Craig Zobel

Craig at New York University, 2005

Roger Craig Zobel is a friend of The Brothers Chaps and co-creator of Homestar Runner.

Zobel invented the characters Strong Sad and Pom Pom; he provided Marzipan's name, though Mike Chapman drew her design.^[1] He is also the eponym for Coach Z:^[2] Bill Kramer (a mutual friend of his and the Chaps) would sometimes call him "Coach Zobel".^[3]

Contributions to Homestar Runner

Matt Chapman and Craig met in a junior high school art class,^[4] and Zobel became friends with both Chapman brothers.

Original Book

"Long lost" Homestar Runner and Strong Bad designs by Zobel (1996)

Zobel and Mike co-wrote the original Homestar book, The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest, in the summer of 1996. On break from college, and with the day off from their work at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, the two were looking around the children's section of a bookstore and decided to make a kids' book of their own as a joke. The small book was completed in a day; about ten to fifteen photocopies of it were made and distributed amongst friends and relatives.^[1]

That December, he helped the Chaps make the Super NES animation as a Christmas present.^[1]

Later Contributions

When The Brothers Chaps adapted the Homestar Runner characters to Flash, Zobel assisted with several early toons. He co-wrote Pom Pom, Too and Where's The Cheat?; on Homestarloween Party, he is credited alongside the Brothers Chaps for writing, drawing, and directing (the drawings of Homestar's Kurt Cobain wig and Pom Pom's girls are specifically mentioned as his contributions in the DVD commentary).

Zobel drew the Strong Bad Screensaver illustration,^[5] the Painting of a Guy with a Big Knife,^[6] and the map of Peasantry seen in the Peasant's Quest: The Movie trailer. He additionally designed the covers for the strongbad_email.exe DVD box set as well as the Everybody Everybody Poster.^[3]

He provided the voices of Cherry Greg in Fluffy Puff Commercial and Kevin in Marzipan's Answering Machine Versions 6.0 and 17.2.^[7] A short film entitled Staple-Down Life, created by and starring Zobel and Puppet Homestar, features in the short Puppets on the Road.

The scene of Bubs attacking Strong Bad in replacement is Craig's favorite gag on the site.^[8]

Career

Craig Zobel and The Brothers Chaps have worked together on multiple film projects. Zobel was Unit Production Manager on David Gordon Green's All the Real Girls (2003), while Mike worked in the art department and Matt had a small on-camera role. He directed the feature film Great World of Sound (2006), which was produced by Missy Palmer and executive produced by the Brothers Chaps.

In addition to directing, writing, and producing several additional films, Zobel works as a television director. He was nominated for a 2021 Outstanding Directing Emmy Award for his work on the limited series Mare of Easttown.

He currently resides in New York.

References

1. ^  "Craig Zobel, Film Production", Gothamist, 4 Jun 2004
2. ^  "Homestarrunner.com Factoids & Tidbits", WonkaVision, Spring 2003
3. ^  "A Date with Homestar Runner", live appearance at New York University, 1 Mar 2005
4. ^  "Some People", Ron Planet
5. ^  @StrongBadActual tweet (2 Jun 2019)
6. ^  i love you (DVD commentary)
7. ^  Fluffy Puff Commercial (DVD commentary)
8. ^  replacement (DVD commentary)

External Links

• Craig Zobel on Twitter
• Craig Zobel on IMDb
• Sundance Channel interview
• Great World of Sound official site