Otaku Dome had the opportunity to interview the creators of Adult Swim’s Superjail!; Christy Karacas & Steve Warbrick. We discuss the series’ history and start, character creations and more. Season 4 of Superjail! premieres in July:

1. OD: Can you explain how Superjail! came about? What inspired it?

Christy: It started as a short called Bar Fight, which was a short animation and it can be viewed online actually. And Adult Swim contacted us about it and they actually wanted a show, and we were like “sure no problem”. The thing about Bar Fight was that it was like a three minute fight, and we wanted to do a fight in Superjail!, and jail’s not really a bar, and it’d be a riot. We thought it was weird, and Adult swim was like, “well why not have it in a prison?”. And we said ok, and decided on having it be like Dr. Seuss with his world, only in jail.

2. OD: Is that what inspired the animation style? Dr. Seuss?

Christy: I mean, Bar Fight was already kind of it’s own style. We thought it was just such a violent place, we kind of just thought that it was funny.

3. OD: Can you go into details a bit about The Warden, such as explaining his character?

Christy : Ugh, well I mean his background is kind of weird, like he’s where there’s a lot of torture, and it’s like he’s a crazy Willy Wonka. Kind of like he’s more of a super villain than a super hero.

Steve: Yeah he’s always experimenting on people, I remember when we first began researching the show we were kind of imagining him as the boss from hell. And he has people like Alice & Jared and Jail Bot, their jobs are really tough.

4. OD: Can you explain the developmental process? How long does it take for a single episode to be made?

Christy: Well, we’re on a pretty staggered schedule, initially we’ll start the writing process and begin kicking around ideas for awhile. And there’s different people writing a single script. Then we’ll record it and take a few days to get the storyboards completed. Then there’s background designs and character layouts and animation. I think because of our schedule it’ll usually take about 3-4 months. So the total is probably around 8 for the entire process.

OD: So we’re looking at about a year or two for an entire season then?

Christy: Yeah, I’d say somewhere around 10 months for an entire season to be completed. And we’re always working on an episode, sometimes we’ll stop on one episode and work on another.

5. OD: I noticed the episode order was shortened this season to six, is this the final season or is Adult Swim simply cutting back on episodes?

Christy: I’m pretty sure this isn’t the last season, they didn’t tell us it was the last season. We really don’t know until they actually order more, so I think it’s just more cutting down on the total number per season. I think the show is doing pretty well with ratings, so I’m pretty sure it’s not the last.

OD: I’ve noticed that the show has gotten pretty big in popularity lately.

Christy: Yeah, it’s always hard to tell what age everyone who watches the show is.   Like we’re old and we always have a young audience watching. Are you in college?

OD: Well, I guess I’m more part-time these days as I’m currently on break.

Christy: So you’re in your 20s or something?

OD: Yeah, I’ll be 24 this year.

Christy: Yeah we’re in our 40s and we’re always wondering who’s watching like is it people in their 20s or is it more our age. It’s kind of weird.

6. OD: Would you ever consider an episode format change like from 15 minutes to 30?

Christy: Nah, I think that’d be boring, we hardly have enough content to fit into 11 minutes.

Steve: Yeah it feels like 40 minutes with just 11 minutes per episode, like a Breaking Bad type of show.

Christy: Even with 11 minutes it feels like that there’s 40 minutes worth of content in it already. Like when I watch a show like Aqua Teen or something, I like watching a bunch in a row, because it’s more fun. It feels like there’s more than what’s actually in it.

7. OD: Can you tell us how you get the cast together for their respective characters?

Christy: Yeah, each of us do certain voices, like I do Jackknife and Alice, he (Steve) does Fatty and Paul. Sometimes voices are done by Christopher McCulloch who does The Venture Brothers. And Jared, he’s voiced by Teddy Cohn.

Steve: And we have David Wain who does The Warden.

Christy: The Warden is probably the hardest one, because it’s hard to kind of get his voice going sometimes.

Steve: Yeah he’s like an evil  Willy Wonka.

8. OD: That’s another thing I wanted to talk about the character designs. How to you go about finalizing the character? I develop comics every so often, and I know how hard it is to get a finalized design going, because there’s always something you want to change.

Christy: Yeah, it’s really hard to finalize. Because everyone just wants to draw funny drawings and make people laugh. We usually have the final design for a character, but the good thing is, is that it’s never really final because we’re not really nitpicky about the littlest detail. We kind of just draw it and people look at and we ask around “what do you think?”.

Christy: Oh there’s something else I wanted to talk about, if you’re a fan of the show, then go to TitMouseStuff.com and there’s going to be some really cool Superjail! shirts up for sale, some really good designs.

OD: Were they designed by you?

Christy: Yeah all designs were drawn out by us.

OD: Oh so these shirts were hand drawn?

Christy: Yeah we drew out all of the designs, they’re going to be up for sale in time for the season premiere. They’re all going to be original drawing.

OD: I know we’re kind of short on time, and I really don’t know where to take the interview from here (laughs).

Christy: Well who’s your favorite character from the show?

OD: Oh God, I know what I want to say, but I haven’t seen the show in awhile, he’s gold colored…STINGRAY! That’s his name.

Christy: Everybody loves Stingray (laughs), every time we ask this question the same answer we always hear is him.

OD: He’s probably my favorite character next to Jared and maybe The Warden.

Steve: Jared shout out. (laughs)

Christy: (laughs) Everybody seems to love StingRay.