Close to home. Far from funny.

anonymous

Re: Linework, I'm starting to think maybe McPheron actually has a debilitating physical condition, like what happened with Schultz towards the end of his Peanuts-drawing career (and indeed his life).
I mean, mentally, he's fine apart from being an unfunny hack, for which we should rip into him by all means, but I think his dexterity might have some medical obstacles (that go beyond gigantic thumbs).

Rev_Kev

@Anonymous: I always use #1 when redrawing.

Rev_Kev

@Anonymous: I never thought Schultz lost his style; he was always culturally relevant. MacPee, on the other hand is more like Bil Keene who used the same drawings with unfunny premises. I can imagine some kid looking at Watterson and saying "I want to do that." I can't see that for Johnny.

anonymous

@Anonymous: John McPherson has always drawn poorly, and after seeing a couple of relatively well-crafted cartoons he has mixed in (such as the calendar cover that was posted here a little while ago), the only conclusion i've been able to come to is that he's usually just lazy.

anonymous

@Anonymous: Or he wasn't the one who drew the calendar covers.

anonymous

@Anonymous: That's a horrible thought. It would make me feel like doing more than just making fun of him if that were true

anonymous

@Rev_Kev: Schulz definitely didn't lose his style, but his actual fine motor skills did start to break down. From Wikipedia: "In the 1980s Schulz complained that 'sometimes my hand shakes so much I have to hold my wrist to draw.' This led to the erroneous assumption that 'Schulz had Parkinson's Disease'. However, according to a letter from his physician, placed in the Archives of the Charles M. Schulz Museum by his widow, Schulz had essential tremor, a condition alleviated by beta blockers. Despite this, Schulz insisted on writing and drawing the strip by himself."

Rev_Kev

@Anonymous: Bitch just didn't get any stickers.

anonymous

@Anonymous: Squiggly lines don't really bother me much in cartoons. It can even be something that adds to a drawing, depending on how it's done. The thing that bothers me is the rest of what you said...how the lines are just generally sloppy. It looks very much like he doesn't have an idea of what he's about to draw, and doesn't bother to fix anything that looks messy. I have a notion that he uses one pen on a blank sheet...no planning, no pencil.

anonymous

Today I learned that there's a video of McPherson and his public speaking gig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lGN-pZSVfg

anonymous

@Anonymous: Select quote: "[McPherson] understands humor at a deep level, intellectually." (5:27)

anonymous

@Anonymous: it's funny that McPherson isn't the person displayed in the preview image of that video

TmsT

@TmsT: On second thought, now that I've calmed down, he probably doesn't "use" the construction as such. He just goes through the motions of doing the sketch without knowing what it's supposed to be used for, because somebody (possibly an architect) told him to give it a try.

mikshaw

@mikshaw: after looking again at that screenshot i thought he holds his pen weirdly, but the more i think about it the more it seems like that would be sensible...maybe not for a pen, but for a graphics tablet with buttons on the stylus. I find it uncomfortable to use my index finger for both holding the stylus and pressing the buttons, but if i used my bird finger to hold the pen, my index finger would be free to do buttons. I'll have to test that out

SQ_Minion

So at the first annual Conv.as, we're hiring Johnny to give a talk, right?

fenga

@mackd: he looks like the retarded brother of Kevin Spacey

anonymous

@Anonymous: Could use a "No-No" too.

anonymous

@mackd: I think McPheron thinks we're hipsters and anything he knows is culturally relevant will win us over. You know he's onto us.

anonymous

@Anonymous: Why do people laugh?