M. Wartella
Michael M. Wartella is an American underground cartoonist, animator, writer and director based in New York City, generally publishing under the name M. Wartella or just Wartella. He is best known for his work in The Village Voice and on Cartoon Network's MAD.
He is the founder of Brooklyn's Dream Factory Animation, a boutique studio specializing in the production of animated shorts for corporate and indie clients.
Career
Later, while a student at The University of Virginia, Wartella created the absurdist art comic Ackxhpæz which he then expanded and nationally self-syndicated to alternative weekly newspapers from 1998 to 2000. The humor in many of the cartoons was controversial as exemplified in a 1999 comic about the Columbine High School massacre which prompted an outcry when it was published in Denver.
From 2007 to 2009, Wartella's intricate single-panel "reportorial" cartoons began appearing regularly in The Village Voice, where he is still listed as an honorary contributor.
Wartella's sequential comics have appeared in Eisner and Harvey Award nominated anthologies from DC Comics and Fantagraphics Books and in magazines including Andy Warhol's Interview and Spin. His illustrations have primarily appeared in "underground" publications including Arthur, Pop Smear, and he was the creator of the infamously rare scratch-off cover of Vice Magazine.
Wartella has also contributed several titles and paintings to the "all-new" series of Wacky Packages trading cards from Topps, and created similar product parody spoofs for Nickelodeon Magazine in the 2000s.
Wartella also did new artwork that appears on the cover of the re-launched MAD Magazine #6 featuring miniature Alfred E. Neumans in an M.C. Escher style cubist background.
Animation
Wartella is a noted animator and director. Considered a pioneer of online animation, Wartella was among the earliest to use the animated .gif format to create story-driven independent animation. In 1998, The [New York Times] described his early animated web short The Dinky Dog Archive as "the Steamboat Willie of the internet".
In the 2000s, Wartella was an artistic contributor to several animated television shows including MTV2's cult hit Wonder Showzen, and Adult Swim's series Superjail! and Xavier: Renegade Angel.
In 2013, Wartella opened his own full-service production studio, Dream Factory Animation, in Brooklyn NY which has conceived, developed and produced animated programming for clients including Condé Nast, Radical Media, The Creative Agency and Warner Bros.
From 2010 to 2013, he created nearly 300 hand-drawn animated shorts for Cartoon Network's MAD, where his work was featured in every episode during four seasons.
Music videos
As of 2022, Wartella has directed several music videos combining live action and animation for musical acts including Ozzy Osbourne, King Tuff and The White Stripes. Wartella's music videos have received accolades from Blender magazine and Stereogum.| Title | Year | Artist | Label | Role |
| "Sun Medallion" | 2013 | King Tuff | Burger Records | Director |
| "Waterfall" | 2014 | Ex Hex | Merge Records | Director |
| "Physical Emotions" | 2014 | Black Bananas | Drag City | Director |
| "Madness" | 2015 | King Tuff | Sub Pop | Director |
| "Rainbow Shiner" | 2019 | Ex Hex | Merge Records | Director |
| "Richest Man" | 2020 | Brendan Benson | Third Man Records | Director |
| "Apple Blossom" | 2020 | The White Stripes | Sony Legacy | Director |
| "Let's Shake Hands" | 2020 | The White Stripes | Sony Legacy | Director |
| "Patient Number 9" | 2022 | Ozzy Osbourne | Epic Records | Director |
| "Black Math" | 2023 | The White Stripes | Sony Legacy | Director |