Broad City (2014)

“My biggest weakness is that I lose my purse a lot. But my biggest strength is that I always get it back.” — Ilana Wexler

Ink-vomiting letters, spinning breasts, exploding geometry: one never knows what to expect from the animated title sequences of Broad City. Artist Mike Perry had so many ideas ahead of his initial meeting with Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, the show's creators and stars, that one was not enough. So every episode of the Comedy Central series — returning for its third season next spring — offers the viewer a different sequence and a new glimpse into Perry’s limitless imagination.

“I wanted it to be big, bold, and weird,” Perry explains of his initial inspiration during our conversation with him. He highlights his exploration of color as a way to “vibrate the viewer.” His designs nail this goal, flashing fast and bright like a drug-fueled sprint through Times Square. The sequences, each a mere seven seconds long and set to the same percussive jingle, burst with energy as they present a new treatment of the show’s bubble-lettered logo. Though each sequence is different, their dual constants are Perry’s hand-drawn linework, loose and imperfect, and a seizuring neon palette punctuated with black and white. Before every episode this combination of form and color ignites like a perfect seven-second bomb, sweeping the viewer into Abbi and Ilana’s adventures amid the effervescent backdrop of New York City.

A discussion with Illustrator MIKE PERRY and Comedy Central Senior Designer & Animator JULIE VERARDI

Give us a little background on yourselves. Who are you?

Mike: I was born in Kansas City, Missouri, a child of the ’80s. I watched a lot of cartoons and always loved to draw. My mother got me this book Chuck Amuck and I drew every page in that book.

When I was in high school I wrote a few movie scripts. Not because I was interested in making a movie but because movies were in my vocabulary. I worked at Blockbuster Video where I was…

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