The following history of John K. was taken from Cool Site of the Day.   All credits for the following passage belongs to them.

John Kricfalusi has taken animated cartoons seriously all his
life. Drawing Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. characters constantly
through elementary school, he also began to write stories about them,
discovering that nothing was impossible in animation. He attended
Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, but really learned more about the
craft by studying Warner Bros. cartoons, particularly the films of Bob
Clampett. Other influences on his art have been Harvey Kutzman, Chuck
Jones, Marvel Comics artist Jack Kirby and early Hanna-Barbera designer
Ed Benedict (The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, etc.).

It was at Filmation in 1980 where John got his first taste of the
realities of modern-day cartoon production on Mighty Mouse and Heckle
and Jeckle. His work on Mighty Mouse was a testament to John's
philosophy that the long-held theories of TV animation perpetuated by
today's Hollywood cartoon factories were too constraining. "One of the
excuses people in the business have used for a long time," he says, "is,
'Sure, we'd like to do funny cartoons, too, but we don't have the
budget.' They kept telling me, 'In limited animation you have to have
the characters stand straight up and down, just do head bobs and eye
blinks. Strong poses and broad expressions won't work.' I kept asking
'Why not?' You can read a comic strip and laugh -- there's no motion at
all. We've got some movement, so let's use it."

After Mighty Mouse there was a stint at Hanna-Barbera which led
to work on one of his childhood favorites, The Jetsons. John spent 7
months in Taiwan supervising layout for 15 episodes -- and it is on
these shows that he had his first chance to work his style into the
films and one show, Hi-Tech Wreck, was his first shot at directing.

Returning to the States, John joined Ralph Bakshi, who was planning to
reopen his studio. He designed and directed the animation for the
Rolling Stones video, Harlem Shuffle, while Ralph shot the
live-action and edited the piece.

John returned to Mighty Mouse when Ralph (who also started his
career animating the caped rodent) sold the show to CBS. Kricfalusi was
senior director of the show, directing 8 of the 26 11-minute cartoons,
while overseeing the rest of the series. Ralph and John recreated a
concept for the production of animated TV shows that worked for the
Hollywood studios of the 1940s and 1950s: they set up units under
separate directors and gave them total freedom.

Mighty Mouse was Kricfalusi's way of proving "you can go home
again." Though the public and media adored the show, John heard harsh
criticism from within the industry. "One complaint was about our
characters being 'off model.' Today, if you stretch or squash -- or you
put an expression on a character which isn't on the model sheet --
that's 'off model!' I can just see a kid at home shouting 'Mom! Get my
model sheets out! That character didn't have teeth in the last
scene!"

After Mighty Mouse, John formed his own animation studio, Spumco,
Inc. with Jim Smith. They created The Ren & Stimpy Show, which
quickly became the number one hit for Nickelodeon and the most popular
made-for-cable series in television history. The Ren & Stimpy
Show attracted children, teenagers and adults -- a wide mass appeal
that most animated series cannot boast. The show was definitely a
reflection of John's style and concept of what animation is all about.
He directed most of the shows and watched over every aspect from
character design and storylines to layout and color. After doing two
seasons of Ren & Stimpy, John and Nickelodeon parted ways.

John contributes to all aspects of animation by giving lectures on
animation in colleges and universities, serving on seminar panels, and
writing articles on animation (most recently for Animation
Magazine and The Hollywood Reporter.) "I just want to bring
animation back to what it was," John says. "Cartoons at one time were
meant to be funny, that's what they do best, and that's what I want to
do."

Since The Ren & Stimpy Show, John and Spumco have been
branching into many areas, such as licensing and merchandising many new
products. Spumco and Palmer Paints Products have collaborated on a very
successful merchandising campaign of limited edition talking dolls,
cartoon and poster paints, pain-by-number kits and animation cel
painting kits. They are not only producing their own characters but have
licensing agreements to produce dolls and animation cel painting kits
for Hanna-Barbera characters and The Three Stooges. In addition, Spumco
is producing a comic book through Dark Horse Comics (entitled Comic
Book) featuring Jimmy the Idiot Boy and George Liquor American and has
more comic books in the making.

They are developing many of the other characters in their stable, including Jimmy the Hapless Boy, George Liquor, He Hog The Atomic Pig and The Ripping Friends for films, television and specials.

Visit Spumco's Homepage at www.spumco.com