MattBrady
08-04-2006, 08:15 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/Goodsell/Mister_toast_at_the_circus_cover1.jpg" align="right"><i>by Daniel Robert Epstein</i>
Many of you have checked out that show on the Food Network, <i>Unwrapped</i>. It is hosted by former <i>Double Dare</i> host Marc Summers. It highlights the origins of food and the people who collect things related to food. Well, for those who watch really closely, you noticed comic book creator Dan Goodsell appeared on an episode as one of those guys who collects advertising characters and space food.
After watching one of those shows, it’s pretty safe to wonder “What do these guys do when they’re not talking about food?” With Goodsell he’s actually doing comic books starring food such as Mister Toast. Goodsell has created the fun characters of Mister Toast, Shaky Bacon, Lemonhead and many more. He’s done children’s book, comic books and even a short cartoon with the characters. We caught up with Goodsell to talk about the origins of Mister Toast.
<B>Newsarama</B>: What are you up to today?
<b>Dan Goodsell</b>: I have to go to the dentist today. Heaven forbid, just a checkup though. Nothing big, hopefully.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Are you working on anything today too?
<B>DG</B>: Well I do this thing called Illustration Friday [www.Illustrationfriday.com], which is an online thing and every week they post a topic and then you do an illustration about it. I always do that on Fridays. Also I do my comic strip on Monday and Friday and my Friday one is already done of course. It’s always nice to have something else that sparks your whatever.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Is Illustration Friday something new?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/Goodsell/Mister_toast_pic3.jpg" align="left"><B>DG</B>: It’s been going on for a couple years now. It’s like an exercise and on the site there’s a thing where you can post a link to your illustration. So it sends people to your site and lets your stuff get out there a little more. I like it because when you’re always making up your own things, sometimes you run out of ideas so then you have to work within that parameter. I always try and twist it a little bit so it goes in a little different direction.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’s the topic today?
<B>DG</B>: I don’t know yet. They haven’t posted it yet. Last week’s was sticky, so I did a thing about post-it notes. It’s fun.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How long ago did you come up with Mister Toast?
<B>DG</B>: I actually made up Mister Toast when I was in college. He was a throw away character. I was a fine arts major as opposed to an illustrator and I did a lot of work in performance so I made a film with Mister Toast. I made like a big foam costume. It was just one of a number of characters I doodled around with back then.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How long ago was that?
<B>DG</B>: That was like 1988.
<B>NRAMA</B>: So it’s been around for a long time.
<B>DG</B>: I’m an old man. I made him up, and then I got married, bought a house, lived life for ten years so art was on the back burner. Then about six years ago now, I decided to get back into it and start experimenting. I was looking back at what I’d been working on and what interested me. Eventually Mister Toast came up and he took over the whole show so it became my primary character. Then I dug up some of the older characters that I had and have since made up a ton of new characters and things like that.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What struck you about Mister Toast again?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/Goodsell/Mister_toast_pic4.jpg" align="right"><B>DG</B>: I don’t know what it was. I taught myself to draw and I found that drawing Mister Toast was always really pleasant. I never got tired of drawing him and he referenced a lot of things I’m interested in with printed advertising, comic books and cartoons. Since then I’ve gone a little distance and have been working on it for a few years, I realize he harkens back the earlier cartoon characters which were simpler and I can’t really make it much more complex. He’s a pretty stable surface, he can bend a little, you can mess with the eyes and mouth and arms and legs, but he’s pretty standard. Also with the blank stare, he doesn’t express a lot of emotions in general. He is this nice blank slate that I find fascinating.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Do you look at Mister Toast as a character meant for children?
<B>DG</B>: Everything I try to do is meant to be all ages, but I think of it as Rocky and Bullwinkle. They had a million jokes in there that are not for kids necessarily. But at the same time, the show works perfectly for children. I like to think that I’m open to an audience of all ages. It’s interesting because I sell my books on this site called Etsy [http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=39336] which is a craft site for women. That’s mostly moms that want to read it to their kids and whatnot. When I do comic shows, I sell the comic books of Mister Toast because it’s a more familiar thing and it’s oriented a little older. So I play around with it but it’s meant for everybody.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Mister Toast has a very illustrative style to it. It’s not exactly like the clean lines of a Sunday comic or a daily comic strip.
<B>DG</B>: That’s just how I draw. I’m certainly not the best draftsman in the world but I reached a happy medium where I can express my ideas. I thought about working with other more accomplished illustrators on it but at a certain point I realized that if I continue to push forward I was going to have to do it all myself. I’m certainly at the point where I’m happy with it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You said you do a couple Mister Toast strips a week.
<B>DG</B>: Yeah, I do two online strips. I do A World of Mister Toast which is pretty straight forward and just deals with Mister Toast and his world and what he does there and the other characters. I do a strip called Gags which can be any character and those ones have the tendency to be a little more cynical and can play around with somewhat darker themes but they are still pretty light by the standards of the world.
<B>NRAMA</B>: If a syndicate ever wanted you do Mister Toast for them in a cleaner style, would you do it?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/Goodsell/Mister_toast_pic5.jpg" align="left"><B>DG</B>: My one problem with a comic strip thing is that I don’t know how well my stuff translates into black and white. I am a color person so everything I’ve ever produced has been in color. Whenever I try to work in black and white or a more limited palate, I have a hard time. If there was a possibility to do color Sunday comic or something like that, I’d certainly try my best.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How much of Mister Toast is done on the computer?
<B>DG</B>: I do all the line work in brush and ink. I pencil him out on Bristol board and then I ink him myself. I just take it into the computer for clean up and coloring.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How do you like self-publishing?
<B>DG</B>: I realize it’s an exercise to hopefully get with a real publisher at some point. I don’t really make any money on anything I do. It’s not necessarily a hobby but I finance it all myself so the dream goal is to get a publishing gig or work with somebody who can get wide distribution because I’m not a great marketer. I just like working at home.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I was told that if you actually update your website pretty regularly with strips, you can get a pretty good following, with hardly any advertising or message board posting.
<B>DG</B>: Oh yeah totally. I have a great group of people and I’m at the stage where I’m talking to some publishers about doing a real Mister Toast book. So I think I’m right where I want to be. The internet is incredible in that you can just put your stuff out there and eventually people will find you. But you do have to go to comic conventions but eventually an audience will grow if your stuff make sense.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How many people come to your site?
<B>DG</B>: I have two sites. One site is collectibles which is how I make a living and then the other site is Mister Toast. I think Mister Toast gets 500 hits a day.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/Goodsell/Mister_toast_cover2.jpg" align="right"><B>NRAMA</B>: Who did the animated piece of Mister Toast?
<B>DG</B>: That was Charles Barnard. He’s just a friend who stumbled on the site somehow and we became friends. He loves Mister Toast so much that he just took it upon himself and we collaborated on the animation.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Who did the voices?
<B>DG</B>: Charles actually did the voice on Lemonhead himself, which is pretty funny. The cartoon world is a whole other thing so it was nice to have him go in there and do this personal thing with it because it didn’t become a whole production.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How was the New York Comicon for you?
<B>DG</B>: It was great and incredible. The crowd was really cool and really receptive. I’ll probably go back next year but I’ll probably just get a table next time because wrangling a whole booth out there was a bit of work.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How was it compared to other cons?
<B>DG</B>: It was really great because I just had my Mister Toast dolls made so I got to see everybody respond to them.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What Mister Toast stuff do you have right now?
<B>DG</B>: I have all the books. I have dolls. I have t-shirts. I just got a couple of Mister Toast T-shirts done just for Comicon, and I have buttons and posters. I just got the new posters done for the show. I like printed items. That’s what I collect. I enjoy the printed page so that’s always what I’m going to invest my money in doing something new.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’s your regular job?
<B>DG</B>: My main source of income is selling old collectibles on eBay. I concentrate on the stuff I collect which is old kids’ food packaging like cereal boxes, cookie boxes, candy stuff. Also I collect old amusement park stuff, so I sell that stuff and anything I can make a buck on.
<i>Check out all things Mister Toast at http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/page3.html </i>
Many of you have checked out that show on the Food Network, <i>Unwrapped</i>. It is hosted by former <i>Double Dare</i> host Marc Summers. It highlights the origins of food and the people who collect things related to food. Well, for those who watch really closely, you noticed comic book creator Dan Goodsell appeared on an episode as one of those guys who collects advertising characters and space food.
After watching one of those shows, it’s pretty safe to wonder “What do these guys do when they’re not talking about food?” With Goodsell he’s actually doing comic books starring food such as Mister Toast. Goodsell has created the fun characters of Mister Toast, Shaky Bacon, Lemonhead and many more. He’s done children’s book, comic books and even a short cartoon with the characters. We caught up with Goodsell to talk about the origins of Mister Toast.
<B>Newsarama</B>: What are you up to today?
<b>Dan Goodsell</b>: I have to go to the dentist today. Heaven forbid, just a checkup though. Nothing big, hopefully.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Are you working on anything today too?
<B>DG</B>: Well I do this thing called Illustration Friday [www.Illustrationfriday.com], which is an online thing and every week they post a topic and then you do an illustration about it. I always do that on Fridays. Also I do my comic strip on Monday and Friday and my Friday one is already done of course. It’s always nice to have something else that sparks your whatever.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Is Illustration Friday something new?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/Goodsell/Mister_toast_pic3.jpg" align="left"><B>DG</B>: It’s been going on for a couple years now. It’s like an exercise and on the site there’s a thing where you can post a link to your illustration. So it sends people to your site and lets your stuff get out there a little more. I like it because when you’re always making up your own things, sometimes you run out of ideas so then you have to work within that parameter. I always try and twist it a little bit so it goes in a little different direction.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’s the topic today?
<B>DG</B>: I don’t know yet. They haven’t posted it yet. Last week’s was sticky, so I did a thing about post-it notes. It’s fun.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How long ago did you come up with Mister Toast?
<B>DG</B>: I actually made up Mister Toast when I was in college. He was a throw away character. I was a fine arts major as opposed to an illustrator and I did a lot of work in performance so I made a film with Mister Toast. I made like a big foam costume. It was just one of a number of characters I doodled around with back then.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How long ago was that?
<B>DG</B>: That was like 1988.
<B>NRAMA</B>: So it’s been around for a long time.
<B>DG</B>: I’m an old man. I made him up, and then I got married, bought a house, lived life for ten years so art was on the back burner. Then about six years ago now, I decided to get back into it and start experimenting. I was looking back at what I’d been working on and what interested me. Eventually Mister Toast came up and he took over the whole show so it became my primary character. Then I dug up some of the older characters that I had and have since made up a ton of new characters and things like that.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What struck you about Mister Toast again?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/Goodsell/Mister_toast_pic4.jpg" align="right"><B>DG</B>: I don’t know what it was. I taught myself to draw and I found that drawing Mister Toast was always really pleasant. I never got tired of drawing him and he referenced a lot of things I’m interested in with printed advertising, comic books and cartoons. Since then I’ve gone a little distance and have been working on it for a few years, I realize he harkens back the earlier cartoon characters which were simpler and I can’t really make it much more complex. He’s a pretty stable surface, he can bend a little, you can mess with the eyes and mouth and arms and legs, but he’s pretty standard. Also with the blank stare, he doesn’t express a lot of emotions in general. He is this nice blank slate that I find fascinating.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Do you look at Mister Toast as a character meant for children?
<B>DG</B>: Everything I try to do is meant to be all ages, but I think of it as Rocky and Bullwinkle. They had a million jokes in there that are not for kids necessarily. But at the same time, the show works perfectly for children. I like to think that I’m open to an audience of all ages. It’s interesting because I sell my books on this site called Etsy [http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=39336] which is a craft site for women. That’s mostly moms that want to read it to their kids and whatnot. When I do comic shows, I sell the comic books of Mister Toast because it’s a more familiar thing and it’s oriented a little older. So I play around with it but it’s meant for everybody.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Mister Toast has a very illustrative style to it. It’s not exactly like the clean lines of a Sunday comic or a daily comic strip.
<B>DG</B>: That’s just how I draw. I’m certainly not the best draftsman in the world but I reached a happy medium where I can express my ideas. I thought about working with other more accomplished illustrators on it but at a certain point I realized that if I continue to push forward I was going to have to do it all myself. I’m certainly at the point where I’m happy with it.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You said you do a couple Mister Toast strips a week.
<B>DG</B>: Yeah, I do two online strips. I do A World of Mister Toast which is pretty straight forward and just deals with Mister Toast and his world and what he does there and the other characters. I do a strip called Gags which can be any character and those ones have the tendency to be a little more cynical and can play around with somewhat darker themes but they are still pretty light by the standards of the world.
<B>NRAMA</B>: If a syndicate ever wanted you do Mister Toast for them in a cleaner style, would you do it?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/Goodsell/Mister_toast_pic5.jpg" align="left"><B>DG</B>: My one problem with a comic strip thing is that I don’t know how well my stuff translates into black and white. I am a color person so everything I’ve ever produced has been in color. Whenever I try to work in black and white or a more limited palate, I have a hard time. If there was a possibility to do color Sunday comic or something like that, I’d certainly try my best.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How much of Mister Toast is done on the computer?
<B>DG</B>: I do all the line work in brush and ink. I pencil him out on Bristol board and then I ink him myself. I just take it into the computer for clean up and coloring.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How do you like self-publishing?
<B>DG</B>: I realize it’s an exercise to hopefully get with a real publisher at some point. I don’t really make any money on anything I do. It’s not necessarily a hobby but I finance it all myself so the dream goal is to get a publishing gig or work with somebody who can get wide distribution because I’m not a great marketer. I just like working at home.
<B>NRAMA</B>: I was told that if you actually update your website pretty regularly with strips, you can get a pretty good following, with hardly any advertising or message board posting.
<B>DG</B>: Oh yeah totally. I have a great group of people and I’m at the stage where I’m talking to some publishers about doing a real Mister Toast book. So I think I’m right where I want to be. The internet is incredible in that you can just put your stuff out there and eventually people will find you. But you do have to go to comic conventions but eventually an audience will grow if your stuff make sense.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How many people come to your site?
<B>DG</B>: I have two sites. One site is collectibles which is how I make a living and then the other site is Mister Toast. I think Mister Toast gets 500 hits a day.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/general/Goodsell/Mister_toast_cover2.jpg" align="right"><B>NRAMA</B>: Who did the animated piece of Mister Toast?
<B>DG</B>: That was Charles Barnard. He’s just a friend who stumbled on the site somehow and we became friends. He loves Mister Toast so much that he just took it upon himself and we collaborated on the animation.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Who did the voices?
<B>DG</B>: Charles actually did the voice on Lemonhead himself, which is pretty funny. The cartoon world is a whole other thing so it was nice to have him go in there and do this personal thing with it because it didn’t become a whole production.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How was the New York Comicon for you?
<B>DG</B>: It was great and incredible. The crowd was really cool and really receptive. I’ll probably go back next year but I’ll probably just get a table next time because wrangling a whole booth out there was a bit of work.
<B>NRAMA</B>: How was it compared to other cons?
<B>DG</B>: It was really great because I just had my Mister Toast dolls made so I got to see everybody respond to them.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What Mister Toast stuff do you have right now?
<B>DG</B>: I have all the books. I have dolls. I have t-shirts. I just got a couple of Mister Toast T-shirts done just for Comicon, and I have buttons and posters. I just got the new posters done for the show. I like printed items. That’s what I collect. I enjoy the printed page so that’s always what I’m going to invest my money in doing something new.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What’s your regular job?
<B>DG</B>: My main source of income is selling old collectibles on eBay. I concentrate on the stuff I collect which is old kids’ food packaging like cereal boxes, cookie boxes, candy stuff. Also I collect old amusement park stuff, so I sell that stuff and anything I can make a buck on.
<i>Check out all things Mister Toast at http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/page3.html </i>