3 months ago
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anonymous
3 months ago
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anonymous
Look at that sarcastic eye-roll.
OH wait no it's just the linework on the glasses frames being drawn badly.
3 months ago
3 months ago
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).
3 months ago
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anonymous
@Anonymous:
A big part of the problem is that he uses the same line thickness for absolutely everything, and tries to compensate by making some lines really messy/overdrawn/pube-y. His handwriting (though sometimes misspelled and usually badly spaced) seems fairly clean, which leads me to believe that his squiggly drawing comes not from a physical disability but rather from a lack of confidence--he draws too slowly and so every little twitch in his muscles shows up on the page. (The fact that he doesn't seem to use preliminary sketches doesn't help--he's coming up with the drawing *as he's drawing it*.)
Try drawing something very slowly and then drawing it quickly. The quickly drawn version will look a lot smoother and more effortless.
3 months ago
@Anonymous: I always use #1 when redrawing.
3 months ago
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anonymous
3 months ago
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@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.
3 months ago
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anonymous
3 months ago
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.
3 months ago
anonymous
@Anonymous: Or he wasn't the one who drew the calendar covers.
3 months ago
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
3 months ago
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."
3 months ago
@Anonymous: Bitch just didn't get any stickers.
3 months ago
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anonymous
3 months ago
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.
3 months ago
anonymous
Today I learned that there's a video of McPherson and his public speaking gig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lGN-pZSVfg
3 months ago
anonymous
@Anonymous: Select quote: "[McPherson] understands humor at a deep level, intellectually." (5:27)
3 months ago
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@Anonymous: Dang! He really does do sketching first. I don't know what to think now =o(
3 months ago
anonymous
@Anonymous: it's funny that McPherson isn't the person displayed in the preview image of that video
3 months ago
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@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
3 months ago
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@Anonymous: Oh My God! It turns out we ARE the ones who actually get his jokes. This whole time the truly funny thing about his drawings are how shitty they are and how the people and objects barely resemble the things they represent. John McPherson is such a great artist that it takes intellectual minds such as ours to see the humor in his cartoons. His deconstructionist views on the human condition translate into his minimalist style of art. His minimal effort in creating the art is the actual humor. Then he adds an obvious "joke" for the common riffraff to think they get. The real joke is that the cartoon is in any way recognizable to other humans. McPheron is a true artistic genius!
3 months ago
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anonymous
3 months ago
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anonymous
3 months ago
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anonymous
3 months ago
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anonymous
3 months ago
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anonymous
@Anonymous: Could use a "No-No" too.
3 months ago
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.
3 months ago
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anonymous
3 months ago
@Anonymous: WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!! they talk about mcPherson like he's good at what he does.. McPherson looks like a turd
1 month ago
anonymous
@Anonymous: Why do people laugh?