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| Born: | June 5, 1956 (age 67) |
| Occupations: | Artist, producer |
Mark C. Marek is an American artist and producer who created the Henry and June segments on the Nickelodeon animated sketch comedy series KaBlam! and its attempted spinoff, The Henry and June Show.
Interested in art and drawing ever since childhood and a fan of 1960s cartoons like Jonny Quest and the Christmas/Halloween Peanuts specials, Marek graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1978. As a freelance illustrator and cartoonist in the 1980s, his work appeared in National Lampoon, High Times and Rolling Stone magazines. He designed the characters in the animated sections for the music video of pop singer Cyndi Lauper's song "She Bop." Marek has worked with the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, creating the cover/label arts for their EP (She Was A) Hotel Detective and the stop-motion animated papier-mâché sculptures for the music video of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)." By the early 1990s, he had stints directing videos at Bloomberg L.P. while teaching illustration at The New School in New York City, before getting a call from Nickelodeon. Marek then sent a tape and received a callback, asking for his interest to animate for KaBlam!.
Marek began operating his independent animation studio Crank! It! Out! Inc. in 1995, working on the Henry and June segments with three other animators to start. By the time KaBlam! came to an end, he had a team of over 10 animators and artists. Marek also lent his voice for various characters on the Henry and June segments, notably credited as Dr. Ferdinand Blem in the Season 1 episode "Resistance is Futile." Crank! It! Out! Inc. in the Season 3 episode "KaFun!" produced a music video for James Kochalka's song "Pizza Rocket" and on the Season 4 episode/KaBlam! series finale "Just Chillin'," they presented the segment Dave, Son of Hercules.
Following the end of KaBlam! in 2000, Marek closed Crank! It! Out! Inc. and ended up working at Funny Garbage, a digital design studio in SoHo created by John Carlin and Peter Girardi. In 2002, he was appointed lead animator for the television series Crank Yankers, airing on Comedy Central. Marek created a short film "Yuck Yuck Goose and His Sidekick, His Butt" for MTV2's short-lived adult sketch comedy series Wonder Showzen in 2005 and in 2007, became a special effects animator for Adult Swim's comedy series Saul of the Mole Men. In 2010, he relocated to California to start working at Warner Bros. Animation, co-producing the Cartoon Network animated series MAD (Julia McIlvaine, the voice of June on KaBlam!, portrayed various characters). Other Warner Bros. Animation projects Marek has been involved with include the HBO Max series Yabba-Dabba Dinosaurs and co-producing the 2023 Looney Tunes direct-to-video film Taz: Quest for Burger.
See our interview with Mark Marek!
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KaBlam! Nicksclusive The Splat
Meet the Henry and June creator, Mark Marek!