Toonbots archive - episode published 20020505
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The metacartoonist beats the blurb to the punch by delivering the usual
soliloquy on genius directly in the cartoon; the result is as always a
masterstroke of misdirection, as it serves to distract the careless reader
from the subtle humor involved in the idea of a cartoon character drawing a
cartoon. ... What? You -- well, OK, it's true that
Ondine draws Jen while Jen is
drawing Ondine, but that doesn't detract from the ineffable genius of ...
Well, you're right, it's true that Greystone Inn
is a comic about a comic, but still, the metacartoonist ... WEll, granted,
BoxJam draws himself drawing
himself, but ... but ..
OK, so the metacartoonist is hopelessly derivative in the context of a medium shot through with metalevel humor done by geniuses in a Golden Age, but heck, he's still funny.
By the way, this toon was in response to Web Cartoonist Awareness Day 2002, even though it came in rather late thanks to my ISP. Hard to do a Web toon without connectivity. I have a new ISP now. Cheaper, too.
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The script used to make this toon:
<cartoon height="1300" width="700" rowformat="1"> <panel> <character name="mao"/> <character name="lenin" aspect="faceleft"/> <caption location="top right" fgcolor="red">Hey, Mao!</caption> <caption location="bottom left" fgcolor="red">Yeah, Len?</caption> </panel> <panel> <caption location="top middle" fgcolor="red">I'm going to start a Web comic!</caption> <caption location="bottom middle" fgcolor="red">That's ... certainly one of your more surprising ideas, Len.</caption> </panel> <panel> <caption location="top middle" fgcolor="red">Ever since D&J bought out my interest in Pickle Crisp Cereal, I've needed some other way to get rich, and I really think this is my path to fame and fortune.</caption> <caption location="bottom middle" fgcolor="red">Len, I know you're not too sound on the whole capitalism thing, but...</caption> </panel> <panel> <character name="lenin" aspect="faceright"/> <caption location="top middle" fgcolor="red">No, no, Mao, this is the real thing!</caption> <caption location="bottom middle" fgcolor="red">I'm just saying that as ways to get rich go, Web cartooning probably isn't ...</caption> <character name="lenin" action="leaves"/> </panel> <panel> <caption location="top middle" fgcolor="red">Oy vey. That boy is sheer trouble.</caption> </panel> <panel> <character name="me"/> <caption location="top left" fgcolor="red">Man, can YOU talk some sense into him?</caption> <caption location="bottom right" fgcolor="orange" size="12">Me? Am I my character's keeper? I just write him, it's not like I have any control over him. </caption> </panel> <panel> <caption location="top middle" fgcolor="orange" size="10">It's about time young Lenin learned that Web cartoonists do what they do for sheer love of the art form. It's not about <br/> money, or fame, or even the adulation of fans all over the world -- it's about pushing the envelope, expressing the<br/>ineffable, codifying the semiotic and semantic relationships which underlie our every thought and deed. Web cartooning<br/>is everything that humanity yearns to be.</caption> </panel> <panel/> <panel> <caption location="top left" fgcolor="red">And of course it doesn't pay squat.</caption> <caption location="top right" fgcolor="orange">Your average hot dog vendor<br/> does better.</caption> <caption location="bottom right" fgcolor="blue">NEXT: SOMETHING ELSE!</caption> </panel> </cartoon> |
