Peter McAdam is - to my mind - one of the funniest people around. His creation The Nine Henrys which is now a book (designed by yours truly) on Gonzo Multimedia is something which really should be on your Christmas present list. A couple of days ago I caught up with him for a chat...
JON: So when is Henrys the movie coming
out? I think there should be a
full-length Hollywood feature film about
Henrys
PETER: <laugh> Well I’ve done this job videoing this
graffiti and I got £500 for that and I am going to get a Wacom tablet which means I can draw Henrys as
though I was drawing on a piece of paper in freestyle. Because my problem was
drawing them, and then I had to scan them in, and my scanner’s broke so
basically I just had to photograph them and it was just a long process so I
think this way I can probably learn myself animation by just doing it cell by
cell like straight on to the screen, you know.
JON: I enjoyed Henrys, I think they were very
funny indeed. I like the stuff you were
doing last week when they went back in time
PETER: Yeah, well I’ll do more Jon. I’ll get on that and we’ll just have it as a
kind of a little quirky weekly thing as well. Just keeping it going, like you
said, you know.
JON: I like the way that you’ve got, on your
Facebook group – Henrys have got quite a big following haven’t they?
PETER: Yeah, and some of them having been
photographing the books as well which is good you know
JON: I think it is great fun – I think they are
going to take off. They are just not taking off as quickly as I would have
liked.
PETER: Yeah, well I tell you what, leading up to
Christmas I’ve got things planned and I’m going to get very intense on it – you
know like really use some off the wall stuff and have a caption competition as
well. Maybe give away a free book or something.
JON: Now, how did Henrys come about in the first
place?
PETER: I’ve kept a dream diary since I was about
14, and one day, I think it was around my 20s, there was this name called The
Nine Henrys and it just flashed into my head before I woke up, you know like in
that hypnogogic area between dreaming and sleep and you have to get up, the
alarm has gone and I am thinking … The Nine Henrys, what’s that? I think the cloned sheep was on the TV I
think around about that time and I was thinking wouldn’t it be funny if there was like a cloned cartoon character,
you know all of the same. And you
couldn’t differentiate them. Because my
drawing skills are about as … if I did nine people I couldn’t really handle
that, but because they are all the same I guess I thought that was a nice. …..
JON: I like that. So what happened then, talk me through it..
because they live in such a wonderfully surreal world
PETER: I deliberately kept it sort of limbless,
you know just like a line drawing, basically it’s just a big head and legs and
that’s it, you know. And somebody said
it looks like a crisp with legs. I
suppose I just kept it simple – big head, thin legs and thin arms and that’s it
you know. It’s easy for me to draw, it’s
basic limitations really, you know
artists can work to these limitations and having a kind of line drawn
world just makes you think more. You know, if it was a 3D world then you can add things and if it’s colour
you can do, you know, but I thought very minimalist just get back to really
kind of basics – almost like doodles.
And some of them are so I’ve kind of like kept the original spurt as it
was. The original drawing that I did
probably on the back of a bus ticket and that keeps it a nice….you know rather
than be doctoring it on Photoshop or later on re-drawing it, so it keeps its
spontaneity, you know.
JON: I agree totally, and it’s very clever as
well. They are not just silly – they
live in a cerebral stupid world, if you know what I mean.
PETER: Yeah, yeah, it’s probably me <laughs> It is me, what am I
saying?
JON: What I like about it, is that a lot of it
seems to be about as surreal as the world I live in.
PETER: Yes well, we are kindred spirits. I’ve always seen him as the metaphysical Mr.
Bean you know.
JON: Haha I like that
PETER: You know when you have to think of
something to get a grip on the concept – it’s quite large and big. Sometimes I
like to think of a tag line, you know, that’s what they do with movies don’t
they? They say Sixth Sense meets like
erm… I don’t know, like Unforgiven or something so straight away you’ve this
like mash up in your head of what to expect sort of thing. That’s his tag line if it was a movie you
know. Maybe you’re right, thanks for pushing that, because maybe I am a person
that gets an idea then kind of sways around and another idea comes up and I get
seduced by that. Then I’ve just got this
hotel lobby full of ideas and they’re all waiting for me, and that’s like I see
the imagination. And you know the Nine
Henrys keep coming to the fore and saying what you going to do with us? They can argue with me in my head. And they are saying what you going to do? And
Jonathan is on the telephone or email saying you going to animate these or
what? And you’re perfectly right you
know.
JON: Well I am going to carry on bullying you
until you do
PETER: Yes <laughs>
JON: Because I think The Nine Henrys, the movie
has got to be made, even if I am the only person who watches it, I don’t care,
I’ve got to see it. Just because I want to see what happens to
them
PETER: You know, I’m pretty good at scriptwriting, and stuff and I’ve never
thought of making a movie, but I will put my mind to it, right, definitely
JON: So tell me about the project for the Ipad – what is it?
PETER: It’s just been buzzing around my head for
years called The Henry Zone. I can imagine that you download it, and you open
it and suddenly you’ve got like four menus, you’ve got the book, in flash form
just click and go to next page, you’ve got sketch shop, do some small
animations, just some of the static cartoons but animated and live. And the other one’s called Hole in Nine. If you imagine like nine golf balls and the
Henrys slowly emerging from each ball, and on the Ipad you just the head and
they go back down. And you can turn up how fast you want to do this so you’ve
just got to keep all Henrys down in the hall, you know. Just a little game, you know
JON: Sounds fun
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