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BrendanKeeley — The Pickwick Club
Published: 2006-06-28 22:51:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 614; Favourites: 6; Downloads: 37
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Ah yes, the Pickwick Papers, without a doubt my favourite novel of all time. Here we see the Pickwick club in all its dubious finery, and their nemesis, the villainous Alfred Jingle.Related content
Comments: 58
It certainly doesn't suit his body type very well.
Looking back on this really old artwork, there are loads of areas which look painfully dated now, but the face really does stand out as being "wrong" somehow.
I'd like to think I could do a much better job of this now, but I guess we all say that about our old pictures.
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Lovely, I'm a great admirer of the book and seeing as it is Dickens' first book it is not as well known today like his other works which is a shame.
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Thankyou very much! I'm glad you like it! I always find it a bit awkward to look back on some of my older pictures, because they look so dated now, but I'd like to think that there were still some merits to my interpretations of the Pickwickians.
I'm not really sure how well known Dickens' other works are. Most people are familiar the Christmas Carol, presumably because it's on television every year, and Oliver Twist seems fairly well known as well, although that is largely due to the very influential musical. Besides those two though, most of the others probably aren't that well known.
Sure, most people have heard of David Copperfield and The Old Curiosity Shop, but how many people have actually read them? Most people have only ever read a Dickens'book when forced to at school. It's always nice to meet another Dickens fan, but I think that we may be in a literary minority.
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Unfortunately so. I wish Pickwick Papers would be reimagined on the big screen, only if I had my way it would be set in 1957 New York city but I still wouldn't know how they would they do the prison debtors sequence in that part of time.
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Why 1957? Why do you think that taking Dickens' work out of its origional context would improve it?
You're welcome to think that if you like, but I'm afraid that I don't really agree with you. I'm not a big fan of modernizing anything, but I think that Dickens is something which is often so tied to the times and events that it portrayes, that it can't really transition to another time period and still keep its unique charms intact.
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It was just a fun idea in my head, I always like it when plays do updates on Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde and I thought if it Pickwick Papers was modernize how would it entail, but yes I don't think everything needs a setting change.
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It's certainly an interesting mental excersise I guess, but I'm afriad I still don't really see the point.
I guess that part of it is just because I don't really like the idea of modernizing anything. To be honest, part of that is because as a creator myself, I would hate to see someone do a modernized version of something I had written/drawn at some point, but I also think that once you seperate something from what inspired it, you sever a part of its inner meaning, and devalue it as a result.
Dickens' work was about the times in which he lived. Not just set then, but really about it. It was about Victorian life, and to set it anywhere else would rob the books of their very reason for existing. Shakespeare however, wrote many of his plays about places he had never been to, set in times he's never lived in,and never really thought about.( As for fantasy writers, Tolkien never physically went to Middle Earth, but mentally he spent so much of his time there that he could be said to know Middle Earth like he knew the streets he lived in. I don't think that you could set Lord of the Rings anywhere other than Middle Earth, and I don't think anyone knows Middle Earth as well as Tolkien did. ) Romeo and Juliette isn't about life in Italy, it's just about two people who love each other even though it would be better for all concerned if they didn't, and that story could be set more easily in another time or place. I still wouldn't aprove of doing that, but you could at least make a sensible case for doing so.
Whenever I see an updated or modernized version of a play or book, I can't help but wonder if it's just a case of a writer with no ideas of their own, trying to put there stamp on something great and try and make it their own, rather than make something of real merit themselves.
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There are sometimes I think like that (for instance Adam Sandler version of Mr Deeds Goes To Town) is something that wasn't improved in modern times. However a play like Hamlet and its put into a different era, I mean have you seen Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet? I think if the writer respect the material enough or keep the dialogue in tact I don't see it as much as a problem. I think its one of those things that can or cannot work depending the direction/author, but I totally sympathize what you are saying though.
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But, if you're modernizing Shakespeare, isn't it rather counterproductive to keep the origional Shakespearian English? If you're going to go to all the trouble of setting the play in the modern day era, why would you leave in something so out of place as Elizabethan English? At least with something like West Side Story, the play is internally consistant. They took the basic story of Romeo and Juliet, and compleatly modernized it. I don't really aprove of them doing that, but it at least made sense.
I guess you could argue that having modern day people speaking in Sheakspearian English is no more out of place than having Antony and Cleopatra doing it though.
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With Shakespeare though I find them as interesting What ifs, I wouldn't necessarily put the plays into modern times all the time but other once and a while...I kind of keep my mind open until I see it whether its a good idea or not.
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I'm certainly willing to judge each case on it's own merits, but I can't help wondering how many good ideas we've never seen because someone decided to make another remake instead. It's not just about weather the modernized film is passable or not, it's also about what we might have seen if the movie company had spent it's money on something origional instead. I'd probably rather see something new, than see the same old stories done over and over again in slightly different ways. Even with all of the remakes, and re-interpretations, it's still the old Bela Lugosi Dracula that remains the pinicle of the genra.
Perhaps the movie industry suffers from fanart syndrome, in the same way that DeviantArt does? Perhaps a movie featuring something everyone is already familiar with, is more likely to atract a larger audience than taking a chance with something new would? I've always wondered why people go on DeviantArt, and instead of looking at all the great origional characters on here in the hope of finding something new and interesting, just go straight to typing "Naruto" into the search bar. I've got nothing against fanart, in it's place, I just think that there are a great many stories we'll never get to hear, because the same few stories keep getting told over and over again in slightly different ways.
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That is such a good point. And you are right, I think people should either rip off or be inspired by the things they love than copy it outright. George Lucas wanted to remake Flash Gordon but when he couldn't he did a homage movie to the series called Star Wars. So yeah I see what you are saying.
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Exactly. I'm not against there being a Shakespeare movie, but doing the same one over and over again in different settings and different costumes just seems like a waste of time, when there are so many other films that you could be making instead, and so many other stories that we will never get a chance to hear as a result.
I suppose that you could make a special exception for plays perfomed on stage, ( instead of those which are done on film ) since they have to keep performing the same play over and over again anyway, or else only one theatres worth of people would ever get to see the play, and that could be considered a poor investment considering all the time that must be spent learning lines and rehearsing.
It's interesting to see how far off topic we've got though, given that this was initially a conversation about the Pickwick Papers. Is there any particular reason why you like the book, or are you just a Dickens fan in general?
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I would say I'm a casual fan of Dickens works in general but for some reason Pickwick Papers is my personal favorite of his. Its long yes but there is a certain joy that you don't see abundantly with his works and I think it has to do with his young age and the fact that he was not that cynical yet. I love the idea of a club traveling around and finding misadventures along the way as well as meeting with colorful characters. I just thought it was a great read and I was kind of surprised not many adaptations was made, but the ones that were made were exceptional. I think my favorite is the 1985 TV version and the 1999 BBC radio version which I listen to from time to time.
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Yes, Dickens isn't generally know for being overly optimistic, but it's worth noting that those of his books with the more positive endings, tend to be the ones that are most well known.
The Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist are both somewhat unusual for Dickens, in that they both have very positive endings, yet are the books with which most people are most familiar. Part of that is due, no doubt, to the famous movie versions, but it is probably equally indicative of the situation when you take into acount the reasons why such movies were probably sucessful in the first place. It's certainly interesting to note though, that the works Dickens is most famous for, are probably the ones least typical of his style of writing.
While the Pickwick Papers is perhaps less cynical than many of his other works, the tell tale signs of what is it come are still very much there. The debters prison, and the crooked lawers, were both to become staples of his future novels, and so rather than saying that the cynisism wasn't there, I'd be more inclined to say that it was simply in its infancy, and still growing and adjustic to its surroundings.
In regards to the subject matter, it is worth noting that the basic idea of the story actually changed quite a bit during negotiations with the printers. Origionally, he was commissioned to provide acompanying text for some humerous illustrations concerning the misadventures of a cockney sporting club, and it was only during the initial negotiations that Dickens was able to change the story to one about a club of London excentrics. While the characters are undeniably literary masterpeices, the basic idea may well have come about because Dickens had to adjust the idea away from a brief he was unsuited for, rather than actually coming up with the idea entierly on his own.
That said, Dicken's previous work, "Sketches by Boz" features a fair number of excentrics, so it's likely that he had already developed a taste for writing such characters before he even began thinking about the Pickwick Papers.
There have actually been a fair few radio versions of the Pickwick Papers, although many of them are older productions which are not very well known, or readily available. For example, did you know that Orsen Welles produced a radio verion of the Pickwick Papers in 1938 for Mercury theater on the air?
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Yeah I listened to the Orson Welles and I like that and I even posted it on Youtube.
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That was awfully good of you. I'm something of an old radio enthusiast, and so I can always apreciate someone helping to make more obsure recordings more available to the public, even if I personally have a copy already. The great thing about material which is out of copyright, is that it is there to be shared with the public. There are a lot of great old gems out there, just looking for someone to help get them to a wider audience.
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Oh I agree wholeheartedly, its sad that the radio plays is not as popular as it used to be. BBC still come out with some good ones from time to time though.
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Well, to be fair, Old Time Radio shows didn't have television and video games to compete with them. The same is probably true of the pulp magazines, which brought us H P Lovecraft and Robert E Howard, but have pretty much vanished from store shelves now. Even comic books have suffered enormously since the advent of television and video games, although the likes of batman and superman are still going.
Interestinly though, the rise of the internet seems to be breathing life back into many of these old media. Pulp fiction is back in strength on the net, as are comics, which are going through some sort of new golden age of artistic freedom. The same may well be true for the BBC. I never really listened to BBC radio plays until iplayer came along, but now I listen to them frequently.
When I was young, the VCR allowed you to watch what you wanted, when you wanted, and that was something the radio just didn't offer. But now with iplayer, the two are on an even playing field, and suddenly the radio plays are holding their own against, and often surpassing, modern television shows.
There is also what appears to be a growing trend in favour of amatuer radio plays, and amatuer audio books, which is breathing fresh life into the audio medium. While many of the BBC radio plays are still reasonably good, they are somewhat limited in their scope, and it's only through amatuer and small press input that the medium can be kept from stagnating. The same is probably true for comics.
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Thanks very much for sharing this article with me. ^_^ It was surprisingly interesting to read, since I've never really seen anything like it before.
Unfortunately, it's aimed more at an outsiders view, rather than something geared towards those already well versed in the subject, so it didn't really include anything that I didn't already know, but it was still interesting to see someone else's views on the subject.
I certainly didn't agree with him on everything he says, and sadly there are several key areas of Old Time Radio which he barley touches on, or misses out altogether, but this article probably isn't aimed at someone who's already seen enough of Old Time Radio to acquire their own tastes, and make their own mind up.
It is very interesting though, to see that such articles exist at all. As I said earlier, I've never seen anything like this before, despite having been an Old Time Radio enthusiast for many years now. Perhaps this is a sign that Old Time Radio is starting to grow in popularity, or at least starting to reach a wider audience? It's still clearly a very niche hobby, as the article indicates by calling it a "geek obsession", but perhaps this indicates that it is becoming a more widely recognized geek obsession, and will one day be up there with things like vintage Sci-fi and retro gaming, as something which is a widely recognized and accepted niche interest?
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If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up finding this article?
Is it a site that you frequent anyway, or were you specifically looking for OTR articles?
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I stumble upon it by chance its on a website called AVclub.com
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Ah, okay then.
In any case, thank you for sharing it with me. It looks like Old Time Radio is starting to build a fan base, rather than just amassing a number of isolated collectors.
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I like your style and how you portrayed all the Pickwickians.
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Thankyou, although I think my style has changed quite a lot since I drew this, so I should probably give the Pickwickians another go one of these days. ^_^
As for portraying them, thanks to Dicken's great writing, I find that rather easy. With any good book, the reader always seems to have a very vivid picture of just what the characters are like. It may be very different from how other people see them, but it's still very clear and precise. For example, I always thought of Snodgrass as looking rather foppish, thanks in part to the actor who played him the the BBC radio drama, and couldn't really see myself drawing him any other way.
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It is? Well, thankyou, I'm glad you like it. ^_^
If you don't mind me asking, what is it about it that you like?
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Alfred Jingle, Heh he sounds like a Big Evil guy,
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Yeah, he's the villain of the novel, who tricks the Pickwickians at every turn in the plot.
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Tricksters are annoying, But than again he sounds pretty cool ^^
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Oh, is cool alright. I even have an old audio recoeding of the Pickwick Papers with Orsen Wells playing him. ^_^
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Thanks! Glad you like it! ^_^
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They do? While the book itself is very dark and horrific, the pickwicians themselves always struck me as being very... un scary.
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The picture is very interesting but I've never heard of the book. Is it called just The Pickwick Papers? I think I might check it out...
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Yep, it's just called "The Pickwick Papers". It's by Charles Dickens. You really should read it. ^_^
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Charles Dickens wrote it? Well, that's settles it, I have no choice but to read it now! ^-^
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Yeah, it was Charles Dickens. It was the first book he ever had published too.
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Really? Well, next stop the library. He really is a fantastic writer.
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the characters you draw are so misteryous, is something in their eyes, something about them that makes them different, impressing
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Yes, there is definatly an air of mystery that surrounds my pictures. You are right, I think it's something about their eyes.
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