I usually try to let the strips stand by themselves with no explanation or commentary, but this time, I feel the need to explain a few things to the 200 or so people who read this every day.
I tend to wear my influences on my sleeve. Walt Kelly, George Herriman, Bill Watterson, Wallace Tripp, Steve Purcell's Sam and Max and Howard Stern seem to be my biggest influences when I sit down to do this strip. However, one of my all time favorites hasn't been represented at all, and that is Popeye. The Popeye strip as drawn by it's creator Elzie Chrysler Segar was probably the single greatest comic strip ever drawn. It had strong characters, a unique voice, and was beautifully drawn. The great thing about Popeye was that it was not only a funny strip, but it was a very compelling adventure strip as well. Popeye and the gang would have adventures that would sometimes fill a whole year's worth of strips. And that brings me to my strip. I want to try to take Chippy and Loopus on an extended adventure. I saw an opportunity early on and today, I'm grabbing it. Hopefully, you all will like it as much as the stuff I've been doing. And don't worry, they'll still swear, and I'll do my best to keep it funny.
Enough of my fuhfumfering.
Thanks for reading.
-John
12 comments:
Damn great strips!! I laughed so hard, and they are so lovable!
Thanks for visiting my blog! You're right, an animation teaser for a wedding is a bit much, but I think I might have gone a little crazy before the wedding like a lot of brides have done before me... I just channeled mine into nazi like work ethics. It kept my mind off of relatives and 'it's the most important day of your life' crap...
Love the t-shirts with strip idea. You could print the web address on the side of the sleave, that's always classy.
From reading your comic for the past week, I think if anyone is up for a challenge, it would be you. Out of curiosity, how long is your epic tale going to span? (e.g. weeks, months, a year)
Eliza- I'm just impressed that you channelled it into such a positive direction. Good Idea about putting the web address on the sleeve. Thanks!
Lyndon- Hey thanks for the vote of confidence. Teh porblem is, I have no idea how long this will go. LIke everything I've done so far, I'm making it up stream-of-conciousness style as I go.
Everyone should feel free to tell me if I go too far with something. Just write and tell me "Okay, enough already!"
Hey, I didn't know you were such a Segar fan! He was amazing. People think of the spinach-eating version from the animated cartoons, but the Popeye from the strips was a much more dimensional, smart, incredibly funny charcter. Drawings as good as Herriman, too, for my money. I only wish someone would reprint them all. Every book on Comic history keeps reprinting the same few strips. Anyway, great looking start for your strip and can't wait to see more!!!
Oh dang! This is gonna get good. Just from this strip, I have no idea what you have in mind for this adventure, but I can't wait to find out. Now you just have to wuit your day job and focus on this full time. Also, am I nuts or this damn blogging thing like, scary addictive?
Hey Mark! Thanks for the very kind words. It really means alot. Did you ever see the Fantagraphics Complete Popeye books? They did them back in the late 80's early 90's before they really knew how to do those books. I'd like to see them reprint them the way they are doing Peanuts, Krazy Kat and Dennis the Menace.
Count! Your encouragement and enthusiastic support means more than you know! And yes, blogging is more addictive than crack, heroin and nicotine combined!!!
Yeah, I didn't appreciate Popeye back when the Fantagraphics book came out. You can get them on ebay now, but I'll wait until a good reprint comes along...
Yo Bro! I think I have some of your Popeye books in my basement,...along with abunch of other books. If you ever decide to come visit, you could take some back with you.(Sounds like Pop don't it?) Just kidd'n. Hey if you want I might be able to sort through them and ship some of them out to you
Mark, you can also get them used on amazon. Go for the hardbacked versions. They're pretty nice.
Hey Jim!!! Yeah, one of these days, we'll come out there and get that stuff. Thanks for holding on to it for me. How do the other deputies like the strip?
This sounds like fun! One of the best things about a lot of the older classic strips is the longer story format. There is so much more opportunity to tell tales with more depth, suspense and character.
In addition to all of the great cartoonists you listed, on my list there would also be Alex Raymond and Winsor McCay. I would also agree that Segar is probably among the most neglected of the greats... perhaps it is because of the success of the Popeye cartoons and the fact that the strip bears only a passing resemblance to the animated shorts.
The other amazing thing about Segar's Popeye is that it only ran for NINE years under Segar's hand. Popeye appeared in 1929, and Segar died in 1938. That is a short time my freinds, and yet look at the impact he had!
I haven't had much of a chance to share it with my co-workers, but don't worry I will. I'll let you know what they think.
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