Issue 7: Comics & Cartoons is here 💥
Discover more from Are You Still Watching? 👀
Issue 7: Comics & Cartoons is here 💥
Highlights from our new issue, an exclusive newsletter feature on ghost comic book artists in cinema, and a special submissions call for Issue 8!
Issue 7: Comics & Cartoons
Kapow! It’s our newest issue! Here’s an excerpt from our Editor’s Note by Sennah Yee:
“My love for superheroes was ignited by Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man—it was the first DVD I bought (mistakenly in full-screen format because I thought it sounded better), the first movie soundtrack I bought (mistakenly thought it was Danny Elfman’s entire score instead of Nickelback and Sum 41 songs), the first movie T-shirt I wore (from the boys’ section at Walmart). Now over 20 years later, I’ve watched countless Uncle Bens die, Aunt May age backwards into a sexy AILF, a bunch of billionaire besties betrayed. I miss the fourth wall, it was holding the room together. And yet, I keep crawling back out to see the latest Spidey, still drawn to the idea of a life that is heroic, yet hidden.”
Check out the full issue:
Newsletter Feature: Ghost Drawers
by Andrew Townsend
Lucky for us, comics have never made their creators rich. Even in 2023, where third-tier characters like Blue Beetle are the next billion dollar IP wager for companies like Omnicorp or whatever, the original artist has long since died and lapsed so far into obscurity that I'm sure neither him nor his estate will see a blue dollar. The silver lining is the great body of work where cartoonists have moonlighted (for actual money) by ghost drawing for TV and movies. If you’re paying attention, eagle-eyed viewers can spot favourite illustrators filling on screen prop sketchbooks for actors who are, when it comes to drawing, all thumbs. Here are some examples of who and how this great tradition has brought cinema and cartooning together.
Whoever gets picked to ghost draw can, if you’re familiar with their work, teach you as much about what you’re watching as costuming or music. Like, once you spot Johnny Ryan (who invented the concept of “cat-jaculate” in Prison Pit) as the ghost artist for Robert, Daniel Zolghadri's teen cartoonist character in Funny Pages (2022), it’s no surprise when midway through the movie Robert catches his roommates jerking off together to Tijuana bibles in their swamp basement. If you’re in Johnny Ryan’s orbit, that’s de rigeur. And if you know you know.
But then again, if you know too much, you know too much. Take Chasing Amy (1997): Like, sure, Mike Allred (artist for Madman, iZombie, etc.,) can sub in for Ben Affleck. In the ‘90s, van dykes and cardigans were worn by a lot of different people, and Affleck’s hepcat Holden is easily adjacent to Allred’s own retro-future style in the film’s Bluntman and Chronic comic. But having future Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada (the guy who made Wolverine stop smoking in the comics) ghost draw Hooper X’s White Hating Coon… it’s not minstrel-y like some R. Crumb strips, but it’s still a lot of white guys indulging in Black caricature for my taste.
Save the Date (2012) is a more emotionally coherent character/artist match-up. When we meet Lizzy Caplan she’s sitting in a bookstore cafe, drawing intently. The close-up featuring (I assume) Caplan’s real-life hand shows her putting the finishing touches on the first “E” in a Save The Date card sketch. Below the text, a loving couple touch foreheads together, clearly the inimitable work of sadboi indie cartoonist Jeffrey Brown. A co-writer on the movie, Brown was, at the time, about to make a major career pivot from the awkward, chicken scratch relationship comics he’d made a name with to a best-selling run of Star Wars comics for kids. But since that hadn’t happened yet, seeing his art coming “through” Lizzy's real-life hands told us exactly who her character was: lost, with big feelings about relationships, toeing the line between sympathetic and just pathetic.
Sometimes ghost art is cinematic, and sometimes it’s not. Jessica Williams draws a lot in People, Places, Things (2015), though we almost never see the pages. About a third of the way into the movie we get to see her colouring in a sketchbook (like actually laying down the marker herself! Very rare!) but it’s in the blurry background of a date between her mom (Regina Hall) and her teacher (Jemaine Clement). It’s not until the last 10 minutes that Clement finally flips through Jessica’s book draft that we see it’s been Ignatz Award-winner Lauren R. Weinstein all along! A great cartoonist, but not someone I think of as having Big Screen Potential. With maybe less than 30 seconds of movie time, the art’s at best a fun easter egg.
I do love when they try to convince us that yes, truly, the actors are the ones making the art! The pilot for Woke (2020) opens with Chekhov’s marker, as Lamorne Morris picks up a Sharpie while getting ready for his day. Later while he’s on the bus (the best place for professional cartoonists to work), the camera goes from a low, over-the-elbow shot of someone actually doodling in a sketchbook in a Keith Knight style with that same marker (maybe show co-creator/cartoonist Keith Knight?), before cutting to a head-on shot of Morris in which it sure looks like he’s drawing with the same Sharpie, even though we can’t see the page anymore. He’s just acting!
There’s also Adam Brody as Seth in The O.C. (2004) when he’s starting what will eventually become his Atomic County project. When he turns his pages to camera, we’re very clearly looking at a professional’s work (Eric Wight, Frankie Pickle), and not a teenager’s sketchbook (no Cool S, no Bart Simpson, no dripping blood, etc.). Yet we keep watching Brody fuss over some details only he can see, drawing in the same spots on a page, over and over again. You can practically hear the production team saying, “You can make marks on the shoulder pads and crotch, but that's it! It's gotta read on camera!” Each illustration has these areas that have been overworked to death by Brody’s fixation, the pen just about scraping through to the next page.
The collaboration of a ghost artist and actors might be best in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002), where I'm confident that Tom Fleming (famous for superhero trading cards and WWE comics) drew the illustrations in the titular altar boys’ sketchbooks, capturing the crude and nasty linework typical for teens who can’t really draw, (“That's a 69? That looks more like 47!”). Since nobody needs to believe these kids are good at art, we see pages crumpled, scribbled all over, covered in (god, I pray) fake shit—really keeping the art alive on screen! It po(o)ps!
The most impressive thing about ghost art is when the drawing transcends both the movie and the artist’s own career in comics. Take The Worst Person In The World (2021), with Charlie Christensen ghost drawing Gaupe for Anders Danielsen Lie’s character. Known in real life for his Donald Duck parody Arne Anka, Charlie has now eclipsed himself, having made his stamp on international and art house cinema as the ghost artist behind, “One of the most iconic buttholes ever.” Chef's kiss. What a lucky guy.
Andrew Townsend is a former comics store sales associate and festival organizer.
A few of our favourite pieces from Issue 7…
Dia’s celebrity look-alike is Betty Boop...
Cartoon Archetypes
Growing up “girl" is hard. Every generation is inundated—blonde virgins or curvaceous reality stars, Sandra D or Kim K—but most of us relate more to the Belcher girls than the Kardashians.
Smurfette
I was shook when my grandfather told me that I was just a temporary VanGunten, doomed to lose the name, as one misplaces a toy. Around this time, I became obsessed with Smurfette. The other Smurfs have names-attributes: Brainy, Brawny, or Jokey. What is the special thing about Smurfette? Her gender. She’s the only female Smurf. The very nature of “the feminine” is isolation. I learned this over and over, from Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Lady Havisham, and Tinkerbell, who had a little cage where she’d go to pout when Peter ignored her.
When the two of us arrived at breakfast, in matching white dresses, Mom said, “Oh no you don’t. Don’t be sneakin’ Smurfette into the class portrait.” But I disobeyed my mother and took Smurfette to school on picture day. You should see my smile in our photo. I know I’ve been naughty. I have broken the rules, but I’ve lived enough girl years to understand that obedience will get us nowhere. We must seize every opportunity for mischief and rebellion. We must stick together.
Cason’s Casting Couch: Batman Forever and Batman & Robin
by Cason Sharpe
“Why does everything have to be so dark?” complained Joel Schumacher, newly assigned by Warner Brothers to direct the latest Batman feature. The ‘90s were halfway over, and the director was sick of all the grunge. The studio agreed and decided to overhaul Tim Burton’s macabre sensibility, which had defined the two previous chapters of the franchise, and replace it with Schumacher’s lighthearted camp, inspired by the ‘60s television series. Michael Keaton, Burton’s much-beloved Batman, decided to walk; he didn’t jibe with Schumacher’s playful new vision. So begins the saga of two reluctant heroes, two nipple-forward costume pieces, and two cartoonish superhero movies, the second of which is widely considered the worst ever made in the genre.
LOST ANVIL TAPE
by
In this one, the anvil sees stars.
It is, for once, the thunkee,
not the thunker! Watch it revel,
no death drop, just gettin’ squarshed.
It is, for once, the thunkee:
a pancakening, halo of birds.
No death drop, just gettin’ squarshed,
then it’s off to the patisserie.
Submissions OPEN for Issue 8: Moods
We’re now accepting submissions for Issue 8: MOODS until July 31st. We’re doing a special format for this issue, inspired by our Film Recommendation Generator—pick a mood and pitch us a short piece in any format/genre:
Wondering what to watch?
Choose a mood on our Film Recommendation Generator and get a curated pick from writers, filmmakers, poets, and artists.
Donate
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