General Discusions about Artists & Illustrators > Artists & Illustrators
Critique of Old School Series
slayskool:
Well, I finally opened up my box of Old School Wackys and went through them. And here comes the dreaded critique. And again, my opinion should not really matter, but if it gets people thinking, then great. But for those of you who want to discuss, we will.
First off, I want to say that out of a series of 33 titles, my goal is for 5 memorable ones. Now, that may seem like an abysmal average, but here is the truth. Even in the original series, barring series 1, 2, 3 and 4, if there are 5 REALLY memorable titles out of each series, that was great. You see, many titles fell into the "Ahh.. cute" category. Not really eliciting laughs. More like, "Yeah, cute." Take for instance titles lie "Mustard Charge", "Nose-X", "Shake and Skip Ink", "Heartburn Cereal", compared to "Cap'n Crud", "Run Tony", "Skimpy"... you get the picture. There are clearly titles more memorable than others. Follow me so far?
I can't speak for all of us, but for myself, this is what the psych is when I see a sticker for the first time. The title of the card, the gag and then the artwork. For me, it's all about the gag. The creme de la creme are the gags that actually get INSIDE the parody and is coupled with the artwork. For example, "Band Ache" wins because the peeling off of the Band Aid is more painful than the wound! Or "Heave" cigarettes as Eve cigarettes had such a sweet taste is was awful. "Prez" with Bush heaving broccoli was great. But then there are ones that really reach just so that a play on the title could be made. These fall short of memorable. Or they may be memorable for the wrong reasons. For instance, a big peeve for me in the Silly CDs issue is sometimes the song parody is not found on that original CD. That takes away from the parody and overall strength of the artwork. You have to stay true to the product and yet get inside it at the same time. It's very tough to do. For that reason, I feel that sometimes artists are not the best gag writers. I don't assume in my editing that I am the best shooter, I would give that to a professional photographer. It just seems that good writing is so overlooked and everyone thinks they can write. Not everyone thinks they can draw, but everyone thinks they can write. Why is that? Because writing is not really considered an art to many people. DRAWING is, writing, no.
So with that said, here are my thoughts.
I compiled my set and set them aside. I thought about which ones of the 33 really stuck out in my head. They were "Strokes" beer, "Bark" cigarettes, "Gee Your Hair Smells Horrific" shampoo, "Project 19" cereal, "Brylscream" and "Qreep" cereal.
Four titles, I had absolutely no clue what the real products are: "Putz", "Booze On Tap", "Odor Pops" and "Kookle". No clue at all. They obviously miss for me. And before anyone hits the "reply with quote" and tells me what the products really are, I don't care. The point is, they missed. The parodies should be SO ingrained into our psyche, they should be least common denominator things. So we're down to 29 titles to really critique.
Since I remembered 5 titles, I think overall it can be considered a success. I think 2 of the 5 I will remember the most, "Strokes" and "Gee Your Hair Smells Horrific". They make the "Historic" category for me.
The series overall is extremely well painted and designed. Most of the gags fall into the "Aaaa...cute" category. Some gag lines that made me laugh out loud were:
Bacteria: "If you ain't got it, you're gonna get it."
Bark: "The Smooth Rich Taste of Cat"
Brylscream: "A Little Death'll Do Ya!"
Shovin' Spoonfuls: "Kidney Failure"
The art on titles like "Franken Brainy", "Hi-Sea", "Brylscream" and the glass embossed lettering on "Jim Mean" is VERY well done. The woman on "Borateen" is well done, but what is that black scrawl at the top? Stuff like that needs to be tightened up. Don't make ambiguous elements of the art make it to the final production. It should be representative of the very best art and writing.
Let's talk about missed gags for a second. The gag on "Strokes" that was missed comes down to this. When it comes to parody (or any written commercial or script), if you can avoid using the same word twice, it will be tighter, like the word "Beer". I was wishing it said "The code blue brew". Or "Grab a cold code blue brew" or something along those lines except for the very flat "America's Only Fatal Beer". Was that the BEST line the gag writer came up with? I mean REALLY? Out of all the words and all the jokes about beer, that was the best? It sounds like that was the first and only choice they played with. However, the rest of it is strong enough to make up for the missed joke. Or say for "Shovin Spoonfuls" , "Huge Chunks for Chunky Cats" I see more like, "Makes your tabby tubby." Or "Makes your tabby flabby." I find that gags like "Quake-Kill" and the crudely done guy in the circle to replace the Quaker logo is a reach. I would have loved to seen something like the REAL Quaker guy as a skeleton and it say something like "Qiller" under it. "Quake-Kill" is just too much of a reach for me. And that guy in the circle is just not very well drawn. Like he was done in about 5 minutes.
I put "Qreep" in the top because I get it and think it is funny. I just wish the art was REALLY well done and not so, well, rough. I do like the details of the hash marks for his victim count on his antennae. That did not go overlooked.
The really bad ones to me are "Crappy Covers" (by the way, if the word "Crap" is allowed, I better see "Count Crapula" cereal in the next issue--bowls of fresh crap), "Odor Pops", and "Putz". Now, I am sure the artists are on here but I am telling you, three bad ones to me are not bad at all. Remember, it is an absolute success if there are 5 historical ones in a set of 33. As it was, this series had 2, and 5 overall memorable ones. I say that's good.
So, there you have it. My impressions of Old School Series 1. I have no idea who drew what. Who wrote which gag. Who thought of which concept.
So I look forward to the next series. I wish there were some chase items in this which a set could be compiled so trading could happen amongst us. As it is, there is no trading to be had other than with sketches, but most of us don't want to part with our sketch and would rather have another one in our collection. Part of trading is getting dupes. Again, a 1 in 4 pack ratio I think is good for a chase set of 10 titles, randomly put in so dupes may be able to be had and traded.
So Overall, a solid B- for the set. And remember, I am a harsh critique so that will probably be an A- in most other people's books. Overall, good job on the set!
slayskool:
Oh...one other drag. I could not make a complete set of 9 checklist pieces in the whole box.
slamjim:
--- Quote from: slayskool on March 14, 2010, 07:10:13 PM ---Oh...one other drag. I could not make a complete set of 9 checklist pieces in the whole box.
--- End quote ---
Right, that is part of the trading you said you wanted in the 1st post.
slayskool:
Okay.. I guess so, but checklists?? That's like wanting to trade a punched out Duzn't for a borderless Mustard Charge. Okay, maybe not that useless. I'll play along. Got a Top middle anyone?
slamjim:
Thanks for the crit. I appreciate all the comments.
Just some notes to fill in the questions you asked:
Concerning Qreep the guy in the corner box is another Quaker Oats character names Quake. He was also the arch rival to Quisp. That is why he was there and why he looked liked he did.
You mentioned you wished there were some chase items. There were some. The logo stickers come in three different colors and the 5x7 stickers have 9 different and you get 3 to a box. Plus the checklists are (in some boxes) hard to put together a set though I never heard of that being intentional.
I used the bottom line on Stroke's because it echoed the line on the real can. I added my own gags in other places on the can where there are no real Stroh's lines.
I did the art and gags.
Thanks for the comments! BTW, I've taken some of your sketch card comments to Topps and have some positive changes planned.
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