The Cuphead Show! — Adam Paloian

From “Ghosts Ain’t Real”: a huge glowing ghost looms over Cuphead and Mugman, hugging in terror

Netflix Animation · 2019–2022

Adam storyboarded and directed the pilot that got the hit 1930s-style video game greenlit as a Netflix series. As supervising director he helped shape the show, and directed the Christmas special that won him the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for an Animated Program. He also wrote the series’ 1,100-page character bible.

Role: Supervising director, writer
Pilot: “Carn-Evil,” storyboarded and directed; got the series greenlit
Directed: “A Very Devil Christmas,” “Dead Broke,” “Release the Demons!,” “Ghosts Ain’t Real,” “Carn-Evil”
Layouts: Character layouts across many episodes
Awards: Children’s & Family Emmy, Outstanding Directing for an Animated Program, “A Very Devil Christmas” · Annecy 2022 selection, “Ghosts Ain’t Real”

Process

Directing a series, from development through production

Adam was involved in almost every part of making the show, from the first story pitch to the notes that went overseas with each episode.

Story room. Breaking stories and gags with the writers.
Directing. Episodes from storyboard to final picture.
Team building. Hiring and leading the board and design crew.
Character design. Designs and model sheets for new characters.
Notes for overseas. Animation notes and drawovers for the overseas studio.
Animatics. Editing animatics to lock timing.
Leadership. Working with the art director and showrunners Dave Wasson and Cosmo Segurson.

Background: doodles from Adam’s desk during production.

On screen

The Devil, coiled like a serpent, grins down at a startled purple Devil

Cuphead and Mugman, green-faced, lean over a barrel at the carnival

The Devil drawn in glowing orange and green outlines on black

The Devil poses, hands on hips, in a pink cavern

The pilot

“Carn-Evil” storyboards

Adam storyboarded and directed the pilot episode, the one that got the series greenlit at Netflix.

Wide panel: Cuphead leans back on the table with a lollipop while Mugman stares at his empty plate

Cuphead and Mugman march down a path between big shaded trees

Cuphead grins and elbows a worried Mugman

The brothers scream with joy riding roller coaster car 23

A queasy pig at a carnival stand, mustard and ketchup on his face, holding a sausage

The pig stifles a burp as the fairground spins behind him

A gloomy mushroom with a clown balloon and other sad fairgoers as souls float away

The Devil stretches with a huge grin at the fairground

See all 30 boards

The Devil glowers inside a column of yellow and red flame

Mugman frowns at a lit cannon while Cuphead leans on it beside a paint can

A weary candlestick telephone slumps beside a steaming cannon at the fair

The Devil, roughed in red, strolls through his cavern, hands on hips

The Devil lunges, trident in one hand and top hat in the other

The Devil tips his top hat mid-strut, trident under his arm

The Devil lounges on his throne beneath portraits and busts of himself

The Devil leans over a table, grinning and drumming his claws

Three imps stoke a riveted furnace with coal

The Devil, as a serpent, hisses at his henchman

The serpent Devil grins as the henchman grins back

Through a lens: a crying piece of toast and a smug Devil by a fence

The Devil glows in red and yellow outlines on black, with a lighting cross-dissolve note

The Devil cackles, his huge shadow thrown on the cave wall

The Devil strikes a pose with top hat and cane against a red glow

The Devil bellows down at his crying henchman

A grinning clown-face funhouse entrance at the carnival

The same entrance transformed into a fanged House of Horror

Early character designs

Fairgoers Adam designed for the pilot, drawn in the spirit of 1930s cartoons.

A floppy-eared dog in a sweater and a whiskered cat

A mushroom and a candlestick telephone, both with gloved hands

A saxophone in a straw boater and a round elephant in overalls

A tulip with a leafy collar and a grinning bumblebee

Annecy 2022 · Official selection

“Ghosts Ain’t Real”

Cuphead and Mugman scream as a crowd of glowing ghosts rises behind them

Cuphead and Mugman hold a match in a ring of grinning skeletons

Character designs

“Dead Broke”

The ghost vulture, from first roughs to final color.

“Release the Demons!”

Demon designs: explorations and the final fire-breathing puffball.

Sheet of demon designs: a lanky beaked creature, a winged eyeball, a hunched owl-monster, a hulking brute

Puffball demon explorations, ending in a final color design breathing blue fire

Layouts

Character layouts by Adam from across the series, in the red-and-blue line used to pass poses to animation.

Cuphead and Mugman hugging, the Devil grinning, and a henchman cowering

Elder Kettle grinning, and a chained prisoner and Mugman hanging from shackles

Nine-step layout of a figure melting into a puddle under a boulder

The Devil snarling and fretting, with a horned guard

King Dice with an axe, a key to Inkwell Isles, a pipe wrench, and covered in slime

A kettle tailor, a goat on a book, a ringmaster and Cuphead with a cleaver

See all 16 layouts

The Devil, his henchman and King Dice, expression layouts

Ten expression layouts of the Devil’s winged henchman

The Devil in a Santa suit with a trident, and his henchman

Santa Devil scolding, scheming and leaning, with the henchman

Santa Devil and the henchman, crouching and horrified

The Devil dancing with Ms. Chalice across a full sheet of poses

The Devil clawing, and Ms. Chalice cracking and turning to a skeleton

King Dice, Ms. Chalice, a startled Devil, and the Devil in a top hat

Santa Devil in tinted turnaround poses with the henchman

Santa Devil with an elf and a scroll, drinking, and gasping

1,100+ pages

The character bible

Adam wrote and drew “Character Do’s and Don’ts,” the guide overseas studio Lighthouse used to keep every character on model for the whole series: construction, proportions, mouths, expressions, and drawovers on real shots.