The Seabeaver is a Flash animated internet cartoon series about pirates. The cartoons often feature college-type humor with risqué jokes as the driving force behind each episode. With little historical accuracy, the episodes interact with both present day and past government, social and cultural predicaments. They often parody pirate scenes from movies and books. Cartoons are typically centered on Red Beard (captain of the pirate ship The Seabeaver), as well as other crew members in their never-ending quest for “rum, booty, and nachos”.
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The Seabeaver first set sail in early February 2002 as a web site for the sole purpose of entertaining close friends. Having recently graduated from California State University, Monterey Bay, Red Beard and El Murcielago (Murc) moved into an apartment together near Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey, CA. The two friends would often find themselves hanging around Fisherman’s Wharf, where they would drink like sailors and watch the boats in the bay. On one particularly drunk occasion, they discussed how fun it would be to become pirates and to take one of the docked sail boats nearby–in hopes of floating away without having to ever worry about work, sobriety, and ex-girlfriends again. This idea struck a chord with them so much that they decided to go back home and develop a web site featuring them as pirates.
The fictitious pirate ship they would crew was named The Seabeaver. Various meanings of the word were debated, but ultimately the two decided it was best to leave the significance of the ship’s namesake an unknown mystery. (Later The Seabeaver would become the official name of the site.)
The site was originally a collection of short stories, jokes, cooking recipes, sound recordings, and other miscellaneous works pertaining to piracy. As the head writer, Red Beard was given the role as captain . Murc was the web page designer and became First Mate. Other friends quickly became crew members of the ship and were frequently asked to contribute stories, writings, and ideas. A standard practice was to have Murc take old pictures of friends and Photoshop them into pirate scenes for the web site.
In June of 2003 Murc was offered a good job with an environmental agency in Sacramento, CA and decided to take it. Red Beard had recently learned that the publishing company he worked at in Pacific Grove was relocating, so he decided to quit and move out to Sacramento as well. The two remained roommates and continued to work on the web site as a hobby. During those first few months they decided to experiment with Flash animation. Having absolutely no training in cartooning or Flash, Murc slowly taught himself everything he needed to know. The very first Seabeaver cartoon was “Pirates of the Mediterranean”.
Today The Seabeaver remains a hobby, as both Red Beard and Murc have full-time jobs. Friends still contribute with vocals, art design, and music. The web site is a group project that intends to continue making cartoons and building a bigger fan base.
