THE MISERY OF JON ARBUCKLE

my elementary school used to have some sort of arrangement with a book seller. once a week, we'd get a pamphlet of books for sale. i think it was called The Weekly Reader. i'm sure the idea was to encourage reading but most kids would spend their parents' money on the babysitters' club, maybe a choose your own adventure book or some mad libs. not exactly mind expanding literature. my investment was in comic strips and for a period of 5th grade, i was mildly amused by Garfield books.

years later, i noticed something that entirely changed the comic in my mind. most of the strips are of Jon Arbuckle and his cat Garfield. Jon speaks to Garfield and he responds. my revelation was that Jon's speaking appears in a speech balloon above his head while Garfield's replies are in thought bubbles. little clouds. while Jon is having this conversation out loud, Garfield is having an inner monologue. to the reader, it's an interactive conversation, but in Jon Arbuckle's reality, he's talking to his silent house cat.

then, some time ago, while wondering if anyone else thought this was weird, i came across a site in which someone removed all of Garfield's thought bubbles. it made the comic as if you were witnessing the comic first hand. a lonely guy having conversations with himself.

i thought of it again today for some reason and tried to find the site. instead, i found something even better. its called GARFIELD MINUS GARFIELD.

instead of just taking out Garfield's thoughts, which Jon can't hear anyway, someone omitted Garfield entirely. without the distraction of the orange cat's presence, you get a clear look at how deep Jon Arbuckle's problems really are. here's a sample...

(click to enlarge)

"Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb."

-from garfieldminusgarfield

there are a lot more here. head over and take a ride on the roller coaster that is the fractured, unstable psyche of Jon Arbuckle.

HOLDING BACK THE OCEAN

a video i just finished making for the band
Ghost Away.
the song is called "Holding Back The Ocean".

enjoy!

(Ghost Away is a band out of Philadelphia. they released a 3 song EP last month in anticipation of their soon to be released debut album, Siberia. its available for your downloading pleasure @ www.ghost-away.com. also, the songs are on their myspace page here.)

PLYMPTOONS

some lovely animated shorts by
Bill Plympton

YOUR FACE

THE KISS


25 WAYS TO QUIT SMOKING

Mr. Plympton has been one of my favorite animators since i first saw his "plymptoons" on Liquid Television, a showcase for new animators that aired late, late, late night on MTV. remarkably, he single handedly draws every cell by hand himself (one of the first animators to tackle such a feat). two of his shorts fetched him oscar nominations (1987's "Your Face" was one of them). i met him years ago while i was in art school. he came and spoke candidly about his life and work as an animator. he's a really nice guy with an imagination i envy.

here is his website if you want to know more:
The Official Bill Plympton Website

LAUGH TRACKS

for some inexplicable reason today, i was thinking about scooby doo. i haven't seen a scooby doo cartoon in years. maybe thanks to my brother's velma quote last night. whatever the cause, its been on my mind.

while i enjoyed it from time to time, scooby doo was never a staple in my cartoon diet. i attribute this to several things that always bothered me about it. shaggy and scooby are idiots. they make the same false presumptions and blunders in every episode. stupid is only funny for so long. then, nearly every villain is foiled by their lack of intelligence and coordination. that didn't seem right to me. also, every episode was essentially the same. the icing on the cake was the laugh track. i just don't understand why any show would use a laugh track.

i don't think anyone is fooled by a laugh track. no mass of people ever erupts into joyous exaltations only to all stop on a dime, or, even worse, fade out to silence.

"ha haha ha aahah ha ha haha" (...and then crickets)

i remember sitting on the couch as a boy, aware of the process involved in animating drawings to make a cartoon (i was a kid who loved to draw after all), and suddenly noticed the canned laughter for the first time. it really confused me. i knew it couldn't be from a studio audience. i think my mom explained to me that it was prerecorded and added to the show to make it funnier. i felt so cheap and used. manipulated like the suckers being terrorized by the swamp creature who's really just a disgruntled butler trying to keep people away long enough for him to dig up a buried chest of gold coins.

curse that mangy dog and those meddling kids!