Want to live the Writer’s Life? Mindy Tyson McHorse shares how to take the fast track to a successful Writer’s Life.
American Writers & Artists Inc.
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Gasoline Alley has been around forever. It was old when I was a wee lad. It shows the difference between modern one-shot gag strips today and the leisurely pace of illustration in the early 20th century.
Here is a contribution from Joyville:
WADE
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There!
I’m just getting out from these latest crazy weeks crammed with work (of that kind one has to do to live decently), particular obsessions (what would Life be without them?) and a lightning visit to Paris (where I had the pleasure to meet nice and very talented women: Mathyld, Lili Scratchy, Chamo, Delphine Durand: thanks so much for sharing with us a piece of your time).
Luckily, a comic lover always get any time to taste the fruits of the noble art of cartooning. As for me, I gave it completely to reread Frank King’s Gasoline Alley (a little part of King’s vast volume of work, of course). And it worked like a motherly hug, as it couldn’t be any other way!
To tell the truth, the strip was practically a mystery to me before D+Q decided to reprint it. Yes, I had seen before some scraps here and there, but naturally nothing to draw my own conclusions. So here goes my deeply thanks to Jet Heer, Chris Oliveros and Chris Ware, the editors of this gem, because Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.
Otherwise, one can’t help feeling a lively sensation of being a witness to a medium establishing its form and conventions while reading Gasoline Alley nowadays. Frank King amongst other masters had the privilege (and cleverness) to lay comics foundations in order to Cartooning was regarded as a real mass medium: an art with its own, not transferable language.
Comic is necessary elliptical, a “space” where the reader has to fill up the gaps, and so panels (and the gutter between them) turn into the most significant tools in comics. And I was surprised how was King conscious about this matter. Look these comic strips from the early years:
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Tired of practicing your scales straight up and down? This article will help you bring some life to your scales, and train your ears at the same time.
Lessons @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com
I don’t know how long this method has been around, but I remember hearing Tom T. Hall talk about it on “Nashville Now” hosted by Ralph Emery back in the late 1980s.
Select a song to use as a model. It’s best to choose one you like and one that was popular and sold well.
Then write a new set of lyrics for the song. They don’t have to be about the same thing as the original. For example, Paul McCartney wrote the tune for “Yesterday” first, using dummy lyrics — “Scrambled eggs, how I love to eat my scrambled eggs.”
As soon as you get a set of lyrics you like, write a new tune for them.
As with the lyrics, the tune doesn’t have to be in the same style as the original model. It can be any style you want — just make sure the lyrics fit into the tune.
My wife once presented me with some lyrics she wrote. She told me she had modeled them on a famous song, but didn’t tell me what it was. I didn’t want to be influenced by the original.
This was some years back when Santana came out with “Smooth” and the song was playing everwhere you went. So I wrote a latin groove and the lyrics fit very well — I only had to add one word.
When I played her the finished song, she was really surprised — she was obviously still thinking of the original song.
She had based it on “Ob La Di, Ob La Da” and I turned it into Santana,
If you want to hear the result — click here.
There are a million ways to write a song, but this is one that can give you a good place to start and a structure to work with … maybe making it easier.
WADE
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Groupon can deliver a single business hundreds or even thousands of new customers. Are you ready?
Entrepreneur.com – Small Business News and Articles – Latest Articles
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The LA Times ran an awesome article about 1950’s horror comics on Halloween. It’s actually a review of a book detailing the gory history.
You can read the review here, and then decide if you have the courage to go read the book!
Bwwaaa-haaa-haaa-haaa
WADE
Thanks for the tip from Golden Age of Comic Books
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Music home based business ideas and solutions. Ideas for setting up a music home based business.
Ultimate Songwriting Blog
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I don’t know — Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never really found Garfield that funny.
If you’ve never seen the comic strip before and you start reading it on Monday, you will know all the jokes by Friday. From then on it’s just variations on the same few situations.
Garfield is lazy, he loves to eat, he’s crazy about Lasagna, his master is a dull and dim-witted fellow.
So what could you do to improve Garfield?
Irishman Dan Walsh has a project called “Garfield Minus Garfield” or “G-G” in which — well, I’ll let him explain it.
Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.
So you might wonder if simply deleting the title character from the strip actually improves it. Maybe — maybe not. But it certainly can’t make it any worse.
WADE
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Click on image to enlarge
“Not all the notable comic-strips being published today are included in this group. There are some conspicuous absences. Each of the group represents a particular innovations in strips that sets it apart in appeal to mass readership.
Seen over at Rosebud Archives (thanks!)
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I’ve probably learned more about copywriting in the past two years than in my entire life.
When I started in journalism, I was given the conventional wisdom of the times (this was late 70s).
Unfortunately it was the conventional wisdom of earlier times and is still the same conventional wisdom.
It is amazing nobody ever gets discouraged because the “official rules” just don’t work.
Studying people who actually make money copywriting is eye-opening. You realize how far off the path you were. It can be humbling.
So here is an essay by someone who is up and coming as a copywriter. And please don’t think that $ 100,000.00 is an ultimate goal. It’s a milestone, and probably just the beginning of the journey.
You can make more money as a successful copywriter than you can as a novelist or screenwriter — if you do it right.
Enjoy one woman’s story — by clicking through the link below.
WADE
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What it means to be a six-figure copywriter courtesy of American Writers & Artists Inc.
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