Aliens in Oroville

Two robot-like aliens begin to run out of fuel while passing by Earth, so they make a stop in Oroville. That’s the premise of a raunchy new adult cartoon pilot created by Phillip Wesley Smith and his local entertainment company, Outerflesh Entertainment. Smith, 30, used to own a construction company, but that changed when the recession hit and his business began to slow down. In 2008, he decided to enroll in Butte College to explore his passions of video game design and cartoons. His classes ranged from software engineering to animation and illustration. The show he created, Stumps Field, is set in Oroville and throughout Butte County because of his love for the local communities. From beginning to end, the pilot took several months to put together, but now that the characters have been designed and many of the illustrations have been created, Smith hopes to be able to produce one episode a month. The entertainment company also produces live-action sketch comedies and video games for Android devices. To watch the pilot episode, search “Outerflesh Entertainment” on YouTube. Mature audiences only.

What’s your cartoon like?

Stumps Field is a field in Oroville; a lot of the locals know about it. Basically, it’s a very large field in the middle of town, so large you can get lost in it. It’s a very cut-out-seeming, adult-themed comedy. It’s for mature audiences only, and it’s about Oroville and Butte County.

Why set it here?

I’ve spent the greater part of my life here, and I really love this place. I would like to do what I can to promote this county because I don’t think it gets the recognition it actually deserves. There are great places here in Chico and great places in Oroville. We have a lot of cool stuff, and I wanted people to see that.

How many people are a part of it?

There are six writers for Stumps Field. I do all of the animation and illustration, and I direct it. In terms of actors, we have multiple people who do voice work. The cartoon is our main focus right now, even though we have all these other things that we have going on. We also have a channel called “The Candyman Jack,” where we do live-action stuff. We do a show called Batman and Luigi, where they’re roommates and argue and bicker back and forth. We have different facets within our company but the cartoon is the newest thing.

What else does Outerflesh do?

We originated as a software company and we still do that. We make video games for Android. We have two, full 3-D video games out in the Google Play and Amazon App Store called Johnny Nightmare and Johnny Daydream. One is a side-scroller and the other is a first-person open world. Johnny Nightmare is a haunted house, nightmare type of game and Johnny Daydream is a side-scroller set on a space station.