Drawing already-famous characters, Part Two
The recent 2OOO AD character imagery I turned out last post has kick-started a desire in me once again to try out a couple of overtly-cartoon-styled efforts of famous characters, although I have kept these in a fairly rough , vital state.
It is a long time since I even bothered to attempt this sort of thing: at one stage, I would have given my eye teeth to land a job doing 'ghostings' of established characters for D C Thomson and others as a route to regular cartoon work: today, I have completely lost interest on this score, I much prefer the freedom offered by taking over complete control over every aspect of my cartoons: ideas/character design/choice of colors etc etc.
In the 80s I done a wee bit of work for UK comics publisher D C Thomson --certainly enough to get a flavor of this sort of work----and although I loved this invaluable experience at the time [being 'chucked in' at the deep end like this is by far the quickest way to learn this craft] I remember getting interest from a Mr Kerr at the BEANO: he was the Editor then who sent me blow-up photostats of Roger the Dodger, at that period beautifully drawn by Robert Nixon, and I was politely requested to adhere very closely to his style.
This was all very well, but I quickly tired of having to cross-reference images of Bobbos' work in order to get it absolutely right------I felt a lot of the spontanaeity I enjoy creating cartoons vanished through this required concentration, although it has to be said that for many artists, this approach of turning out 'formulaic' work in an almost identical style to the definitive artist version is the expected part and parcel of working in this field: it is also a lot easier to secure work if you are good at copying--or rather re-interpreting in an acceptably recognizable style, already established characters ........as publishers are understandably less inclined to take a risk on untested new styles/characters------many readers also expect familiarity in comics, of course.
In the case of the BEANO, a huge of chunk of the famous iconagraphy we still see today was laid down in templates established by Leo Baxendale as far back as the early-mid 50s: by 1959/1960, he had become very accomplished as an artist indeed, and his characters THE BASH STREET KIDS/ LITTLE PLUM/ THE THREE BEARS/ MINNIE THE MINX and others were eventually adapted by very good cartoonists sticking to his style rigidly: David Sutherland/ Ron Spencer/ Bob Mc Grath/ Jim Petrie-----all of these artists,[ bar Sutherland, who excelled as a ghoster,] eventually went on to forge their own styles but the foundations of these works was established by Baxendale, and permeated the entire funnies market.
Many cartoonists still owe a huge debt to Baxendale, even young artists who may not even be aware of who he is-------his early work resembles GILES of the Express, though eventually it became something quite quite unique. Sadly the hyper-detail in his best work took it's toll on his drawing abilities , affecting his hands and his style had to simplify radically by the late 60s. His best work, though, when seen today, ranks amongst the finest ever put out by any cartoonist in this country: moreso because he laid down these rules himself: others merely followed.
I myself am heavily influenced by 60s/early 70s British comics, which I still read and ammass regularly, cross-fertilized with American cel animation of the 30s-50s period, which does not say a lot for todays' cartoon output.
Today, artists on the BEANO are given much more freedom to draw in their own natural style, without having to neccessarilly go the 'formulaic' route: for example, more recently Hunt Emerson has done work on LITTLE PLUM, that is very good but is so stylistically different from Baxendale and Spencer, one wonders why a brand-new character was not attempted instead. Most of the new characters and concepts tried out have not gelled nearly as well as these 50s and 60s characters, for whatever reason.
I have many examples of D C Thomson comic art on file [mostly on digital disc nowadays], and I often have a good look through examples from all eras of these comics, right from the start in 1937, right up until today. The period of the 40s and early 50s today looks very overdone and fussy by todays' artwork standards: we had always interesting work from Watkins, of course, but otherwise the real creative hub in the BEANO seems to arrive in the early 50s, through DENNIS THE MENACE from David Law: fantastic, vital work, even when seen today, and none of his successors----in many cases much better technical artists-----have been able to come anywhere close to equalling the spirit of Laws' work.
By the 6os, the quality of this comic---bar the poor newsprint the weekly was then printed on-----was surely at an absolute peak, with Masters such as Reid producing JONAH and Roger the Dodger, Watkins' work usually as accomplished as ever through his vast experience and expertise, and later on a very good stylist arrived in the shape of Bob Nixon, who was eventually allowed to forge his own natural style. Even the then-popular adventure strips from DCT were excellent in this period, with top-notch artists like Paddy Brennan seriously rivalling Watkins in terms of quality [ISLAND of MONSTERS] along with other excellent illustrative work on DANDY by Charles Grigg, who on top of giving us the definitive KORKY, also proved equally adept at well-rendered adventure fare: THE PURPLE CLOUD/ CAPTAIN WHOOSH! and many others.
But back to the BEANO and declining standards in the 'funnies' overall: after that delightful 60s peak, the decade ended badly with the loss of Watkins [July 1969] and Law [1970] and their input and spirit was sadly missed and never really properly replaced.....although much accomplished comic-strip works continued for a good few more years, a sense of over-familiarity and dated formulae was starting to creep into the D C Thomson funnies especially: it is certainly noticable by the mid-70s, with much derivitive, routine fare on view, and rival publishing house IPC put out much more contemporary and interesting material, in the shape of their Cartoon Horror Comics SHIVER and SHAKE [1973] and MONSTER FUN [1975] though sadly these enjoyable enterprizes were undeniably short-lived.
The decline continued into the 80s, with an alarming new development: top cartoonists like John Geering and Robert Nixon went a 'zippier', sketchier route, in a quite understandable decision for them to pursue a marked increase in their output, due to the modest wages usually paid in the comics industry-------sadly, many other 'lesser' artists went the same speedier route--although some excellent artists like Ken Harrison and Ken Hunter stuck to their high-quality guns. The final nail in the creative quality coffin , as far as I can gather, is the decision around the early-mid 80s for most of the industry to adopt the 'improved' new standard of turning out scaled-down artwork, with noticably less space for the artist to work in, and although much comics output from this point on is still undeniable fun, a quick comparison with the 50s-early 70s period especially with typical output over the past 30 years reveals just how much overall standards in cartoon comics quality has fallen.
I was always on the lookout for quality fare however, and a refugee from NUTTY and HOOT ---Cuddles,----- joined think-a-like Dimples------- and got absorbed into DANDY in late 1986: this Barrie Appleby-inked piece was teriffic stuff, with buxom young ladies, malevolent toys and urinating dogs........I used to buy the paper soley for this excellent strip. Sadly, within a few short months, Applebys' artwork went the then in-vogue 'zippier' route, and I gave up following it....why bother, if the industry is deliberately letting standards drop like this? Happily, his artwork looks less rushed these days.
By the late 80s, upgrades like improved paper stock and more modern color made a welcome appearence, but by now the decline had truly and irreversibly set in, a bit like the best of British TV being done in the 625-line days, and modern HD reserved for todays' dodgy output. Thomsons' final funnies outing , the slimline HOOT ,[1985] lasted a year only, and since then, all their cartoon output has been endless offshoots of established character hits, or else brand new characters that fail to become household names like the earlier truly famous predecessors. IPC's comics line dragged out a sad demise slowly, their long-standing and final survivor BUSTER [1960] making it to the year 2000 by the skin of it's teeth, after almost 40 years of production. DCT's long-established TOPPER and BEEZER [mid-late 50s] downscaled from their distinctive large-scale format in 1981, merging together as one in 1990, before finally bowing out in 1993.
As aptly summed up in the book THE ULTIMATE BOOK OF BRITISH COMICS, 'This is a story with a sad, sad ending....' and all we have left of the once-mighty British comics scene [sales reached quite literally millions in the 50s peak] today are the scattershot modern BEANO, 2000 AD, COMMANDO and the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE, not counting the endless media tie-ins of commercial properties, a very different beast from the delightully quirky and wholly 'Briish' titles listed above.
Meanwhile, here are three items inspired by Thomsons' stable of famous characters: drawn quickly, without use of reference materials, in order to retain spontanaeity.
COPYRIGHT 2015 D C THOMSON
It is a long time since I even bothered to attempt this sort of thing: at one stage, I would have given my eye teeth to land a job doing 'ghostings' of established characters for D C Thomson and others as a route to regular cartoon work: today, I have completely lost interest on this score, I much prefer the freedom offered by taking over complete control over every aspect of my cartoons: ideas/character design/choice of colors etc etc.
In the 80s I done a wee bit of work for UK comics publisher D C Thomson --certainly enough to get a flavor of this sort of work----and although I loved this invaluable experience at the time [being 'chucked in' at the deep end like this is by far the quickest way to learn this craft] I remember getting interest from a Mr Kerr at the BEANO: he was the Editor then who sent me blow-up photostats of Roger the Dodger, at that period beautifully drawn by Robert Nixon, and I was politely requested to adhere very closely to his style.
This was all very well, but I quickly tired of having to cross-reference images of Bobbos' work in order to get it absolutely right------I felt a lot of the spontanaeity I enjoy creating cartoons vanished through this required concentration, although it has to be said that for many artists, this approach of turning out 'formulaic' work in an almost identical style to the definitive artist version is the expected part and parcel of working in this field: it is also a lot easier to secure work if you are good at copying--or rather re-interpreting in an acceptably recognizable style, already established characters ........as publishers are understandably less inclined to take a risk on untested new styles/characters------many readers also expect familiarity in comics, of course.
In the case of the BEANO, a huge of chunk of the famous iconagraphy we still see today was laid down in templates established by Leo Baxendale as far back as the early-mid 50s: by 1959/1960, he had become very accomplished as an artist indeed, and his characters THE BASH STREET KIDS/ LITTLE PLUM/ THE THREE BEARS/ MINNIE THE MINX and others were eventually adapted by very good cartoonists sticking to his style rigidly: David Sutherland/ Ron Spencer/ Bob Mc Grath/ Jim Petrie-----all of these artists,[ bar Sutherland, who excelled as a ghoster,] eventually went on to forge their own styles but the foundations of these works was established by Baxendale, and permeated the entire funnies market.
Many cartoonists still owe a huge debt to Baxendale, even young artists who may not even be aware of who he is-------his early work resembles GILES of the Express, though eventually it became something quite quite unique. Sadly the hyper-detail in his best work took it's toll on his drawing abilities , affecting his hands and his style had to simplify radically by the late 60s. His best work, though, when seen today, ranks amongst the finest ever put out by any cartoonist in this country: moreso because he laid down these rules himself: others merely followed.
I myself am heavily influenced by 60s/early 70s British comics, which I still read and ammass regularly, cross-fertilized with American cel animation of the 30s-50s period, which does not say a lot for todays' cartoon output.
Today, artists on the BEANO are given much more freedom to draw in their own natural style, without having to neccessarilly go the 'formulaic' route: for example, more recently Hunt Emerson has done work on LITTLE PLUM, that is very good but is so stylistically different from Baxendale and Spencer, one wonders why a brand-new character was not attempted instead. Most of the new characters and concepts tried out have not gelled nearly as well as these 50s and 60s characters, for whatever reason.
I have many examples of D C Thomson comic art on file [mostly on digital disc nowadays], and I often have a good look through examples from all eras of these comics, right from the start in 1937, right up until today. The period of the 40s and early 50s today looks very overdone and fussy by todays' artwork standards: we had always interesting work from Watkins, of course, but otherwise the real creative hub in the BEANO seems to arrive in the early 50s, through DENNIS THE MENACE from David Law: fantastic, vital work, even when seen today, and none of his successors----in many cases much better technical artists-----have been able to come anywhere close to equalling the spirit of Laws' work.
By the 6os, the quality of this comic---bar the poor newsprint the weekly was then printed on-----was surely at an absolute peak, with Masters such as Reid producing JONAH and Roger the Dodger, Watkins' work usually as accomplished as ever through his vast experience and expertise, and later on a very good stylist arrived in the shape of Bob Nixon, who was eventually allowed to forge his own natural style. Even the then-popular adventure strips from DCT were excellent in this period, with top-notch artists like Paddy Brennan seriously rivalling Watkins in terms of quality [ISLAND of MONSTERS] along with other excellent illustrative work on DANDY by Charles Grigg, who on top of giving us the definitive KORKY, also proved equally adept at well-rendered adventure fare: THE PURPLE CLOUD/ CAPTAIN WHOOSH! and many others.
But back to the BEANO and declining standards in the 'funnies' overall: after that delightful 60s peak, the decade ended badly with the loss of Watkins [July 1969] and Law [1970] and their input and spirit was sadly missed and never really properly replaced.....although much accomplished comic-strip works continued for a good few more years, a sense of over-familiarity and dated formulae was starting to creep into the D C Thomson funnies especially: it is certainly noticable by the mid-70s, with much derivitive, routine fare on view, and rival publishing house IPC put out much more contemporary and interesting material, in the shape of their Cartoon Horror Comics SHIVER and SHAKE [1973] and MONSTER FUN [1975] though sadly these enjoyable enterprizes were undeniably short-lived.
The decline continued into the 80s, with an alarming new development: top cartoonists like John Geering and Robert Nixon went a 'zippier', sketchier route, in a quite understandable decision for them to pursue a marked increase in their output, due to the modest wages usually paid in the comics industry-------sadly, many other 'lesser' artists went the same speedier route--although some excellent artists like Ken Harrison and Ken Hunter stuck to their high-quality guns. The final nail in the creative quality coffin , as far as I can gather, is the decision around the early-mid 80s for most of the industry to adopt the 'improved' new standard of turning out scaled-down artwork, with noticably less space for the artist to work in, and although much comics output from this point on is still undeniable fun, a quick comparison with the 50s-early 70s period especially with typical output over the past 30 years reveals just how much overall standards in cartoon comics quality has fallen.
I was always on the lookout for quality fare however, and a refugee from NUTTY and HOOT ---Cuddles,----- joined think-a-like Dimples------- and got absorbed into DANDY in late 1986: this Barrie Appleby-inked piece was teriffic stuff, with buxom young ladies, malevolent toys and urinating dogs........I used to buy the paper soley for this excellent strip. Sadly, within a few short months, Applebys' artwork went the then in-vogue 'zippier' route, and I gave up following it....why bother, if the industry is deliberately letting standards drop like this? Happily, his artwork looks less rushed these days.
By the late 80s, upgrades like improved paper stock and more modern color made a welcome appearence, but by now the decline had truly and irreversibly set in, a bit like the best of British TV being done in the 625-line days, and modern HD reserved for todays' dodgy output. Thomsons' final funnies outing , the slimline HOOT ,[1985] lasted a year only, and since then, all their cartoon output has been endless offshoots of established character hits, or else brand new characters that fail to become household names like the earlier truly famous predecessors. IPC's comics line dragged out a sad demise slowly, their long-standing and final survivor BUSTER [1960] making it to the year 2000 by the skin of it's teeth, after almost 40 years of production. DCT's long-established TOPPER and BEEZER [mid-late 50s] downscaled from their distinctive large-scale format in 1981, merging together as one in 1990, before finally bowing out in 1993.
As aptly summed up in the book THE ULTIMATE BOOK OF BRITISH COMICS, 'This is a story with a sad, sad ending....' and all we have left of the once-mighty British comics scene [sales reached quite literally millions in the 50s peak] today are the scattershot modern BEANO, 2000 AD, COMMANDO and the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE, not counting the endless media tie-ins of commercial properties, a very different beast from the delightully quirky and wholly 'Briish' titles listed above.
Meanwhile, here are three items inspired by Thomsons' stable of famous characters: drawn quickly, without use of reference materials, in order to retain spontanaeity.
COPYRIGHT 2015 D C THOMSON
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