That special spark

[Lars Jensen]

Once again: Sorry I'm so late responding to this.

Don Rosa wrote:

>> Don, are you saying that comics such as The Spirit, Modesty Blaise,
>> Watchmen, most of Asterix, most of Tintin and anything from Alan
>> Moore, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison are by definition incapable of
>> catching that "special spark"?
>
> Yes, I am. Because that "special spark" I refer to is the spark of a
> single individual's creative ability. Two people can never equal one
> person. No matter how good they are, those comics can never be the
> single vision of a single mind. That's magical.

OK, now I understand. And, in one way, I actually agree with you on
this -- up to a point. Ever since I began reading comics, I've always
been mightily impressed by creators who both wrote and drew their
material. Burne Hogarth's Tarzan, Hergé (or so I thought for several
years), Prince Valiant, the Felix newspaper stories from Danish creator
Werner Wejp-Olsen, Peanuts etc. all contributed to my early reading
experiences. When I did my first amateur comics at age 8, I both wrote
and drew the things. (In newspaper strip format, by the way.) I
absolutely agree that, say, Carl Barks' stories couldn't have been
improved upon as such by teaming Barks up with another creator. Those
stories of his did indeed have sparks.

So why don't I draw my own stories? Simple. Apart from the fact that I
don't have the patience to draw, there's also another problem: readers
would most likely gouge their own eyes out. Because I'm not a very good
artist. Having never had the patience to study anatomy, for instance, my
characters tend to look like sausages with heads, feet and sausage-like
arms and legs stuck on. My collaborations with various artists may not
be the vision of one single mind. But those artists will still be better
at getting across what I want to communicate than I myself would be.
Result: the finished story will be *close* to what I imagined, but not
100% what I imagined.

However, there's also an upside to working with somebody else: a fresh
perspective. Several of "my" artists have made me smile when I notice
some detail they've put into a story. Something that adds to the whole
without diluting it -- and something I wouldn't have thought of. And
sometimes, in material such as Asterix or Watchmen, you can see sparks
flying. Not sparks like the ones that show up in single-creator
projects, but sparks of a different color. If I remember correctly,
Obelix' dog Dogmatix was only created because Uderzo in the midst of
"Asterix and the Banquet" ("Le tour de Gaule") felt like drawing a dog,
and therefore simply added one to the story. Goscinny was surprised when
the artwork began to come in, but liked the dog, wrote the panel on the
last page where Obelix finally notices Dogmatix -- and voila, a new
popular character was born. Something that only happened because two
creators worked together. A spark of a different color. And who knows?
Maybe Barks could have created sparks such as those if he had done more
stories with other creators?

The particular spark you're talking about... Yeah, as mentioned above, I
always find it enjoyable when I see a story written by and drawn by one
single person such as Barks. But that's because Barks was good at
writing, good at drawing and good at writing the kind of stories he was
good at drawing. If a creator doesn't have those qualities, I would
rather he or she stuck to what he or she is good at. Again: I understand
what you mean, Don, but I've just been disappointed too often from
reading one-man projects that clearly should have involved at least one
more creator. And I can easily imagine someone interpreting your
original line ("a comic book script and art should be done by a single
person to have that special spark") as a green light to go it alone --
even when that someone only has the talent to do one thing well.

And on a final note: I realize you prefer the "single vision" thing,
but, just for fun, you should consider coming up with a storyline for
someone like, say, Marco Rota to draw. Not an Lo$, not something you
involve your continuity heavily into, just a fun adventurous
free-standing Duck story.

Who knows? Maybe there'll be sparks there, too. Just sparks of a
different color.

Lars