DEVIOUS BLOG!!

Source: Mediawan Kids & Family (Linkedin)

Shared to me through a source on Tumblr which wishes to be kept anonymous, a new poster for the current Astro Boy Reboot was shared by Mediawan Kids & Family's Linkedin page on May 21, 2026!

This is in anticipation for their event at Annecy Festival 2026 in France showing the work-in-progress (WIP) aspect of Astro Boy Reboot; the event will occur on Wednesday, June 24, 2026 from 9 AM to 10 AM Central European Time.

Most notably, Atom's (Astro's) character design has changed again, perhaps to take the criticism from fans to heart in order to improve his character design. What do you think about how he looks now?

In my days of drawing, I stumbled upon this principle of animation: Appeal. I was like, "Isn't appeal subjective?" I had a really hard time just defining it since it's such a subjective thing. But anyways, here's what I believe appeal to be.

Cute Characters

Yeh, this is the biggest part of appeal. Our brains are trained to accept friendly looking characters, like women, kids, and animals and find them appealing, especially if they've got big eyes and small noses like Clampett's Porky and Raven's Steven have. This is why SpongeBob and Steven Universe are more popular than....

...whatever this is.

Exaggerated Posing

Exaggerated posing is another way to appeal, I think. It immediately catches the audience's eye more than any of the poses you see on Family Guy do.

Cartoony emotions are very appealing, too.

Artists To Study When Searching For Appeal.

Katie Rice

Katie Rice is a very cool designer and a profoundly underrated artist. She reminds me a lot of Over The Garden Wall, Adventure Time, and the like. I believe you can check out her work on @katiejrice! I'd like to post some of her art on Skadi and Camp Weedontwancha, but unfortunately, some of them are lost.

Raven Molisee

Molisee worked on Ed, Edd, N' Eddy as a storyboarder, and it shows in her Steven Universe work! Her expressions are very loose and wacky, yet adorable at the same time. Especially when she draws steven. Such a shame she left the show. You can find her on @raveneesimo

Chris Reccardi

Alas, Chris Reccardi's gone to his final reward. But his reputation as an ANIMATION LEGEND lives on! His poses are full of zest and appeal, just stripping an action to their most wackiest essential! ESPECIALLY in Hermit Ren and Hard Times For Haggis.

I'd post more of appealing artists, but i'm running out of time, and besides, my computer's lagging. Just remember the principles of appeal:

Cute, or minimalist characters that are easy to see, and easy to draw. (Clampett, Molisee, Rice)

Funny poses that strip down an action to it's most exaggerated variant (Tex Avery, Reccardi, Kurtzman)

Exagerrated faces that are funny but not grotesque (Modern SpongeBob Crew, Reccardi, Bob Camp)

Aw, shit, one of the lead artists in this episode was one of the people who would later accuse John of being a perverted shitbag?! Yeah, this won’t age well.

All jesting aside, I happen to be a fan of Rice’s work. Now, I (obviously) do not KNOW her on a personal level but she, to me, is something else.

To give you an example of what I mean look at these women designed by Nick Cross.

Now, I’m not trying to invalidate Cross’s work. His designs are pretty good. But they look a little bit mushy… grotesque even. He works better with the hairy ass lifeguard.

But when you see KATIE’S girls… oh-HOH…

They may possibly be the most appealing, cutest  things to come out of APC. Like I said in my “appeal” post, cuteness is appeal.

Katie’s designs also helped me understand construction. This was one of the very first episodes I saw of Adult Party Cartoon and I traced the “Soap Girl” faces in my app.. specifically these ones to be exact.  Before I was using construction, I just didn’t apply it well. 

And then I traced these…

And I finally understood construction.

That being said, I do think her designs look a sliver too youthful. Some people might mistake them for teenagers. (Though knowing this show was created by John “Officer, I didn’t mean to diddle kids, I’m just bipolar!” Kricfalusi, I suppose it was only a matter of time.)

Katie’s spectacular designs all goes to show that the real people who mainly added to Ren and Stimpy were the writers and storyboarders and layout fellas, and not just John.

i wonder who did these layouts? these close up shots look very appealing!

Unlike this monstrosity.

This might be Vincent Waller.

In my days of drawing, I stumbled upon this principle of animation: Appeal. I was like, "Isn't appeal subjective?" I had a really hard time just defining it since it's such a subjective thing. But anyways, here's what I believe appeal to be.

Cute Characters

Yeh, this is the biggest part of appeal. Our brains are trained to accept friendly looking characters, like women, kids, and animals and find them appealing, especially if they've got big eyes and small noses like Clampett's Porky and Raven's Steven have. This is why SpongeBob and Steven Universe are more popular than....

...whatever this is.

Exaggerated Posing

Exaggerated posing is another way to appeal, I think. It immediately catches the audience's eye more than any of the poses you see on Family Guy do.

Cartoony emotions are very appealing, too.

Artists To Study When Searching For Appeal.

Katie Rice

Katie Rice is a very cool designer and a profoundly underrated artist. She reminds me a lot of Over The Garden Wall, Adventure Time, and the like. I believe you can check out her work on @katiejrice! I'd like to post some of her art on Skadi and Camp Weedontwancha, but unfortunately, some of them are lost.

Raven Molisee

Molisee worked on Ed, Edd, N' Eddy as a storyboarder, and it shows in her Steven Universe work! Her expressions are very loose and wacky, yet adorable at the same time. Especially when she draws steven. Such a shame she left the show. You can find her on @raveneesimo

Chris Reccardi

Alas, Chris Reccardi's gone to his final reward. But his reputation as an ANIMATION LEGEND lives on! His poses are full of zest and appeal, just stripping an action to their most wackiest essential! ESPECIALLY in Hermit Ren and Hard Times For Haggis.

I'd post more of appealing artists, but i'm running out of time, and besides, my computer's lagging. Just remember the principles of appeal:

Cute, or minimalist characters that are easy to see, and easy to draw. (Clampett, Molisee, Rice)

Funny poses that strip down an action to it's most exaggerated variant (Tex Avery, Reccardi, Kurtzman)

Exagerrated faces that are funny but not grotesque (Modern SpongeBob Crew, Reccardi, Bob Camp)

Hey all,

I'm a storyboard artist/illustrator/writer. I worked on Ed, Edd n Eddy, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Steven Universe.

Unfortunately my Cintiq (the drawing display I use for literally 90% of my work) needs to be replaced. It's been my main tool for years, and at this point it's just not reliable enough to keep working on.

I've set up a Ko-Fi Goal to help cover the cost so I can keep drawing, taking commissions, working on my own projects and most importantly, keeping the lights on. If you've ever enjoyed my EEnE boards, pony art, SU work, or anything I've shared over the years, this is a really direct way to support me.

Zero pressure. Re-blogs help just as much as contributions, honestly.

Thank you for reading and thank you for being such a great place for fandom to live on.