Is The Far Side an influence in your work? |
Actually....no.
Darby Conley(he draws "Get Fuzzy," remember?) said in a
collection of his, "There are two cartoonists today: those
who got their start by ripping off The Far Side and
those who still rip off The Far Side but won't admit
it."
And he's right...probably a lot of people who draw cartoons today
have a strong desire to emulate The Far Side, but I
think that's a mistake. No single-panel strip will ever succeed
again. You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm right. At least not in
this generation. When people think of single-panel strips these
days they think of The Far Side and expect whatever
they're looking at to be just as funny. If it's not they hate it.
If it is, they think it's ripping off The Far Side and
they hate it. This is why I'm glad my imagination is too huge for
one drawing a day.
Anyway, I think Conley was too harsh(despite how harsh I
just was up there). No idea comes from nowhere; everybody is
affected by influences. You ask anybody with a hit idea where
he/she got it, and they'll say it just came into their heads, but
that's because you asked the wrong question. Ask "What are
the biggest influences in your career?" and you'll get the
right answers.
I have many influences but The Far Side is not one of
them...I'm probably the only cartoon writer who can say this. The
thing is, it's impossible for this strip to be my influence
because when I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to read it. My mom
said it "wasn't nice." I looked at some Far Side
books recently, and I have no idea what she was talking about.
Anyway, if you wonder what I've really looked up to, here's a
list of the top 10 greatest influences in my humorist career,
listed in order of importance. No, you probably haven't heard of
some of these people, but snoop around the site enough and you'll
find their names:
1. Chris Lundgren 2. Berke Breathed 3. The "Tiny Toons" writing crew 4. Louis Sachar 5. Carl Barks 6. Dave Barry 7. Bill Watterson 8. Matt Groening 9. Jim Davis 10. Tina Fey |
And there you have it.
Return to the FAQs, mon! |