Nigel Parkinson, Cartoonist

Nigel Parkinson, Cartoonist
Me at a Comic Con

Friday 15 June 2012

Not Plain Sailing

As jobs go, drawing comics is a real pleasure.
Sometimes it becomes slightly less of a pleasure and it's usually when celebrities are involved. Or more likely their agents. One particular famous person once made me go through no fewer than EIGHT redraws; "her calves are slightly slimmer, her hair is a slightly different colour, she looks too amusing"- this is in The Beano, remember- only to then say they 'd thought about it and preferred the first one. Here is a different page that was dropped from a recent BeanoMAX because a certain athlete's agent couldn't make his mind up regarding his clients hairstyle, face furniture, placement of logos on his kit, skin colour and dialogue. It may be clear just who's agent gave us the grief by looking at the picture above. If it's not clear, then I guess that's another reason why he wasn't happy.
(Clearly this very minor carp at vain celebrities doesn't apply to Harry Hill with whom I've always enjoyed the most cordial and warm relations).

3 comments:

Kid said...

John Byrne had similar problems when he was drawing the Indiana Jones comic. Story was approved by the Lucas rep before it was drawn, only for her to change her mind after it was finished. Some people just don't have a clue.

NP said...

The worst case I ever suffered was for a comic based on an TV animated show called something like 'The Land Before Time' where the rep rejected every picture that wasn't an exact reproduction of a pose in her 'bible' of images. Even if it was eyes left instead of eyes right. Jobsworth doesn't cover it. No idea of composition, story-telling or style. Just 'it's not in my book'.

Harry Rickard said...

Must have been a nightmare.

I don't think the celebrity stories were too well written in The Dandy - the only exception being Harry Hill as it was written by you and not a Dandy staff member.