Grouchissimo!
Mar. 21st, 2005 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustEnrica Bettazzi has constructed a wonderful Groucho Marx tribute site, apparently by accosting comics artists at conventions with the simple demand "Draw me Groucho Marx!". The results are, as you might expect, mixed: Moebius contributes a rapid sketch, John Bolton's careful portrait is so realistic that you can see the greasepaint falsity of the moustache.
The site advertises the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Lucca Comics Festival in 2002, and some portraits may have been specially commissioned, but some at least of the sketches clearly predate this: Gilbert Shelton's is inscribed "Angoulême, 2000" In other words, the portfolio illustrates the extraordinary generosity the institution of the "Convention sketch".
I've been to plenty of book signings, and they are usually interesting and sociable occasions, where authors seem genuinely happy to meet and converse with their readers. But the event also has a commercial aspect: the third party in this cosy encounter is the organiser, whether a publisher or a bookshop. Unless the author is very popular, they will not have to make it explicit that the underlying deal is, you buy a book and you get a signature. Unless the queue is very long, you probably won't be restricted to one signature. (And the author will probably also "sign a few copies for stock" but there's a whole other issue there - that's for another time).
But you wouldn't expect a writer to adorn your book with more than a signature and perhaps a "Best wishes" or "Enjoy!" You wouldn't ask them for a limerick, or a few words on daffodils, or a description of the hero (or villain) of the book. Yet artists regularly provide the equivalent of these things: sketches of your favourite of their characters, or on your chosen theme, on the book you just bought, or a sheet of paper for your collection or even - as advertised in Previews - an attractive spiral-bound notebook.
I'm not complaining: it's very kind of them, and makes many people very happy. I'm just amazed. I wonder - and don't quote me on this, it's based on far too small a sample to be meaningful - but could it be that writers actually regard writing as work (and hard work at that) whereas artists are like musicians, and would actually rather be drawing (or playing) than doing anything else?
The site advertises the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Lucca Comics Festival in 2002, and some portraits may have been specially commissioned, but some at least of the sketches clearly predate this: Gilbert Shelton's is inscribed "Angoulême, 2000" In other words, the portfolio illustrates the extraordinary generosity the institution of the "Convention sketch".
I've been to plenty of book signings, and they are usually interesting and sociable occasions, where authors seem genuinely happy to meet and converse with their readers. But the event also has a commercial aspect: the third party in this cosy encounter is the organiser, whether a publisher or a bookshop. Unless the author is very popular, they will not have to make it explicit that the underlying deal is, you buy a book and you get a signature. Unless the queue is very long, you probably won't be restricted to one signature. (And the author will probably also "sign a few copies for stock" but there's a whole other issue there - that's for another time).
But you wouldn't expect a writer to adorn your book with more than a signature and perhaps a "Best wishes" or "Enjoy!" You wouldn't ask them for a limerick, or a few words on daffodils, or a description of the hero (or villain) of the book. Yet artists regularly provide the equivalent of these things: sketches of your favourite of their characters, or on your chosen theme, on the book you just bought, or a sheet of paper for your collection or even - as advertised in Previews - an attractive spiral-bound notebook.
I'm not complaining: it's very kind of them, and makes many people very happy. I'm just amazed. I wonder - and don't quote me on this, it's based on far too small a sample to be meaningful - but could it be that writers actually regard writing as work (and hard work at that) whereas artists are like musicians, and would actually rather be drawing (or playing) than doing anything else?
