Saturday, September 6, 2003

Sergio Day Report

Due to good weather, all of the announced events for Sergio Aragonés Day had to be cancelled. Instead, a small group of Sergio's friends went to his home where he cooked us a big paella. Above is a picture of said paella. You can find out more about this exquisite feast by going over to Sergio's website.

• Posted at 11:22 PM · LINK

No Cartoonist's Opinion At All

Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead, writes to say I've misunderstood his position...

You make a basic error in assuming that I (Bill Griffith) believe the absolutist argument put forth by Griffy (my inner ranter) that only a "solo" cartoonist is a "real" cartoonist. Once again, I'm inclined to believe that only the Lithuanians know what I'm doing.

I'm sorry if I missed the distinction, Bill. But you can kind of understand how that happens.

• Posted at 10:10 PM · LINK

Happy Sergio Aragonés Day!

I am happy to report a full schedule of activities planned for today as the entire world celebrates the birthday of my friend and partner, Sergio Aragonés. It kicks off at 10 AM with the Annual Sergio Aragonés Day Parade down Hollywood Boulevard, which has been renamed Sergio Aragonés Boulevard for the occasion. There will be floats depicting scenes from his marginal cartoons for Mad Magazine, giant helium-filled balloons of the characters from the Groo comic book, and 27 marching bands with a combined membership of 741 musicians, every one of whom has grown a genuine handlebar mustache for the event. That includes the women.

At Noon, the governor of the great state of California, whoever it is today, will cut the ribbon that opens the new Sergio Aragonés Library in Griffith Park which contains over 27,000 books without a single word in any of them and drawings in all the margins. At 2 PM is the kick-off as the top two football teams in the land compete in the Sergio Bowl, and I'm happy to say that Señor Aragonés himself will be passing through the crowd throughout the game, signing autographs and selling chili dogs, and that the half-time entertainment will include the usual Arnold Schwarzenegger Egg Toss and the George W. Bush Dog-Dropping competition. At 6 PM, we all gather for the traditional Aragonés Feast, the highlight of which will be a life-size replica of Sergio made completely out of three-bean salad. I don't know how they do it, either. At 8 PM, ABC airs a new Peanuts special in honor of Sergio Aragonés Day, "How Fast Do You Draw, Charlie Brown?" Immediately following that, Johnny Carson comes out of retirement to host the Sergio Gala at Hollywood Bowl, which will include performances by Barbra Streisand, the two surviving Beatles, Madonna (performing her socko Lesbian Kiss act), Luciano Pavarotti, some guy doing card tricks, and Jennifer Lopez and her All-Husband Orchestra. At the conclusion of the event, attendees will exchange their Sergio Day gifts as they enjoy the stupendous Sergio Aragonés fireworks display. Last year, it took 5,000 pounds of explosives just to form the image of his jaw in the sky.

Forgive me if I sound enthused but I've been waiting all year for Sergio Aragonés Day. Ever since last June when the stores put up their Sergio Aragonés Day displays and the Salvation Army set up Sergio Aragonés impersonators to ring bells for donations in every shopping mall, I've counted the minutes. It's so exciting that next year, I may skip this crap and just buy the guy a present.

• Posted at 2:05 AM · LINK

Assists

Mike Guerrero (who has his own weblog here) writes, in reference to my previous item...

I think what bothers me is the fact that if you work on a comic book, there's usually a box of credits that list who did what, i.e. pencils, inks, and even breakdowns and finishes. Articles in newspapers will usually list others who contributed along with the actual writer. But a comic strip usually has just one name, leading one to believe that one person thought up the idea for the strip, drew it, inked it, and lettered it. I don't really care if the strip was a team effort or not, but there is a slight case of misrepresentation going on here. Probably none of those artists mentioned would deny that they don't have help creating their strips. But they probably don't make too much noise about it, either. When the strip says "Mother Goose and Grimm by Mike Peters" shouldn't it be true? Or should there be an "executive producer" credit instead?

I'm all for honesty, but let's remember that media credits are not always complete or (sometimes) even accurate. I've written for comedians who went on The Tonight Show and did jokes I thought of, and no one stopped to say, "Oh, by the way, Mark Evanier thought of that." Major motion pictures often have many uncredited writers. On a TV show, five producers and eight story editors may have pitched in to rewrite the script and all contributed material that got on the air...but the "Written by" credit went to the first writer. Almost all forms have some tradition of ghost writing or of the credited individual receiving some unbilled help. When I see something like "Mother Goose and Grimm by Mike Peters," I don't presume it means that every word and brushstroke is Mike's work. I think it means that Mike produces the strip, and writes and draws most of it. "Executive producer" seems less accurate to me because it implies he's not writing or drawing it, and he is. For the most part.

That said, there have been strips thay were so totally the work of a ghost that it has seemed wrong to me, if not as a matter of historical record then because it looked like some guy was getting screwed. In some cases though, it hasn't seemed to bother the anonymous guy and I can think of at least one instance when he actually preferred it that way. His attitude was that he was drawing in someone else's style and subordinating his viewpoint, and he didn't want his name associated with the work in question. He only wanted his name on work that he felt was truly his.

For what it's worth, I've ghost-written for a few newspaper strips, more for fun (and to help out a friend in need) than as a job. It didn't bother me that my name was absent. Strips are cramped for space without having to cram in extra names, and for some, full credits would mean four or five names. (Supposedly at one point, the Napoleon and Uncle Elby strip was being written by two people and drawn by six others.) Since not all contributions are equal, true accuracy would require that you not just list names and that you differentiate those who did a lot from a little. For example, Milton Caniff created Steve Canyon and always wrote it. He'd have Frank Engli (and later, Shel Dorf) letter the strip, then someone like Dick Rockwell would pencil the whole strip and ink everything but the main characters. Then Caniff would ink main characters, touch up the rest of the strip and sometimes redo whole panels. I'm not sure how you'd explain all that in tiny credits and also make clear that Caniff was the auteur.

Lastly, even comic book credits do not always tell the whole story about who did what. Background inkers are frequently not in that credit box, and many artists occasionally have an uncredited friend pitch in and help them meet a deadline. Back before I did the business an enormous favor (for which I have never been properly thanked) and gave up drawing, I sometimes did anonymous art assists on comics. When I look back on those stories today, I'm not entirely sure what I did. Still, I'm pretty sure none of it was significant enough to warrant diminishing the credit of the guy who did the vast majority of the job.

• Posted at 12:26 AM · LINK