"The Secret of Drawing" Episode 2: "Storylines" 2005

The 2nd instalment to this series - which shows how art and storytelling can be combined to make something else - the comic strip, the cartoon, the animation.   And how seemingly 'harmless' comics and cartoon characters (e.g. Peanuts/Charlie Brown, The Simpsons) have a 'dark side' to them.

Here are some of my recent works: The Elusive Owl, The Toilet Fights Back (no mention of the Red and the Blue in this episode of the documentary) and Isn't it Wonderful (taken from The Simpsons and Peanuts).

The Elusive Owl: reminds me of the American artist, Daniel Clowes

Storyboard of The Toilet Fights Back

The Toilet character (animated using plasticine, a cardboard box and a camera to capture the pictures from).

Isn't it Wonderful - one of my friends thought I used to look like one of the dark-haired girls from Peanuts (by Charles M Schultz).

 And like many other cartoons out there, the comic strips touch on issues that verge on the 'taboo' - sex (the Elusive Owl - the mating call of the frogmouth), toileting (The Toilet Fights Back - who, including little kids, can't resist 'bathroom' humour), and sexuality/workplace politics/group dynamics (Isn't it Wonderful - which is about a gay male who everyone makes fun of at work but he always manages to make good 'comebacks')

Anyway, watch the video and read my 'toons', and figure out whether or not you can see the similarities.

cheers,
Colleen