Avatar: The Last Airbender isn't easy to describe. Its co-creator calls it "an epic, Asian, martial-arts fantasy/action/adventure/ comedy/drama series about the four elements." All images courtesy of Nickelodeon.

Ever since it premiered in February 2005, Avatar: The Last Airbender has been a ratings phenomenon for Nickelodeon. The story of Aang, a young boy with the power to bend the elements who is called upon to bring order to his war-torn world, Avatar is the brainchild of seasoned animators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. When asked how he would describe the show to someone who's never seen it before, Konietzko called it "an epic, Asian, martial-arts fantasy/action/adventure/comedy/drama series about the four elements. It isn't easy to fit it all into one sentence!"

DiMartino and Konietzko started their careers working on prime-time animated series like Family Guy, King of the Hill, and Mission Hill, but it wasn't hard for them to make the adjustment to a show aimed at younger viewers. "For us, adjusting to the younger audience wasn't the big difference," Konietzko said. "The welcome change was being able to create and work on a show that was always sincere, and had a lot of heart.

"It was fun to work on sitcoms, but, after a while, the self-awareness and satirical attitudes didn't seem like a good fit for our personal sensibilities. Sitcom episodes are often a parody or a play on another show, movie or genre. Mike and I wanted to make something that was native to a genre, not standing outside of it looking in."

Creators Brian Konietzko (left) and Mike DiMartino (right) were inspired by Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, as well as Cowboy Bebop and FLCL.

DiMartino and Konietzko went to college together at the Rhode Island School of Design, where Konietzko helped DiMartino animate his senior film. "We enjoyed working together, so when I made it out to Los Angeles a few years later and Mike was already a director on Family Guy, he helped me get my foot in the door. I think we make a good team, because, while we are totally different from each other, we somehow share a lot of the same sensibilities."

After Family Guy ended its initial run, the team worked on two more series, after which DiMartino took some time to make the independent short animated film Atomic Love, and Konietzko went to work as a storyboard artist and art director on Invader Zim for Nickelodeon. But, after a couple of years, the two decided to become a team again. "By this time," Konietzko notes, "I had formed a good working relationship with Eric Coleman at Nickelodeon, and luckily he gave us an open door to come in and pitch."

They created Avatar's main characters' basic looks fairly quickly, during the two weeks between coming up with the idea and pitching the show. "I remember sketching Sokka and Katara on the back of a sheet of paper a mere hour before the pitch meeting!" recalls Konietzko. "Of course, their designs have evolved since then, but you would recognize them from those first drawings."

Avatar's main characters' basic looks came about fairly quickly, during the two weeks between coming up with the idea and pitching the show. The designs have evolved since then, but are still recognizable from those first drawings.

When they were coming up with the world and story of Avatar, DiMartino and Konietzko had a number of touchstones and influences, but one in particular stands out. "We've said this a lot of times, but it is still true that [Hayao] Miyazaki's work really inspired and continues to inspire us," Konietzko said. "Back in the late '90s I was getting pretty disillusioned with working on sitcoms -- then I saw Princess Mononoke and I was emboldened. My heart was so much closer to that kind of story, those kinds of characters and that type of tone. After that, Cowboy Bebop really inspired us in terms of being a great example of an epic series that had a wide breadth of tones. Then FLCL came along and rewrote the rules for everything, as far as I'm concerned!"