mad in pursuit journal

DISPATCHED FROM THE CROSSROADS

Doodle Bird

birdWhile trying to do something else, I doodled a little character. Yesterday, while trying to do something else, I redrew him/her/it in Illustrator. I guess it's a parrot -- all mouth.

I like the look of Miranda (even if the voice is controversial) and I'd like to use her again. But she needs a pal -- or a nemesis -- or maybe two, so that she isn't always pondering to herself -- so that I could actually do a scene or tell a story.

I got a book on George Herriman, writer/artist who created the "Krazy Kat" comic strip back in 1913, which ran till 1944. He has 3 main characters: the sweet Krazy Kat who is totally in love with the wicked Ignatz mouse, who wants nothing more than to bean Krazy with a brick. And the dog Offissa B Pupp is in love with Krazy and tries to protect him. They live on a surreal desert landscape. It was one of those strips that was both loved by the public and hailed by intellectuals for its many layers of meaning -- I guess like the old "Pogo" and "Peanuts" strips.

Here is a 1916 "Krazy Kat" cartoon. I've read where the animations never did justice to the genius and artistry of the strip, but... whatever:

I think Miranda kind of looks like a cat, with her "paws." Maybe I'll give her a tail and free myself up from my own nemesis of trying to draw too literally.

7.18.2008

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