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thehefnerSo behold what utterly dork-tastic thing I've been up to today, will you?
Let me first explain... I have a large book of Jules Feiffer cartoons, bought in London back when I was on the cusp of doing an entire play/movie/interpretive dance based on the work of Feiffer. I even managed to track him down to get his permission, which he granted, but alas, college life took over and I lost interest. A part of me still thinks I should get back to it before the man, you know, dies... but that's another story.
For those who don't know who he is, Jules Feiffer is a great cartoonist who contributed to the Village Voice for decades. His work was as often about the dark side of everyday New Yorker neurosis as it was political. One of his most famous from his era came in 1968, when he did this cartoon about Robert F. Kennedy:
The portion of (3.) that was cut off by the scanner read: "The good Bobby sent federal troops down south to enforce civil rights."
And so, reading Ellroy's AMERICAN TABLOID and several Rat Pack biographies, I started getting interested in RFK. Here was a man hailed even by a bitter cynic like James Ellroy as one of America's greatest crime-fighters, a good-hearted man haunted by demons and deep-seated moral complexity, and to this day remains a deeply controversial figure, divided by camps who remember "Good Bobby" and "Bad Bobby."
Perhaps you can already see where this might interest me.
Anyhoo.
Ever since I read that Gotham Times Newspaper website, I've started thinking about his depiction in the movie, and noticing how they've really been pushing the controversial-figure angle. And so I started to work that in my novel's revisions, having him read the paper and see all the criticism and slander against him, which only fuels his hatred and resentment against the people of Gotham, many of whom start believing the bad press.
And one of these things he reads... could be a political cartoon.
Obviously, I'm no professional cartoonist. Also, I really wish I had better handwriting, so that I wouldn't have had to use MSPaint and its many crappy fonts. Furthermore, I never should have tried to pull off the sparkling "ting!' in the smile, not with a ballpoint pen.
And while I tried to go for a Harvey caricature based on David Mazzucchelli's YEAR ONE take (which was in turn used by Tim Sale), I can't shake the feeling that he looks kinda like a mini-Paul Reiser.
Still. I think it gets the idea across. If I end up really liking it, I may insert it in the actual novel, like a sorta LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: BLACK DOSSIER insert. Of course, I'm going to have to explain the entire RFK/Feiffer reference in the introduction, so that people actually get the joke. I don't think I have Alan Moore's balls to say, "Oh, you don't get the reference? SUCK IT! READ A BOOK!!!"
But if I ever do use it in the book, I'd want to photoshop it to look like it's actually in a newspaper. Shit, maybe I'll just hijack the Gotham Times and throw in pictures of Harvey drawn by various other artists, with the editorial cartoon on page 5.
In either case, for just now, I am content. Even if I am embarrassed by my huge awesome nerd-dom.
All hail King Dork.
Let me first explain... I have a large book of Jules Feiffer cartoons, bought in London back when I was on the cusp of doing an entire play/movie/interpretive dance based on the work of Feiffer. I even managed to track him down to get his permission, which he granted, but alas, college life took over and I lost interest. A part of me still thinks I should get back to it before the man, you know, dies... but that's another story.
For those who don't know who he is, Jules Feiffer is a great cartoonist who contributed to the Village Voice for decades. His work was as often about the dark side of everyday New Yorker neurosis as it was political. One of his most famous from his era came in 1968, when he did this cartoon about Robert F. Kennedy:
The portion of (3.) that was cut off by the scanner read: "The good Bobby sent federal troops down south to enforce civil rights."
And so, reading Ellroy's AMERICAN TABLOID and several Rat Pack biographies, I started getting interested in RFK. Here was a man hailed even by a bitter cynic like James Ellroy as one of America's greatest crime-fighters, a good-hearted man haunted by demons and deep-seated moral complexity, and to this day remains a deeply controversial figure, divided by camps who remember "Good Bobby" and "Bad Bobby."
Perhaps you can already see where this might interest me.
Anyhoo.
Ever since I read that Gotham Times Newspaper website, I've started thinking about his depiction in the movie, and noticing how they've really been pushing the controversial-figure angle. And so I started to work that in my novel's revisions, having him read the paper and see all the criticism and slander against him, which only fuels his hatred and resentment against the people of Gotham, many of whom start believing the bad press.
And one of these things he reads... could be a political cartoon.
Obviously, I'm no professional cartoonist. Also, I really wish I had better handwriting, so that I wouldn't have had to use MSPaint and its many crappy fonts. Furthermore, I never should have tried to pull off the sparkling "ting!' in the smile, not with a ballpoint pen.
And while I tried to go for a Harvey caricature based on David Mazzucchelli's YEAR ONE take (which was in turn used by Tim Sale), I can't shake the feeling that he looks kinda like a mini-Paul Reiser.
Still. I think it gets the idea across. If I end up really liking it, I may insert it in the actual novel, like a sorta LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: BLACK DOSSIER insert. Of course, I'm going to have to explain the entire RFK/Feiffer reference in the introduction, so that people actually get the joke. I don't think I have Alan Moore's balls to say, "Oh, you don't get the reference? SUCK IT! READ A BOOK!!!"
But if I ever do use it in the book, I'd want to photoshop it to look like it's actually in a newspaper. Shit, maybe I'll just hijack the Gotham Times and throw in pictures of Harvey drawn by various other artists, with the editorial cartoon on page 5.
In either case, for just now, I am content. Even if I am embarrassed by my huge awesome nerd-dom.
All hail King Dork.
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Sharpie without a pause...
Date: 2007-11-27 03:47 am (UTC)Re: Sharpie without a pause...
Date: 2007-11-27 05:30 am (UTC)Yes. Yes? Yes.
Re: Sharpie without a pause...
Date: 2007-11-27 12:48 pm (UTC)Nicely done. I agree about the "with apologies to Jules Feiffer" tag, too.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 03:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 03:54 am (UTC)Wow, this is gonna make even *less* sense for the folks who haven't read the book.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 04:24 am (UTC)You're a fucking genius.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 05:28 am (UTC)And there we go: this epic near-unpublishable novel is proves to not be a waste of time after all.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 05:15 am (UTC)It works even without the RFK/Feiffer reference - I'd advise against introducing it like that. If people get it, they can feel intellectual and superior. If not, they can still enjoy it. If you just want to make it clear that it's an homage rather than a rip-off, you can add a little note like "With apologies to Jules Feiffer" or something like that.
That said, the little shorts crack me up. As does tiny manic Bat Harvey. Hee.
Well done.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 05:28 am (UTC)But one of the fun things about this novel is that I've given myself free reign to rip-off at my heart's content. Openly ripping off, mind you, so that I never deny any of the things I rip off. I'm already using other people's characters and myths, I figured, might as well go all the way! It's been strangely liberating, while at the same time presenting its own challenges. But I think I've actually come up with an artistic argument for ripping-off, at least in this case. It'll be easier to explain, perhaps, once you read the book.
Thankya! :)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 12:07 am (UTC)