Here’s clip for anyone who’s had a remote interest in how a cartoon is drawn. The guys behind The Western Nostril make it look so easy and zippy. (Okay. The clip is speeded up but it still damn fast. ) Laugh it Off published the first collection of cartoons. You can buy them online here [...]
Here’s clip for anyone who’s had a remote interest in how a cartoon is drawn. The guys behind The Western Nostril make it look so easy and zippy. (Okay. The clip is speeded up but it still damn fast. )
Laugh it Off published the first collection of cartoons. You can buy them online here
1. Tell us a little more about Osteus and Finbar – are the characters autobiographical? And if so, which one of you wears a colander on his head? You say that the cartoons aren’t necessarily character-dependent, and the pair are more often just foils for the ideas being put across – so why choose these [...]
1. Tell us a little more about Osteus and Finbar – are the characters autobiographical? And if so, which one of you wears a colander on his head? You say that the cartoons aren’t necessarily character-dependent, and the pair are more often just foils for the ideas being put across – so why choose these two particular characters for what you’re trying to say?
Was that one question? No the characters are not autobiographical, though to a certain extent they are biographical, so neither of us wears the colander (though if push comes to shove, Alex will wear it – he likes the pasta smell it leaves in his hair). Why Osteus and Finbar? It was either them or a man and his lasagna-loving cat, but that was apparently already taken. There’s no real reason we chose these guys – they’re a bit funny looking and that helps but we could have used any characters. A block of butter and a flu virus might have worked just as well.
2. Apart from minestrone soup and weekly swims in marsh water, how do you come up with an idea for a panel? Do you read the papers, watch the news, watch the world around you, or just take strong drugs and wait for inspiration to hit?
Inspiration comes from the world around us, from conversations with shop attendants, reading the paper and paging through the dictionary. The strongest drug we take is rooibos tea – twelve bags brewed in one cup. You can barely stir the stuff. Just don’t watch TV after drinking it, you’ll go mad.
3. Who are your favourite local and international cartoonists, and what qualifies them to be on that list – in other words, what makes you look at a cartoon and say, “Damn, that’s good!”
Great cartoons are consistently funny- having been cartooning now for several years we understand the temptation to just draw the first half-baked potato that comes to mind, even if it isn’t soft in the centre. Sorry, the rooibos. Dilbert, The Far Side, Monty, Wulffmorgenthaler and a bit of Red Meat – oh, and The Western Nostril.
4. Apart from wanting to make some dosh (to buy moreminestrone soup?), what made you decide that now was the time to put together a book?
We’d finally made enough cartoons to make a book that was more like a book and less like a pamphlet – and seeing as the pamphlets did quite well it was the logical decision. (And we were running dangerously low on minestrone soup.)
Finally: if you were a dinosaur, what kind of dinosaur would you be (it would be nice if you’d both answer this, though if the rumours are true and you’re only one person, we’ll let it slide).
“Seriously twisted! If South African cartooning can produce something this wacky, we’re in good shape!” ~ Zapiro The Western Nostril – A collection of gut-bustingly hilarious cartoons, published by Laugh it Off, in association with Business Day. What is The Western Nostril? Produced by brothers Patrick and Alex Latimer, The Western Nostril is a single-panel [...]
“Seriously twisted! If South African cartooning can produce something this wacky, we’re in good shape!” ~ Zapiro
The Western Nostril – A collection of gut-bustingly hilarious cartoons, published by Laugh it Off, in association with Business Day.
What is The Western Nostril?
Produced by brothers Patrick and Alex Latimer, The Western Nostril is a single-panel cartoon strip that appears daily on the leader page of Business Day, as well as online at www.thewesternnostril.co.za
The Western Nostril was first published in 2003′s bestselling Laugh it Off Annual Volume One. There it won a ‘New Media Award’ for ‘Best Overall Contribution’, as voted by the readers. Over the years its army of adoring fans has swelled in numbers - to the point where Patrick and Alex have figured, “Hey, we should bring out a book for all of our fans. And who knows, maybe they’ll buy it, and we’ll get filthy rich!”
About the Book
Building on the popularity that the cartoon has enjoyed in Business Day – where business leaders such as the likes of Tokyo and Trevor have heartily chuckled over the muddled musings of The Western Nostril‘s two characters, Osteus and Finbar – comes the first annual collection of the cartoons, in gloriously glossy, laminated paperback.
Business Day have ut their money where their mouth is and have proudly sponsored the print run for the first collection. Says Business Day‘s editor Peter Bruce: “I think the Latimer boys are world-class funny. The first time I read their cartoon it made stuff come out of my nose. We are delighted to be associated with such strong creative content; a universal humour that is homegrown.”
Marketing of the Book
Laugh it Off has promised an aggressive marketing campaign to encourage positive sales of the inaugural publication. Business Day will be running daily adverts promoting the book over the festive season, and their sister publication, The Weekender, will also be running features on the cartoons, as well as the cartoonists themselves. This, coupled with an online viral campaign ensuring that the humour of the cartoons spreads as contagiously as the common cold, will guarantee bookstores the results they need.
Says Laugh it Off’s Justin Nurse, “The fact that the brothers Latimer have been able to resist the temptations and toils of the devil that is the advertising industry and survive as full-time cartoonists, is testimony to their original talent. Laugh it Off is as pleased as punch to be publishing this, and we will use all manner of alliteration, assonance, and astute marketing prowess – not to mention our motley crew of influential media associates – to ensure that this book gets into the hands, hearts and minds of every humour-loving South African.”
