Comedy Central’s hit new series, The Colbert Report, this week debuted a new animated segment titled Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen. Produced by J.J. Sedelmaier Prods. (JJSP), the satirical cartoon will soon be available on Comedy Central’s Motherload broadband site at www.comedycentral.com/motherload.
The Tek Jansen serials chronicle the exploits of a 25th-century renegade hero working for Alpha Squad Seven. In the first chapter, ‘Operation: Heart of the Phoenix’Dead or Alive,’ Jansen must stop his sensual, Peruvian nemesis, Abraxia, from destroying the Earth’s cloud supply. Colbert voices the lead role, which bears a striking resemblance to himself, while frequent collaborator Amy Sedaris (Strangers With Candy) pops up as Abraxia.
Before getting his own Comedy Central show, Colbert lent his voice to the role of Ace in Saturday Night Live’s The Ambiguously Gay Duo catoons, which JJSP initially animated. Colbert then suggested the toon studio for the title sequence of Comedy Central’s cult-favorite series Strangers with Candy, and voiced two characters in the 2002 JJSP cartoon Midterm Elections. JJSP also created the animated title card for Colbert’s production company, Spartina, seen at the end of every installment of The Colbert Report.
All the pre-production and animation for the Tek Jansen short was produced at JJSP’s studio in White Plains, with J.J. Sedelmaier serving as director, producer and designer. The project was made with a combination of hand-drawn techniques, Macromedia Flash and After Effects, with Adobe Photoshop and Crater CTP also coming into play. Digital ink & paint and compositing were performed at DL Digital in New York City. More information on JJSP can be found at www.jjsedelmaier.com.
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