As I think I mentioned recently, digitalization is nothing new in my line of work, but it still amazes me. The most glaring difference has been in the transporting of the artwork itself. When I started and for years afterward the original art was bundled up and shipped to the syndicate headquarters where it was reproduced in an old-school print shop and, in turn, mailed to client newspapers. Now, everything moves almost instantaneously with the push of a button, not to mention the old-school print shop is long gone. Of course, some quality is lost in digital reproduction, but it’s the difference in mp3 files and vinyl records: most people can’t tell and don’t care. There are other, more subtle differences for the better, as in the third panel of the above cartoon. In the old days, I would have had to pencil in the “chalk” outline of Ludwig and painstakingly ink around it with a brush, emphasis on the pain. Today, it’s a simple chore to draw the thought balloon and the cat outline normally, and use an easy combination of select/invert/deselect/fill. You get the idea. It’s great!
50 responses to “Second Thoughts”
There is strip in a Pogo book I have where one of the panels is drawn in silhouette (I don’t think I’ve ever had to spell that word before). Churchy, Pogo and Howland are pulling the boat along and one of them remarks, “Silhouettes sure do save a mess of drawin'”.
I started working in TV and Radio back in the 70’s and the technology has been amazing. Now you can send photos, videos and sound direct from your phone and it is very Max Headroom in how reporting is done these days. I was working at a TV station when they switched from 16mm to Electronic News Gathering or ENG as they called it then.
As a photographer, I love digital and the ability to do things in Photoshop I could never do in the darkroom back when you used chemicals and light…
A view of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris by Louis Daguerre from 1838, believed to be the first photograph of a person. Note the bootblack and his customer in the lower left of the photo. The exposure time was ten minutes, so the horses, carriages and pedestrians were moving too fast to register on the print.
http://hyperallergic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/firstphotographofaperson.jpg
And today one could take a high-quality digital photo of this scene and photoshop it to look just like this.
Thanks for the insights into cartooning. Whenever you discuss a concept, it becomes obvious where before it was just there. Now I have a deeper appreciation of the artist’s work.
Some years ago I had to do white-on-black for a presentation (with the evil twin sister looking over my shoulder and being a b***h, as always) so I can appreciate the effort, Jimmy.
As for today’s real-timer, a tidy house in the sign of a deranged mind. Warren G. Harding said that. Actually, he didn’t, but he would have had he thought of it. Warren G. Harding had such a wonderful sense of humor.
Goodbye.
How realistic is this comic, though?
“You can teach a cat to be careful to hide what it’s doing sometimes. You can teach the cat to feel fear about breaking your rules when you’re looking, or close enough to catch it in the act. You can teach the cat that certain acts have a high percentage chance of resulting in punishment, and not to be willing to gamble on getting away with it. But you can’t make the cat feel guilty.” — Brad Hicks
A certain blonde needed an interpreter for the third panel of the retro. This is the same person who can have late night geek pillow talks on coding and utility load probability. Guess she has advanced too far for line pictorial representations. 😉
Kind of funny, I know intellectually that you draw digitally but to here the actual processes used is always a surprise. When I think cartoons I think old school with hand drawn and inked images and probably always will.
Has the digital age changed how far in advance you have to submit the strips? I think I heard once that Schulz had to submit his strips 4-6 in advance which means cartoons weren’t timely. I’ve noticed that they have become more current with little or no lag time. What kind of lead time do you need in the digital age?
That should have said 4-6 weeks in advance of publication.
For today’s strip, Arlo needs to get a clue, it isn’t Gene that Janis is worried about. She wants to be sure the house is clean for Mary Lou. Mothers-in-law have to set the best example for their sons’ wives. They have to be certain their son is getting the care they deserve.
I love hearing the explanations, although I still picture the strips being drawn with a pencil, then inked and finally colored, all by hand. Drawing and creating with a computer is true science fiction to me. Wizardry!
Know that Jimmy does not hand color dailies but in reading the archives I came across a Ludwig that was PINK! Not the pink of Garfield’s girl friend or Fleshy but definitely pink.
Going back and reading the old strips has been a joy and yet I have not seen them all. Today’s retro I had never seen.
Were I to never have company or something important, there would be little clean ever again I think.
Love, Jackie Monies
Just a mention of the completion, for those of you that follow Luann. Today’s strip made me laugh out loud.
http://www.gocomics.com/luann/2014/07/09
“What, you’ve never run off to South America with a girl before?”
I suspect that there are a few of the A & J village that have indeed run off somewhere exotic with the appropriate gender (whatever that might be).
Ludwig is a survivalist.
Indeed, Ludwig has been known to catch mice, snakes, lizards. turkey gizzards. Not sure about chipmunks and gophers and squirrels? And ate them.
Love, Jackie Monies
My cats love to catch lizards, not to eat them but to release them and catch them again. EMB, I am now not the only person here who has made a joke about Hitler. Yours was funnier though. Thunderboomers moving in.
My cat caught a lizard last year and wanted to bring it inside to play with. I wouldn’t let him because I didn’t want it getting loose inside. In about two minutes, there was nothing left but a small blood-spot. Even pampered indoor cats who don’t go out very often know what to do with their prey.
My cats, especially some of the orange tabby variety, liked to catch small snakes, a la’ Ludwig and bring them to me dangling down and still alive. Then I would have to try to get them to spit them out so I could kill the snake and they didn’t want to. Meanwhile, snake would be trying to bite cat.
Perils of cat ownership.
Love, Jackie Monies
I have two original POGO weekly strips that the Hall Syndicate sent out to the newspapers.
There’s 6 strips (Mon – Sat) and the dates (week of May 25, 1964 and Jun 1, 1964).
I framed them and they make a very nice display in the POGO corner of my office.
Tom, you lucky devil! An original week of Pogo! All I have is one “Tank McNamara” from the 1980’s and my new A & J I bought this year.
Which makes me ask, how many A & J cartoons do you own Ghost? I bet it is more than one and I bet you were one of the ones I was bidding against this year. Who is serious collector here?
Love, Jackie Monies
Speaking of cats and their penchants for bringing and playing with their food… My dog, a German shorthair pointer mix, thinks she is a cat. She catches and plays with bugs, lizards, snakes, field mice, field rats, and even one armadillo! She was sh proud when she brought the armadillo to the garage door. However, unlike a cat, she comes when she is called, will walk at heel, and knows a short list of verbal commands. Before I destroyed my knees we were doing beginning agility training. Of course, I realized this is of no significance… But I’m proud of her, too.
Ok…what I want to know GR is, how did you know that it was a bootblack and his customer in the lower left of the photo. 🙂 Inquiring minds wanna know.
I’ve been brought bluebirds at my doorstep…but I did save a chipmunk once.
David, I would be proud of her too. I owned a blue heeler named Shorty (like in Texasville novel) who loved cats and thought she was one too. She’d go out in yard with Marigold who was a cat and they’d catch mice, snakes, etc. and you’d see the two out jumping around in air together, tormenting their poor prey. Catch and release was a big game to them.
It was a little bizarre seeing them doing these “air dances” if you didn’t know what it was.
Love, Jackie Monies
Dale – I agree but I don’t know that Loodie feels guilty – he just knows Janis will be irate. My cats, however, would have gone to sleep in the fourth panel. Or a couple of the younger ones might be batting pieces of kibble around in a game of fridge-hockey.
Well, I got lucky. I found the two “82 billion turtles” strips in Pluperfect Pogo on pages 132-3. That mess of drawing really is impressive. Howland Owl has been taking Pogo Possum to search for “the poor, new spawned turtle child what run off in fear and tremblin’ without so much as a toothbrunch.” Pogo asks how Howland is going to tell which the turtle it is, for “82,000,000,006 turtles is born every year.” In the last panel of that May 17, 1970 strip, Howland starts asking each one, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” A termite starts to count them: “Now, jus’ let’s see. . . .”
The following Sunday strip ends with turtle Churchy Lafemme joining them (with one of those baby turtles on his head, for he bumped into them). Churchy asks Pogo and Howland, “What’s goin’ on?” Howland says, “Set down an’ enjoy Miss Mamselle’s lunch to which she invited us . . . nothin’ to fear . . . Mister Kelly ain’t gone draw 82 billion turtles again. . . .”
But I didn’t find what I was looking for: A Sunday strip that begins with a tree in panel one, a tree that really outdid most all other of Walt Kelly’s wonderful trees. Such penwork! As I was first gawking at this most glorious tree, I then noticed one of the characters just to the left breaking the fourth wall, commenting on Mr. Kelly’s extra-fine drawing that day. I can’t find it. Mr. Kelly got me good that time.
JJ ain’t gone draw 32 billion anything ever, is he?