March 2003
Season Six
Part 8: Compare and Contrast
So, once again, the moral dilemmas of running a fansite. I was all set here in the last part of this month's anthology to post some examples of the Muppets comic strip as it ultimately developed -- and then criticize it for becoming generic and Muppet Babies-esque.
Then I got a really nice e-mail from a guy named Garrett Gilchrist -- a
funny amateur film-maker who runs a comedy-film website called FFRevolution.com,
and who happens to be the son of Guy Gilchrist, who drew the strip. Garrett had
some interesting things to say about the later version of the strip, and was
really sweet about it -- and now I just don't have the heart to trash it
anymore. Especially not since I was flipping through one of the strip
collections and actually spotted Garrett's name in one of the strips. I mean,
how cute is that.
So rather than trash the strip, I'm going to post some of Garrett's e-mail, and some panels from the later strips, and I'll let you do the compare and contrast for yourself.
Hey Danny. Been reading your site for a while. This is Garrett Gilchrist, I'm an LA filmmaker and son of Guy Gilchrist, who drew the Muppet comic strip... nephew of Brad Gilchrist who wrote it.
Felt I should say something.
Um... The Muppet comic strips was pretty interesting. You seem to prefer the early days of the strip, which oddly enough I know my father was embarrassed of. The look is pretty accurate but kind of messy and inconsistent.
The style of the art changed and became less like the puppets as Guy grew more comfortable with the characters. You can see the art evolving into Guy's own style basically. Early on, the art is pretty, and true to the puppets, but I get the feeling Guy was freaked out about drawing some of his favorite characters, having little idea how to translate them into 2D form. The early strips were very much inspired by viewings of TV series tapes and working from the style guide, and took a long time to draw. When you posted the wormettes strips, I did cringe a bit, because you can see how unsure of himself Guy was in the drawing.
The later strips are much simpler, and have a confidence in their artwork that the early work lacks. There is something to be said for both versions of the strip, but it must be said that the later strips were in Guy's style and were easier to draw, could be drawn from memory definitely. I find his version of Piggy particularly appealing later on, which it wasn't early on.
Your criticism of them as Muppet Babies like is fairly accurate, but I think that was sort of the intended style at the time. I could imagine the Gilchrist versions of the characters having an animated show.
One definite plus about the simpler later strips is that they look a lot better shrunk down to a small size, as they would actually appear printed in a newspaper. The early strips looked better in person than they do on a small newspaper page, due to the amount of detail that covered up sometimes awkward poses and layout.
The strip never did get episodic or deep. This was not due to King Features' restrictions or anything I don't think. Guy and Brad just skew very young with what they do. Working with licensed characters makes it more so. They were and are both huge Muppet fans. They just delivered a simple strip the way they wanted to.
In the late 80's/early 90's Guy made a name for himself as a very good children's book artist, and it's kind of worth tracking down a copy of his book Nightlights and Pillowfights. Better than his usual stuff, and recently republished under his own label. I believe the earlier Muppet strips, some of them, WERE reproduced, in the book Moving Right Along!
I recall my father doing licensing art for other Muppet stuff, including a Dixie Cups line for the Muppet Babies and toy drumsets. The distinctive little lines he used to draw on Kermit's smile were used on the Muppet Babies Kermit and all Kermit art for many years... dunno if he originated that, but think he might have. I think he also did a Crayola scrolling coloring book... it was like an etch-a-sketch thing with a long scrolling real paper coloring book inside, you'd just turn the knob to get to the next page, and color each page. The piece had a western theme.
Guy's a talented fella, a good man, good dad, blah blah blah, he likes getting e-mail so you can reach him at gilchriststudios.com...
So there you have it. I must be getting soft, but now that Garrett's talked about it, I actually do feel some affection for the later strips coming on. Plus, he's friends with Robin, so he must know best. And while we're here, I'll plug his site, where you can watch some very funny short films: FFRevolution.com, where the films are in cages and the audience roams free.
Anyway, whether you like the early strips or the later strips, all of them or none of them, the whole shebang was an interesting little sidestep in Muppet history, putting the characters out into people's faces every single day for five years. We will not see its like again.
Comic Strip Anthology contents
Aug/Sept 2002 -- The Road to Hollywood
July 2002 -- The Decline and Fall of Gorch, part two: The Fall
June 2002 -- The Decline and Fall of Gorch, part one: The Decline
April 2002 -- April Frog's Day
March 2002 -- The Muppets Take Madison Avenue
February 2002 -- Kermit and Piggy : That Magnificent Hankering
January 2002 -- Off the Street
December 2001 -- It Feels Like Christmas
November 2001 -- Muppets: 1, Host: 0