This thread has me thinking about the phenomenon known as the “retired cartoonist.”
My question is, do cartoonists who “retire” put down their illustrating pen forever? I never really hear of a writer “retiring,” and I assume that writers who stop publishing are still writing, memoirs, journals, the occasional article for magazine or newspaper, correspondence, etc. In fact, so many people talk about how writers “need” to write all the time, that it hardly makes sense to think of a retired writer . . . just one who’s currently being published, and one who isn’t.
Do cartoonists “need” to cartoon? Does Bill Watterson draw Calvin and Hobbes-esque pictures and jokes on holiday cards to family? Does Gary Larson put talking cows on his shopping lists? Or, are these purely commercial pursuits that, when abandoned, are relegated to memory, like a job at the factory?
Both cartoonists were covered in interesting articles in 2003, Larson as part of a press junket for his Complete Far Side and Watterson by an Ohio newspaper. This 2003 AP article states that Larson doesn’t do any work except for a new drawing for a licensed Christmas card each year, and he also did a New Yorker cover. According to this great article from the Cleveland Scene, Watterson lives a semi-reclusive life in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, spending most of his time painting, then burning the painting immediately afterward- because he was once told that an artists’ first 500 paintings are never any good.
Sure, writers can write a “series” (trilogy, or whatever) or stick to a genre, but cartoonists are usually bound by the same characters. Whereas, say, anyone from Douglas Adams to Clive Cussler could start a new book with a new host of characters and it would have a decent shot at success, somebody like Gary Larson might not have the luxury of starting a new strip “just like that”, and a formal declaration of retirement is possibly thus more likely to come from the cartoonist.
If Douglas Adams ever started a new book, I’d be the first to buy it. Especially if it’s a first hand account from the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, which is where he’s probably having dinner right now.
Larson never had a “strip” with certain set characters, though, so creating new ones wouldn’t really be a problem, I’d think. Other cartoonists have done more than one strip, sometimes simultaneously. Mort Walker/Dik Browne & Offspring had Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois, Hagar the Horrible, Boner’s Ark and maybe others going all at once.
I think the main issue is one of “comedy” versus “not-comedy.” Cartoonists are comedians, not story tellers, and comedians generally tend to lose their edge after a decade or two. The only question from there is whether they are willing to retire or are going to keep on for the sake of money, making schlock.
Yeah, but you have to think that now that a good couple of years have passed without any pressure to produce or anything some really funny ideas might have popped into the ol’ noggin again. For the masters it seems to be part of their make up that these things come out.
I wonder the same thing about Eddie Murphy. In the last 15 or 20 years you haven’t thought of enough new material for an hours worth of stand up? Bullshit.
A lot of cartoonists who worked in comic books now take private commissions. As I recall, there was some legal hullabaloo over the fact that they’re making money from selling drawings of Batman, etc., but I think in general the big comic book publishers let it slide.
Which is probably why he is having dinner at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, doncha think? Like stalking deer in the Happy Hunting Grounds? Diving in Neptune’s Paradise? Playing cards with Odin at Valhalla? Arguing with Albert and Howland in the Infinite Okeefenokee? At least that’s how I interpreted it.
Frank Brunner is an interesting case. He made a huge stink upon his departure from Marvel in the 70s, where he was a hot Young Turk on titles like Dr. Strange and Howard the Duck. He claimed some kind of ethical high ground in his Comics Journal interview. His next major work in comics was WARP for First Comics in the 80s, which didn’t set the world on fire. While he made his primary living as an animator in the meantime, he had a huge sideline selling tacky, hard-nipple commission drawings of Clea, Red Sonja and other characters from his time at Marvel.
A guy’s entitled to make a living, but if you publicly associate an ex-employer with rampant sleaziness, I say make a clean break from their product.
