Mark "Thurop" Ashton Van Orman (born April 26, 1976) is an American cartoonist, animator, writer, producer, director, and voice actor.
He worked with Cartoon Network to create and produce the animated series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack (2008–2010), in which he voices the titular character.
Van Orman worked for the video game company Xantera before going on to study character animation at the California Institute of the Arts.
Van Orman has a brother named Jonny, from whom he took inspiration to start his animation career at Cartoon Network for Flapjack.
[10] Artists who have influenced Van Orman include Joe Murray, Gary Larson, Jim Henson, Stephen Hillenburg, Craig McCracken, E. H. Shepard, Richard Scarry, Maurice Sendak, Mercer Mayer, Ronald Searle, Robert Crumb, Sergio Aragonés and the animators at Fleischer Studios.