The Mega Robo Weekly #2
Dumb Ideas, Good Ideas, and the SUBTLE DIFFERENCES between them
We are amongst friends here, right? We can all just admit that Nita is the best without hurting Alex and Freddy’s feelings? Okay cool.
I mentioned last week how I had so much fun doing these ‘Freddy style’ drawings that they kind of ended up being the inspiration or basis for a whole spin-off series of novels, originally pitched as:
…and which ended up being:
I think the best way I can explain it is that, having tapped into the ‘Freddy’ part of my brain, it turned out that little dude WOULD NOT SHUT UP.
When I first had the idea and started working on what would become FREDDY VS SCHOOL, I was - in hindsight - wildly over-thinking the whole ‘kid-made drawings’ angle. The basic schtick of the books is that they are told in Freddy’s voice and accompanied by his drawings, and initially I was taking this idea quite seriously and thinking a lot about how to make the drawings feel authentically kid-made. Two of my more preposterous notions for how to achieve this were:
enlist my previous collaborator, my son, to draw the whole thing
draw the whole thing with my right hand, which is to say my wrong hand. (I am left handed. I could possibly have phrased that more clearly.)
I realise that last one sounds kind of nuts, but I thought it might be interesting? Kind of a way of giving the Freddy books a very distinct and different visual style, literally using the other side of my brain (if that is how brains work?)
For purposes of comparison, here is a quick regular (left hand) Freddy:
And here is a right hand (wrong hand) version:
…uh,YEAH.
I think what quickly became apparent to me as we started working on the books properly, was: illustrating a whole book is REALLY HARD. Particularly in such heavily-illustrated and integrated-with-the-text books as these. Even if you’re working in an intentionally simplistic style like this - maybe even MORE so - producing that volume of illustrations, that do all the jobs they need to do in terms of communicating clearly and being consistent and looking good and being funny and all the rest of it, and going through all the rounds of tweaks and revisions required… is quite hard enough without *literally trying to do it with one hand tied behind your back.*
So, to sum up: DUMB IDEA, NEILL!
Very possibly one of the ALL-TIME DUMB IDEAS, in fact. But in fairness, I never illustrated a book before? You live, you learn, eh. And I dare say it is good creative practise to at least entertain the dumb ideas, or else how would you ever find the good (but also dumb) ones?
Anyway, as we went on we kind of quietly moved away from the ‘kid-made’ conceit. I’m really happy with how those drawings captured Freddy’s character and kind of his whole world in a way that felt fun and engaging and inviting, and that in the end is more important than getting hung up on pedantic ideological ‘yes but would an (x)-year-old child really have that grasp of anatomy / perspective / whatever’ questions.
…right?
Anyway. Here’s some bonus Freddy Doodles from Book 3!
…go read the books if you haven’t! They are up for an award, you know!
NEILL’S WORLD TOUR (OF SCOTLAND)
Hey, I am popping up to Edinburgh in March to do some school visits - a couple of which are organised by the good people at Scottish Book Trust - and for which YOUR school can apply! If it is in Edinburgh.
(If you would like me to come visit your school but you are NOT in Edinburgh: that is okay, I do go to other places too! Check out the Workshops page on my website and get in touch for more details!)
Okay, substack informs me I am nearly out of space, so I will just say a quick..
REMINDER that my monthly Comics Club sessions at the Story Museum in Oxford are running again, all year, and tend to fill up so Book Early To Avoid Disappointment, and:
CONGRATULATIONS to my incredible pal Jamie Smart, whose latest Bunny VS Monkey book is officially the #1 Best-Selling Children’s Book in the UK! An incredible achievement, a defining moment for children’s comics in this country, and a whole bunch of other things I would wang on about at length if I wasn’t nearly OUT OF SPAC