who, me?


Prolific? I wish!

More in a minute, but first - that animated bird eating eating human feet (see 12-23 post) went by again and I took a screen shot. Hideous! Blogger is gonna squash the image into this post, but you can click on it and see it full size - if you dare!

Back to prolific, which eeteed said I am in yesterday's comments. When I look at the big fat FRANK book, or Chris Ware's endless flood of pages, or even those 100-plus-pages graphic novels by people I never heard of, I want to crawl in an empty sketchbook and die. I sure don't FEEL prolific.

As for my work routine, I owe it all to Jeannie. Amazing Jeannie. I have to go to the dump, clean out the washing machine filter, a few "manly" chores like that - but other than that the house stays clean (and I mean CLEAN) and delicious food magically appears and my clothes are clean and ironed. It has been that way for 30 years. If you want to do the math, I am almost 50 and married very young.

Work habits: with Runaway Comic, I am shooting for one finished page per week. 24-page comic = 48 weeks. 52 weeks in a year gives me a couple of weeks extra to do covers and inside covers. In reality, I am probably going to take about six-to-EIGHT months to get an issue done, and have warned Fantagraphics about this. I figure if Clowes and Brunetti can go years between books, I'm not going to be ostracized for my sloppy schedule.

I grab all the work time I can. I scan artwork at my day job while I'm eating lunch. I work at night when I get home. I work all weekend. "All" is a deceptive word, because I still find time to waste hours watching that crappy movie King Kong (hi Steve!) and going out to dinner with friends etc. But I do try to work as much as possible. "Work" is also a deceptive word because "working" on comics is usually fun!

Thanks for asking, eeteed! You give me an excuse to talk about ME ME ME and you make it seem like "people want to know!" You also prevent me from doing what I am prone to do and bitch about how this sux and that sux and don't you just hate it when bla bla bla. Ever notice how Andy Rooney is an annoying bore? He goes on and on and on with his "clever" comments about things that suck. Don't you just hate when you realize that you yourself sound like Andy Rooney? God I hate when that happens.

6 comments:

eeTeeD said...

is andy rooney still alive? who knew.
those people you talk about with their 100 plus page graphic novels....... i'm sure they don't have day jobs. i also wouldn't be surprised if they also have assistants!
-veers a bit off topic- i mean, looks at Garry Trudeau. he slaps his name all over that doonesbury comic strip, makes millions off it, and hob knobs with the rich and famous and such. how does he manage to lead the good life AND turn out his comic on schedule????? because all he does is pencil his comic. there's someone else inking, lettering, and coloring the thing. g.t. makes a comic where he exposes the evils of others, yet he takes all the credit and $ for doonesbury while the REAL talent who prop him up toil away in obscurity! ironic, yes?
but, back on track......... i guess prolific is in the eyes of the beholder. i wish i i could be as prolific as you! remember that next time you are wishing you could be as prolific as someone else!

slatts said...

King Kong was pretty silly....

and you are the King Kong of work ethic...always crankin'always 'toonin'!!!

Rock on! Comic Dude....

Anonymous said...

Oh I dunno, I don't think it's so goldurn evil to have inkers, letterers, etc. working anonymously on a popular strip. As long as the author is writing and drawing the thing, and it's popular enough that he can afford to, why not have a staff? If the hired hands agree to the deal and get paid, it's good experience for them. (Plus I know some inkers who just can't come up with stuff of their own, but are good at inking other's ideas.)
At least Trudeau has interesting content. Some dailies are just one loooong joke, over n' over (Cathy).
On that note- okay Mark, 'fess up to what your day job is! I picture you at a desk in the office of the Daily Planet, wearing a bow tie and hollering "You bet, Chief!"

eeTeeD said...

well, my point about Garry Trudeau is this: g.t. makes comic strips saying how awful and evil it is that cathy lee gifford puts out a line of clothes, makes tons of money off them, while the people who actually produce the clothes work in poverty and obscurity. meanwhile, Garry Trudeau puts out a comic strip, makes tons of money off it, while the people who produce the comic strip work in RELATIVE poverty and obscurity. yeah, cathy lee exploited her workers MORE, than g.t. does his, but the point that g.t. is casting stones at cathy lee as if he is without sin. is it LESS of a crime to murder someone by shooting them once, instead of murdering someone by shooting them 4 times? don’t make a living exposing the evils of others when you are just as bad them. besides all this, he’s no cartoonist. his work sucks. take a look at his early work before he got an inker. PHOOEY! he’s no cartoonist. he only made his way because he got his syndicate to support him! you think crappy cartoons like cathy and ziggy would ever make it on their own strengths? no way! they only make it b/c the syndicates support them and spend tons of $ promoting them. you say... “who cares? why make such a fuss? it’s no big deal!” but it is. think about it. the syndicate decides to pour millions of dollars into propping up a piece of crap like CATHY. those dollars could have been used to support the works of a talented artist like mark martin. there’s so much CRAP in today’s comic strips. and every piece of crap that the syndicates prop up means one less talented cartoonist is getting his work supported. phooey to Garry Trudeau, and phooey to the comic strip syndicates.
have a nice day!

Anonymous said...

re: Mark Martin's day job...

Mark's day job is Top Secret!

We can confirm a couple points: He does wear a bow tie to work, but you'd be very surprised to see where he wears it! And judging by the expression on his face, we're guessing it's very tight.

And Mark does spend a remarkable amount of his time hollering, "You bet, Chief!" These words echo throughout the pit where he toils... Um. Perhaps we've said too much...

-- The Shadow

Anonymous said...

Ummm... nope, sorry, still don't feel bad for the staff of a successful comic strip. It's not EVIL to have a staff... it's their day job! And his "staff" is one guy: Don Carlton. He's worked for Trudeau forever, and is happy to do so- if he didn't like it he'd do his own dang strip. He gets credited in Trudeau's books and on his website.

Matt Groening doesn't do any of the animation on The Simpsons, but he still came up with the dang idea, and it was one that sold, enough so he's got a whole company doing the show. Disney had a staff, so did Warner Brothers- so how's that hugely different from Trudeau? He came up with an idea, and he writes it and does the art (whether you like it or not is a matter of opinion- I don't need my daily comics to be Little Nemo if'n they make me chuckle). And Mark Martin isn't losing by Garry Trudeau's success, because they cartoon in totally different arenas (newspaper vs. books/magazines).

And those of us who love comics of ALL kinds support our fave cartoonists by buying THEIR stuff... like, say, all the comics, books, the three 'BAD MANS!' shirts I've bought off'n Mark... And any other thang Mark sells I'll be there with my spondulicks! But I can still dig Doonesbury because it's a quality daily newspaper strip, no matter who actually inks it. If Trudeau can throw some work the way of a another artist, good for him- it's a good "day job" for any supporting artist, and can keep him going until he does something on his own. (If he even wants to.)