139 lines
7.2 KiB
Plaintext
139 lines
7.2 KiB
Plaintext
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Conference with Cristopher Browne, of HAGAR fame.
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(Alex) Chris-->Any opening statements?
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(Christopher Browne) Yes, I'd like to say that I sprained my mind earlier,
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trying to explain what I was going to do tonight. to my folks.
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(Alex) Don't worry about it; iI'm still trying to explain that to mine! Could
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we get some bio on you, Chris?.How you got into the business, how long, what
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you're doing now, etc?
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(Christopher Browne) Sure. I'm 33 years old, I live in Sarasota Florida and
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Wilton, Ct. I have worked for National Lampoon, Playboy, Heavy Metal, and
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presently I assist my father on Hagar the Horrible. He also draws Hi and Lois
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with my brother and that strip is written by Mort Walker. Our most recent
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ventures are 2 books... "Hagar the Horrible's Viking Handbook" and "The Best
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Of Hagar"... and. a kid's book for Simon and Schuster... and the recent
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Thanksgiving day hunger project. I also did some male modelling once. Does
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that count?
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(Diane Duane) Chris, was there always an "understanding" that you would. "go
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into the business" or did it happen some other way?
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(Christopher Browne) I evolved into it... we are a very close and relaxed
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family, and nothing is foisted on anyone, but cartooning is a very utopian job.
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I have done other jobs, weird jobs... cartooning is work, butI love it.
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(Scott) ....it would seem as though cartooning is too often tied up to the real
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world to be Utopian..
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(TAT) Hello, Christopher. You've told us about panels that are cut by the
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syndicates. Our paper doesn't seem to cut any panels from any cartoons. I
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have noticed that HAGAR's all hang together, but some others like BC are
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totally incomprehensible. Do you see the incomprehensible trend increasing in
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the trade?
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(Christopher Browne) Well, yes... the trend is to making the strips smaller
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and smaller. A few, like Gary Trudeau are trying to hold the line against
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shrinkage, but it's tough. We try to fight it by making our struip as clear
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and clean liooking as possible.
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(Alex) Chris, just how do you put these strips together? Browne/Walker/etc are
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somewewhat famous for their cooperation. Just who does what, and who makes
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final decisions?
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(Christopher Browne) Ok... On Hi and Lois, Mort Walker has a team of about six
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writers who all contribute to a variety of strips... Betty Boop, Hi and Lois,
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Beetle Baily, Boner's Ark.. So he sends us a bunch of gags, usually once a
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month, 4 sunday roughs and 4 weeks of daily roughs. Chance, my brother, takes
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the dailies and roughs them up. That is, he takes the stick figures in the
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"roughs" and makes them look real good. Then he shows them to dad, dad makes
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corrections and suggestions, and Chance takes these new drawings and puts them
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on good high quality paper, in pencil. Then dad checks them again, adds the
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sunday pages to the pile (dad draws the sundays) and sends the whole thing to a
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guy in Connecticut who inks them. HAGAR is easier, we write draw ink,
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everything EXCEPT letter it here in Florida.. It is much more representative
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of the "soul " of our family.
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(Janet) Christopher -you mentioned that your dad makes corrections to Chance's
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drawings for Hi & Lois -- what sort of corrections?
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(Christopher Browne) Well, Hi and Lois, surprisingly, is a tough strip to draw.
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Outside of the characters in the strip, everything has to appear correct-- that
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is, everything is "representational art"; if you draw a table wrong in Hagar or
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in b.c. or Cathy, who can prove it? But in Hi and Lois, everything has to
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look correct artistically. (I used to draw Hi and Lois-- It's tougher to draw)
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(Alex) Chris, now that Playboy has dropped their funny pages, will Cruiser have
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a new life elsewhere? And when Hagar was first designed, was the less "solid,"
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less consistent, almost krazy kat approach designed in, or did it evolve?
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(Christopher Browne) Well... first off, Cruiser will still appear in
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Playboy... I got a letter awhile back, from Michelle Urry, the cartoon editor,
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saying that the Funnies section was shot down in an inter-office dispute, and
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that the end was near. So, I had worked in the section for about six years and
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I and I called her and said, "Well, I just wanted you to know, now that I don't
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work for you anymore, that I think you're one of the best pros I've ever worked
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with. You have. a class act, Bye." And she said, "Whoa, Whoa! We're dropping
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the section, we're KEEPING you!" so I'm still there. Number Two, Dad is a
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longtime fan of Herriman and his friend Rube Goldberg, so, to the extent that
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everything an artist does is a sythesis, it was planned. But beyond that it
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was a case of just doing what felt good. There is a chapter on how the strip
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began in "The Best of Hagar", at your bookstores, even as we type! (That's the
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ad!)
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(Alex) Gee, does that first part mean we can hope for the revival ofyour
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peglegged rabbit from the Lampoon? (grin).
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(Christopher Browne) Avast! You remembered my rabbit! (SIGH)
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(Beth Walker) Could you please review for me what was earlier said about
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newspapers cutting panels and what else?
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(Christopher Browne) we design the strips so that they can be cut up into
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smaller strips that (hopefully) still make sense (thats the short version.)
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Ahem... again there is a chapter that covers this in our book "The Best Of
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Hagar" only $10,99!
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(Alex) That's $10.99, folks, not ten one thousand ninety nine. hehe
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(Christopher Browne) Great Christmas Gift! mercenarally.
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(Alex) Chris, you came into the business partially because of your dad; but
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what advice have you for the struggling would-be cartoonistwho doesn't know his
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or her ins from the outs?
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(Christopher Browne) OK! The best advice is stupid stuff, but it is: first,
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love whatcha do. Second, do whatcha love. Third, generally, keep enthused.
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On a more technical level, I'd say, for humorous cartoonists,. try "gag"
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cartooning" before you attempt a strip, and don't be afraid of editors and art
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directors; they are people. Also, try to learn as much about drawing as
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possible.... drawing is key. You may want to do "Ziggy", but you better know
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how to draw the Crysler building if you have to.
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(Alex) A note here---a lot, even most, of the cartoonists who are now big did a
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lot of dues-paying. Ziggy's creator, for example, used to work at a card
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company here in Cleveland. Even Al Capp and Walt Kelly toiled in the vinyards!
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(Christopher Browne) Yup, card companies are great places to start>> some
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cartoonists who started there: Jim Davies, R. Crumb, Russ Myers, Mort Walker.
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(Beth Walker) Thanks. What does Chris think of cartoons being pulled for their
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polictical content?
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(Christopher Browne) It happens. We've even been bounced now and then. This
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country is huge and you can't please everybody. Ambrose Bierce said, what's
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the point of writing if you can't get people mad at you (or something like
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that). Our feeling at our little studio is leave the messages to Western
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Union. It's a good philosophy for us because. we have such a mixed group, all
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of whom are opinionated; if we all scrambled onto the soapbox, we'd never get
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down and the critics would call our strip...
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(Christopher Browne) "POGO the Horrible".
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(Alex) We could all wear Hagar For President buttons, though.
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