Hi, things are going well, so I'm going to start dipping my toes into the blogging-pond again - on a weekly basis at first.
Before I became ill I was working on some posts that focused on all the things that were going wrong in the world of cartooning; and all the new possibilities that were opening up thanks to new technology. I think we'll give those posts a swerve and focus only on the new openings.
I was also working on some new manga pieces, and I think those will be a good place to start. Some manga fans have spoken of a feeling of gloom because the major manga titles have stopped, that is to say, they have finished their runs in the West - in truth a lot of them finished their run in Japan years ago. It will be nice to put Monster, and Death Note, and the like behind us and look at some of the newer titles, and some of the odder ones out there. I'm looking forward to it.
Be seeing you.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
20th Century Boys Movie Rocks and the Sunday Times is Clueless.
Let me explain, the Sunday Times has, in the last two weeks, published two tiny reviews of 20th Century Boys and both reviews rubbished the movie; proving only that the Sunday Times critics' Damascene conversion to fans of graphic novels, manga, and all things cartoon is just a further example of grandad trying to dance.
To be fair, the Sunday Times is a serial offender with its reviewers declaring themselves fans of "graphic novels" because they watched Persepolis, and creating lists of "must have" graphic novels with no mention of Shaun Tan's Arrival, in the year that it swept all before it. In fact, this week's Sunday Times Culture section must have proved deeply embarrassing to the paper's TV reviewer A.A. Gill, because it featured Tina Fey on the cover and a large article on Fey and her brilliantly funny creation, 30 Rock. It's embarrassing for Gill because he rubbished 30 Rock and heaped praise on the much inferior Mathew Perry vehicle, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; which had actually already been cancelled when Gill lauded its superiority.
So anyway, I digress, back to comics, sort of, the first Times review of 20th Century Boys was by far the funniest of the two reviews because apparently the reviewer was bewildered by the flashbacks in the movie - honestly, the thing opens at a future date with a man jailed for drawing a cartoon; the movie pleasingly ends back in that time in that cell. The flashbacks back briefly to the release of T.Rex's 20th Century Boy, and then back to the major kernel of the story, Kenji's childhood, are not just not bewildering, but pretty darned straight forward and expertly handled. As for the reviewer's belief that the acting in this adaptation of Urasawa's hugely popular award-winning manga is sometimes "over the top" well that must have floored fans of Japanese cinema. Honestly, where do they get these people?
Okay, for the benefit of people like Cosmo Landsman, the chaps in the poster up top, were once the children in the picture above, and the story actually begins here, and using kinematographic effects, we are miraculously transported back to that time as an illustration of the central character's memory - this is actually a fairly common technique.
The "bewildering" jump forward at the opening of the movie, where a cartoonist has been imprisoned for drawing an innapropriate cartoon, clearly drawing parallels with contemporary matters and hinting at an authoritarian regime, is pleasing cleared up when the movie ends, sometime in the future, in that same prison. So that's so not "bewildering" is it, unless you didn't actually watch the entire movie?
This page, from the manga the movie was based on, and the subsequent pages below, show how the story moves backwards and forwards in time as the plot is revealed over several volumes, and in the case of the movies, over the trilogy.>
In my opinion, Urasawa's legion of fans will love this movie, and like me they will be astonished at how like the illustrations a lot of the characters are, and how faithful most of the story and sets are to the original story which ran in Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine. I can't recommend it highly enough. But I don't think you need to be familiar with the manga to enjoy the movie, as long as you are not as easily bewildered as the Sunday Times reviewer that is, and as long as you like Japanese movies, comic books, sci-fi, mysteries and a rollicking good adventure. I'm pretty sure also, that the non-linear nature of the plot will not cause nearly as much confusion as it apparently did for the critic concerned.
Not that the movie would struggle if the easily bewildered stayed away, and the only people who placed their bums on the seats where those who bought the 20 million copies of the 20th Century Boys manga that have been sold in Japan, and the many people in the West who have read the scanlations, and have gone on to pick up the newly translated manga. Urasawa's fans alone will surely bring the movie, and the subsequent DVDs, a level of financial success few movies attain these days.
Not that the movie would struggle if the easily bewildered stayed away, and the only people who placed their bums on the seats where those who bought the 20 million copies of the 20th Century Boys manga that have been sold in Japan, and the many people in the West who have read the scanlations, and have gone on to pick up the newly translated manga. Urasawa's fans alone will surely bring the movie, and the subsequent DVDs, a level of financial success few movies attain these days.
I can hardly contain my excitement, the trailer for 20th Century Boys 2 is out, and it's tacked on to the end of the trailer for 20th Century Boys, below. Unlike the Sunday Times reviewers, I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the trilogy - bring it on.
20th Century Boys (part 1 of 3)
Certificate 15
Cast
Cast
Toshiaki Karasawa
Etsushi Toyokawa
Takako Tokiwa
Directors
Directors
Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Screenwriters
Screenwriters
Yasushi Fukuda
Takashi Nagasaki
Naoki Urasawa
Yûsuke Watanabe
Thursday, February 19, 2009
A Comic Strip Culture
Let me first apologise for two things, I kept promising to do a blog-piece on these strips long ago, and now that I finally get well again and get round to it, newspapers in the US are dropping strips and some are even dropping comics pages, and secondly, I'm sorry about the scans, but I really wanted to capture something of the scale of the broadsheet-sized comic sections so they lose bits of strips - what can you do?
On the other hand, it looks like a good time to finally get it up here because one of my fellow British cartoonists, the talented Alexander Mathews, has a strip called King Monkey that he is hoping to place with a syndicate in the US, soon, and I'm also sending a strip, that I'm very excited about, to the US in a week or two. Now, even at the best of times the comic strip business is very difficult to break into, never mind during these challenging times, but I think that both Alex and I should at least give it go. The usual cartoonist maxim should apply, "if you don't send it in, it's already rejected".
I'm a huge fan of US strips, and by that I mean strips that the US syndicates distribute because some of my favourite strips are produced in Canada, but there are a good few cartoonists out there who can't say a good word about them. I have to say I think that on the whole, the syndicated strips are underestimated, especially in the US, where people seem to take the things for granted. They should try living here in the UK, in Edinburgh, for instance, a city of 500,000 people, where the local paper, the Edinburgh Evening News, carries two comic strips, Hagar and Garfield, and it shrinks them to about 3/4" x 5" and it really doesn't care how squished and squashed those two strips look. They are an afterthought.
Despite coming from this comic-strip-challenged culture, young Alex and I are willing to take our chances in the spiritual home of comic strips, the US, where a tiny handful of British cartoonists already have their strips syndicated. One of those pioneers is Roger Kettle, one half of Beau Peep and the writer of Andy Capp, who, like me, is amazed that the fantastic collections of strips that the US readers enjoy is regarded by them as too few, or too small, or unvaried. Oh, to be sure, I understand where some of the older strip fans are coming from because I once had a collection of vintage Sunday Funnies that were as big as an old British Topper comic, and as thick as a phone book, but come on, these things are a joy, rich and varied and colourful and a testament to an art-loving culture.
There is a serious point to this, of course, the US is, I think, as is clear from the samples of the newspapers below, much more comic, or comic strip, literate than the UK. The papers I've posted below, from 2004 and 2005, supplied by Mike Lynch, Dan Collins and Jay Nocera, show the sort of daily and weekly diet of comic strips that US beginning cartoonists, and would-be comic strippers, grow up with. Picture it, as the beginning cartoonists in the US are practising their craft the sheer variety of the visual language of the comics, the beat of the language, the form of the jokes, the cleverness of the language, is all there to be soaked up even before they first pick up a pen and dip it in the ink. And what is crystal clear to me, looking at the comic pages below, from the Boston Sunday Globe, the Hartford Courant, the Columbus Dispatch and the New York Daily News, is not just that comic strips are taken much, much, more seriously in the US than they are over here, that's a given, but also that there is a very real respect for the cartoonists and the reader, and a clear attempt to run comic strips that will appeal to a very wide audience.
The following full colour comic sections are about the same size as a Sunday Times broadsheet and as thick, if not thicker, than a British kids comic, with a wide range of strips covering everything from Dilbert to Prince Valiant.
On the other hand, it looks like a good time to finally get it up here because one of my fellow British cartoonists, the talented Alexander Mathews, has a strip called King Monkey that he is hoping to place with a syndicate in the US, soon, and I'm also sending a strip, that I'm very excited about, to the US in a week or two. Now, even at the best of times the comic strip business is very difficult to break into, never mind during these challenging times, but I think that both Alex and I should at least give it go. The usual cartoonist maxim should apply, "if you don't send it in, it's already rejected".
I'm a huge fan of US strips, and by that I mean strips that the US syndicates distribute because some of my favourite strips are produced in Canada, but there are a good few cartoonists out there who can't say a good word about them. I have to say I think that on the whole, the syndicated strips are underestimated, especially in the US, where people seem to take the things for granted. They should try living here in the UK, in Edinburgh, for instance, a city of 500,000 people, where the local paper, the Edinburgh Evening News, carries two comic strips, Hagar and Garfield, and it shrinks them to about 3/4" x 5" and it really doesn't care how squished and squashed those two strips look. They are an afterthought.
Despite coming from this comic-strip-challenged culture, young Alex and I are willing to take our chances in the spiritual home of comic strips, the US, where a tiny handful of British cartoonists already have their strips syndicated. One of those pioneers is Roger Kettle, one half of Beau Peep and the writer of Andy Capp, who, like me, is amazed that the fantastic collections of strips that the US readers enjoy is regarded by them as too few, or too small, or unvaried. Oh, to be sure, I understand where some of the older strip fans are coming from because I once had a collection of vintage Sunday Funnies that were as big as an old British Topper comic, and as thick as a phone book, but come on, these things are a joy, rich and varied and colourful and a testament to an art-loving culture.
There is a serious point to this, of course, the US is, I think, as is clear from the samples of the newspapers below, much more comic, or comic strip, literate than the UK. The papers I've posted below, from 2004 and 2005, supplied by Mike Lynch, Dan Collins and Jay Nocera, show the sort of daily and weekly diet of comic strips that US beginning cartoonists, and would-be comic strippers, grow up with. Picture it, as the beginning cartoonists in the US are practising their craft the sheer variety of the visual language of the comics, the beat of the language, the form of the jokes, the cleverness of the language, is all there to be soaked up even before they first pick up a pen and dip it in the ink. And what is crystal clear to me, looking at the comic pages below, from the Boston Sunday Globe, the Hartford Courant, the Columbus Dispatch and the New York Daily News, is not just that comic strips are taken much, much, more seriously in the US than they are over here, that's a given, but also that there is a very real respect for the cartoonists and the reader, and a clear attempt to run comic strips that will appeal to a very wide audience.
The following full colour comic sections are about the same size as a Sunday Times broadsheet and as thick, if not thicker, than a British kids comic, with a wide range of strips covering everything from Dilbert to Prince Valiant.
I once asked, on Darrin Bell's old Toontalk forum, why American cartoonists often thought they were not real bona-fide cartoonists unless they had a syndicated strip out there, especially since lauded cartoonists like Chris Ware and Jaime Hernandez and Daniel Clowes were clearly world-renowned cartoonists without working in that oeuvre. Of course it was a rhetorical question, the answer for me was that comic strips are part of the American psyche.
Copyright of the comics pages above rest with their respective publishers, and the various cartoonists and agencies.
So, should we pity poor Alex and poor Rod as they send their creations of to be measured and judged? Well, no, not really, you see the work is done and the syndicates are the top market for main stream comic strips, they are the Super Bowl, the F.A Cup final, the Olympics, they are the ultimate test for a comic strip. How on earth could we resist sending the work to them? It may seem like a cliche, but it is the turning up and taking part that counts and you never know, one of us or both of us might just sneak one by them. Wouldn't that be something?
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Once More into the Breach...as it were.
Or at any rate, "once more (slowly) into the breach", as it were. Please bear with me, I'll get up to speed eventually.
This struck me as a good idea for a blogging because it cemented my relationship with a few texts that some misguided people still frown upon, in toffee-nosed literary circles. Not so very long ago, I was feeling really, really, sorry for myself; around my eighth or ninth day on water (not even the bread and water diet of Edmond Dantes) and I really got a great deal of joy from reading a bunch of stuff that I really had no right to expect more joy from, given that I have read and reread the stuff from cover to cover over and over again.
Perhaps it could be best described as comfort-reading, or maybe more precisely as renewing an old friendship - whatever, around the 30th day of my water-fest I had read my Love and Rockets and my American Splendors and my copy of Ghost World so often that I might be forgiven for throwing them away but honestly, I'm looking forward to reading them all again; although I could do without the being ill part.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I could have spent my time reading Brecht, the Norton Anthologies, Shakespeare, Joyce, or even P.G Wodehouse, all of which is right up my street (I'm a pretty pretentious guy), but I found my comfort in literature that pleased both my eyes (especially while the text was blurry) and my brain, and found, even reading these things for the umpteenth time, just as rewarding as the day they were delivered to me. Here's a complete list of my well-beloved titles:
Ghost World, by Daniel Clowes
20th Century Eightball by Daniel Clowes
American Splendor by Harvey Pekar
These were the titles that I kept returning to, despite having a wide range of possibilities, so to me they gifts that keep on giving. I just found that when I couldn't even be bothered watching a DVD and the text of any number of novels looked more like marching ants than recognisable words I got a lot of comfort from holding, carrying, looking at and reading these books - even the colourful covers cheered me up. These, mainly Fantagraphics titles, were real Chicken soup for the soul to me.
This struck me as a good idea for a blogging because it cemented my relationship with a few texts that some misguided people still frown upon, in toffee-nosed literary circles. Not so very long ago, I was feeling really, really, sorry for myself; around my eighth or ninth day on water (not even the bread and water diet of Edmond Dantes) and I really got a great deal of joy from reading a bunch of stuff that I really had no right to expect more joy from, given that I have read and reread the stuff from cover to cover over and over again.
Perhaps it could be best described as comfort-reading, or maybe more precisely as renewing an old friendship - whatever, around the 30th day of my water-fest I had read my Love and Rockets and my American Splendors and my copy of Ghost World so often that I might be forgiven for throwing them away but honestly, I'm looking forward to reading them all again; although I could do without the being ill part.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I could have spent my time reading Brecht, the Norton Anthologies, Shakespeare, Joyce, or even P.G Wodehouse, all of which is right up my street (I'm a pretty pretentious guy), but I found my comfort in literature that pleased both my eyes (especially while the text was blurry) and my brain, and found, even reading these things for the umpteenth time, just as rewarding as the day they were delivered to me. Here's a complete list of my well-beloved titles:
Love and Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez
These were the titles that I kept returning to, despite having a wide range of possibilities, so to me they gifts that keep on giving. I just found that when I couldn't even be bothered watching a DVD and the text of any number of novels looked more like marching ants than recognisable words I got a lot of comfort from holding, carrying, looking at and reading these books - even the colourful covers cheered me up. These, mainly Fantagraphics titles, were real Chicken soup for the soul to me.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Hey Everyone, thanks.
Hey everyone, thanks for the many good wishes and the gifts and cards; they made a real difference and lifted my mood, which was very dark for the longest time.
I only have one or two more tests to go and so far everything is progressing nicely. My concentration isn't great and my eyesight will need rechecked for new reality goggles, but that's no big deal.
I've hated not being able to work, but what can you do? Not that there is a lot of work out there, there is certainly a lot less than there was last year, already, in the world of gag and strip cartoons. Hopefully, we can put our heads together and figure out some new angles, after all; who's like us?
I'll write to you all individually over the next few weeks.
I only have one or two more tests to go and so far everything is progressing nicely. My concentration isn't great and my eyesight will need rechecked for new reality goggles, but that's no big deal.
I've hated not being able to work, but what can you do? Not that there is a lot of work out there, there is certainly a lot less than there was last year, already, in the world of gag and strip cartoons. Hopefully, we can put our heads together and figure out some new angles, after all; who's like us?
I'll write to you all individually over the next few weeks.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Hope to be Back Soon
Rod is ill at the moment. He has been quite unwell since 1st January. The doctor has been in and out and is carrying out tests. We will hopefully know what is wrong with him within the next few weeks.
He sends his love and best wishes to you all for 2009 and apologizes for not being around much. He hopes to be back to work soon as possible.
Best Wishes,
Liz (Mrs Rod).
He sends his love and best wishes to you all for 2009 and apologizes for not being around much. He hopes to be back to work soon as possible.
Best Wishes,
Liz (Mrs Rod).
Thursday, December 18, 2008
End of the Year Awards.
I have a post or two to finish for the FPI blog, but I'm hoping to make this the last blog post here, on Rod McKie Illustrations and Cartoons, this year. I'm following the lead of our political masters and vanishing on my "staycation" until January the 12th. So, do whatever it is you all like to do over this period and enjoy yourselves. Next year is going to take some tackling, so refuel those batteries.
As I was just discussing the CAT awards with Jonathan I'll start with them.
Jonathan mentioned that anyone can nominate the people they think should win. That is a good point, I think, and looking at the way a bunch of cartoonists lobbied the Sun not to drop its gag cartoons, and stopped the illegal sale of cartoon art by auction in Edinburgh not so long back, I think cartoonists can argue for change and I think Jonathan is right, it is important to bring this point to your attention.
However, I'm not not sure about the Young Cartoonist award because I'm not sure how relevant it is, especially if we are honest about the future of a "young cartoonist", and especially today. Being able to draw one good, funny, cartoon, will not lead to a career in cartooning. If we are to be honest, and that is one of the things I am desperately hoping will come from this discussion, there are hardly any full-time professional cartoonists left in the UK, unless you include the cartoonists who work in book publishing and comic book production, and the CAT awards don't.
Let me just make clear the points I made to Jonathan. As a cartoonist, and one who practises capturing likenesses (not very well) I know very well that caricaturing is a skill.
As a gag cartoonist I sometimes feel life just isn't funny enough for more gag cartoons, and only the editorial cartoonists, or political cartoonists like Nick Newman, should be using the space.
But, if I make those points when I'm trying to convince everyone that British cartooning needs to become more inclusive to survive, and that the narrow focus by the London-based cartoonists on their own little universe is going to see that universe collapse, I won't make my point.
If the Cartoon Arts Trust awards, in the form they are in, is all we are ever going to have in the UK, then obviously one has to be thankful for small mercies, on the other hand, why not try to increase their scope?
My example of Kieran Meehan for comic strip artist is not because I think he is a better cartoonist than Charles (Peattie), in fact I personally prefer Peattie's drawings. But it's an example that I think is valid. Kieran Meehan has achieved, by getting his strip syndicated by Kings Features, where it has survived a name change, something that many British cartoonists over the decades have dreamed of doing. For that reason alone I think he deserves respect. I could just as easily have suggested the Rogers for Andy Capp, which continues to attract new fans in the US.I'd even put forward Roger Kettle for a lifetime achievement award for his writing on Beau Peep, Andy Capp and A Man called Horace, but these awards are, as far as I can make out, avoiding the slightest reference to modern culture.
Anyone who has read this blog will know that this narrow view of cartooning is one I have tried to counter for decades. If you read Moore and Reppion's Albion Comic, you'll know a bit of the story of IPC's burning of the comic art, and if you read this blog in any depth you'll know the whole story; back in the day before the University of Kent opened its doors to a wider range of cartoon art I tried, with the help of Liz Ottaway, to get them to save IPC's decades of comic artwork that was earmarked for incineration. At the time, only "editorial" (yes, now you're getting it) cartoons were accepted into Kent's collection and Liz Ottaway couldn't even talk the place into using a broom closet to house the comic pages - not even those by Stan McMurtry (Grimley Fiendish after Baxendale) and Steve Bell (Gremlins). It worries and disappoints me, in equal measure, that today, in 2008, we have a cartoon awards ceremony that seems to take a similarly narrow view of what is a worthy cartoon.
Anyway, it's out there, and if even one more cartoonist is talking about it and thinking about it, then that's a good thing. AS Tom Spurgeon (a belated Many happy returns Tom; welcome, officially, to middle-age) pointed out on his blog though, it was more a post focusing on British cartooning, and my own awards ceremony is the same:
Great Cartooning Acheivement: Hands down it's a tie between The Beano and Gary Northfield for Derek The Sheep, the first creator owned strip to ever appear in that publication.
Best Comic: Laura Howell's Johnny Bean (The Beano again). The winner of the Best Comic Strip at the 2006 International Manga and Anime Festival, and the first regular female Beano cartoonist, and the cartoonist behind Toxic Comic's Robin Hoodie and DFC's The Mighty M, wins hands down.
Best Cartoonist: I dislike giving this to Wilbur Dawbarn, but there is no escaping it, Wilbur is the cartoonist of the year. I pretend that the flies he draws on his character's trousers in his Private Eye cartoons look like erect penises, but he shrugs it off. I tried to sow the seeds of doubt in his mind, but he keeps on regardless.
Best Graphic Novel: Oliver East's Trains are Mint. Yes, they are.
Best Mini-Comic, or self-published book: I'm giving this to Gerard Whyman for his collection of his cartoons, Oddly Distracted, for two reasons, one is that you don't see enough cartoon collections these days, and the other reason is I think this is a great example of how gag cartoonists can take control of their own destiny. Also, this book is great value and Ger is funny.
Best Comic Artist: Jamie McKelvie for Phonogram: The Singles Club.
Best Graphic Story: Tom Gauld for all manner of things, including his work in Kramer's Ergot #7.
Best Web Comic: This is a tie between John Allison's Scary Go Round, a perfect example of a well-round digital universe and Darryl Cunnigham's Super Sam, presented as a series of, currently, 64 colourful and exotic pages.
Best Illustrator: Danny Allison, who this year won the Flair Illustrator of the Month award for his Nature Magazine cover of April 2008, melting Greenland.
Best Editorial Cartoon: I think Alex Hughes making a haulage truck recognisably the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is a fantastic example of cartoon art used to make a political point, without being boring to look at. The drawing works as a political cartoon and could even be transformed into a comic or a kiddies book character. It just works as a brilliant artistic idea.
Best Caricaturist: This is better than "best caricature" which sounds like a one-off. I'm tempted to give a double award to Alex Hughes for the Gordon Brown haulage truck, and I was also tempted to suggest the Al Hirschfield-inspired Gary who has shown a lot of flair recently, I think, but instead I'm going to give this award to the rather excitable Jonathan Cusik for his illustration of John Prescott's TV show on the Class system, which encapsulates almost every aspect of the series in one drawing, and for generally being in the same league, almost, as MAD Magazine's Tom Richmond.
Lifetime Achievement Award: I'm happy with Raymond Briggs. He is fantastic, and I still have my Fungus book, and my Fungus stationary set.
Best Cartoon-related Blog: Lew Stringer's Blimey it's another Blog about Comics. A great blog, hours of fun.
Best Pocket Cartoon: Fuck Off!
As I was just discussing the CAT awards with Jonathan I'll start with them.
Jonathan mentioned that anyone can nominate the people they think should win. That is a good point, I think, and looking at the way a bunch of cartoonists lobbied the Sun not to drop its gag cartoons, and stopped the illegal sale of cartoon art by auction in Edinburgh not so long back, I think cartoonists can argue for change and I think Jonathan is right, it is important to bring this point to your attention.
However, I'm not not sure about the Young Cartoonist award because I'm not sure how relevant it is, especially if we are honest about the future of a "young cartoonist", and especially today. Being able to draw one good, funny, cartoon, will not lead to a career in cartooning. If we are to be honest, and that is one of the things I am desperately hoping will come from this discussion, there are hardly any full-time professional cartoonists left in the UK, unless you include the cartoonists who work in book publishing and comic book production, and the CAT awards don't.
Let me just make clear the points I made to Jonathan. As a cartoonist, and one who practises capturing likenesses (not very well) I know very well that caricaturing is a skill.
As a gag cartoonist I sometimes feel life just isn't funny enough for more gag cartoons, and only the editorial cartoonists, or political cartoonists like Nick Newman, should be using the space.
But, if I make those points when I'm trying to convince everyone that British cartooning needs to become more inclusive to survive, and that the narrow focus by the London-based cartoonists on their own little universe is going to see that universe collapse, I won't make my point.
If the Cartoon Arts Trust awards, in the form they are in, is all we are ever going to have in the UK, then obviously one has to be thankful for small mercies, on the other hand, why not try to increase their scope?
My example of Kieran Meehan for comic strip artist is not because I think he is a better cartoonist than Charles (Peattie), in fact I personally prefer Peattie's drawings. But it's an example that I think is valid. Kieran Meehan has achieved, by getting his strip syndicated by Kings Features, where it has survived a name change, something that many British cartoonists over the decades have dreamed of doing. For that reason alone I think he deserves respect. I could just as easily have suggested the Rogers for Andy Capp, which continues to attract new fans in the US.I'd even put forward Roger Kettle for a lifetime achievement award for his writing on Beau Peep, Andy Capp and A Man called Horace, but these awards are, as far as I can make out, avoiding the slightest reference to modern culture.
Anyone who has read this blog will know that this narrow view of cartooning is one I have tried to counter for decades. If you read Moore and Reppion's Albion Comic, you'll know a bit of the story of IPC's burning of the comic art, and if you read this blog in any depth you'll know the whole story; back in the day before the University of Kent opened its doors to a wider range of cartoon art I tried, with the help of Liz Ottaway, to get them to save IPC's decades of comic artwork that was earmarked for incineration. At the time, only "editorial" (yes, now you're getting it) cartoons were accepted into Kent's collection and Liz Ottaway couldn't even talk the place into using a broom closet to house the comic pages - not even those by Stan McMurtry (Grimley Fiendish after Baxendale) and Steve Bell (Gremlins). It worries and disappoints me, in equal measure, that today, in 2008, we have a cartoon awards ceremony that seems to take a similarly narrow view of what is a worthy cartoon.
Anyway, it's out there, and if even one more cartoonist is talking about it and thinking about it, then that's a good thing. AS Tom Spurgeon (a belated Many happy returns Tom; welcome, officially, to middle-age) pointed out on his blog though, it was more a post focusing on British cartooning, and my own awards ceremony is the same:
Great Cartooning Acheivement: Hands down it's a tie between The Beano and Gary Northfield for Derek The Sheep, the first creator owned strip to ever appear in that publication.
Best Comic: Laura Howell's Johnny Bean (The Beano again). The winner of the Best Comic Strip at the 2006 International Manga and Anime Festival, and the first regular female Beano cartoonist, and the cartoonist behind Toxic Comic's Robin Hoodie and DFC's The Mighty M, wins hands down.
Best Cartoonist: I dislike giving this to Wilbur Dawbarn, but there is no escaping it, Wilbur is the cartoonist of the year. I pretend that the flies he draws on his character's trousers in his Private Eye cartoons look like erect penises, but he shrugs it off. I tried to sow the seeds of doubt in his mind, but he keeps on regardless.
Best Graphic Novel: Oliver East's Trains are Mint. Yes, they are.
Best Mini-Comic, or self-published book: I'm giving this to Gerard Whyman for his collection of his cartoons, Oddly Distracted, for two reasons, one is that you don't see enough cartoon collections these days, and the other reason is I think this is a great example of how gag cartoonists can take control of their own destiny. Also, this book is great value and Ger is funny.
Best Comic Artist: Jamie McKelvie for Phonogram: The Singles Club.
Best Graphic Story: Tom Gauld for all manner of things, including his work in Kramer's Ergot #7.
Best Web Comic: This is a tie between John Allison's Scary Go Round, a perfect example of a well-round digital universe and Darryl Cunnigham's Super Sam, presented as a series of, currently, 64 colourful and exotic pages.
Best Illustrator: Danny Allison, who this year won the Flair Illustrator of the Month award for his Nature Magazine cover of April 2008, melting Greenland.
Best Editorial Cartoon: I think Alex Hughes making a haulage truck recognisably the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is a fantastic example of cartoon art used to make a political point, without being boring to look at. The drawing works as a political cartoon and could even be transformed into a comic or a kiddies book character. It just works as a brilliant artistic idea.
Best Caricaturist: This is better than "best caricature" which sounds like a one-off. I'm tempted to give a double award to Alex Hughes for the Gordon Brown haulage truck, and I was also tempted to suggest the Al Hirschfield-inspired Gary who has shown a lot of flair recently, I think, but instead I'm going to give this award to the rather excitable Jonathan Cusik for his illustration of John Prescott's TV show on the Class system, which encapsulates almost every aspect of the series in one drawing, and for generally being in the same league, almost, as MAD Magazine's Tom Richmond.
Lifetime Achievement Award: I'm happy with Raymond Briggs. He is fantastic, and I still have my Fungus book, and my Fungus stationary set.
Best Cartoon-related Blog: Lew Stringer's Blimey it's another Blog about Comics. A great blog, hours of fun.
Best Pocket Cartoon: Fuck Off!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Cartooning in the 21st Century at Forbidden Planet
I had to condense my thoughts on the Cartoon Art Trust Awards a couple of posts down, but I've widened the debate on the Forbidden Planet blog, and thanks to Joe's editing it kind of makes more sense. I try hard not to let the things veer off into a tangential rant, but it sometimes happens. Not this time, I think, I'm fairly focused on this one because it also relates not just to something I am interested in, but directly to my future.
In the next post on the FPI blog, which is sort of part 2 of the current one, I attempt to offer up some suggestions about new possibilities for cartoonists in the coming, difficult, years.
Let me just remind you not to email me about this, that goes double for you Reston.
Again with the emails! Look, it should be clear to you, without having to resort to close-reading of the text, or to look for unwitting testimony, or to read too closely between the lines, that I am criticising the Awards ceremony, because it has a narrow definition of what a cartoonist is.
A more inclusive cartoon awards ceremony that recognises excellence in web cartooning (maybe Darryl Cunningham whose comic pages on the FPI blog number around 60), in comic book work (Jamie McKelvie, for instance, for Suburban Glamour or Phonogram - who, incidentally, despite a large body of work, would fit the existing "young cartoonist under 30 category"), in syndicated comic strip work (Keiran Meehan for getting his comic strip Pros & Cons syndicated by King Features), in international excellence (perhaps Tom Gauld for his work in numerous collections and in the Harvard Business Review and the New Yorker and the gigantic Kramer's Ergot 7), in graphic novel writing and drawing (Bryan Talbot for Alice in Sunderland), would surely have been appropriate now, more than ever, than simply having a teeny pocket cartoon in a British newspaper.
All these people are cartoonists, and brilliant cartoonists at that. The narrow definition of cartoonists promoted by this award ceremony, looks like a jaded and old fashioned idea that has had its time. What we have then, if we accept the challenge, is an opportunity for the Cartoon Art Trust to broaden its horizons and to embrace a wider range of categories and of cartoonists that will be more representative of cartooning in the 21st century - and at the same time will bring mainstream, web, and indy cartooning together. That, I have to tell you, would be an awards ceremony worth attending (although that voting panel would have to go and be replaced by the cartooning community at large). And I am surprised that the Bloghorn crowd are so against that idea.
The grim truth is that in what seems like no time at all to me, the 2,000 monthly cartooning opportunities that once existed every month when I was a beginning cartoonist have reduced to around 200, and that has been during a period of economic upswing. We are now in recession and heading for a depression. How many of these traditional cartooning markets will survive? I don't know, but there are cartoonists out there who are already making use of non-traditional markets, and creating excellent work, and there is a disconnect between them, and awards like this, which suggests to me that these cartooning awards lack vision.
In the next post on the FPI blog, which is sort of part 2 of the current one, I attempt to offer up some suggestions about new possibilities for cartoonists in the coming, difficult, years.
Let me just remind you not to email me about this, that goes double for you Reston.
Again with the emails! Look, it should be clear to you, without having to resort to close-reading of the text, or to look for unwitting testimony, or to read too closely between the lines, that I am criticising the Awards ceremony, because it has a narrow definition of what a cartoonist is.
A more inclusive cartoon awards ceremony that recognises excellence in web cartooning (maybe Darryl Cunningham whose comic pages on the FPI blog number around 60), in comic book work (Jamie McKelvie, for instance, for Suburban Glamour or Phonogram - who, incidentally, despite a large body of work, would fit the existing "young cartoonist under 30 category"), in syndicated comic strip work (Keiran Meehan for getting his comic strip Pros & Cons syndicated by King Features), in international excellence (perhaps Tom Gauld for his work in numerous collections and in the Harvard Business Review and the New Yorker and the gigantic Kramer's Ergot 7), in graphic novel writing and drawing (Bryan Talbot for Alice in Sunderland), would surely have been appropriate now, more than ever, than simply having a teeny pocket cartoon in a British newspaper.
All these people are cartoonists, and brilliant cartoonists at that. The narrow definition of cartoonists promoted by this award ceremony, looks like a jaded and old fashioned idea that has had its time. What we have then, if we accept the challenge, is an opportunity for the Cartoon Art Trust to broaden its horizons and to embrace a wider range of categories and of cartoonists that will be more representative of cartooning in the 21st century - and at the same time will bring mainstream, web, and indy cartooning together. That, I have to tell you, would be an awards ceremony worth attending (although that voting panel would have to go and be replaced by the cartooning community at large). And I am surprised that the Bloghorn crowd are so against that idea.
The grim truth is that in what seems like no time at all to me, the 2,000 monthly cartooning opportunities that once existed every month when I was a beginning cartoonist have reduced to around 200, and that has been during a period of economic upswing. We are now in recession and heading for a depression. How many of these traditional cartooning markets will survive? I don't know, but there are cartoonists out there who are already making use of non-traditional markets, and creating excellent work, and there is a disconnect between them, and awards like this, which suggests to me that these cartooning awards lack vision.
Cartoonist Nelson Dewey Flips you the Bird.
I think that Pat Byrnes was inspirational here, not in a bad way, but he did encourge Nelson Dewey to come up with the "birdicon"; and here it is.
I encourage everyone to spread this meme. And note the time and date. Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 4:05 PM CST, Nelson Dewey invented the birdicon. That should be in its Wikipedia entry. What an honor it has been to witness history in the making.
I'm sitting here laughing at the sheer beauty of it. Once again, Nelson, that is so brilliant. I can't wait to use it.
And there you were thinking those cartoonists all look so innocent.
Technical note: you'll need lower case L from the Verdana font to send your greeting.
.l..
From Pat:
I'm sitting here laughing at the sheer beauty of it. Once again, Nelson, that is so brilliant. I can't wait to use it.
And there you were thinking those cartoonists all look so innocent.
Technical note: you'll need lower case L from the Verdana font to send your greeting.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The NE Ice Storm and the Lynch family
A quick dedication to Mike and Stacy Lynch, who looked like snow-people recently. I'm guessing, knowing the guy's work ethic, that Mike will have been thinking up ideas the whole time he was shovelling snow.
Lost in Translation, found in a Karaoke bar
I'm a big Bill Murray fan. We didn't get SNL back in the day so my first glimpse of him was in a pirated copy of Stripes, available as a VHS and Betamax video. Of course in those days a video movie cost £60, and the public had to wait 2 years to get the things (I am in no way condoning the practise, but that was then and these days movies come out quickly and they are easily affordable). Ahem (clears throat and ties to move on unnoticed).
I loved Lost in Translation, which combines a lot of elements that just do it for me. If they had spent time in Akihabara in that movie, reading manga, I'd watch it every day, instead of just once a month. Those of you who are familiar with the movie will remember being impressed with Bill's karaoke prowess.
Couldn't happen here. In England you might be unlucky enough to get crashed by Michael Barrymore, whilst here in Scotland it might be the Krankies, or worse Jackie Bird. Any of these options would ruin your night.
I loved Lost in Translation, which combines a lot of elements that just do it for me. If they had spent time in Akihabara in that movie, reading manga, I'd watch it every day, instead of just once a month. Those of you who are familiar with the movie will remember being impressed with Bill's karaoke prowess.
So, anyway, Chris Hastings, who created Dr McNinja, is texting Ryan North, and he bumps into Bill Murray, as you do, and a Lost in Translation-type karaoke night ensues.
Couldn't happen here. In England you might be unlucky enough to get crashed by Michael Barrymore, whilst here in Scotland it might be the Krankies, or worse Jackie Bird. Any of these options would ruin your night.
Sacred v Profane
This could come in for a lot of criticism from Jonathan, the master wit and caricaturist, who before I deleted his stupid post called me "big nose". I say this because Leonard Cohen and I could have been separated at birth, so maybe he'll crack a joke about "big noses" togeteher, that will just floor us all.
Music has always been a mixture of the sacred and the profane, and Leonard Cohen's use of symbols and imagery in his poetic lyrics illustrate that perfectly. I'd have to say though, much as I love to hear the blessed Leonard sing his own work, the late, and much missed, Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah is, for me, the definitive version.
These days the split between the sacred and the profane in the music world is quite clear, pretty much all the singer/songwriter work is sacred and to be cherished, and the crap that spews forth from boy bands and the X-Factor, and the like, is profane. It is crass and it is hallow, and it is product. It is the musical equivalent of a sub-prime mortgage bundle. If you must have a copy of Hallelujah, make it Cohen's own, or Buckley's interpretation - or you will be contributing the the fall of mankind.
Jeff Buckley "playing and singing" Hallelujah.
Leonard Cohen singing Hallelujah
Thursday, December 11, 2008
One year on, the corpse is online.
I wrote a post a while back, around a year ago about a Narrative Corpse-type project that a bunch of us were working on, and I'd forgive you for thinking that nothing might come of it because it was a pretty big project, put together for and by the cartoonists themselves.
Those of you who have worked on projects that involve ftp-ing the hi-res files and the lo-res files into the editor, know that all sorts of communication problems can develop even on a small individual project; let alone one on this scale. When you add those problems to the difficulties people often have fitting the actual work into their busy schedules, and around anything else that happens over the course of a year, you can understand why some larger projects just never see the light of day. That this one did survive was a testament to all the cartoonists involved, of course, and to Mister T, who nudged us over the finishing line.
I'd like to post every page here, but then why put it on its own blog, right? So I've chosen of few examples of my favourites pages (except mine which I have to add because it's my blog) from the project, which involved many of my favourite indie cartoonists. I think this list is fairly comprehensive, but if you are looking in and you took part and don't see your name here, drop me a line:
Hans Rickheit
Shannon Smith
Me
Me again
Peter Rapp (this is a cool page, I think)
Those of you who have worked on projects that involve ftp-ing the hi-res files and the lo-res files into the editor, know that all sorts of communication problems can develop even on a small individual project; let alone one on this scale. When you add those problems to the difficulties people often have fitting the actual work into their busy schedules, and around anything else that happens over the course of a year, you can understand why some larger projects just never see the light of day. That this one did survive was a testament to all the cartoonists involved, of course, and to Mister T, who nudged us over the finishing line.
I'd like to post every page here, but then why put it on its own blog, right? So I've chosen of few examples of my favourites pages (except mine which I have to add because it's my blog) from the project, which involved many of my favourite indie cartoonists. I think this list is fairly comprehensive, but if you are looking in and you took part and don't see your name here, drop me a line:
Fufu Frauenwahl
Sean Aaberg
Tobias Tak
T. Avery
Hans RickheitFufu Frauenwahl http://www.fufufrauenwahl.com/
Sean Aaberg http://lambiek.net/artists/a/aaberg_sean-p.htm
Cheese Hasselberger http://www.houseoftwelve.com/
Hans Rickheit http://zeitgeist.numachi.com/chromefetus/
Tobias Tak http://www.tobicomix.co.uk/
WW Craghead http://www.wcraghead.com/weblog/blog.html
Brent Smith
Thayer Bray
Maurizio
Ian Murphy http://www.greathugethings.com/
Alex Buchet
Mark Campos http://lambiek.net/artists/c/campos_mark.htm
Hack http://www.hackcartoons.com/
Levi Jacob Bailey http://www.noeyescabinfever.blogspot.com/
Blaise http://www.slashart.com/
Juniper Tangpuz
Giles O'Dell http://www.zoonbats.com/
Kletz
Peter Rapp http://www.peterrapp.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.html
Rod McKie
Shannon Smith http://www.shannonsmith.net/
Michael Canich http://uselessweaponry.blogspot.com/
T. Avery (Ed) http://www.cheatingatsolitaire.net/
Matt Furie http://mattfurie.betternonsequitur.com/
Brian McKenzie http://www.bdmckenzie.blogspot.com/
Zeke Clough http://shoogooble.blogspot.com/
David Paleo http://monsterwithoutacause.blogspot.com/
Dale Martin
Aeron Alfrey http://www.skeletoncave.blogspot.com/
Hunter http://www.webcomicsnation.com/hunter/
Dan Steffan http://lambiek.net/artists/s/steffan_dan.htm
Alejandro Alvarez http://www.mackwhite.com/BushJunta7.html
Chris Pottinger http://chrispottinger.tastysoil.com/
Ray Frenden http://frenden.com/
David Robertson http://berserkotron.piczo.com/?cr=1&rfm=y
Andrei Molotiu http://www.blotcomics.blogspot.com/
Barry Rodges http://www.capeday.com/index.php/site/story/barry_rodges/
Jon Chandler http://bonehousebooks.co.uk/
Christopher Mostyn http://squatthrust.wordpress.com/
Marc Palm http://swellzombie.blogspot.com/
Mat Brinkman http://lambiek.net/artists/b/brinkman_mat.htm
Ian Harker
Eric
Sean Aaberg http://lambiek.net/artists/a/aaberg_sean-p.htm
Cheese Hasselberger http://www.houseoftwelve.com/
Hans Rickheit http://zeitgeist.numachi.com/chromefetus/
Tobias Tak http://www.tobicomix.co.uk/
WW Craghead http://www.wcraghead.com/weblog/blog.html
Brent Smith
Thayer Bray
Maurizio
Ian Murphy http://www.greathugethings.com/
Alex Buchet
Mark Campos http://lambiek.net/artists/c/campos_mark.htm
Hack http://www.hackcartoons.com/
Levi Jacob Bailey http://www.noeyescabinfever.blogspot.com/
Blaise http://www.slashart.com/
Juniper Tangpuz
Giles O'Dell http://www.zoonbats.com/
Kletz
Peter Rapp http://www.peterrapp.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.html
Rod McKie
Shannon Smith http://www.shannonsmith.net/
Michael Canich http://uselessweaponry.blogspot.com/
T. Avery (Ed) http://www.cheatingatsolitaire.net/
Matt Furie http://mattfurie.betternonsequitur.com/
Brian McKenzie http://www.bdmckenzie.blogspot.com/
Zeke Clough http://shoogooble.blogspot.com/
David Paleo http://monsterwithoutacause.blogspot.com/
Dale Martin
Aeron Alfrey http://www.skeletoncave.blogspot.com/
Hunter http://www.webcomicsnation.com/hunter/
Dan Steffan http://lambiek.net/artists/s/steffan_dan.htm
Alejandro Alvarez http://www.mackwhite.com/BushJunta7.html
Chris Pottinger http://chrispottinger.tastysoil.com/
Ray Frenden http://frenden.com/
David Robertson http://berserkotron.piczo.com/?cr=1&rfm=y
Andrei Molotiu http://www.blotcomics.blogspot.com/
Barry Rodges http://www.capeday.com/index.php/site/story/barry_rodges/
Jon Chandler http://bonehousebooks.co.uk/
Christopher Mostyn http://squatthrust.wordpress.com/
Marc Palm http://swellzombie.blogspot.com/
Mat Brinkman http://lambiek.net/artists/b/brinkman_mat.htm
Ian Harker
Eric
Okay, here is the theory, the cartoonist before me sends the Ed (the heroic T. Avery in our case) a rough of his final panel, that final panel-rough is sent to me and I write my page, or pages, based on the events in that final panel. I then send the rough of my final panel into the Ed who sends it along to the next cartoonist. While both the cartoonist that precedes me and I are inking our pages, the next cartoonist writes his narrative following on from my final panel-rough and then sends his or her final panel-rough into the Ed, and on it goes. Here is the sequence that I was in the middle of, sandwiched between Shannon Smith and Peter Rapp:
Shannon Smith
Me
Me again
Peter Rapp (this is a cool page, I think)
Coyright, 2007-2008, all the respective Corpse players.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
I Loved Oliver Postgate
I hate it that Oliver Postgate is dead. More than anything that has happened in recent years, his passing reminds me of my own mortality. I think that as we get older it becomes more and more difficult to avoid a certain amount of self-pity creeping into our grief. My childhood memories now carry an added tinge of sadness, because Oliver is gone, and my generation will not be far behind him.
He could easily have been an evil genius, you know. He could have been a Svengali, a mesmerist using the power of that unique voice for nefarious purposes. And what a voice it was, a personification of the Pied Piper's tune that had all us kids from near and far running to sit cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV. As adults it had the effect of instantly evoking those memories of that care-free time and helped at least one, me, survive many a panic-attack. I loved Bagpuss. I loved Noggin the Nog. I loved Oliver Postgate.
Did Oliver and Peter win any cartoonist awards? They must have, I can't think of two people who influenced cartoonists, in one way or another, more than they. I remember one night Tom (Sweeney Toddler, School Belle, etc, etc,) Paterson and I trying hard to dredge the name of Grakulus from some dark hidden place and making the common mistake of remembering it as Drakulus - when we should both have been working on some comic pages. Joe, over at The Forbidden Planet Blog has posted a nice tribute to Oliver.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Confine your comments to the blog, please.
Can I ask you to please confine your comments about these bloggings to the blog, and not to email me personally? I have it kind of segregated, you know, there is Rod the Blogger, using a conversational register and he's kind of talky and all that with loads of time to talk. But Rod the cartoonist is a small businessman who draws cartoons and illustrations and conducts a lot of business online, so unless it's an email about work, or we are great chums, don't email me. I won't read your emails, I'll just bin them, so if you have anything to get off your chest do it here. Manup for crying out loud!
Anyway, apropo the post below, let me just drag something I said in the comments round to the front here, so that you can feel where I'm coming from:
I think that British cartoonists like Keiren Meehan, with his comic strip being syndicated worldwide by Kings Features Syndicate, is way more deserving of a British cartooning award than someone who draws a single-column jape for any British newspaper or magazine. I'd also put forward the Rogers', Kettle and Mahoney, for bringing a new young audience to Andy Capp, and a number of the UK's small press and mini comic producers and mainstream (DC and Marvel) comic writers and artists, who as far as I'm concerned have done much, much, more for cartoonists and cartooning than any of the names below - except the blessed Raymond Briggs, of course. Maybe that's the problem, these "awards" are designed to accomodate the old fashioned material the publication's concerned use.
Understand of course that this is just my personal opinion, as a cartoonist and illustrator who sells his work worldwide . Your opinion may differ, but if it differs substantially write it on your own blog, don't jam up my fuckin' email box with your rants, you peckerheads.
Anyway, apropo the post below, let me just drag something I said in the comments round to the front here, so that you can feel where I'm coming from:
I think that British cartoonists like Keiren Meehan, with his comic strip being syndicated worldwide by Kings Features Syndicate, is way more deserving of a British cartooning award than someone who draws a single-column jape for any British newspaper or magazine. I'd also put forward the Rogers', Kettle and Mahoney, for bringing a new young audience to Andy Capp, and a number of the UK's small press and mini comic producers and mainstream (DC and Marvel) comic writers and artists, who as far as I'm concerned have done much, much, more for cartoonists and cartooning than any of the names below - except the blessed Raymond Briggs, of course. Maybe that's the problem, these "awards" are designed to accomodate the old fashioned material the publication's concerned use.
Understand of course that this is just my personal opinion, as a cartoonist and illustrator who sells his work worldwide . Your opinion may differ, but if it differs substantially write it on your own blog, don't jam up my fuckin' email box with your rants, you peckerheads.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
It's Weird But...
Borghal's piccy.Okay, I know you'll think this is weird, but I can't write anything at the moment because of the Feng Shui (wind water). I'm afraid my Qi is just all messed up at the moment, man.
I have two set-ups you see, computer, scanner and printer, in one area and it faces "in-the-way" (no directional sense , sorry - might be East). In the other room I keep a laptop and all-in-one printer where I draw. Where I draw faces "out the way", through a picture-window, to landscape - it's the opposite of this. That is my writing area. However, my laptop AC adaptor blew, and I have to get a new one, but I forgot and ordered P.G Wodehouse's Woodhouse Playhouse; thanks largely to Brian Fies and Mike Lynch and I suppose Raina Telgemeier,
Digression: Stop Press; how cool is this, I just added the link and spotted that Raina Telgemeier has original art from The Baby Sitters Club books, up for grabs. What a great present.
because a conversation concerning all three was on my mind when it should have been Fujitsu cable.
So here I am, reluctantly sitting at the computer facing the wrong way, and for some reason it makes me uneasy and unproductive, so I'll leave shortly and go watch John Alderton as Mister Mulliner, and Pauline Collins as a variety of very attractive, plummy gels.
If you ever wondered why cartoonists are lone creatures who dislike working with other people, you now know why - they are just a little bit off-kilter. I'll be back when the Feng Shui works, and when my new cable arrives.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Gerard Whyman, Oddly, not, Distracted, at all.
Cartoons by Gerard Whyman
I'm putting the finishing touches to a post that I'm hoping Forbidden Planet International will run, it is about getting your cartoons, illustrations and books out there on new media. I mean, I don't know if you've noticed but newspapers are closing left right and centre, and some big titles have limited cash, and rely on firms that are going bust to fund their print editions through advertising. Many of these titles, some through choice and some through necessity, with publications like the Christian Science Monitor lighting the way, are going to appear only online. They can, of course appear on other media, and it might be a good idea if you know how to deliver your work on the same devices.
A Ger Whyman cartoon, from Oddly Distracted, on the iPhone
A Ger Whyman cartoon, from Oddly Distracted, being formatted for the PSP.At the same time I'll be looking at Gerard Whyman's excellent book of cartoons, Oddly Distracted, so I'll be trying to illustrate why the Whyman way, is the best way to go, in the current economic climate, as it were, and we'll be looking at the best way to get Whyman's cartoons out to the modern reader..
Meanwhile, I'd recommend a good hard-copy of the book (click here to go to LULU) because it has nearly 200 cartoons and it represents excellent value for laughs delivered - click here to see a chart I made of the laughs per page ratio - kidding; but go buy it.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Skimming, the Surface.
My attention has been drawn to this thanks to Fantagraphics Dirk Deppey being ever vigilant and Drawn and Quarterley's Peggy Burns helping to spread the word. This is hopefully going to be just an oversight - I'm sure.
The odd thing is, this ties in with a piece I'm sending to Joe at Forbidden Planet about the importance of "some" illustrators, later tonight.
Okay, listen up, especially you, my Canuck chums, although every illustrator out there should be interested. This is very important because although it might be a simple oversight, a mistake, and I might have to eat my words, it could be, although I'm sure it is not, the written word-worshipping literati of Canada flexing their muscles and trying to regain primacy in the face of the increasing popularity of graphic novels (we are stuck with the term so suck it up). In what could be be, as I have just said, simply an oversight, Skim, the tale of Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a goth girl in an all-girls school in Toronto, is up for, at least the writer, Mariko Tamaki, is up for Canada's very prestigious Governor General’s Literary Awards. The thing is, and once again I'm sure it is simply a horrible oversight, the illustrator of the book, Mariko's cousin Jillian Tamaki, has not been included in the nomination.
Ridiculous, I know, fortunately two of Canada's most high profile illustrators, Chester Brown and Seth, have been moved to write a strongly worded letter to the awards committee asking them to reconsider for the following very, very, important reasons:
We're guessing that the jury who read SKIM saw it as an illustrated novel. It's not; it's a graphic novel. In illustrated novels, the words carry the burden of telling the story, and the illustrations serve as a form of visual reinforcement. But in graphic novels, the words and pictures BOTH tell the story, and there are often sequences (sometimes whole graphic novels) where the images alone convey the narrative. The text of a graphic novel cannot be separated from its illustrations because the words and the pictures together ARE the text. Try to imagine evaluating SKIM if you couldn't see the drawings. Jillian's contribution to the book goes beyond mere illustration: she was as responsible for telling the story as Mariko was.
Chester Brown (Author of Louis Riel)
Seth (Author of It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken)
Just to quickly illustrate this point, I've snaffled the following page from Dirk Deppey:
It's clear from this drawing that the words "Dear Diary...it's snowing." and the drawing above are working in consort to convey a mood and a meaning that is beyond what is written on the page. This is not a tacked-on drawing illustrating redundantly illustrating the obvious, in a way that one would find opposite a page of text in a picture book. The description of the scene is non-existent because that information is conveyed in the drawing, along with the hallow triumph of creating the pointless message in the lonely landscape. It is, at once, a beautiful, and sad, moment.
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