The Little Grey Notebook

Thomson: Just our luck! The one time we manage to catch the culprits they turn out to be innocent! It’s really too bad of them!

Thompson: You’d think they’d done it on purpose!

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—	Remi, Georges Prosper aka Hergé. Writer & Comic Strip Artist; May 22, 1907 - March 3, 1983 Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hergé

To be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

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—	Cummings, Edward Estlin. Poet, Playwright & Author; October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962 Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings

I start with a simple pencil drawing on board, then use oil pastels to block in the colours, adding washes of coloured inks on top.
Depending on the weather and the temperature in the studio, the oil and ink washes mix and repel to varying degrees, so it’s almost impossible to get the same effect twice.
When the layers are dry, I scrape back with forks and knives, or a damp cloth, and rework the surface using soft pencils, scratchy drawing nibs, thicker ink layers and Chinese black ink. Sometimes there are thumb prints, sometimes paint splatters with an old tooth brush, it varies.

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—	Toft, Sam. Illustrator; 15 June (?), 19(?) - Present Find out more: http://www.samtoft.co.uk/

To get a job where the only thing you have to do in your career is to make people laugh - well, it’s the best job in the world.

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—	Barker, Ronnie; British Actor, Writer & Comedian; 25 September, 1929 – 3 October, 2005 Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Barker

When I first drew him (Batman) I had eyes in there and it didn’t look right.

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—	Kahn, Robert aka Bob Kane. Comic Artist & Creator of Batman; October 24, 1915 – November 3, 1968 Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kane

The Coyote is limited, as Bugs is limited, by his anatomy. To give the Coyote a look of anticipatory delight, I draw everything up—the eyes are up, the ears are up, and even the nose is up. When he is defeated, on the other hand, everything turns down. You can’t do that as dramatically with human beings, although the emotions expressed are fully human.

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—	Jones, Charles Martin “Chuck”. Animator, Screenwriter, Producer & Director; September 21, 1912 - February 22, 2002 Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_jones

To this day, my pet hate remains being interrupted when I’m drawing. Which actually happens a lot - you know, people dropping into the studio. Some people think it’s because I’m shy - which I am. I have a problem with making eye-contact with people, or with holding eye contact. But when I’m drawing, I just love being in that zone. And so I tend to love being in a room on my own with the door shut.

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—	Hewlett, Jamie Christopher. Comic Artist & Co-Creator of Gorillaz; April 3, 1968 - Present Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Hewlett

If you look at a crowd, you get the impression of a certain uniformity, that if you zoom in on it, you notice that one person has a moustache and another is wearing glasses. It’s all the personalities and characters that form the crowd. It’s the same for the Smurfs. They’re all the same, but you can tell the difference between them.

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—	Culliford, Pierre aka Peyo. Comics Artist & Creator of The Smurfs; June 25, 1928 – August 12, 1992 Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peyo

You only live twice. Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face.

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—	Fleming, Ian. Novelist; May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964 Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming

Most puppets are inextricably linked to the puppeteer, or at least a presence, with the puppet often having the freer life, ironically. In Thunderbirds we can see the strings of the operator; Pinocchio is much a part of Geppetto; the Monster forever confused with Frankenstein; Punch and Judy linked to the operator by the presence of the operator down below in the booth; the doll in Coppelia part of Coppelius as much as Olympia is part of Dr Coppelius in Tales of Hoffman; Petruschka owned by the fairground barker , and so on, but in stop motion, the performer is removed, even if their personality is evident in the performance. In most cases the audience has no desire to know about the performer to enjoy the work.

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—	Purves, Barry. Director & Animator; July 3, 1955 – present Find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Purves