukulele and played a medley of songs from CN shows. It was a lot of fun.

But, again, the entire convention was a lot of fun. I had gripes, of course (rules need to be made for photos of people in costume. I understand the interest in taking group photos of cosplayers, I really do, but when you block an entire aisle to photograph that one pretty good Sailor Moon group cosplay, you make an already congested area a living hell), but they were few in comparison to the fun I had. Every year, I love these four days with a passion.

It’s expensive, sure, and getting dinner afterwards is an exercise in futility with local establishments from the center to Madison Square Garden, but nothing beats four days in a convention center with thousands of other people who enjoy the stuff you enjoy. Nothing beats sitting in panels with actors and artists you admire and enjoy. Nothing beats getting free stuff, or buying stuff you won’t find elsewhere. Nothing beats the cheer in the newly-christened Queue Hall that erupts when some idiot tries to run underneath the bars and knocks one down. Nothing beats the atmosphere of the convention. Nothing.

Nothing beats New York Comic Con.

ReedPOP put on another great show, like they’ve done each year I’ve been there. They make this thing work, and it’s a thing I love dearly, and so I love them just as much.

New York Comic Con returns in 2015 on October 8-11. If you were there this year, I hope to see you again next year. I also hope a bunch of you got my Mii via StreetPass. Maybe it sent you here! If you weren’t there, come! It’s great.

Goodnight, NYCC. See you in a year.

Jack McBrayer and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s new sitcom was showed off. Rick & Morty had a panel that included some real not safe for work type jokes and Dan Harmon doing a spot-on Justin Roiland impression. Archer blew us away with a screening and some amazing chemistry from the cast. Robot Chicken was there too.

The Adult Swim block began with a panel for the upcoming Jack McBrayer and Triumph Show, which seemed to be the title. The traditional three-camera sitcom premieres January 29th and stars Jack as a former child star who was once on a show with a young puppy Triumph. After the show was canceled, the two split up and there was a bit of a downward spiral for the both of them, but now Jack lives with his mother and is a reformed, happy-go-lucky guy (kind of like the real-life McBrayer, who, from our seats, was small and obscured– we were sort of far back– but you could see that grin he wears constantly from miles and miles away). One day, Triumph tracks him down and begins corrupting adult Jack, who is happy enjoying his time at home doing his own thing, while Triumph is dead set on getting into showbiz however he can.

Alan Colmes of Fox News Channel’s Hannity and Colmes moderated the panel which starred McBrayer, Robert Smigel (who began the panel on his knees behind the panel table with the Triumph puppet, bashing-slash-good-naturedly-ribbing Fox News and Colmes, calling him “a very nice lizard person” at one point), and Blackwolf the Dragonmaster, New York’s unofficial wizard, who some might know from a classic Triumph segment from Conan O’Brien’s NBC show.

The show comes after a Conan bit from his current TBS show that starred the duo going to a Chicago hot dog stand and winding up in a war of words with the staff:

The panel discussed the show and its format a little: although it is a classic three-camera sitcom with a laugh track, they plan on including some man on the street bits, sort of like the ones that made Triumph famous, when they fit the context of the episode. We saw some quick clips, and one such instance was included where Triumph is hanging out with a paparazzi setting up to take a photo of disgraced ex-NBA owner Donald Sterling’s wife. We also saw some clips of guest stars that included ex-N*Sync member Joey Fatone, film critic Leonard Maltin, and Tay Zonday, the man who made the old internet favorite “Chocolate Rain” song and video. Al Sharpton also made an appearance in a segment where Triumph was on MSNBC, but I personally was unsure if he filmed for the show or if it was old footage reused for the bit.

If you live in New York City, by the way, keep an eye out if you want to attend a free (!) taping, because the show is taped in front of a live audience in the city right across from Madison Square Garden. They’ve done some tapings already, and when they did the tickets showed up on TheBlacklistUS.com, so perhaps watch there.

Next up, we got to the Rick & Morty panel, which was hilarious. Creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland sat on the panel with cast members Sarah Chalke and Chris Parnell and talked season 2 and much more.

Roiland and Harmon said that Rick & Morty merchandise is coming soon, hopefully and likely in 2015. Shirts might come first, but there’s stuff on the way– they couldn’t say exactly what, but they said it’s on its way. One thing they were able to discuss, though, was an upcoming comic book series from Oni Press coming up soon. A monthly Rick & Morty book is coming for you, and Roiland and Harmon had a lot of praise for the writers making it. They said that they’ve been looking at the storylines they’ve been coming up with while making season 2 of the show, and getting frustrated that they didn’t just do what the comic guys did. The stuff is that good.

We got some peeks and information about season 2. One clip we got to see, which was in animatic form, had the entire family sitting at the table for a meal, when Morty brings up that someone was found dead with two holes in their neck and their blood drained. Rick talks about how vampires are actually real, and that what happened is no surprise, and tells Summer that she can f-off when she asks him to help catch the offender. We also learned that the season will see an episode where Jerry and Beth go off-planet for couples counseling at Rick’s suggestion.

Two more things to look forward to in the season: more catchphrases for Rick (our second clip was a supercut of every one of these throughout the new season), and more Ball Fondlers.

The Robot Chicken panel concluded the Adult Swim block and had Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, Clare Grant, Breckin Meyer, and Macaulay Culkin on the panel. They talked their holiday special, which will air December 7th, and has the fantastic title “Robot Chicken Lots of Holidays But Don’t Worry Christmas is Still in There Too So Pull The Stick Out of Your Ass Fox Ne

They also talked an upcoming DVD release of just Robot Chicken Christmas specials that includes 6 specials, deleted scenes, and commentary, coming out November 18th. [Source: IGN]

Finally, the entire day concluded with the big one, the Archer panel. The entire cast– H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Lucky Yates, Judy Greer, Chris Parnell, Jessica Walter, and Amber Nash– were on the panel, along with creator Adam Reed and producer Matt Thompson. We were treated to a special video message from Sterling Archer and Pam, as they held a yard/garage sale on a boat of all of their Archer Vice clothes and props as they prepared to go back to their regular old secret agent gigs.

Following that, we were then shown the season premiere of the upcoming season 6, coming in January, which was fantastic. If you didn’t like the Archer Vice season, like me (Adam, Matt, and a few others on the panel mentioned the hate for the season, playfully asking those in the room to stand so security could kick them out right away), you’ll most likely really enjoy the premiere. It’s a return to the old secret agent stuff, and it has some really good jokes and some touching moments and Mallory loses her mind a bit. Oh, and there’s a toaster named Milton.

Talking about guests this season, Reed mentioned that Barry will return, so that means the return of Dave Willis. Fargo‘s Allison Tolman will appear, as will Kumail Nanjiani. Togo Igawa guests in the premiere, and Coby Bell will reprise his role as Conway Stern. Oh, and Ron Cadillac will return.

The panel was great because the cast is fantastic, especially together. Benjamin and Tyler stole the show, with some help from Lucky Yates and Reed. It wasn’t the only one taken over by amazing chemistry between people: Rick & Morty‘s panel was full of great stuff from the cast and especially Roiland and Harmon. The entire panel did a quick improv scene that was hilarious, and Harmon did some impressions of Justin Roiland as well as Rick and Morty, and they were all totally spot-on.

We’re halfway finished with New York Comic Con 2014, unfortunately. But, of course, we’ll make the most of it. The biggest, busiest day is Saturday, and it’ll include a Cartoon Network Halloween screening, including a peek at the upcoming miniseries Over The Garden Wall. Another Adult Swim panel block will bring us Black Dynamite, The Heart, She Holler, and Mike Tyson Mysteries. The Adult Swim boat party is tomorrow as well, so if you got your RSVP in for that, have fun (and tell us who the secret musical guest is!).

For those at the con, see you there. For those at home, check back for recaps and news and whatever else we can give you from New York Comic Con 2014.

It’s my hometown convention, and it’s getting bigger and bigger and outgrowing its home more and more each year, and ReedPOP experiments with new ideas (the Queue Hall is making its debut this year, with the entire idea that it’ll be easier for people to get into panels on the Jacob Javits Center’s Main Stage, a pretty huge room. I attended one panel so far this year, and it was there, and I got in, so, I have no real idea if the new concept is working) and does a hell of a job putting on a great show. I will always love this con.

It’s an odd thing, going to a con in the city in which I live, because friends go– but there’s a definite chance I’ll never see them. There are times we’re definitely in the same room, whether it be a Main Stage panel or the show floor, but we’d never know unless we intentionally find one another.

It probably happened today, during the only panel I really got to attend on day one of four, the Bob’s Burgers panel. The fantastic kick-off to the weekend had series creator Loren Bouchard moderating and participating on the panel itself, with cast members H. Jon Benjamin, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman,  John Roberts, Larry Murphy, and Bobby Tisdale. No Dan Mintz this year, but we did get a seven or eight foot tall Tina sitting on stage throughout the panel. It was the same as the one in these photos from the show’s premiere party via the official Tumblr.

We were treated to three clips from upcoming episodes, in varying stages of finished. One starred Bob and a blonde-haired Linda, who, as described by Loren Bouchard, accidentally made herself that way when attempting to get rid of gray hairs. Linda decides to embrace her new hairstyle, trying to seduce Bob while he’s working. The next, which was just storyboards and voice acting, included Bob going to a life drawing class where he’s seated in front of an easel and a nude Gretchen (the old woman who runs the art store in the neighborhood– you may remember her from the episode where Gayle has her paintings of animals’ butts up all over the restaurant, and the episode wherein Bob is mixed up in a hostage situation, saying the fish Tina drew on the burger delivery to the bank wasn’t a fish or a rocket, but a penis). The third stars the kids, who are tasked with buying Bob some black garlic while he’s in the middle of a cooking competition from a local organic food market named FigJam’s, a place the three were banned from after trying to buy a dark chocolate bar with chili and bacon flakes that wound up being $13.

The Q&A session had some highlights and some good news for those who love the original music the show has all the time (and who doesn’t, really?). Loren explained that the soundtrack people have been asking for is basically finished, they’re just hunting for a means of distribution. So, hopefully, we get to hear it soon.

For those interested in the improvisational parts of the show, the cast says that when it comes to that, it’s pretty much 95% script, and about 5% ad-lib. Loren doesn’t want to go in and expect the cast to just improvise everything, because it’s a difficult craft and he’d feel bad. He also says, for those trying to write their own animated show: cast first, write second. Once you have your voices down, at least in your head, the material comes easier. Also, he remarked that the first pitch of the show was “a family who runs a restaurant, and who are cannibals.” This came from a question about whether or not he ever felt pressure to be “relevant” or topical, or anything like Family Guy.

A couple of big highlights from the fans during the panel: there were two guys cosplaying Jimmy Pesto Jr. who were at the Q&A mic. One was asked to dance, so he did his best version of Jimmy’s weird dance where he essentially just rubs his arms and shoulders and sways around. The other came up with a friend dressed as Tina, and stayed behind her the entire time she asked her question, doing the same dance. It was pretty dang funny.

One moment I really liked was late in the Q&A session, a very young kid named Judah came to the mic to ask a question and when he said his name, Jon Benjamin asked him what his last name was. This ended up being a bit– Judah is Jon’s son, Jon remarking “I have a son named Judah! He looks a lot like you.”

The show will cover the usual bases this season in terms of holidays: their next new episode will be their Halloween special, and there will, of course, like always, be a Thanksgiving episode and Christmas episode as well. The Thanksgiving ones are always season highlights, so look forward to that. The Christmas one will star Bill Hader as Bob’s estranged father when Linda tries to get them together for the holidays. Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key of Comedy Central’s Key and Peele will guest this season as well. [Source: New York Daily News]

The first day of the con was a strong one, and I definitely spent too much of my money already, but that’s alright. What’s the convention for if not buying stuff you don’t need and attending fun panels?

Friday, the convention kicks into gear with the first of two Adult Swim panel blocks, including the Jack McBrayer/Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Rick and Morty, and Robot Chicken panels, and the Archer panel, so if you’re there, get to the Queue Hall and get your wristbands early. If you aren’t, [adult swim] Central will be your eyes and ears.

Con-goers, we’ll see you bright and early Friday.