“The benefit of having such a large readership of the Speedy comic strip was that when I pitched the series to the broadcaster, I came with a built-in audience of two and a half million people”
Every morning more than four and half million people in South Africa pick up the The Daily Sun and speedily search for Speedy, the country’s favorite comic strip character.Created by the genius, super talented Tim Mostert, Speedy has now sped ahead on to various platforms.
While in CANNES at MIPCOM Junior 2006, AnimationXpress Anand Gurnani met up with Speedy creator Tim Mostert to gain from his insights and experiences.
In the interview that followed, Mostert shared amongst many things, the Speedy experience, as well as his other projects some of which he plans to create in collaboration with Indian studios. He also shared some inspiring advice for aspiring Indian original content creators…
Excerpts…
It’s been a year since we spoke about Speedy, what are the new developments?
Speedy�s speeding ahead on multiple platforms. He is South Africa�s favorite comic strip character and now soon he will be on TV, Mobile, PSA�s the lot.
For Television we have Speedy in three formats; firstly, we have just got a pre sale deal for Speedy with SABC 2, where we will be doing 26 half hour (3D) episodes for prime time. Then there is another series of 52 episodes of one minute each again for prime time TV. The third is a set of eight episodes of three minutes each licensed by the United Nations where Speedy explains each of the UN�s Millennium Goals in an entertaining way. The UN will distribute this series to 200 countries, and we will follow the series with a mobile download and publishing campaign.
The deal with the UN is a commercial one and I am licensing the character, as opposed to them commissioning it.
I also have written permission from Nelson Mandela to use him as a character in Speedy.
On the mobile front, we have a downloadable format of the eight episodes that we are doing for the United Nations. Part of the revenue generated out of this would go to the UN. Then you can also watch Speedy live on Vodacom�s TV Channel. There is also a mobile TV station launching in 2007 dedicated to my content called TIM TV. TIM TV is a dedicated 24-hour channel airing Speedy and our other content.
We also have a publishing format, of course the character has evolved from comic strip, but we are also going to have drawing books, story books, coloring books and so on.
I also have several licensing deals for Speedy with some of the world�s biggest multi-national corporations.
What according to you makes Speedy click?
Just recently, I met a black woman who said that she loved Speedy and read him every day. She told me that Speedy is probably the first positive role model for young black men that she has ever come across.
Every morning more than four and half million people, pick up the The Daily Sun (which is the largest newspaper in South Africa, as well as on the African continent) and begin their day with Speedy. Visualise this scenario, �Very early in the morning across townships in South Africa, hundreds of people queue up to take minibus taxis to work. The first one buys a copy of the Daily Sun, reads Speedy and passes it to the next and so on. These people read Speedy and then discuss him�. This happens every morning in South Africa . It happened this morning, it will happen tomorrow and so on.
The Daily Sun, which is a tabloid that caters to the black community, is quite a grim paper, and Speedy is like a ray of light, a glimmer of hope. Speedy is always happy, In his world you never hear the noise of a siren, there is no sexual assault, there is no crime in the neighborhood. Speedy goes to work, he has a wife and has a good relationship with his wife, he praises her cooking, he shares a good rapport with his children, he has healthy friendships with other men.
The United Nations was looking for an international spokesperson and they said they wanted Speedy because he is non-white, and represents most of the world. Show him to Indians, to Brazilians, in China, Asia, Africa and people will relate to him, they will relate somewhere to the characters, the neighborhood and so on. They describe Speedy as a third world character with a first world sense of humor.
Are you also working and developing other content?
We are working on a show called Sticky Wicket (52 x 2 mins) which is a cricket themed show teaching life lessons using the game of cricket and humor. We have cricketing superstars who are going to be animated and we are doing their voices. Then we have a show called Civil Service, which features three civil servants, Hopeless, Useless and Clueless, who sit and do nothing but drink beer, eat chicken, and keep talking about how much taxpayer�s money they are spending. That�s a very interesting show and is being done in Stop Motion Animation. Then we have a show called Bugs in the Hood, which is a series of three insects, a black ant, a dung beetle and a mopane worm who represent three aspects of South Africa. They talk about all that�s happening in South Africa and its really funny. The animation production is being done as a stop motion paper cut out animation by a studio in Florence, Italy.
Yet another show we are working on is called The Finer Things which focuses on design history and art history. We have a series called �Silly Poems� which is animated limericks. Each series has been pre-sold on our mobile platform in South Africa, and are all rolling out onto terrestrial and satellite TV, airlines, webcasts and podcasts internationally.
Sticky Wicket seems like it could be hot in India?
Absolutely. In fact I want to work along with an Indian studio on this project because Cricket is like a religion in India and am sure that Indian animators would love to animate this sort of content, they would definitely add a lot of value. Besides I have been reading a lot about Indian animation online these days and I have been hearing a lot too! Apparently Indian animation studios can give me good quality at a faster turnaround speed and I would like to tap into that!
What is your take on Copyrights and how should original content creators go about their business?
As a creator, it is very important to own the copyrights to your work. With Speedy, I have been working on it for 4 years now and since day one I have owned the copyright and have licensed the character, be it to newspaper or any other format.
Always put the copyright sign with your name on all your work, the moment you create it. Take legal advice and ensure that all your work legally belongs to you. Do all agreements in writing. And remember that you have to register your copyright and trademark for every license you give out!
“I want to work along with an Indian studio on
Sticky Wicket
because Cricket is like
a religion in India
and I am sure that Indian animators would love to animate this sort of content”
What�s your forte in content creation?
Well content creation and gag writing is my forte. When it comes to writing gags for my comic strip, I follow a simple set up and delivery format (Two Beats) where the first panel sets up the gag, and the second panel delivers the punchline. For eg (Setup) Why did the Chicken cross the road? (delivery) to get to the other side! And that’s what good comedy is. If you canâ€?t be funny within two beats then you canâ€?t be funny. I have done more than a thousand comic strips and each gag has to stand on its own.
The benefit of having such a large readership of the Speedy comic strip was that when I pitched the series to the broadcaster, I came with a built-in audience of two and a half million people.
Any message you would like to give our readers? Especially for those aspiring to write and create original animated content?
Watch a lot of cartoons, watch as many cartoons as you can, and watch good cartoons. If you want to be a cartoonist, like an animation cartoonist, then watch cartoons and watch hours and hours of cartoons and don�t watch most of the rubbish which they show on most of the networks, most of the time.
Watch cartoons that will teach you about timing & pacing like the work of Bob Clampett, one of the best directors at Warner Bros. in the 1930�s & 1940�s. We can understand what impact sound design has on the cartoons, but the important thing is timing. Understand the timing and pacing and what makes the gags work and that�s where someone like Bob Clampett is so remarkably consistent and funny.
There are Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1940â€?s where they have a contagious rhythm of gag humor that draws you in as the viewer, and carries you along laughing for 7 minutes. Thatâ€?s what weâ€?re trying to do with Speedy – to get the viewer hooked on to a funny gag rhythm and into into the habit of laughing for the duration of our show.