So, is youtube the cartoonist's worst enemy? Was it a mistake buying a laptop? I should be working, but spend hours looking at clips, mostly documentaries or stand up comedy. After having watched lots of Eddie Izzard clips, I got the dvd box with all seven of his shows. The first four ones, Unrepeatable, Definite Article, Glorious and Dress To Kill are brilliant, the fifth, Circle, is quite good, with what is possibly his most well known sketch, the Star Wars Cantina bit. Unfortunately, the two latest ones, Sexie and Stripped, are less good, especially Sexie, where he just seemed to have an off night - lots of adlibs that go nowhere. My favourite bits of all his shows are probably Paul's Letter to the Corinthians and Cat, Are You Drilling?
Steven Wright is also very funny. I got his cd I Have a Pony. There's also a second one, I Still Have a Pony. Also brilliant. It must take him a long time to work up enough material for an hour, though.
If you were going to shoot a mime, would you use a silencer?Robin Williams can be very funny. Shows like An Evening With and Weapons of Self Destruction can be found on youtube, but his best one is probably Live at the Met.
But my favourite comedian these days would be Louis CK. He's sort of a stand up comedy version of Ivan Brunetti. Funny but quite dark. His shows Shameless and Chewed Up can be found on youtube. He also has his own show on FX, Louie, but I haven't seen that one yet.
It's the return of the two main characters from & in Low Moon. One thing I completely screwed up in that story is that they were supposed to be Laurel and Hardy. Hence the title. It's the story of how they met. Yes, I know, I should have drawn Hardy fatter! I don't know what I was thinking... But maybe it's just as well that nobody got it, as I assume the likeness of Laurel and Hardy might be copyrighted. So if nothing else, at least it kept me from being sued.
The image above is the translation into French that I got from my publisher, glued into my sketchbook, the image below is thumbnail sketches. The story is influenced by Charles Bukowski, particularly the novel Women. Okay, it's a rip-off.
I usually avoid thought balloons, so I wanted to do a story with only thought balloons. We follow four characters, and then something happens at the end that connects them. I did the drawings Marvel style, just the drawings, no text. Only when the drawings for all the pages were finished, did I sit down and decide their thoughts. I had to think of the background situation for each character, and if there should be some sort of theme going on. So one of the characters, a bird guy, wants to get out of a loveless marriage, and I had five pages to tell his story.
Commander Arne Treholt and his Ninja Force save the day. Starring Mads Ousdal, written and directed by Thomas Cappelen Malling.
