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As I looked over all my 400 old cartoons... I believed all I had to do was buy a scanner and “Poof” old cartoons would be ready for prime time. I would hit the scan button and magic would happen... all my cartoons would be digitized and be perfect. I’m starting to believe my first impression of any situation is always the polar opposite of what actually happens. The scanner picked up every single imperfection on my old ‘toons... and after 20 years... there were a few imperfections. Ink fades... pencil marks become more defined... and Whiteout bleeds through. I’m sure there is some sort of “getting older” metaphor I could use right now... but I want to stay focused on the topic. I can get off topic and wordy... and to be honest... blog entries are starting to feel like homework.
I decided to load up 50 cartoons at a time and start fixing. My newest batch of 50 got the full color treatment. That took a great deal of time. My fear was that I would never finish fixing all my cartoons if I colorized them all. So I decided my older cartoons would only get the black and white facelift. I try and keep my updates as close to the originals as possible... I want to honor my younger self... that plucky young cartoonist who created these ‘toons. After saying that.... I now understand the mind set of George Lucas when he went back and “fixed” the original Star Wars Trilogy. I have cleaned up art... changed captions... and taken out cartoons completely because they are just plain insensitive (I’m sure I’ll do a blog post about those cartoons.). Sometimes the cartoons I’m working on are a breeze... just a simple trace job. Other times I find myself completely redrawing whole sections of a cartoon. Having the ability to go back and repair the old is time consuming ... but despite the time and effort... when you update and complete an old ‘toon there is a feeling of magic... it may not be as easy as clicking a button... but there is definitely some magic to be found.