tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post669994301535723998..comments2024-01-08T08:57:17.157+00:00Comments on Rod McKie Illustrations and Cartoons: Don't Get Married to an Idea!Rod McKiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15322224888246015883noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post-10575675259916919052009-11-30T16:43:17.392+00:002009-11-30T16:43:17.392+00:00hi Rod
yes... would be great to hear from you!
I&#...hi Rod<br />yes... would be great to hear from you!<br />I've just finished another long story of 120 pages...am now in the colouring process.. <br />just looked at your briliant and funny cartoons, inspiring stuff..<br />hope to hear from you, TobiasTobiasTakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10468786074234701609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post-76683960968999879962009-11-26T15:30:11.756+00:002009-11-26T15:30:11.756+00:00Hi Tobias. Thank you. How are you these days?
I...Hi Tobias. Thank you. How are you these days?<br /><br />I've made a note of your email address and I'll drop you a note this weekend. Nice to hear from you.Rod McKiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15322224888246015883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post-38875016904142224012009-11-26T01:53:30.505+00:002009-11-26T01:53:30.505+00:00Hi Rod
I totally LOVE your twin characters.. did y...Hi Rod<br />I totally LOVE your twin characters.. did you never do a longer story than 1 page about them?<br />greetings Tobias (Tak) ( tobiastak@yahoo.co.uk)TobiasTakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10468786074234701609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post-60245754079584195502009-07-31T13:47:29.446+00:002009-07-31T13:47:29.446+00:00I love the cover with Picasso punching out Joyce, ...I love the cover with Picasso punching out Joyce, Will. I have to say you'd fancy Picasso in a square-go there, he was pretty muscular. <br /><br />Of course there is a way to solve the problem, and a friend of mine from Scandanavia recently let the cat out of the bag about it. You can talk the governments in one or two countries over there into funding a graphic novel or comic book, or at least paying a salary while you work on it. It's a bit like a countrywide Xeric scheme or the Arts Council here, if it actually worked.<br /><br />Failing that, working in small studio set-ups like the Mangaka do and like the French, Belgian and Italian cartoonists do, seems to work, allowing a bunch of cartoonists to pull in a wage from commercially successful ideas whilst creating new ones.<br /><br />If only...Rod McKiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15322224888246015883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post-60116210878446138542009-07-31T00:33:59.717+00:002009-07-31T00:33:59.717+00:00Sure Watterson may not have gone on to create Calv...Sure Watterson may not have gone on to create Calvin and Hobbes, but how do we know he wouldn't have come up with something is just as great. Conversly what if Picasso had dropped his personal vision for a more commercially sucessful paintings.<br />I completely understand whet you're saying though, and truth be told, you are more correct than I in aknowledging the real need to balance these two worlds in order to make it in the <br />art world. <br />On the other hand, I couldn't pass up stating my opinion, what with this being the internet and all.<br />I wish I had time to work in both worlds. Failing that, I guess I'll just have to tell people what the like. And they all like me.<br /><br />will<br />2nd Place ComicsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post-71465298578405382312009-07-30T11:33:47.292+00:002009-07-30T11:33:47.292+00:00Oh, I wouldn't disagree with you there Will, I...Oh, I wouldn't disagree with you there Will, I don't think we are coming from opposite points. I think you have to make a distinction though between disiplines.<br /><br />If I create mini-comics, which I do for me and I do for free (often making a loss on them), I may work on an idea or a theme over a period of years. But I'm not letting that interfere with the real business of my commercial art endevours. I do it with the same attitude as someone with any other job who somehow fits it into their schedule. Sometimes I view it as an altruistic activity, but I'm also aware it serves as a promo-piece and allows me to practise drawing and writing in a more avant-barde fashion than the mainstream also allows me.<br /><br />In seperating those areas of my life and work, I can create the cartoon work that sells, and still, albeit a little more slowly, work on projects that I love.<br /><br />The obbsession I'm trying to avoid, and remember Schulz was one of the few cartoonists to acknowledge that cartoonists need to be single-minded and obsessive, is that obsession with pushing an idea over and over again in the hope that one day everyone will realise you were right and they were all wrong. <br /><br />I can think of two cartoonists who are still doing this, in fact I can now think of three. Two of them, without changing the look of their drawings, or even the name of their 'graphic panels', have been submitting their 'idea' (the same idea) to the syndicates every year for over a decade.<br /><br />To be fair it is a typical cartoonist mindset because you do have to take on the world with your work and believe in what you do. On the other hand, I he had stuck obsessively to his first idea, regardless, Bill Watterson would never have gone on to create Calvin and Hobbes.Rod McKiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15322224888246015883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post-68230156536637299572009-07-30T04:04:44.305+00:002009-07-30T04:04:44.305+00:00"Maybe it helps to think about it in purely e..."Maybe it helps to think about it in purely economic terms, especially in this day and age, and add that given the current economic climate, when you are in the 'ideas business', and that is essentially the business cartoonists are in, you just can't afford to wed yourself to an unprofitable idea. I know that maybe goes against your artistic sensibilities, but you know, you have to make a living, and the best way for a cartoonist to make a living is to churn out as many ideas as possible."<br /><br />I don't know about this section. It seems to me that if you're making your own comics you're probably not in it for the money. That's part of the beauty of working in a marginal media field. Artistic freedom. You can sweat over rather or not people will connect with your comic so you can make enough to cover your airfare, or you can take a risk and turn out a book that means something to you. If you're going to spend all that time creating it, it damn well better mean something to you. Chasing those ever shrinking comic book dollars leads to mediocre bullshit that already clogs the racks. "Zombies (or whatever) are hot, I'm going to make a zombie (or whatever) comic," is the kind of thinking that we should avoid marrying. I'd certainly rather read about someone's oddball characters that are different and new than some funny book that was made by assaying the interests of potential audiences.<br /><br />will barnes<br />2nd Place ComicsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post-78092608001801865762009-07-29T23:16:43.626+00:002009-07-29T23:16:43.626+00:00Hey Bren,
you'll be pleased to know it wasn&#...Hey Bren,<br /><br />you'll be pleased to know it wasn't you; I had to login to comment, the page kept knocking me back.<br /><br />I think you made the right decision about shelving the animation idea for now, it will pay off in the long run because it means you still have 100% control of your idea and the direction the project will take.<br /><br />Believe it or not, I keep them in sight all the time. I got a bunch of really strong, A3-size, clear, button-over folders from Viking and I keep each project in its own folder. I go through all the ideas every so often and move those I'm not convinced with, to a drawer prior to shredding (it's like I've deleted them to the waste bin, but haven't yet decided to empty it).<br /><br />Thank you for the kind words about RITA. I was happy with the look of the character because I wanted her to be sort of iconic. Her overall shape is very close to the shape of her bunny. A couple of the later episode are quite a challenge because I lost the scripts and so I have empty word balloons and no idea what the characters' are saying. That was really the point that convinced me I couldn't go on with it.<br /><br />You must keep even the craziest of your ideas until you are utterly convinced you can't use them, or merge them in with another idea. Remember that Calvin and Hobbes were originally minor characters in that strip. In the first submission Calvin had a brother and that brother was the main character. Later on, another character from a strip that was knocked back, Spaceman Spiff, was introduced, with Calvin imagining himself as the interpid space explorer.Rod McKiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15322224888246015883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12581147.post-22784576968484419342009-07-29T17:19:25.230+00:002009-07-29T17:19:25.230+00:00That's a very interesting post Rod, and a usef...That's a very interesting post Rod, and a useful cautionary tale. I know I go off at a tanget with a crazy idea sometimes but I'd never thought about it like that.<br /><br />Last year I had an amazing, multi-million pound animation idea in an area nobody has hit on before. The only problem was that I didn't know how to animate so I spent a LOT of time last year learning to do that and working on mini (crazy)projects to get up to strength. Eventually it dawned on me that it was going to take another year to get this thing off the ground and I gave up and went back to the stuff I do well.<br /><br />What do you do with the ideas that didn't make it? Do you manage to keep them in view to give them a chance, or are they in the back of a drawer? I hope something comes of them, I really like the RITA strip, it's a gorgeous idea and beautifully drawn.<br /><br />I'm going to try to see my crazy ideas for what they are now, but that animation idea really is a good one...Bren Romanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07979019773494079028noreply@blogger.com