A. Ms. Mouly talked quite a bit about 'making objects' and how the intention with RAW was to have an OBJECT vs. the Crumb ethic of 'print a million shitty copies and get 'em into people's hands'. What's interesting to me vis-a-vis King Cat is how John makes beautiful objects that actually ARE disposable. I've always liked that in his self published comics, he foregoes printing histories.
B. Chris Ware likes to cuss. I heard him say 'shit' 'douche' and 'fuck'. Pretty funny. I introduced myself to him, and said, 'yeah I'm the guy doing the John P. doc who's been harassing you'. He was friendly and polite about it, though I doubt I'll be getting an email from him any time soon inviting me out to the Acme HQ.
C. When I chatted with Francoise, I mentioned John P. and the documentary and she was at least familiar with it, which is a good start. We'll see where it goes.
In other news, I've started worrying that I don't have enough of a villain/conflict. What I mean is, John's a good person who makes great comics. Sure, there's some weird stuff about him, but as he himself will point out, he's not a scumbag.
Remember Crumb (movie, not guy)? There were people talking about what a supreme jerk Crumb is. Then you meet his family and go, 'well, he's not assaulting women on the street, sooooo....'.
At the same time, that's a bit of my point. Here's a guy making honest, accessible, beautiful art, yet who is known to a couple thousand people.
Anyway, that's enough of that for now. Hopefully going to do some good editing this weekend --- therefore not likely to post til Monday, but hopefully then with something interesting. We'll see.
In the mean time, I picked up Zak's 'Like a Dog' from Fantagraphics. It's great.
Super excited to see what you come up with after the weekend:)
ReplyDeleteIf this movie is to have a "bad guy," I think John's own depression or physical illness could qualify. My understanding is that he's had periods where he could hardly function, but he kept churning out the comics anyhow. If you play up his mental or physical problems, and contrast that with his productivity in the face of it, that could be interesting. Also, there's the question of WHY he keeps going. Why is he compelled to keep doing this, no matter how bad things get or how little recognition he gets?
ReplyDeleteA lot of your videos aren't loading on my computer, just so's you know.
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