Andrew Kepple

Andrew Kepple (born December 18 1979), also known on the Internet as Too Much Spare Time or simply TmsT and sometimes King Sluggy [ [http://tmst.twu.net/sluggy/ Planet TmsT dot com ] ] , is an animator and cartoonist from New Zealand. He had his start as a webcomic artist, with comics such as Goodbye Cruel World [ [http://www.comics.org.nz/wiki/index.php/Goodbye_Cruel_World Main Page - Comics.org.nz ] ] and Ignatius the Dragon (also published in the University of Canterbury student magazine CANTA in 2004) [ [http://www.comics.org.nz/wiki/index.php/Ignatius_the_Dragon Main Page - Comics.org.nz ] ] . After making some animated GIFs, Andrew started making cartoons from Macromedia Flash. He still creates some webcomics today, and is in his 3rd year of study at Freelance Animation School. His first Macromedia cartoon was called Bedtime Stories with Alan Rickman [http://thatstrife.com/sluggy/bts-alan.htm here] , made during the earliest weeks of his experience with Flash animating. Many of his works today can be seen on Newgrounds where they receive popular acclaim [ [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/295165 Geeks In Love ] ] . His work has also achieved widespread success on Albino Blacksheep, especially animutations like "French Erotic Film". He currently lives in Auckland.

Kepple and animutations

Kepple is well-known for his animutations, a genre popularized by Neil Cicierega. Perhaps his best known animutation is " [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/french.php French Erotic Film] ", which has nothing to do with French pornography, but played with Dutch music ("Opblaaskrokodil" by Ome Henk) done with mondegreened lyrics, thus the name. It later spun off to a trilogy where Colin Mochrie embarks on a quest to defeat the evil plastic . The other two episodes were " [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/underpants.php Plan 9 from Underpants] " (to the tune of "De Kabouterdans" from Kabouter Plop) and " [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/colinquest.php Conquest of Animutopia] " (to the tune of "Conquest of Paradise" by Vangelis). One year later, Kepple released a tribute, " [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view.php?id=179065 French Erotic Birthday] ".

Kepple also made a tribute cartoon to animutation itself, called " [http://tmst.twu.net/flash/151forever.html Hyakugojyuuichi Forever!!] ", played to the tune of Lemon Demon's "". He was also involved in a few scenes from the " [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/245744 Fingertips Collaboration] ". Semi-animutational projects like " [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/136282 The Truth About Spongebob Squarepants] ", " [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/130073 Dopefission] " and " [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/157656 Stephen Hawking: The Musical Tribute] " are other examples of his early, experimental Flash animation style.

Lemon Demon music videos

Kepple often works alongside Lemon Demon and has animated music videos for several of his songs. These include " [http://tmst.twu.net/flash/igsf2d.htm I've Got Some Falling to Do] ", " [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/287468 When Robots Attack] ", " [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/295165 Geeks in Love] ", " [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/310209 Fiberglass Monkey] " and most recently, " [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/badidea Bad Idea] "

The videos have had reasonable success on Newgrounds, with the exception of " [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/falling I've Got Some Falling To Do] ", which Kepple never posted there. In its preloader, the text reads: "If this movie is on www.NewGrounds.com, then it has been stolen." This is because he never wanted that video on Newgrounds.This one-time boycott of Newgrounds was done as a small protest against the negative attitudes of many Newgrounds users towards animutations, in particular animutations made by people who are not very well known.The video of "I've Got Some Falling To Do" has often been stolen and uploaded by Newgrounds users, only to find it deleted by moderators a short time later.Bad Idea was exclusively on AlbinoBlackSheep due to sponsorship, although recently, the movie was uploaded on Newgrounds, and Hyakugojyuuichi Forever was simply omitted upon creation of the then filesize limit of 5 MB. It has since been added to Newgrounds after the filesize limit was raised.

He is occasionally confused (especially on Newgrounds) with Shawn Vulliez, AKA AltF4, the creator of some other Lemon Demon music videos, most notably The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.

Series Flashes

Although it is just a start, TmsT did indeed create a few series of his own. The first is the "Up Skit Creek" sketch series, created in 2005. So far, there is [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/usc1 Up Skit Creek] , [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/usc2 Up Skit Creek 2] and [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/usc3 Up Skit Creek 3] , the latter two using voices from various people, much of them from the animutation and Lemon Demon community, especially Neil Cicierega.

Later, he released [http://www.strifestrips.com/Strifetoons/Index.aspx StrifeToons] , a cartoon series based on the web comic called This Strife or more recently [http://www.strifestrips.com/ Strife Strips] . It involves computer game characters from the era of shareware, such as Duke Nukem, the Space Marine from "Doom", (named "Doom Marine" in this series), and Commander Keen, and their adventures in the city of Strifedale. There are three episodes, and one pseudoepisode, when Duke Nukem and Doom Marine received an email. Episode 3 was released on September 9, 2006. A live action movie based on a scene in episode one was made, titled "Duke Nukem The Movie", by BDTM, a fan of Kepple's work. It was made as a project in his college course and included many other scenes not seen in StrifeToons.

A fourth episode with no title as yet is currently "under construction", featuring new voice actors for the characters of Duke Nukem and Commander Keen.

As part of an entry for Albino Blacksheep's Tournament of Flash Artists in 2008, Kepple released a pilot of the new series [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/mindy1 Mindy Learns a Moral] .

Other projects

* [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/141266 Frosty vs. Rudolf] : Frosty the Snowman and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer battle to the death over who is Santa's sidekick, until the one TRUE Christmas Mascot claims its victory.
* [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/194772 Ignatius vs. Dodgy] : A conceptually similar cartoon to Frosty vs. Rudolf, it featured two university mascots battling each other around photographic backdrops of the University of Canterbury until their showdown is broken up by a well-known security guard at the university. Naturally, the only thing left to do then was to spontaneously break into a promotional song for the University of Canterbury Students' Association (UCSA), to the tune of the Village People's "YMCA".
* [http://tmst.twu.net/flash/falling-newmusiclol.htm I've Got Some Falling to Do: Redubbed] : The music video for "I've Got Some Falling to Do", only played to the tune of "Weird Al" Yankovic's Bohemian Polka, a high-tempo cover of the Bohemian Rhapsody.
* [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/legos911 Legos 9-11] . A two-part political satire, with each part from one scene of each of the first two "Up Skit Creek" episodes.
* [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/newsbleat01 Newsbleat] . A satirical news series made especially for Albino Blacksheep, and was released on August 2006. The host is, of course, named Albino Blacksheep. The first episode contained jokes of the dispute on Pluto, Michael Moore, Snakes on a Plane, and the Microsoft Zune.
* [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/205197 Only Superhuman] : God created man, but was not happy about it because they spent all their time killing each other. He tried plague, pestilence, and even a meteor to destroy Earth. Each time, mankind figured out a way to save itself from God's attempts at Doomsday. As the rivalry grew between God and His creations, mankind began to spend less time killing itself and learned to pull together and overcome the wrath of their Creator instead. The inevitable conclusion and moral of the story can be found in the animation itself, in a poignant yet cheeky reminder of humanity's relationship with deities.
* [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/222458 Zero Wing Rhapsody] : This cartoon combines the All Your Base fad with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Perhaps the highest ranking TmsT animation on Newgrounds, and potentially the most views of any of his works as well.

References

External links

* [http://kepple.illemonati.com/ Andrew Kepple's homepage]
* [http://tmst.twu.net/ Andrew's web comics site]
* [http://kepple.illemonati.com/tmstflash.htm Andrew's animation archive]
* [http://www.strifestrips.com/Strifetoons/Index.aspx StrifeToons website]
* [http://www.boxofmystery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133 Forum discussion about Duke Nukem The Movie]