Pendleton Ward

Pendleton Ward created the television cartoon series Adventure Time (2010–). He is (I . . . I’m writing this) currently watching Blender tutorials on YouTube in pursuit of producing his own indie virtual-reality games. I (me . . . Pen) live in Los Angeles. (All illustrations by Pendleton Ward.)

1. “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC

   Mannn . . . just sheer dedication to a sweet, kindhearted silliness through funny songwriting. All that work focused through that lens. Weird Al helps me remember to produce works of kindness . . . that are funny! Funny things can also be nice! Not everything has to be nasty, c’mon, everybody.

   “Weird Al” Yankovic, Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, September 27, 2007. Photo: Jeffrey Szczewski/Flickr.
2. JACK PENDARVIS

   Jack is an author whose writing makes me laugh so hard! It’s made me lean on my knees and laugh one long bellow like “huuuaAAAAAAAAAHHH!”—multiple times! Here’s an excerpt from his book from last year about cigarette lighters: “WELCOME TO THE NATIONAL LIGHTER MUSEUM. I had known him less than half an hour when Ted Ballard showed me a tobacco pouch made from a human scrotum. ‘Now, this could be from an ape or something but I doubt it,’ he said.” 

   Listen, it’s the detail of doubting the scrotum that makes me laugh so hard, not the scrotum itself! I swear! C’mon!

3. NATASHA ALLEGRI

   Nat’s drawings capture the humor of subtle, thoughtful expressions, which is my favorite thing to capture these days! I’m really enamored with her web cartoon series, Bee and Puppycat, and the pacing of its stories. They’re pleasant to veg out to, they produce a feeling of wonder, and they make me laugh . . . mannnnn. They make me really happy.

   Three stills from Bee and Puppycat, 2013–16, an animated series on the Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel. Pilot episode.
4. DUNCAN TRUSSELL FAMILY HOUR

   Sometimes I avoid Duncan’s podcast because I know that it’s going to make me work on myself. Listening to him wrestle with his own demons and hearing his conversations with gurus forces me to reflect and ultimately helps me remember to love and forgive myself . . . which can be daunting!

   Duncan Trussell, 2017. Photo: Louis Gomez.
5. SOUNDSELF

   I’m very INTO virtual reality—the way the lenses wrap the image around your eyes; you quickly realize how easily your brain can be convinced of its surroundings given what your eyeballs are telling it. And it’s fun to feel transported to places on earth I’ve never been to . . . uh . . . but what’s MORE fun is visiting places that seem like they don’t belong in this dimension . . . or this reality. Robin Arnott is developing a VR experience called SoundSelf that coaxes you into making drawn-out om-like sounds with your voice, which are then interpreted into visuals that make up the world around you. It’s wild to feel like you’re present inside a completely abstract environment. Uh . . . I love it.

   Screenshot from Robin Arnott’s virtual reality game SoundSelf (work in progress).
6. JESSE MOYNIHAN

   Jesse’s comic Forming is so good that I’m like . . . “Dammit” . . . It really helped me figure out how to write about something I care about without sounding pretentious, which is something that worries me a lot. Forming is the shit. It’s overwhelmingly awe-inspiring. If you want to read it, his website is his name with “.com” at the end.

   Detail from Jesse Moynihan’s Forming 1 (Nobrow Press, 2011).
7. ANIMATION BY AC-BU

   The music video AC-bu created for Zamagi’s song “Shocking Black” really refreshed my brain recently. The animation style is relaxed and fun. I watch it often to remind myself to loosen up. Too often I zoom in on my work and lose track of the end goal—to make something fun to watch that will carry my message across to an audience. Hang loose! Hang fun. C’mon, everybody, all right.

   Still from Zamagi’s 2004 video Shocking Black, directed by AC-bu
8. STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (1987–94)

   I like Jean-Luc Picard. Gettin’ swaddled up in his moral essence.

   Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1987–94, production still from a TV show on Paramount Domestic Television. Season 5, episode 2. Captain Dathon (Paul Winfield) and Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Photo: AF Archive/Alamy.
9. JAMES KOCHALKA

   Reading James’s writing when I was in college—specifically his 2002 book Fantastic Butterflies—opened my eyes to how cute drawings could be taken seriously, and how mixing cute imagery with gritty, soul-bearing, emotional characters is a branch of dark comedy that’s supercompelling. Cuteness lures you in, and emotional realness punches you in the heart . . . feels great!  

10. MANDALA ART

    When I was little, my mom took me to a Buddhist sand-mandala ceremony where monks sprinkled colored sand through metal tubes onto a table. What stuck with me was that they scooped it all up afterward and tossed it into a river, to symbolize the ephemerality of life. I think I’ve always carried that notion with me when I think about my window of time to live and make stuff. I’m certain that the ceremonial deconstruction of the mandala wasn’t meant to remind me of a time limit, but of a way to embrace the end of my time, so as not to want more. To want is the root of suffering, y’all. . . . Nevertheless! The notion of getting scooped into a river put a fire under me . . . to animate cartoons.

    Detail of a Tibetan sand mandala, 2010. Photo: Sean Christopher Hargis/Flickr.