Beau Peep Notice Board
Beau Peep Notice Board => Just a Fort => Topic started by: Mince on January 29, 2007, 04:29:10 PM
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1. How did you and Andrew Christine meet?
2. How did you come up with each of the characters?
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We met while working at D.C. Thomson in Dundee. I was writing stuff like Beryl The Peril for The Topper and Andrew was a letterer/illustrator in their art department. We became friends and hatched our escape plan into the world of strip cartoons.
Thie second question is a variation of the more usual "Where do you get your ideas from?" and my answer is the same. I sit down and think. There is no magic formula. Some characters work and develop over the years and others fall by the wayside. When I first came up with Beau Peep, I was simply looking for something geographically different and by some weird thought process, ended up in the desert. Then the Foreign Legion. Then some inividuals who shouldn't really be there. I don't really enjoy talking about the process of writing cartoon strips---I don't understand it myself.
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I don't understand it myself.
Okay, in which order did you think up the characters?
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Oh, Lord, I spent about half an hour answering this, making all sorts of philosophical points. Then I pressed the wrong key and it all disappeared. I...um...thought the characters up alphabetically.
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So Dennis came before Beau Peep. Why didn't you call the strip Dennis?
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Dennis's second name is Pratt. Many years ago, this caused a problem when Quentin Crisp got upset about "The Dennis Pratt" award---something The Daily Star dished out for oustanding stupidity. Dennis Pratt is Quentin Crisp's real name.
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He changed his name from Dennis Pratt to Quentin Crisp? Now that is comic genius!
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Mince,
Dennis begins with D and Beau begins with B, so how do you extrapolate that alphabetically Dennis must have been conceived first?
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Okay, so I don't know my alphabet. What am I supposed to be? - some kind of English teacher?
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(In case anyone does not know, I am an English tutor.)
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Ah...
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Mince - I'm a dyslexia specialist...
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Okay, is that really your profession, or are you just offering me help with my alphabet?
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She's 'avin a larf! Is she 'avin a larf
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She's 'avin a larf! Is she 'avin a larf
Fyodor, perhaps you know her better. And stop using lime green: it's like reading someone's vomit.
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Does this mean my cover's blown?
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Ooh, sorry, Fyodor, I meant SanD. ;D
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She's 'avin a larf! Is she 'avin a larf
And stop using lime green: it's like reading someone's vomit.
Try not to curb people's creative individualism, Mincey. Just because you're in charge, don't get carried away! They say power corrupts, etc...
8)
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Try not to curb people's creative individualism, Mincey.
Writing in Lime Green is now creative?
Just because you're in charge, don't get carried away!
I'm in charge now? Oh just bloody brilliant . . . as though I don't have enough to cope with with all these students.
Maybe it's my custom title. I think it's time to change that.
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SanD
Sorry about blowing your cover, but using the same IP address and then trying to deceive the board admin (who necessarily has to have access to IPs etc in case he needs to ban someone) seemed like asking for it. At least, that's how it's viewed on other boards I have been a member of. Next time I shall merely point out that I know who you are without blowing your cover.
If you wish to do this properly, you need to hide you IP address by using an anonymous web proxy like anonymouse (http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html) or Proxify (http://proxify.com), or freeware such as JAP (http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html) or TOR (http://tor.eff.org).
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Hi Mince - it is my profession, as it happens. The belly dancing is just my evening occupation. By the way, if you want more of us girlies, maybe you should discourage all the technical discussion that appears on the board. We can't cope with it you know. :-*
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By the way, if you want more of us girlies, maybe you should discourage all the technical discussion that appears on the board.
Okay, I'll stop using phrases like "Lime Green".
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Next question for Roger:
How did you deal with the groupies when you first started?
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And how do you handle them now?
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I had a crack team of ex-S.A.S. bodyguards and was in constant touch with The White House security office regarding the latest in protective technology. When I popped out to the shops, a regiment of Ghurkas yomped alongside me. Andrew had his mum.
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How many of your ideas for strips are eventually not used. How do you decide whether they are funny or not?
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How many of your ideas for strips are eventually not used. How do you decide whether they are funny or not?
Roger doesn't do strips that aren't funny! The impudence!
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I had a crack team of ex-S.A.S. bodyguards and was in constant touch with The White House security office regarding the latest in protective technology. When I popped out to the shops, a regiment of Ghurkas yomped alongside me.
I heard you married her.
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Mince, I don't think you DECIDE if something is funny. It either is or it isn't. While some ideas are obviously funnier than others, I like to think I keep up a reasonable standard. Sometimes, I'm going down a certain line and it simply doesn't work so I scrap the idea and start again. I also spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to get the "rhythm" of the dialogue right. Often a joke works better if a key word has, say, three sylllables rather than two and I'll trawl around my brain till I find what I think works best.
By the way, does anyone else have to check the dictionary every time they use the word "rhythm"?
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I use the Rhythm Method myself. Four daughters later.....
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Tarky, I didn't understand the "I heard you married her" gag. Do you mean I married a regiment of Ghurkas? I'm sure I would have remembered.
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Profuse apologies, Rogy - my juxtaposition was perhaps a little obtuse.
The line should have followed the question from Mince asking how you dealt with the groupies when you first started.
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Different Question:
Roger,
Do you use cut outs, puppets etc to help you come up with your new plots?
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Or black magic?
Do you employ troupes of out-of-work actors to come round your house and improv?
I have a routine for coming up with gags. I get up, go to Tanja's (the coffee shop), have a latte, read the paper, go down to Wellington Point beach, paddle around in the surf for an hour, drive to Capalaba, wander round the shops, go home, have a nanna nap until the kids are home from school, make their tea, go to coach soccer, have a few beers afterwards, come home and watch TV until bedtime.
What were we talking about again?
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I have a staff of around 5,000. This includes 78 actors who live in a lodge in my grounds. When I write a script, I get them to act it out so that I can see how it sounds. Over the years, I've had to sack quite a few. Hoffman, for example, was useless at "Dennis" and kept throwing in lines like "Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs Robinson?" You see, this is the kind of stuff that the average person doesn't realise we cartoonists have to put up with.
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I use cut-outs and puppets. :(
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I use cut-outs and puppets. :(
But do they answer back
Punctuation needed...
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I have a staff of around 5,000. This includes 78 actors who live in a lodge in my grounds. [...]
It must make things very hard for new cartoonists trying to make a start in the industry what with the cost of pencils these days too.
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I've been using the same pencil since 1984.
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Pointy end, Tarquin.
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Ah!
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Roger, have you been watching The Masters golf tournament and who do you think will win?
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Yes, I have, Rog, and, while I would never rule out Tiger Woods, I think Vijay Singh may be worth a flutter.
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I cooked a meal tonight and was left with several new potatoes. Any suggestions?
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Nothing beats a Spanish omelette. Toss the left-over cooked potatoes in a pan with some olive oil, onions, bacon and frozen peas, then beat in three eggs and stir until cooked. Delicious!
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Rog, are you, by any chance, bored?
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Might be.
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Charlotte Church is on next. Watch that.
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Oh, okay.
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here she comes ;D
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Oh, you were talking about the telly programme right?
My avatar drew me to this thread, so I assumed......no, thats just stupid, isn't it Charlotte?
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Hello Roger,
I've been corresponding with Andrew Christine - my thanks to you and Nigel Sutherland for putting me in touch with him - and he mentioned your meeting at DCT in the 1960s, which also gets a mention at the start of this thread.
I'm also a fan of the 1960s SF puppet series 'Space Patrol' :
http://homepages.tesco.net/~space.patrol/SpacePatrol/Beezer01.htm
- and the 'Beezer' ran a strip in late 1966/early 1967. Knowing little about DCT, despite exceptional help from their syndication department who kindly provided me with colour copies of the entire run, I wondered if you recall the set-up and DCT at that time, and may know who wrote the strips? Or at least maybe know who the editorial team were on 'Beezer' then? The creditless system DCT works to tends to confound us fan/researcher types forty years on! ::)
Thanks in advance! ;D
Shaqui
'John's Look-Out'
http://www.geocities.com/juniortvtimes2006/stripbackgndmain.htm
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Shaqui, this is a little before my time at D.C. Thomson but I'll make some enquiries and get back to you.
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Many thanks Roger - apologies for the time confusion. Andrew Christine mentioned he started there in 1965 so I assumed you were there at the same time, not considering you may have started later...
:)
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August 1969, Shaqui. I'm having a beer with a former editor of "The Beezer" tomorrow and will pick his brains.
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August 1969, Shaqui. I'm having a beer with a former editor of "The Beezer" tomorrow and will pick his brains.
Was he a cartoon editor, or a real person...? ;D
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This is really going to make your day, Roger - I was 10 in '69, and therefore a huge fan of yours.
Thought you'd be pleased.
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P*** off.
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:o I didn't think you'd be THAT pleased!
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August 1969, Shaqui. I'm having a beer with a former editor of "The Beezer" tomorrow and will pick his brains.
Much appreciated, Roger. Thank you. :)
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Shaqui, I spoke to the former Beezer editor last night. (Alan Digby---he remembers being in contact with you some years back.)
The editor in the mid-sixties was Bill Swinton. We're still trying to find out if the Space Patrol series was written "in-house" or bought in from outside. Will let you know if I find the answer.
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Shaqui, I spoke to the former Beezer editor last night. (Alan Digby---he remembers being in contact with you some years back.)
Hmmm... the name slips my mind :-\ I recall a very helpful person by the name of Calum Laird of the DCT Syndication department, and Alan Digby doesn't immediately ring a bell but I do have a memory like a... you know... one of those things full of holes... :P
The editor in the mid-sixties was Bill Swinton. We're still trying to find out if the Space Patrol series was written "in-house" or bought in from outside. Will let you know if I find the answer.
Thank you again Roger. Above and beyond the call of duty, and much appreciated. ;D
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I've just been reading Book 8 again and it's taken me 5 minutes to stop laughing at the strip where Colonel Escargot it dressed as a penguin. Have you ever looked back at your work and laughed that long at a single strip?
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Hi, Snoppy, and welcome to the board.
Strangely, (and no offence), I remember that strip and cannot recall it being funny at all. I did laugh at the one where he blindfolds himself to show he trusts his men, and Beau Peep is seen on one knee examining a mine and saying: "I don't know. It must be a dud." My dad is not too keen on the colonel either.
I guess different people find different things funny, which I guess says a lot about the range of humour Roger provides. I love some of the nomad's comments: "That's what I would have said if they hadn't opened fire."; "I wonder if I could smack him in the mouth before his men got me."; "Mummy!"
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Where are you from, Snoppy?
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I'm from Harrogate in Yorkshire. I was never a fan of the Colonel when I was younger but recently I've been reading my collection and that particular strip just got me (it was his face that did it). Got every edition with the exception of books one and 3 (though just noticed them on ebay).
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Book 1 is expensive on Ebay.
Yes, some of the strips can just get you by the look on a face.
If you're a football man, you'll fit in well here. If not, you can take consolation in the fact that you are not the only one.
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Welcome, Snoppy. I tend not to laugh at my own work when I look back at it. You'll find with most cartoonists that, when they look over old work, they usually see things that could have been done better. I do get the odd smile from a strip---but only because I have no recollection of writing it!
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I tend not to laugh at my own work when I look back at it.
I don't either, Roger.
Welcome, Snoppy. I desperately need to know how you came about your name. It's either something really fascinating, or a typo, Snoopy.
And congratulations - you've been here more than half a day and Mince hasn't insulted you yet (he's really hoping you don't like football, by the way - it could all change if you do).
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I'm having a bad day.
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;D ;D ;D :D :) :-\ :( :( :-[ :-*
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Nothing fasinating about my name I'm afraid, just an extension of my surname. Worsnop=Snop=Snoppy. No Typo. And I do like football, I'm a Leeds fan (laugh as much as you like, I'm used to it now).
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Just think, Snoppy: if you had not become a football fan, you could have spared yourself the humiliation.
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Just think, Snoppy: if you had not become a football fan, you could have spared yourself the humiliation.
You could not resist it could you Mince
I think your team were hard done by the FA I still think you will get into the play offs
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With a start of -15?! Relegation to Mid Table at least I think this season. We're almost as bad as Dundee Utd. Still we've won 2 out of 2 for the first time in years things are looking up. Just been outbid on e-bay for book 3. It went for ?31. Why were books 1-3 out of stock so early? I can bet money on them been located in a car boot sale somewhere in the country going for 50p.
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I went to Elland Road for the first game of the seaon in 2001. (A sporting weekend---me and a few mates also took in the Test at Headingley). Leeds beat Southampton in the Premiership. Who'd have thunk, a few years on.....
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With a start of -15?! Relegation to Mid Table at least I think this season. We're almost as bad as Dundee Utd. Still we've won 2 out of 2 for the first time in years things are looking up. Just been outbid on e-bay for book 3. It went for ?31. Why were books 1-3 out of stock so early? I can bet money on them been located in a car boot sale somewhere in the country going for 50p.
Blame Mince. If only he had known.
Just one more ?1 and it would have been yours.
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I don't have books 1 & 2 anymore.
I'm ashamed to admit that I cashed in on them on ebay.
I got ?30 for book 2 and ?127 for book 1. ;D
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Ahem...my cut?
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Ahem...my cut?
Did not know you still got royalties Roger
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Royalties Roger would be a great name for a cartoon character. At the tail end of every adventure he would sidle up to another character, give a little cough and mutter "ahem...my cut?"
All the other characters would either collapse with laughter, or have balloons containing the word "gulp"...
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Doesn't Roger play with Royal Tees when he attempts golf at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews?
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Doesn't Roger play with Royal Tees when he attempts golf at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews?
I thought the only teas Roger has is high teas in the club house