Magnum Opus
It seems that most successful cartoonists have one or two particular works for which they are best known (and eventually remembered). It might be the one that put them on the map, or it might be the one that becomes their life's work, or it might be the ultimate pinnacle they reach.
What – if anything – do you imagine yours being? 50 years from now, what work will be mentioned in the first paragraph of your Wikipedia article? Is it something you've already begun, or is it something on the "to do" list? Is it something you're particularly proud of (regardless of sales), or one that readers would most appreciate? Why that one? Or do you see your career being more a series of works, with no one of them dominating the others?
What – if anything – do you imagine yours being? 50 years from now, what work will be mentioned in the first paragraph of your Wikipedia article? Is it something you've already begun, or is it something on the "to do" list? Is it something you're particularly proud of (regardless of sales), or one that readers would most appreciate? Why that one? Or do you see your career being more a series of works, with no one of them dominating the others?
Comments
Bomb Queen will be mentioned in my bio if I step in front of a bus any time soon.
But I'd rather be known for the diversity of works I've created over my so-called career. However, a lot of that might be a tad bit obscure to most folks.
Also, I have no awards or any great singular epic tome in me for the masses (at this point).
What I do feel is the weight of my age. At 50 years-old it seems that any legacy building is against me. Brandon and Justin are doing it right... starting early, building a name and a brand. They still have 20+ years to even catch my age. They can really cement something in that time. I know that being 50 is not a big deal but there are certain things (biologically) that cannot be denied. Pulling all-nighters, eye sight drifting, energy levels, perception by the industry and Hollywood, et.
Yes, there are plenty of exceptions, but I'd rather have more odds in my favor than less. I guess this is my cautionary tale to the up-n-coming talent.
DO NOT FUCK AROUND. And....
DON'T BLINK.
Like Jimmie, I sometimes wonder how far I'll be able to take this before I'm too old to draw a straight line. The math is against me: If I keep my current pace, I'll be able to finish another 10-20 albums before I'm 60. That's not much of a legacy. It's also the price of dabbling with a lot of different things over the years: You gain notoriety by doing the same thing long enough for people to notice, not by moving on to the next thing when you're ready. On the other hand, I am kinda notorious within the active German scene for my ... dabbleosity.
I guess to whatever extent I'm "known", it's for Glorianna.
Although most of my effort at present is on the JAQrabbit Tales project (which I imagine being hailed someday as a groundbreaking fusion of pornography and biography) the work that's most likely to be noticed and remembered (because it has a larger potential audience) is one I've partially scripted but had on the back burner for some time now. Its working title is Jesús 2.0 (though that's sounding a bit dated by now), and it's a heavily-researched, carefully-plotted reboot of the Gospels, set in the 21st century (e.g. Jesús is born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to a Madonna fan who is "like a virgin").
I know right now I'm known waaaaay more for Luther than anything else. Which is actually fine by me. I'm proud of that book.
I've got a couple of other ongoing idea, but I mostly have discrete story ideas.
It's another thing I've been concerned about in my more bipolar moments. I've written in several different media. but I've always come back to comics. Recently, my output has been more comics-centric than it used to be. I hope that won't backfire when future kids stop reading comics altogether because that's Something That Old People Do (and teachers).
Apart from that, no idea if and how I'll be remembered in 50 years. I'm not seeing myself as the legacy-building kind, more the type whose comics will be found in somebody's attic long after the copyright expires, maybe clutched in my own mummified hands or something, opening a whole new avenue of rediscovery to a new generation wondering if this was something relevant they missed and why there were so many words mingled with the pictures in my time.
No wait, that was in 5000 years. In 50, I hope it'll be the Dreadful Gate Universe which by then will have been retconned into one congruent multi-threaded storyspace, but knowing my luck, it'll probably be the most depserate WFH I made because that one was backed by somebody who could afford continuous reprints.
At my most optimistic, I figure I'll end up being known for some fondly remembered B-list WFH or indie book; a Howard the Duck, a Phonogram, something like that.
e. There's very few ideas I want to do as an ongoing; almost none as indefinite ongoings. I'm much more in the "do an arc, do an OGN" school of thought (yet I still kind of hate miniseries. If I'm writing a contained story, I'd rather do an OGN than impose artificial story-breaks and worry about issue 6 not coming out due to sales. If I'm writing a season of a serialized story, that's different)
Actually, that's not entirely true. I think of the beard first, then Luther