Popverse's top stories

• What's next for GLITCH after The Amazing Digital Circus's finale? A dark, Wreck-It Ralph-style take on video games starring Helluva Boss, One Piece, and Smiling Friends headliners
• X-Men, Spider-Man, and more get absolutely dark, monstrous, and ultimately bloodthirsty in new Marvel Comics initiative
• An obscure manga casts Steve Jobs as a sort of mind control wizard in the early days of his ascent at Apple and I love it [Popverse Jump]

Here's something that genuinely makes me rejoice, reader - while it might seem like everything's a sequel or a reboot these days, the world of animation continues to grow weirder and more original every day. yes, the MCU might dominate the box office, but come to any comic con and you'll find cosplayers in Hazbin Hotel gear as much (if not more) than in Avengers duds. And according to someone deeply embedded in the current explosion of indie animation, there's a reason those offbeat toons are doing so well.

That insider is Sean Chiplock, or as The Amazing Digital Circus fans may know him, Kinger. Chiplock recently joined fellow ADC stars Alex Rochon, Amanda Hufford, Ashley Nichols, Lizzie Freeman, Marissa Lenti, and Michael Kovach for a wide-ranging discussion with YouTuber Saberspark, and with so many indie animation stars in one place, the topic of the medium's modern success was obviously going to come up. Chiplock was only happy to share his thoughts on the subject, as much as he wasn't afraid to pull his punches.

"I'm not at all surprised," said Chiplock, who plays Kinger in TADC, "That indie animation is thriving in a time where Warner Brothers and a lot of other companies are just ripping shows off the market left and right. Disney+ is ripping their own major IPs off to throw them in the vault."

Not only does this trend create a vacuum of entertainment for animation fans who would gravitate toward more projects like the Infinity Train, which was stripped off HBO Max, but according to Chiplock, it also means that the creatives who would normally get work from that kind of project now find themelves having to rely on ecah other.

"You look at stuff like Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss and The Amazing Digital Circus," the Murder Drones actor concludes, "And you realize that we're quickly entering an era where freelance[rs], where animators, where artists, where voice actors, where all these people who specialize in a gig-economy type of skillset are now collaborating more and more often. Not only just because that's how we grew up [...] but even out of necessity."

The Amazing Digital Circus is streaming on YouTube now. Hazbin Hotel seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Prime Video.