JibJab: Making A Living At Taking Jabs

JibJab, the web-animation team that attracted attention during the election season for its hilarious nonpartisan political satire (Peter Jennings even named co-creators, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, “Persons of the Year”), has released its first DVD, JibJab: Early Years. The DVD features a selection of the team’s most popular cartoons, including the widely circulated “This Land!,” Geezers cartoons and some Nasty Santa animations.

Gregg Spiridellis, who was an investment banker before he made the move to writing and animating cartoons in 1999, said he and brother Evan were inspired to start JibJab after seeing a streaming cartoon over a 56k phone line.

“It opened both of our eyes to the possibility of starting a creative studio and being able to reach out to, literally, a worldwide audience with no one between us and them,” Spiridellis explains.

Now in its sixth year, JibJab Studios has grown immensely, with new staff and over half-a-million newsletter subscribers. Despite the growth, the guys at JibJab say they’re most concerned with their fans, who they’re inviting to submit photos for some upcoming cartoons.

“Our goal is to get the audience more and more involved in what we’re doing here,” Spiridellis says. If you get involved at jibjab.com, Spiridellis promises a fresh cartoon in late summer or early fall.

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