ImNotBad.com: Mark, I have so many questions about Jessica, but first, let's go back to when you were young. As a child, what inspired you to become a cartoonist?
I’d like to welcome everyone the first ImNotBad.com interview. Over the years, and with the current pin trading phenomena, Jessica has become such a popular Disney character but we don’t have much history on her.
A mission of this site is to fill people in how our curvy toon diva came to life and the talented artists behind it all. It’s an honor to have illustrator and cartoonist Mark Marderosian as our special guest. Not only did he create the early merchandise found in the Jessica’s store, but he is responsible for bringing us the famous neon sign which was a prominent part of Pleasure Island for many years.
ImNotBad.com: Mark, I have so many questions about Jessica, but first, let's go back to when you were young. As a child, what inspired you to become a cartoonist?
Mark Marderosian: My Mother and Father were huge Disney fans, especially of Fantasia. My Father brought home some comic strip originals by Al Capp when I was seven. I was fascinated by how much larger the originals were than when printed in the paper, and how cool it was that they were DRAWN. Just black ink on white board with some zip-a-tone cut by hand. I was bitten by the bug and started drawing every day. It hurt more NOT to draw.
INB: How were you introduced to Disney films, and which one inspired you the most?
Mark: My Mother loved Disney animated films especially the first Three Little Pigs cartoon which she saw in a re-release. She took us to every new animated release and re-release. We saw a re-release of Pinocchio and, once again, I couldn't believe that human hands, just by drawing, could create such beauty.
INB: So did this lead to you beginning to draw?
Mark: I began to draw my own comic strips and copy them to pass out along the neighborhood, slipping them into people's mailboxes every day. Did that for about six months!
INB: That's great! I guess the seed had been planted. So, as time went on, did you begin to draw for a living?
Mark: I had so much fun and practice. I worked full-time for a year doing just gag panel cartoons. I worked for an advertising agency. After going to school studying film animation, I was hired by a small local animation studio. Then I REALLY started learning how to draw and animate, especially when we all got thrown into the deep end of the pool doing McDonald’s commercials.
INB: There is no doubt many readers have seen your work and never even knew it. How did the commercials turn out?
Mark: Luckily, thanks to a lot of help and talented people, like a fellow named Bob Palmer, who art directed them, they came out great!
INB: Not too long after, you began a different kind of project. Can you tell us about that?
Mark: Shortly after the animation studio gig, I started my own comic book, Delta Tenn . It starred a very leggy woman police officer. Mature themes. It was originally published by TE Comics, run by a great guy, Paul Howley. At one point during the run, Gene Simmons of Kiss fame optioned it for TV development for his significant other, Shannon Tweed.
A script was written, the green light given. We came this close! It was only one week away from the start of principal photography when NBC switched to another program. Gene left me a message on my answering machine saying that sadly, after two years of development and progress, the network was currying favor with another producer. Politics and all that.
INB: Wow, what a shame. So after getting the bad news, what happened next?
Mark: I didn't have much of a chance to feel too down, because the very next day, a talented artist I had known from a couple of years back, Mark Seppala, called me out of the blue. Mark had been hired by Walt Disney Theme Parks in Florida. They were ramping up the creative merchandise department, and gearing up to produce more merchandise exclusive to the parks.
INB: So, this brings us to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The movie had been a success and introduced us to a bunch of new characters, including Jessica of course. What was going to be your role for the project?
Mark: At that time, the Jessica store was about eight months from opening and they needed a TON of merchandise drawn and produced.
INB: That seems like a big undertaking in small period of time. What was it that made Mark Seppala track you down?
Mark: Mark called me and said, "Hey, I just saw a copy of your comic book. I notice you're good at drawing curvy, tall women. We need someone to draw a lot of Jessica Rabbit merchandise. You interested?"
INB: ...and what happend?
Mark: Took me two seconds to sign on.
INB: So how does a project like that begin?
Mark: I got all my reference; they sent me a long list of drawings needed for key chains, t-shirts, clocks, balloons. It was great!
INB: So, Disney then had to choose what drawings would be produced into merchandise?
Mark: I'd submit a list of 12 t-shirt ideas and they'd pick seven or eight. I'd draw concepts, draw tighter pencils and ink them by hand, and then send them over. So those t-shirts were the first [created].
INB: Can you recall just how much Jessica merchandise was produced?
Mark: It's amazing how much material myself and other artists created for that store. I was lucky to get in early and do pins, key chains like I mentioned, clothing, just about every article known to humankind. Designs for 3-dimensional objects too! Sculptures, plates. When I met Gary Wolf , the [Roger Rabbit] creator, two years later, I thanked him for creating the characters and putting so much food on my table!
INB: How was it for you to be immersed in a world of Jessica Rabbit and being required to come up with fresh new art?
Mark: It was great drawing Jessica Rabbit. At the time, I was also corresponding with Earl MacPherson, a great pin-up artist of the 50's and I felt his inspiration pushed me to even greater posing and character expressions.
INB: Did Mark Seppala, guide you through some of the process?
Mark: Mark was and still is a great art director who knew when to edit and when to give me freedom to just sketch out ideas. That first month, I did hundreds of sketches. Just had a blast.
INB: It sounds like it all went smoothly. Was there any difficulty along the way?
Mark: After my initial dozen drawings of Jessica, which were accepted, a strange thing happened. I got stage fright. I suddenly realized this was serious stuff. This wasn't just Mark and myself trading Jessica drawings back and forth but it would be thousands of people seeing and buying this material.
INB: What happens to a cartoonist with stage fright?!
Mark: My next few drawings of her were "off-model". They suddenly didn't have that "zing" the character needed to come alive. After those twelve to fifteen drawings in a row being accepted, a drawing I did of her and Roger was rejected as not looking like the characters. What the heck? I couldn't get a handle on it.
After all this, how did Mark come up with the design for the Jessica sign?
Toon-In next time for Part 2 of Who Drew Jessica Rabbit
TO BE CONTINUED...
To learn more about Mark Marderosian, you can visit his web site here: http://www.markmarderosian.com