A little fairy-tale for you - Enjoy !

[archivist]

There once was a young man. He liked to scribble, did nothing else since he was a child, and when he got older he decided to do cartoons. He did some drawings and he found someone who did the writing.

 

The young man managed to find an editor who published these cartoons in his magazines.

 

One Friday, as the young man delivered the papers to his editor and collected his check, the editor said to him: "You know, I asked everybody I could think of, so I will also ask you ("Although you're not even an artist, only a scribbler, but I need something" the editor thought, but kept this to himself): There is this story we published a few months ago and it looks like it's gonna be some success. Do you think you could come up with something similar ?"

 

The young man nodded in his always optimistic way and said "Sure, I think I'll find something to your liking. When do you need the story ?"

 

"On Monday" the editor said, and the young man left the building.

 

Monday was not far away and the young man sat down at his desk at home and tried to think about what he could offer to his editor.

 

He looked through the material he had for reference for his cartoons and found some drawings of a character he could alter a little.

 

He did some sketches on a piece of paper and even found a name he could give to the character.

 

Now he needed a story. He thought of his writer friend and asked him if he could come up with a story.

 

"What was the title of the magazine the story will be published in ?" His writer friend asked. "I think we need something different for this kind of magazine, unlike what you drew."

 

The writer friend, well-read and always full of ideas, took his notebook where he immediately writes down a hunch or a good idea for a new story, when he sees something or hears something which his mind thinks would be a good idea to use for.

 

He looked through it and said "Well, there was this character which we could alter a little and use, and there was this story in a pulp magazine a few months ago which we could use for a plot. And there was this story a few months ago where they used a name for the antagonist we could use for our main character."

 

He looked again at the sketches of his cartoonist friend, told him what to change and told him the name which he wanted for the character.

 

Now they needed panels to give an image to the story.

 

Since the cartoonist was doing cartoons until now, this was something new for him and he feared he could not deliver the mood and the atmosphere this kind of story needed.

 

So he once again looked for reference material and found some drawings which he thought he could use for the story.

 

He started to put the drawings in some kind of order and made sure that they fit to the story which his writer friend had in mind.

 

On Monday the cartoonist had six pages with panels altered or pencilled, inked and lettered. He signed his name on the first page and brought them to his editor.

 

The editor looked through the pages and said "I like it. Bring me another story !"

 

The young man left the building and thought "I doubt I find more reference material to do a second story". So he asked a bit around and someone mentioned an artist to him, who did some work for a publishing company. The cartoonist met the artist and asked him if he could do some pencilling and inking for him, and sign the story with the name of the cartoonist. The artist said "Sure, yes, no problem as long as I'll get paid for it" and the cartoonist went to his writer friend to tell him to think of a second story.

 

Some days later the cartoonist brought the second story to his editor, and he realized that this would be going on on a regular basis.

 

He again left the editor's building and took a walk through the park. There he saw a young boy, a teen clearly out of town with some drawings on his jacket. "Who did the drawings ?" the cartoonist asked the boy. "Me" the boy answered, unsure if he had hurt somebody in some way with his drawings or crossed a line. "Would you like to do some drawings for me on a regular basis ?" "Sure", the boy said, knowing that he could use the payment he'll get.

 

So for the third story the boy assisted the artist of the cartoonist, in doing background inkings and other minor things.

 

In the months to come the boy's involvement in the drawings got bigger, so the artist could concentrate on the next story because the demand of the editor got bigger.

 

Soon the cartoonist hired another artist so that he could deliver the amount of stories his editor demanded from him.

 

He always checked if the first page had his name on it and brought the pages to his editor and collected the check for the work.

 

And he lived happily ever after.

 

 

---

 

 

A note from me: Please be aware that this is all fictional and has never happened this way.

 

This was all thought out by myself. Nobody ghosted for me.

[porcupine48]

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

And then Jim Steranko popped him in the mouth and he lived happily ever after!