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Last night, after a farewell dinner for one of our co-workers, my boss and his wife invited everyone back to their house. I spent the next hour and a half avoiding the chance to sing karaoke along with my boss and some of his students from the lab. Maybe it was the cheesy video that accompanied each song, or maybe it was hearing my boss croon songs from “Cats” and “The Sound of Music”, but I just couldn’t get into the act. I wasn’t alone. I don’t think the microphones changed hands more than two or three times throughout the evening. I just said, no thanks, I really don’t sing.

And so what do I do the minute I get back in my car to return home? I start singing along with the radio.

“Oh look!” writes Josh of Speckled Paint, “Yahoo and Office Depot use the same photograph of a young woman to advertise their products. So which company, exactly. does said young woman identify with most?”

I don’t have anything to add to that. I just thought it was weird. I wonder if there are any other instances like that of one image being used to sell two different products.

Another look at the whole artist-versus-writer question? In a June 2002 interview with The Comics Journal, artist Jill Thompson says:

But that was always one of my biggest fears of drawing comics: cars, and then cities. An overhead shot of Manhattan is daunting. Eventually it becomes fun, but on a deadline basis it can get way too time consuming. It’s not fair that a writer gets to say, “We see Superman flying over Metropolis from above. He’s… ” And you know, “Oh, my god. I have to draw all of those windows. If I want to be really accurate, there’re a billion people and cars down on the street.” And the writer got paid for writing one page and it’s one sentence. It took me three days to draw this thing! It’s not fair!

It’s strange. I agree with Peter David that drawing is usually seen as a more respectable craft than writing and that a lot of people assume the latter is an absurdly easy thing to do, that anybody could write a book if he or she wasn’t so busy doing real work. For comic books, I think it’s typically assumed by most people that the artist does all of the work. And yet, there are some books like The Sandman (which is where I was first introduced to Thompson’s wonderful artwork), where I think the exact opposite is assumed: yes, of course, somebody had to draw the nice pictures for Mr. Gaiman, but it’s not as if they actually did anything, is it?

Maybe it’s celebrity. Maybe most people aren’t interested in meeting writers unless they’re famous writers… Or maybe it’s as Peter David suggests, that it boils down to the simple fact that Neil Gaiman is British. David writes:

Certainly there are comics writers who are respected by fans and industry, although by and large they have to fit one of two categories: either they’re artists, as well, or they’re from England (thereby proving that comics fans are no different than theater-goers or viewers of PBS in their adoration of all things British).

I don’t know. I buy comics primarily for the writers; good story is good story, as far as I’m concerned. But I don’t kid myself that I’m the norm. As Neil Gaiman makes abundantly clear in his post earlier today — dear god, when will the man get permalinks? — comics are still predominantly viewed as a medium for children. If you draw Spiderman or Captain America, well, at least it looks pretty and pays the bills. But to actually write something like that? Surely no self-respecting person would do that as their life’s work.