Music videos rip off Jim Woodring's Manhog!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
I am an absolute, raving fanatic for the work of Jim Woodring. His surreal comics always stir-fry my brains, in the best way. So a few hours ago, I was stunned to discover a pair of music videos from 2007 that were apparently inspired by Woodring's art. Jose Gonzalez's Killing for Love and Down the Line are loosely based on the 1993 Woodring story Manhog Beyond the Face, starring Woodring's disgusting yet somehow endearing pig-man character, Manhog. (Read the original story here, although I warn you that it contains some truly horrific imagery.)
My Woodring fandom stops just short of stalking the guy, so how could I have possibly missed these clips? I searched Woodring's website, and was puzzled to find no mention of the videos. Then I did a little more digging online, and discovered that Gonzalez apparently adapted Woodring's comics without permission.
If that's true, it must be really galling for Woodring. Not only do the videos rip him off, they do a crappy job of it. The music is dull, folky-jazz stuff that makes me feel like I'm stuck in a long line at Starbucks, and the videos totally fail to capture the spirit of Woodring's work. Killing for Love takes one of Woodring's most compelling and appalling Manhog stories and makes it confusing and dull, while in Down the Line Manhog just sits around the house moping like he's in a commercial for freakin' Zoloft or something, until the twist ending where we discover... What? He was in a hit-and-run accident? The Manhog I know and love does crap worse than that every morning before breakfast!
I'm sure that Woodring wishes these stupid videos would just go away, and I wish I had the strength to resist sharing them with you now. Sadly, I do not.
José González - 'Killing For Love'
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Technocrati tags: [Jim Woodring][Jose Gonzalez]
5 comments:
I think the reason why these fail to capture the spirit of Woodring's work is because they aren't trying to. And while the character bears an obvious resemblance to Manhog, it's not as though Woodring has some copyright over the idea of a pig-man. The only similarity is a visual one.
These videos are fine. It looks like they're inspired by Woodring's character, but that's it- they're not actually copying his stories or anything else. And Manhog works surprisingly well on film- better than I would have guessed, especially for for an indie-folkrocker video. I've been reading Woodring's stuff since the 80's and I love it all; I'm not sure why anyone would dislike this. I'd be pissed if this were a Colgate commercial, or if this was a music video by some untalented hipster catering to the MTV generation of flash... but these videos are clearly someone's genuine idea, subtle and quiet reflections of Gonzales' music. They don't bother explaining what's going on, but clearly something is- the visual isn't just eye candy to sell albums. So who cares?
Actually, both anonymous posters above are completely WRONG. In "Killing for Love" alone there are two complete story rip-offs. Manhog running his head into a wall while chasing small creatures into a hole, and growing a big lump on his head is direct from Woodring. Also, spying a statue/award of a silver leg, and then covering his own leg in silver is a direct rip-off of Woodring's own Manhog story (though slightly less gruesome).
These videos ARE someone's genuine idea: Jim Woodring's genuine idea.
Damn it, I have to figure out how to set up some notification service that will let me know when people are commenting on my posts. I never see any of these comments until now, well into August. In any case, I very much agree with Bainst. The character is Manhog, very specifically.
I concur with Bainst that this is more than an homage to a pig-man (an image not unique to Woodring) rather this is a clear use of the "Manhog (unique to Woodring) Beyond the Face" story down to the red fishing contraption and the fish, the fish's jiva, and the statue leg. I'd really like to know if Woodring had no knowledge whatsoever of these videos. I do not dislike the song, but I do like artists (especially underpaid comic book writers) to get their due credit. Thanks for posting this.
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