There are times I’m sure we have all experienced whilst browsing NG where we come across an animation and think to ourselves, “Boy, I wish I had thought of that”.

It’s a nice feeling to have, to be inspired by a fellow artist who has somehow managed to crack the creativity block and create something your mind had hitherto been incapable of even imagining.

It was with good fortune that I experienced this very brain-tingle not so long ago.

The cartoon is called Calvin Carcass # 1, and its premise is as simple and devious as its execution.

I feel so jealous of this cartoon, and I must admit I have been tempted to steal the idea wholesale and create my own interpretation. After all, most uploads are just aping other, more successful artists anyway; how many Madness or Egoraptor clones have you trudged through this week?

Would anyone really notice if I were to rip-off a 16 year old Flash cartoon from 2004 with under 30,00 views? It would be the perfect crime!

But no.

As the ancient Stoics have taught us, humility is a virtue to be practiced when faced with even the most obstinate of obstacles.

That would be dishonest, and would contravene the unwritten code amongst Flash cartoonists: do not rip each other off (unless you’re trying to scrounge up YouTube subscribers, it seems).

But Calvin Carcass is such a perfect little gem. It was meticulously animated at a time when most other cartoonists were still getting the hang of tweening.

The home-made light rock underpinning the bizarre narrative, when lesser artists would have delved straight into their CD collection and chosen some fuck-awful copyrighted crap from their favourite band of the time; probably something like Lostprophets.

But above all, it is the unassuming and deliciously tasteless simplicity of the cartoon that marks it above many others, even all these years later.

I am jealous of this cartoon. I wish I had thought of it.  

-Turbo.