CSotD: Elegant, witty writing, and the art’s not bad, either
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In case anyone was wondering what it takes to become "Comic Strip of the Day," here's a quick lesson from Hilary Price of Rhymes With Orange: It doesn't hurt to base your cartoon on something you read here.
When Hilary asked to use the quote, my initial highly flattered reaction was to say yes and then say, "but be sure …"
I stifled that last part because (A) it was Hilary Price, after all, and I knew she'd come up with something terrific without my hovering over her shoulder, and (B) because I've collaborated with artists for several years and have long since learned that it's best to leave your words in a pile by the door and not come in.
At one point in their brilliant and historic collaboration, Gilbert & Sullivan got to the point where Sir William Gilbert would do just that — he'd slip his lyrics under the door and go away unseen, and Sir Arthur Sullivan would pick them up off the floor and set them to music. But that was the result of seething animosity tempered only by the fact that they were making a lot of money working together, if you could call it that. I actually like my artists, though I've only met a couple of them in three dimensions, since they live in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Vancouver, BC; and on the island of Borneo (I'm not kidding).
But I've come to realize that I am a writer and they are artists and they have talents I don't, which is why I'm working with them in the first place. So I just send them the words and they come up with illustrations that, indeed, capture the spirit of the piece and, in fact, enhance and expand it. I very rarely have to ask for adjustments in an illustration, and, in most of the cases when I have, it was because my words did not properly convey my thoughts in the first place.
And there is always a delightful sense of surprise in store, if you haven't ruined it by treading on their talents.
I certainly, for example, did not foresee the way Hilary would use that initial, verbose word balloon to hide the wife in the first panel. In a cartoon, "comic timing" is a function of art as much as dialogue, and she uses the balloon to set up her punchline — which is that he was only following the orders of an irritated spouse.
Had I been kibitzing her art, I obviously wouldn't have objected to that.
Though I might have pointed out that my nose isn't that big.
And this tip: You should haunt Hilary's blog if for no other reason than to find out the date of her annual open studio in the autumn. It's in Florence, Mass., near Northampton, which is a good place to go hang out for awhile anyway, and she always has something special available at the open house aside from her own good company. Above all, at that holiday-shopping time, she is one of the best book-signers in the business.
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