Introduction
David John Firth (born 23 January 1983) is an English animator, writer, musician, actor, voice actor, filmmaker, video artist, and broadcaster. As a cartoonist, Firth's work is largely distributed via the Internet, most notably through the popular Adobe Flash animation website Newgrounds and his own personal websites. Several of his works in Flash animation, along with multiple music videos and works of video art, have garnered large followings.
Animation
Notable animation sequences from Firth include Salad Fingers, as well as the comedic Burnt Face Man series. A number of Firth's works have been featured by the BBC in the UK, and the BBC has hired Firth on several occasions. He also created a Flash animation series called Jerry Jackson in which a cartoon character claims to be a professional animator, even though the animation is intentionally poorly crafted. The character was based on Firth's perception of Internet users who would leave hateful comments on his videos.
Firth's work often contains a large amount of dark imagery and tends to explore topics of a disturbing or surreal nature, such as depression and mental illness. Firth has stated that it is not his intention to upset or offend. Some of his work may be described as dark humour, while much of it is simply experimental, using many different styles.
One of Firth's most notable and productive projects has been Devvo. The Devvo series has been described as "a pill-munching, northern scallie that seemed kind of like a documentary.. " but "...far too harrowing and depressing for the main character to ever be real." Firth has also produced short films for "Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe", televised on BBC Four.
Firth has produced several animations for the BBC Comedywebsite, including his Musical Predictions 2009 and the Jerry Jackson series in 2009. In 2010 he created a new series for the BBC based around a character called Drillbithead.
As of 2012, Firth has been working on his first animated feature film under working title "The Meadow Man".
Firth directed the music video for the Flying Lotus song "Ready Err Not", which premiered on Adult Swim on Halloween night 2014.
Firth continues to post on a regular basis on Fat-Pie.com. On March 30, 2017, he created a Patreon page where fans can support his work.
Music
Firth composes electronic music under the pseudonym of Locust Toybox, in which to date has released eleven studio albums, most recently: "Stringland" (2014), and "Lost Pop" (2015). Firth is a fan of Aphex Twin, and has used his music in his work. Amongst other notable influences are Boards of Canada and Brian Eno. Firth has also created a videoclip for the Aphex Twin song "Milkman" from the Girl/Boy EP. Firth also releases music as Stegosaurus Trap [1], I'm The Manager, and is a part of English psychedelic pressure-pop band the Grape Digging Sharon Fruits [2].
Games
Firth has voice acted as two of the antagonists in the indie psychological horror game The Cat Lady, as well as a caller, Radio Doctor, on FlyLo FM, in the action-adventure game Grand Theft Auto V.