Bye bye Necropolis.

Queer black pulp trash cartoons & music. TV storyboard hooker for rent.

Kalen Whitfield @JazLyte

Age 34, Male

Storyboard Skank

Hyenaville

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Bye bye Necropolis.

Posted by JazLyte - June 15th, 2011

Hey there NG. Welp, I caved in.

Times are weird, and there's no room on the internet for pretentious long-winded productions on the internet unless the author's in high school and has nothing to worry about but better ways of being an ass-kissing wannabe gangster and a little job at Arby's. Since that phase has passed for me, I think it's time I let go of this thing I've been holding onto forever re-doing and trying to get right, and that is my schizophrenic series Necropolis (DevilSlayer, Nightgun, whatever you wanna call it).

I had aspirations to make something that would be on par with my favorite web series like XIN, Xombie and all those, but I've come to the realization that doing this by myself with no revenue and no help, it'll never be what I want it to be. Now suddenly I understand why Freetown and Story of Khale fizzled out.

Mainly, I've decided to cultivate my animation and storytelling skills separately, because together I feel like I haven't really accomplished shit. So, it while it was fun reading all the reviews about how I'm a talentless hack sniveling in Aaron McGruder's shadow, I'm closing the curtain. Bi bi Necropolis!

I'm actually 100% sure this is more significant for me than it is for you guys, but I figured I'd say something at least. :3

Here's to growing up! :P

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Redfeather 2011-06-15 23:23:58

cool

JazLyte 2011-06-15 23:23:58

This is way more of a reaction than I expected actually

BeamShank 2011-06-15 23:26:16

BUH. NOOO. You can't do this to me! Not while I have a series I wanna do! BE THE CHANGE YOU WANNA SEE IN THE WORLD? As far as I know, the series' you mention were animated by one animator. Look at all of the overwhelming success! Not the sliver of failure! I don't see the point in discontinuing a series because of time restraints, and then continuing to make other stuff. If you're gonna quit like this, you might as well just stop animating. You're 90% across a river, and then turning back, because you're tired. GUHHHHHH.

JazLyte 2011-06-15 23:26:16

It's not the just time restraints, it's a lot more than that :P I held onto it for so long that it was impossible for me to be realistic with it anymore. Each OAV would take like 8 months, most of which was spent slacking off, chasing voice actors who don't trust me and doting on stupid details. I was focussed on telling a story, but constantly found myself running into walls of my own limitations involving the animation, and when I'd finish a movie (Which has never once been what I was planning from the beginning, and when I say never before I mean NEVER) I'd realize that my skills as an animator and a writer really hadn't improved much.

A little while ago I asked myself what was more important to me, my animation or my stories, and I couldn't decide. If it were my animation, I'd just make the episodes short as hell and go for broke with the animation. If it were my stories, I'd just dumb the art down far below my limits and just spill my soul out through tweens. As a result, I ended up dumbing down both and ended up in some kind of weird limbo.

The thing about all this shit is, the missing factor is money. If people liked Necropolis 1/10 as much as they like Awesome and Madness, I might have had a chance in hell of getting some money from somewhere to keep working on it, buuuut people don't go to the internet, let alone NG, for the type of stuff I make. I don't imagine Tom would touch a wannabe Saturday Night action cartoon with a 10-foot pole, and if I were him, I probably wouldn't either.

There's a point to me continuing animating even if I'm not animating Niggas Wif Freckles, because animation is all I fucking think about at all hours of the day. But my lovechild stories will have to wait until they're developed enough for somebody to actually trust me with money to bring them to life. Until then, I'm still animating and writing character-driven stuff, just separately. :P

LewToons 2011-06-15 23:27:22

thats too bad man - i woulda loved to see how it unfolded..one of the best series here on ngs...but you do what you gotta do i suppose!

JazLyte 2011-06-15 23:27:22 (Updated 2011-06-16 00:21:17)

Thanks broham :3 Yeah everybody moves on eventually whether they did what they intended or not, but I'd love to help other people out with their shit too though. That way I can still get my stank out there and not have to dumb down the huge ass stories I write so it makes sense in 5 minutes.

lenkalamari 2011-06-16 00:18:39

pet projects are a hard thing to let go of but there's a weird mix of being relieved and upset once you do so. feels more like moving on than giving up.

not to mention a lot of ideas, characters etc in some peoples' series are 'out of date' compared to whatever they're capable of currently

JazLyte 2011-06-16 00:18:39

So true. I do feel relieved, but I feel like a screwed up at the same time. I love these characters I made, but I can't think of one cartoon I've made where I showed them how I see them in my mind, and my writing skills have stagnated thanks to me writing, re-writing and compressing overly complicated ideas trying to make them "Newgrounds Friendly". I just don't have it figured out enough to do something like this.

Xyresic 2011-06-16 00:19:23

Breaking the red-chain... BOOM.
Also, good luck for whatever the future holds for you!

JazLyte 2011-06-16 00:19:23

Lenko beat you bic boi. But thankyou :)

lenkalamari 2011-06-16 00:21:20

also i will never understand peoples' fascination with XiN other than the ridiculous amount of episodes

JazLyte 2011-06-16 00:21:20

It's sentimental for me, kind of like Dragon Ball Z. XIN's graphics are bad and it's pretty generic, but I can't get over being 13 running home checking NG compulsively to see if Steve and Max put out a new episode; my low middle school weeaboo standards allowed me to love it. There was something meaningful to me that two random ass guys were making their own cartoons just for the hell of it. It's a huge part of why I started animating in the first place, so it's SPAYSHALL

LewToons 2011-06-16 00:28:10

will you still submite animations to negrounds or will you be just doing comissions?

JazLyte 2011-06-16 00:28:10

A little of both. I'll still be making random shit here and there, definitely the contests like Robot Day. But if I'm doing anything for free, I'd love to be a guest animator and make badass fights/action scenes for other people's stuff though like Yutaka Nakamura and Shingo Yamashita do. Animated ass-kickings are where my heart's at :3

Hulalaoo 2011-06-16 00:43:50

Jazlyte working in team ?

JazLyte 2011-06-16 00:43:50

You wanna collab? Dude I'd love to :D After Robot Day I wanna start teaming up with as many people as possible.

lenkalamari 2011-06-16 01:05:38

@ xin: i see what you're getting at there. i have a feeling there'll be another wave of people that will hold stuff like smbz in high regard cuz they watched and enjoyed it when they were 13 (sadly smbz was the first thing i could think of when it comes to modern popular action series on NG with more than 3 episodes)

but even at that age i couldn't ignore the random drawing faults on characters (missing eyes obscured by 'shadow', lack of fingers on hands etc), unintentionally hilarious voice acting and downright bizarre attempts at comic relief. still they did do a good job pumping out so much shit in the space of a couple years or so, especially for a team of two.

JazLyte 2011-06-16 01:05:38

They did, they aimed low, that's the secret to finishing things haha.

PiGPEN 2011-06-16 02:41:51

>on par with my favorite web series like XIN
>favorite web series
>XIN
That's your problem right there. And honestly you surpassed XIN ages ago...but that's not saying much.
Goddamn...you like XIN.....that really changes my whole opinion of you.

TO GROWING UP!

JazLyte 2011-06-16 02:41:51

So, umad then?

RetributionVox 2011-06-16 03:21:12

Bitch.

RetributionVox 2011-06-16 03:21:54

Hulaloo's from Argentina, Mexico.

JazLyte 2011-06-16 03:21:54

HE IS?

VidGameDude 2011-06-16 07:47:23

definitely gona be a missed series...
well good luck in the future.

l8s

JazLyte 2011-06-16 07:47:23

Thanks :) Eventually when I'm a sleazy bigwig I'll come back to it.

AnubisInc 2011-06-16 08:28:33

Kalen...buddy...I will honestly admit that completely fucked up newgrounds for me...there's only a few artists I look forward to seeing..you're one...one of my role models :/ I understand if thats what you have to do man I just want you to know....regardless, you're the shit to me.

JazLyte 2011-06-16 08:28:33

D: Noo guilt attack. It shouldn't, I'm not stopping animating altogether, I'm just going to be doing things that are actually realistic and hopefully lucrative.

Desknight 2011-06-16 09:12:52

Told NG too huh? *Sigh* There's a way to fix this, but it's gonna be tough of course. I think doing collabs and what-not for robot day and etc. may actually be a step in the right direction. I'd join but I'm s*** deep in other works right now. Hopefully next year though. :)

Just don't give up

JazLyte 2011-06-16 09:12:52

Definitely won't, there's just smarter things I could be doing right now.

AnubisInc 2011-06-16 13:37:55

(holding back tears) Okay...I understand...

JazLyte 2011-06-16 13:37:55

SUCK IT UP HOE >:(

Tystarr 2011-06-16 15:27:40

I mean I'm 80% against this because I'm a HUGE fan. But I can understand you wanting to move on.. Still.. you put in TOO much time to quit just yet.

I believe this series of yours can be GREAT. It just needs focus. If money is an issue someone out there would be happy to sponsor it! But not w/o some real focus. You rebooted the series several times and that is the ONLY reason why the series is not noticed like it should be.

And I for one know you're talented enough to pull it off.

Then again..maybe doing something else will revitalize your spirits and you can come back to this with the same vigor you had from the beginning.

JazLyte 2011-06-16 15:27:40

Preciate the kind words man. Yeah, I was never sure why I was making them other than just masturbatory grandeur, because they were never as personal as I would've liked, but I'll be developing it and writing still as much as I can, then maybe one day when I've accomplished something I'll come back to it.

FightingSeraph 2011-06-16 17:43:38

It really sucks to pull the plug on something that you loved so much, and I see where you're coming from. I have my original characters on the backburner simply because of inadequate drawing and animation skills, but have improved over the course of three years. Personally, you could learn a thing or two from old cartoons, Ralph Bakshi, and John Kricfalusi. (As in, make animated cartoons for yourself and submit them here and not give a shit about lowest common denominator or network execs.) By the way, you'll probably get all bent out of shape upon hearing this, but I don't see what's so great about Xombie. I saw the first three episodes and thought that the plot was horribly uninspired and the voice acting was laughably bad.

JazLyte 2011-06-16 17:43:38

Haha, no I know. Xombie and Xin were old flames, though I do admire their creators diligence, I don't look at them anymore for inspiration.

redminus 2011-06-16 19:10:28

Your fight choreography is great. Respect, man

JazLyte 2011-06-16 19:10:28

Thanks buddeh :3

kidd25 2011-06-16 23:44:47

you did this once, i hope you never do it again. i know that feeling of losing something of you may be either happy release or something you will regret for the rest of your life. so never EVER let this happen again.

JazLyte 2011-06-16 23:44:47

I'll make sure not to, and to know exactly why I'm making with my projects and what I want to accomplish with them.

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Bye bye Necropolis.

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