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“Supermutant Magic Academy,” the upcoming series from Cartoon Network Studios based on the Eisner Award-winning 2015 comic by artist and writer Jillian Tamaki, debuted first footage at a panel discussing the making
of the show. The series is set to air on Adult Swim.
A sizzle reel exclusive to a captive Annecy audience, though released at the end of the session, proved a charming introduction to the show’s alchemical blend of fantasy and more mundane teen comedy.
The footage embraced the chaos of introducing magic into the tumult of adolescence: dragons puncture soccer balls currently in play before the game resumes without missing a beat, kids vandalize walls with spray paint and then magic blasts, loners are enticed into joining LARPing groups. The sharp and punchy sense of humor is a natural result of what showrunner and co-executive producer Calvin Wong (“Regular Show,” “We Baby Bears”) calls the elevator pitch for the series: “No matter how magical you are, high school still sucks.”
Wong was joined on stage by Tamaki herself, who serves as co-executive producer on the show. The two traced the story of the show back to their first meeting in 2011, realized on screen at the presentation with a tongue-in-cheek comic panel featuring Wong complaining about their lunch. From here they moved chronologically, from Tamaki’s beginnings on the strip in the years 2011 to 2014, through to the beginning of development in 2021. The project began with fellow producer J.G. Quintel (best known for the creation of “Regular Show”), who later brought Wong on board. “[Quintel] always holds his cards close to the chest,” Wong added, showing his surprise about the show being developed through on-screen illustrations of Quintel bursting into the room during Wong’s retake drawings on “Regular Show.”
Tamaki added that she trusted that Cartoon Network would be the right people to adapt the work and get the “indie comic spirit.” That said, even though directly involved in the adaptation of her own comic book series (to the point of drawing boards for early explorations and pilots), Tamaki later stressed the importance of being able to step back from ownership of the story being adapted. “You have to be a little destructive to the source material,” Tamaki says.
Even though standing firm on elements like the attitude of one of the main characters, Marsha, Tamaki said it was important to allow the artists room to play and expand on the story so that it might find a new audience. Wong concurred, reflecting this attitude in discussions between him and Quintel. “Shaggy” was a key word, allowing space for random happenstances which made the world of “Supermutant Magic Academy” feel bigger, like the audience was just seeing a small peek of a setting carrying on with their observation or not.
The comic was partially inspired by Tamaki’s observations of students during teaching at the New York City School of Visual Arts, or just small frustrations. The rest of the inspiration came from staples of ‘90s and 2000s teen dramas like “Freeks & Geeks” and “Degrassi” as well as shows from MTV’s “Liquid Television,” such as “The Head” (which Tamaki notes had a visual impact on one character, Gemma).
From this point the team discussed the extensive style guides and visual explorations for the show. For pre-production they tapped artist Jisoo Kim as art director and Sidney Deng as lead character designer. They also presented a mood board for the show they began to work from, which included influences like “Ranma 1/2,” “Daria” and “My Neighbours the Yamadas.”
The team worked through the challenges of adapting a fairly loose comic style to the expansion and detail required for a 10 episode animated series – going into considerations such as the appropriate line weight and even the whites of characters eyes (since Tamaki didn’t have to think about the characters in color as she drew in black and white). The look for the show generally sought to play up the mundanity of the setting despite the influence of magic: being cautious of character design becoming “too cartoony”, and exploring more subdued colours and adding some grit and grime to the backgrounds of the magic school.
In order to refine this look, the team worked with South Korea-based overseas contributors Studio IAM, who had done support work on series such as DC Studios’s “Creature Commandos.”
Even with the in depth consideration of these visual rules, they allowed for flexibility in the drawings, working to keep what Wong considered a classic Cartoon Network feel. “The buildings gone,” Wong says, referring to the shuttering of the original Cartoon Network Studios in August 2023, “but what could we do to in our production to keep that creator-driven outline, and storyboard-driven anarchic attitude [which comes from] working at the studios for so long?”
The solution was simple, they hired artists they loved for storyboards from across different eras of Cartoon Network, with talent coming from shows such as “Steven Universe,” “Adventure Time,” “OK. KO: Let’s Be Heroes!,” to name a few. Wong says they hoped for drawings which would be immediately identifiable, and also fun. “When a drawing is funny, you can’t really fight against it,” Wong adds.
Even when the show moves into a more spectacular look which one would expect of a story about a magic school, it was intended as an ironic contrast. “It looks very grand,” Wong says of an image showing a spell being cast, “but what’s important to realize here is she’s using this magic just to cheat on a homework assignment.” Tamaki adds that the joke driving the original concept was that the story wasn’t about magic, despite its presence in both the world and the title of the comic strip. The team hopes that they can take this idea through several years of this fictional high-school. Whether or not they do, “Supermutant Magic Academy” looks to be a punchy and fun upending of the teen drama.
