Joe Murray
Joe Murray
Joseph David "Joe" Murrayis an American animator, writer, illustrator, producer, director, and voice actor, best known as the creator of the Nickelodeon animated series Rocko's Modern Life and the Cartoon Network animated series Camp Lazlo. Born in San Jose, California, Murray was interested in a career in the arts when he was three. He credits his high school art teacher Mark Briggs with teaching him a lot about art. Murray was a political cartoonist for a newspaper, often targeting then...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth3 May 1961
CountryUnited States of America
I do not feel any artist can produce great art without putting great personality into it. It is always a piece of you that goes on the screen or the canvass.
Sometimes a serendipitous reaction occurs when a network asks you if you have any ideas for a series, at a time when your creative flow is working in that direction.
I am constantly getting letters from inconsistancies in the back stories of these characters.
When an executive walked on our floor, it was at their own risk. As far as what others thought of working for me, I know I was very tough at times, and would storm down the hall after watching some bad animation from Korea. But overall, I feel we had a good time.
Since this was the first and only series I had ever produced, I was unaware of what the "Normal" environment was for a studio. I tried to run it as I did in my SF studio.
More and more, I tend to read history. I often find it more up to date than the daily newspapers.
Anyone who knows me, knows I don't walk away from a commitment, but I had a commitment to myself. Yes, there were times Nickelodeon made it more difficult than it needed to be, but there were also times they made it easier.
The friend that I based Heffer on was adopted, and it all played into his total personality.
With Charles Woods, it was the first time I had ever seen tissue from a dead person used to save a human life. It piqued my curiosity.
Somebody said us artists have trouble with success because art is derived from struggle. I disagree with that, because truely doing your art is success, whether you make money from it or not.
I had worked on dogs for a couple of years developing a renal transplant operation. We had dogs running around with kidneys we had transplanted back into themselves.
I still have a vivid memory of my excitement when I first saw a chart of the periodic table of elements.
Marriage should be a duet - when one sings, the other claps.
I'm drawing, animating and writing better than I've ever been before, and I love my life with my wife Carol and the excitement of our new baby!!