Jesus, this has all turned kind of nasty. I get the feeling a lot of what's getting debated here hasn't got much to do with my work but more about people ripping off Bukowskis work in general. I've not seen any of the film or music stuff people have done so I can't comment.
I started this about 6 months ago, its something I do in my spare time, evenings and weekends. As some of you have pointed there's a lot of my interpretation of things, some elements get removed and occasionally I have to add little things in. I can do a couple of pages in a day, not including the thumbnails and when I redo some of the frames. Once I'd done the first few chapters I started this thread, when I'd finished five I posted a link for my 120 FaceBook friends, once. Other than that the only other place I've put links is on an art forum I use to get sequential art specific feedback.
My site gets around 150 visitors a month, I don't ask for donations, I'm not sharking for publishers. I'm not getting rich from this, or makng any money at all, all I was getting was a couple of compliments for my fragile ego.
Left to my own devices I end up just drawing or painting similar subject matter, characters, people I see about and some stuff from photos. What's great for me about using somebody else's material is the challenge, I need to draw things I'd maybe normally avoid. I'm pretty rubbish at drawing backgrounds and environments which this pushes me to practise. Drawing cars is something I've always struggled with, here its not just a car, it needs to be a 1920's model-T, I need to do research and some draft drawings. Why do I do it? I enjoy it.
Reading the book, this is how I see it, drawing it feels right to me. I'm not claiming to be a genius, I'm not even claiming to be that good at drawing. I'm a 34 year old with a shit job and a dream about drawing for a living that gets more unlikely every year.
I did write once, last year I did a sit-com for a competition, I enjoyed the writing process but it doesn't feel like its what I'm made for and I don't think it was that good. It was based in a taxidermists in Inverness, I'll upload it if anybodies interested, if you read it you'll agree I should stick to art.
The Vanilla Ice thing is fine for me, to be compared to the second greatest white rapper in the world, and, if you've seen his blockbuster movie
“Cool as Ice (1991) ” the greatest rapper actor our generation has ever seen. The 10 minutes I managed to watch of moved me to tears. Turns out its a rap-oriented remake of "The Wild One," talking of dancing on graves.
Why stop with Vanilla Ice, “Rapper's Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang uses “Good Times” by Chic, Public Enemy and most early hip hop used huge amounts of samples. In fact check out the modern day example by
Pharoahe Monch.
I understand how some people feel about certain artists, we feel they belong to us. I was once a postman so I feel like I've got a kinship with Bukowski that nobody else understands, I recognise other people can like him more and probably understand him.
Putting aside the massive copyright infringements I'm committing by allowing a couple of hundred people to see this for no profit, I just would like the people that enjoy reading it to do so, I'll keep drawing more and maybe I'll get better.
As Vanilla Ice says in Cool as Ice, “You're not wasting my time, I'm just cooling.”