Keeping Willy Grunch alive - A local company’s viral hit and a novel plan to revive it
Three years ago, a small animation studio based in France called Moondog Animation Studios created a five-episode series about a lanky, trouble-prone guy named Willy Grunch. The company embarked on the project after Alain Auderset, the Swiss comic book artist who first created Willy, approached Studio Director JM Khayat about animating him.
So Moondog raised some money and made the five two-minute episodes about Willy Grunch, which they put on YouTube and Vimeo for anyone who was interested. Bryan Ransom, the company’s CEO, said they did some marketing for the series, but right around that time, they were also busy relocating the company from France to Mount Pleasant.
In the years since, Ransom said the series would often come up, and they would talk about how they could reinvigorate it, including exploring the possibility of making it a TV show. But for a number of reasons, the animated Willy Grunch stayed confined to his five episodes online.
“It was there, and it would rack up a couple hundred views every month or so,” said Ransom, “but it wasn’t like thousands upon thousands of millions.”
Virality
Then, just a about a month ago in mid-March, Auderset, the comic book artist, got an email. It was from a friend directing him to a Russian Facebook page. Whoever managed the page had posted one of Moondog’s Willy Grunch episodes, and it was popular.
Within a week, the video had three million views, and the guys at Moondog found other pages that posted the video, five in total, and there may be more. Altogether, they counted nearly seven million views from just about all over the world, and everywhere it went, people were talking about it.
“There were hundreds of thousands of shares. There were like three or four hundred comments,” Ransom said. “It was just going everywhere.”
At first, they were mad. After all, somebody on the other side of the world had taken their work, chopped off the intro that attributed it to them and put it online. (The video still had the end credits, so it wasn’t scrubbed of all attribution.)
But Khayat, the studio director, said that feeling was quickly eclipsed by a sense of validation.
Moondog’s founders – Ransom, Khayat and CTO/Technology Strategist Ben Davis – formed the company with a mission, which is exhibited by the Willy Grunch series. Ransom said they want to make animated stories that do more than entertain, but have the power to make people think about big life questions.
Their videos are really geared toward the 15 to 30 age group, and while most animated videos geared at that group err toward the crazy and crude, Ransom said they put more stock in that group’s desire to seek answers to those big questions. So, every episode of Willy Grunch has a theme, a sort of moral constructed by the choices Willy faces and the consequences of his decisions.
Khayat said seeing the video’s popularity and the conversations it provoked felt like evidence – after three years – that there is a real desire and market for that kind of content.
“We had that proof,” he said. “That was a good feeling.”
“Kind of a, ‘I knew it,’ type of feeling,” Davis added. “I knew it could work.”
Free Willy Grunch
The video’s virality also offered them valuable information about what people like. The five videos they created cover a spectrum of themes and how they are conveyed, and one video was more popular than the others. It clearly had a moral, but it was not as specific as in some other videos, and in the comments, people used that openness to interpret the theme how it made sense to them.
“People read into it how they want to because we’re staying at that parable level,” Davis said.
The video’s newfound popularity also gave them momentum to build on to make more Willy Grunch videos. To make the first episodes, they started a campaign on Kickstarter and had huge success. Their goal was to raise $99,999 in four weeks. They raised $117,000, and in the process, they learned a thing or two about how to entice people to donate.
After a mediocre first week of the Kickstarter campaign, they dreamed up Workout Wednesdays. Whenever someone donated five dollars on a Wednesday, the Moondog team made a video of one of them doing five pushups, then calling out the donor’s name. By the last Workout Wednesday, Ransom said six people did something like 250 pushups each, and they tried every way they could to make it fresh by doing the pushups in a hand stand or on top of a car. Plus, donors shared their personalized feats of strength on social media, prompting their friends to look up the campaign and get involved.
“Just awareness is one thing,” Ransom said, “that interactivity of people is where you get that next stage.”
As they move toward launching their fundraising campaign to “Free Willy Grunch” and make more videos, they’ve got ideas for how to once again make the donations interactive, but they’re also doing a few things differently.
For one, they’re getting Mount Pleasant-based developer Chris Wolf to make their fundraising site for them – willygrunch.com – set to go live today.
The episodes will be free, but donors will get access to live Q&A’s and other perks.
But even more unique is there’s no set end to the campaign. Instead, they’ll keep making episodes as long as the money is coming in.
Khayat said that in a time when viewers can stream what they want when they want and their attention is being further divided seemingly every day, they’re trying something different by giving the audience a say.
“We said okay, let’s leave it to the viewership,” Ransom added. “They can give five bucks today as a one time, or they can become a subscriber and give five bucks a month, or whatever they want to do.”
And Khayat said, that leaves it to them, Moondog, to make content worth keeping alive – even after three years of sitting dormant.
Keeping Willy Grunch alive - A local company’s viral hit and a novel plan to revive it
Three years ago, a small animation studio based in France called Moondog Animation Studios created a five-episode series about a lanky, trouble-prone guy named Willy Grunch. The company embarked on the project after Alain Auderset, the Swiss comic book artist who first created Willy, approached Studio Director JM Khayat about animating him.
So Moondog raised some money and made the five two-minute episodes about Willy Grunch, which they put on YouTube and Vimeo for anyone who was interested. Bryan Ransom, the company’s CEO, said they did some marketing for the series, but right around that time, they were also busy relocating the company from France to Mount Pleasant.
In the years since, Ransom said the series would often come up, and they would talk about how they could reinvigorate it, including exploring the possibility of making it a TV show. But for a number of reasons, the animated Willy Grunch stayed confined to his five episodes online.
“It was there, and it would rack up a couple hundred views every month or so,” said Ransom, “but it wasn’t like thousands upon thousands of millions.”
Virality
Then, just a about a month ago in mid-March, Auderset, the comic book artist, got an email. It was from a friend directing him to a Russian Facebook page. Whoever managed the page had posted one of Moondog’s Willy Grunch episodes, and it was popular.
Within a week, the video had three million views, and the guys at Moondog found other pages that posted the video, five in total, and there may be more. Altogether, they counted nearly seven million views from just about all over the world, and everywhere it went, people were talking about it.
“There were hundreds of thousands of shares. There were like three or four hundred comments,” Ransom said. “It was just going everywhere.”
At first, they were mad. After all, somebody on the other side of the world had taken their work, chopped off the intro that attributed it to them and put it online. (The video still had the end credits, so it wasn’t scrubbed of all attribution.)
But Khayat, the studio director, said that feeling was quickly eclipsed by a sense of validation.
Moondog’s founders – Ransom, Khayat and CTO/Technology Strategist Ben Davis – formed the company with a mission, which is exhibited by the Willy Grunch series. Ransom said they want to make animated stories that do more than entertain, but have the power to make people think about big life questions.
Their videos are really geared toward the 15 to 30 age group, and while most animated videos geared at that group err toward the crazy and crude, Ransom said they put more stock in that group’s desire to seek answers to those big questions. So, every episode of Willy Grunch has a theme, a sort of moral constructed by the choices Willy faces and the consequences of his decisions.
Khayat said seeing the video’s popularity and the conversations it provoked felt like evidence – after three years – that there is a real desire and market for that kind of content.
“We had that proof,” he said. “That was a good feeling.”
“Kind of a, ‘I knew it,’ type of feeling,” Davis added. “I knew it could work.”
Free Willy Grunch
The video’s virality also offered them valuable information about what people like. The five videos they created cover a spectrum of themes and how they are conveyed, and one video was more popular than the others. It clearly had a moral, but it was not as specific as in some other videos, and in the comments, people used that openness to interpret the theme how it made sense to them.
“People read into it how they want to because we’re staying at that parable level,” Davis said.
The video’s newfound popularity also gave them momentum to build on to make more Willy Grunch videos. To make the first episodes, they started a campaign on Kickstarter and had huge success. Their goal was to raise $99,999 in four weeks. They raised $117,000, and in the process, they learned a thing or two about how to entice people to donate.
After a mediocre first week of the Kickstarter campaign, they dreamed up Workout Wednesdays. Whenever someone donated five dollars on a Wednesday, the Moondog team made a video of one of them doing five pushups, then calling out the donor’s name. By the last Workout Wednesday, Ransom said six people did something like 250 pushups each, and they tried every way they could to make it fresh by doing the pushups in a hand stand or on top of a car. Plus, donors shared their personalized feats of strength on social media, prompting their friends to look up the campaign and get involved.
“Just awareness is one thing,” Ransom said, “that interactivity of people is where you get that next stage.”
As they move toward launching their fundraising campaign to “Free Willy Grunch” and make more videos, they’ve got ideas for how to once again make the donations interactive, but they’re also doing a few things differently.
For one, they’re getting Mount Pleasant-based developer Chris Wolf to make their fundraising site for them – willygrunch.com – set to go live today.
The episodes will be free, but donors will get access to live Q&A’s and other perks.
But even more unique is there’s no set end to the campaign. Instead, they’ll keep making episodes as long as the money is coming in.
Khayat said that in a time when viewers can stream what they want when they want and their attention is being further divided seemingly every day, they’re trying something different by giving the audience a say.
“We said okay, let’s leave it to the viewership,” Ransom added. “They can give five bucks today as a one time, or they can become a subscriber and give five bucks a month, or whatever they want to do.”
And Khayat said, that leaves it to them, Moondog, to make content worth keeping alive – even after three years of sitting dormant.
Keeping Willy Grunch alive – A local company’s viral hit and a novel plan to revive it Three years ago, a small animation studio based in France called Moondog Animation Studios created a five-episode series about a lanky, … More…More…
Posted inPress|Comments Off on Keeping Willy Grunch alive
object(WP_Post)#502 (28) {
["ID"]=>
int(11039)
["post_author"]=>
string(1) "1"
["post_date"]=>
string(19) "2016-04-12 14:54:51"
["post_date_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2016-04-12 12:54:51"
["post_content"]=>
string(5548) "Saturday 5 March 2016, somewhere on a motorway in Switzerland...This road, rolling by in a monotonous way, is actually a really good opportunity to have a tête-à-tête with God, isn’t it? But, to tell you the truth, my prayers sometimes sound as hollow as that banal ‘How are you?’ two passers-by in a hurry to get home might exchange. Good grief, Alan! Get a grip of yourself, you’re talking to your Dad*, to someone you love!... OK, I’ll focus!Amongst other things, we talk about my cartoon that came out 3 years ago:
‘When all’s said and done, I have to thank you that it didn’t do well right away...
No - seriously - Lord, cos otherwise I probably wouldn’t’ve had the time to bring out my book A date in the forest. But couldn’t you do something now?
Remember, I used to love to say that that cartoon would touch millions of people! And we’re so far away from that...’ *affectionate nickname for GodBuzzzz...
That very day, a complete stranger of Russian nationality posts one of those cartoons I was just talking about (there are five of them in all) on his Facebook page. And just a few days later, this is brought to my attention through a post on my Facebook wall...
Hey, what does this writing mean: 3.4M? That really can’t be what I think it is. My doubt is sufficiently great for me to decide to consult a specialist on the matter and I go into his private den (my teenage son’s bedroom, if you prefer)...
My Benjamin is slumped over his desk, busy doing magic things on his computer, but when I see his eyes jump out, I understand that it really is a matter of... 3.5 million views !!And the story goes on !!
Following on from this phenomenon, the studio, Moondog Animation, has decided to reactivate their procedures, with the aim of producing new episodes. A crowdfunding has just been launched that you can all take part in: more information on www.willygrunch.comTo see the cartoon:https://www.facebook.com/goodfulru/videos/546783215503169/?pnref=storyMy Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/A.Auderset
"
["post_title"]=>
string(25) "A crazy thing on Facebook"
["post_excerpt"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_status"]=>
string(7) "publish"
["comment_status"]=>
string(6) "closed"
["ping_status"]=>
string(6) "closed"
["post_password"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_name"]=>
string(5) "11039"
["to_ping"]=>
string(0) ""
["pinged"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_modified"]=>
string(19) "2016-04-12 15:20:27"
["post_modified_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2016-04-12 13:20:27"
["post_content_filtered"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_parent"]=>
int(0)
["guid"]=>
string(32) "http://www.auderset.com/?p=11039"
["menu_order"]=>
int(0)
["post_type"]=>
string(4) "post"
["post_mime_type"]=>
string(0) ""
["comment_count"]=>
string(1) "0"
["filter"]=>
string(3) "raw"
["post_content_ml"]=>
string(21792) "[:fr]
Discussions de passants
Samedi 5 mars 2016, quelque part sur une autoroute en Suisse...Cette route qui défile de manière monotone est en fait une véritable chance d’avoir un tête à tête avec Dieu, non ? Mais à dire vrai, mes prières sonnent aussi creux que les banals « ça va ? » que pourraient s'échanger deux passants pressés d’arriver à la maison.Purée, Alain ! Ressaisis-toi, tu parles à Papa*, à quelqu'un que tu aimes !...Ok, je me concentre !On parle entre autres de mon dessin animé sorti il y 3 ans :« En fin de compte, je dois te remercier que ça n'ait pas marché tout de suite...
Non – sérieux – Seigneur, car sinon je n'aurais probablement jamais eu le temps de sortir mon livre « Rendez-vous dans la forêt »... Mais, maintenant, ne pourrais-tu pas faire quelque chose ?
Souviens-toi, j'aimais à dire alors que ce dessin animé toucherait des millions de gens ! Et on en est si loin... »
*surnom affectueux pour Dieu
Buzzzz...
Le jour même, un parfait inconnu de nationalité russe poste un de ces fameux dessins animés (il y en a 5 en tout) sur sa page Facebook. Et seulement quelques jours après, ceci est porté à mon attention par le biais d'un poste sur mon mur Facebook...Tiens, que veut dire cette inscription : 3,4M ? Ça ne peut tout de même pas être ce que je pense ? Le doute est suffisamment grand pour que je me décide à consulter un spécialiste en la matière et pénètre dans son antre interdite (la chambre d'ado de mon fils, si vous préférez)... Mon Benjamin est affalé sur son bureau en train de faire des trucs magiques sur son ordi, mais quand je vois ses yeux s'écarquiller, je comprends qu'il s'agit bien de... 3,5 millions de vues !!
Et ça continue !!
Suite à ce phénomène, les studios Moondog Animation ont décidé de relancer activement leurs démarches en vue de réaliser de nouveaux épisodes. Un crowdfunding vient d'être lancé auquel vous pouvez tous participer : plus d'info sur www.willygrunch.comPour voir le dessin-animé: https://www.facebook.com/goodfulru/videos/546783215503169/?pnref=storyMon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/A.Auderset
[:de]Diskussion von PassantenAm Samstag, dem 5. März 2016, irgendwo auf einer Schweizer Autobahn...Diese Straße, die sich eintönig hinzieht, ist irgendwie eine echte Chance, eine Unterredung mit Gott zu haben, oder? Aber, um ehrlich zu sein, klingen meine Gebete wie abgeschmackte „Wie geht´s?“, welche zwei Passanten, die sich schnell voneinander losmachen wollen, austauschen.Scheibenkleister, Alain! Reiß´ dich wieder zusammen! Du redest mit Papa*, mit jemandem, den du doch magst!...OK, ich konzentriere mich!Wir sprechen unter anderem von meinem Zeichentrickfilm, der vor 3 Jahren herauskam:„Eigentlich muss ich mich bei Dir bedanken, dass es nicht gleich geklappt hat...Nee, im ernst, Herr! Sonst hätte ich wahrscheinlich nie die Zeit gehabt, das Buch „Verabredungen im Wald“ herauszubringen... Aber könntest du jetzt vielleicht nicht was machen?Erinnere Dich doch daran, wie ich mir gewünscht habe, dass dieser Zeichentrickfilm Millionen von Menschen berührt! Davon sind wir weit entfernt...“ * Liebevoller Spitzname für GottBuzzzz...An demselben Tag postet ein völlig unbekannter Mann russischer Staatsangehörigkeit einen dieser Zeichentrickfilme (es gibt insgesamt fünf davon) auf seiner Facebook-Seite. Und nur einige Tage später krieg ich das in meinem Facebook-Profil mit. Nanu? Was bedeutet der Eintrag „3,4M“? Doch nicht das, was ich denke? Mein Verdacht ist so groß, dass ich mich dazu aufraffe, einen Fachmann aufzusuchen und seine verbotene Höhle zu betreten (auf Deutsch, ich gehe ins Teenagerzimmer meines Sohnes)... Mein Bub hockt an seinem Schreibtisch und macht gerade magische Dinge mit seinem Compi, aber als ich sehe, wie er die Augen aufreißt, verstehe ich, dass es sich tatsächlich um 3,5 Millionen Aufrufe!! handelt.Und es geht weiter!!Dadurch haben die Moondog-Animation-Studios entschieden, weitere Schritte einzuleiten, um neue Episoden zu entwickeln. Ein Crowdfunding wurde gestartet, an dem Sie alle teilnehmen können. Mehr Infos finden Sie unter www.willygrunch.comWenn Sie den Zeichentrickfilm sehen wollen: https://www.facebook.com/goodfulru/videos/546783215503169/?pnref=storyMeine Facebook-Seite: https://www.facebook.com/A.Auderset
[:en]Saturday 5 March 2016, somewhere on a motorway in Switzerland...This road, rolling by in a monotonous way, is actually a really good opportunity to have a tête-à-tête with God, isn’t it? But, to tell you the truth, my prayers sometimes sound as hollow as that banal ‘How are you?’ two passers-by in a hurry to get home might exchange. Good grief, Alan! Get a grip of yourself, you’re talking to your Dad*, to someone you love!... OK, I’ll focus!Amongst other things, we talk about my cartoon that came out 3 years ago:
‘When all’s said and done, I have to thank you that it didn’t do well right away...
No - seriously - Lord, cos otherwise I probably wouldn’t’ve had the time to bring out my book A date in the forest. But couldn’t you do something now?
Remember, I used to love to say that that cartoon would touch millions of people! And we’re so far away from that...’ *affectionate nickname for GodBuzzzz...
That very day, a complete stranger of Russian nationality posts one of those cartoons I was just talking about (there are five of them in all) on his Facebook page. And just a few days later, this is brought to my attention through a post on my Facebook wall...
Hey, what does this writing mean: 3.4M? That really can’t be what I think it is. My doubt is sufficiently great for me to decide to consult a specialist on the matter and I go into his private den (my teenage son’s bedroom, if you prefer)...
My Benjamin is slumped over his desk, busy doing magic things on his computer, but when I see his eyes jump out, I understand that it really is a matter of... 3.5 million views !!And the story goes on !!
Following on from this phenomenon, the studio, Moondog Animation, has decided to reactivate their procedures, with the aim of producing new episodes. A crowdfunding has just been launched that you can all take part in: more information on www.willygrunch.comTo see the cartoon:https://www.facebook.com/goodfulru/videos/546783215503169/?pnref=storyMy Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/A.Auderset
[:es]
Sábado 5 de marzo de 2016, en algún lugar de una autopista de Suiza…
Esta carretera que desfila de manera monótona es de hecho una buena ocasión para tener un cara a cara con Dios, ¿o no? Pero para ser sincero, mis oraciones suenan tan vacías como los banales “¡Hola, ¿Qué tal?!¨que podrían intercambiarse dos personas con prisa por llegar a casa.
¡Venga, Alain! ¡cálmate, hablas con Papá*, con alguien a quien amas!
¡Vale, me concentro!
Hablamos, entre otras cosas, de mi dibujo animado publicado hace tres años:
“Al fin y al cabo, tengo que darte las gracias porque no funcionó enseguida…
No - en serio - Señor, porque sino probablemente nunca hubiera tenido tiempo para publicar mi libro “Cita en el bosque”… Pero, ¿no podrías hacer algo ahora?
¡Recuerda cuánto me gustaba decir que ese dibujo animado iba a tocar a millones de personas! Y estamos tan lejos de lograrlo…
*Apodo cariñoso para Dios.¡Viral!
Ese mismo día, un perfecto desconocido de nacionalidad rusa cuelga uno de mis “famosos” dibujos animados (son 5 en total) en su página de Facebook. Y en pocos días, esto llama mi atención a través de un mensaje en mi muro de Facebook… “Vaya, ¿Qué querìa decir esta inscripción:3,4 M?¿No puede ser lo que estoy pensando?”. La duda es lo bastante grande como para que me decida a consultar a un especialista en la materia y entre en su antro prohibido (o sea, la habitación de mi hijo adolescente, si les parece mejor)… mi Benjamín está apoltronado en su escritorio haciendo trucos mágicos en su ordenador, pero cuando le veo abrir los ojos de par en par, comprendo que se trata realmente de… ¡¡3,5 millones de visitas!!¡¡Y esto sigue!!
En respuesta a este fenómeno, los estudios Moondog Animation, han decidido relanzar activamente sus gestiones para poder realizar nuevos episodios. Se acaba de lanzar una financiación colectiva en la cual todos pueden participar: más información en www.willygrunch.comPara ver el dibujo animado:https://www.facebook.com/goodfulru/videos/546783215503169/?pnref=storyMi Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/A.Auderset
[:]"
["post_content_langs"]=>
array(4) {
["fr"]=>
bool(true)
["de"]=>
bool(true)
["en"]=>
bool(true)
["es"]=>
bool(true)
}
["post_title_ml"]=>
string(127) "[:fr]Un truc de ouf sur Facebook[:de]Total abgefahren auf Facebook[:en]A crazy thing on Facebook [:es]Una locura en Facebook[:]"
["post_title_langs"]=>
array(4) {
["fr"]=>
bool(true)
["de"]=>
bool(true)
["en"]=>
bool(true)
["es"]=>
bool(true)
}
}
Saturday 5 March 2016, somewhere on a motorway in Switzerland… This road, rolling by in a monotonous way, is actually a really good opportunity to have a tête-à-tête with God, isn’t it? But, to tell you the truth, my … More…More…
Posted inBlog|Comments Off on A crazy thing on Facebook
Welcome to Alain Auderset’s new website! Last news:(in english) Blog: Hi! Where are you looking? (16.10. 2023) Blog: Luna (05.06. 2023) Blog: The primary source (13.03. 2023) Blog: Healed from an eating disorder (06.12. 2022) Presse : A new book … More…More…
I sometimes have the impression that I’m a kind of gardener here on earth, with the responsibility of growing trees directly imported from the Garden of Eden. As far as I’m concerned, they are essentially artistic. Their fruits have a taste of good humour and produce faith when we bite into them (yes, really!). I owe these wonders to Jesus, the Sun of Eden. Without a daily session sunning themselves by His side, my fruits would be seriously lacking in vitamins...
Each of them demands constant attention and grows very slowly! Take the musical orange tree, for example, it took no less than 5 years before producing its first fruit in the form of the CD Saahsal (alternative rock)! The same is true for the DVD with the sweet and sour taste of Lemon–Man-Show (The One Man Show). As for the comic book tree, it benefits from the accumulated care it has received from us, and, as a result, only takes one or two years to bear its fruit. As for the woodland fruits growing in the shade of my Appointments in the Forest(Volume 2), they will soon be ripe.
‘Chance’ has decreed that almost all these fruits reach maturity at the same time...Not something you see every day in the workshop!
The envoy 1
I’m already busy watering a new, still tiny, comic-book tree, when I hear the telephone ringing over my shoulder. It’s probably because I haven’t quite emerged from my drawing that I don’t put up more resistance to his strange request... At the other end of the line, a doctor suggests that I have a consultation with him so that he can speak to me about “something”. Aaargh, probably a psychiatrist looking for a hopeless case...
It’s sufficiently strange for me to have the urge to do the washing up….. (‘cos I do it while chatting to God…). I have a distinct thought which comes to me suddenly from the invisible person I’m conversing with, and which ends up whetting my curiosity….well, well, well…...you’d think that He was behind this appointment….
I get lots of visits at the workshop; and, my goodness, at times some of them are stranger than others …. (maybe one of my exotic plants exudes an hallucinogenic substance into the air!?) but, actually, I welcome such visits with particular attention.
The doctor, a laid-back but thoughtful person, explains to me that the Lord has commissioned him to create a group aimed at supporting my work.
Inside my head, I’m thinking: ‘Lord, so you really had heard that request after all…?!’
I had got a whole pallet of Spanish comic books reprinted, which for the moment are merely gathering dust in a corner of my workshop.(Following the episode in the Canary Islands, http://evangelicalfocus.com/magazine/795/The_Canaries_a_dream) ….and, what do you know, the doctor sets off with 300 of them under his arm with, as his first mission: making it known (!)
The envoy 2
A few days later, I’m just wondering how I’m going to cope with the imminent bumper crops, when one of my friends and counsellors turns up at the studio.
‘Alain, d’you remember your Comic Book Without Words? Why hasn’t it come out? I think that something needs to be done about it, so I’ve consulted two other friends (one of them being the doctor!) and between us we have decided to finance the printing. Here’s the money for a first edition (of 5,000 copies)...
‘Lord….seriously ? Now ?!’
A time for responses
So, in the end, I was present at the birth of that Comic Book Without Words*, as well as of the Auderset support group, whose principle mission, for the moment, is to help me distribute the former.
Following this (the telephone often rings right into my flat), I have had numerous requests that are out of the ordinary. Here’s one particularly meaningful one:
‘Hallo Alain, we need your help! We’d like to reach the prostitutes in my town with the message of Christ’s love, but unfortunately, they all speak a multitude of very different foreign languages, couldn’t you produce a comic book without words?
‘Man, that’s crazy! It’s only just come out...!!’
How heart-warming to see that everything had been planned in advance like that, and that, at last, I’m participating in a project which is so much bigger than I am, in every way... So the silence of all those years wasn’t a question of falling behind or of failure, but a question of seasons.
Only the Master of Time really knows them, whether for our lives or for our projects. Whatever happens, let’s remain confident in this invisible hand into which we have placed them. Some days later, the Comic Book Without Words set off to a similar charity, working amongst prostitutes in Geneva (without any consultation with the first charity)...
The book has also been ordered to be used in a prison setting, as well as for other fantastic projects…..
The story continues
It’s only taken three weeks to run completely out of stock, but thanks to a new gift, we’ve been able to print another 7,500 copies (with Biblical references translated into 4 languages). Recently, a special edition has been ordered by a Swiss mission. The echoes of people touched by this funny little book are beginning to reach my ears... I’ll probably have the opportunity to talk to you about them another time.
In the iTunes store, iBook, etc.
Another fantastic thing: My comic book Conventional Wisdom (as well as Robi, Marcel and Willy Grunch) is now available in a digital version in French, English, German and Spanish.
With Saahsal, (www.saahsal.com) the music group, we’re playing more and more often in real hotspots of rock... May your thoughts towards us be as fertiliser for our creativity!
J’ai parfois l’impression d’être ici-bas une sorte de jardinier, ayant la responsabilité de cultiver des arbres directement importés du jardin d’Eden. En ce qu'il me concerne, ils sont essentiellement artistiques. Leurs fruits ont un goût de bonne humeur et produisent la foi quand
on les croque (ouais, carrément!)... Ces merveilles, je les dois à Jésus, le Soleil d’Eden. Et sans une séance quotidienne de bronzage à Ses côtés, mes fruits manqueraient cruellement de vitamines...
Chacun d’eux demande une attention assidue et pousse très lentement!
Prenez l’oranger musical, par exemple...Il a pris pas moins de 5 ans avant de donner son premier fruit, sous la forme du CD Saahsal (Rock alternatif) ! Pareil pour le DVD au goût sucré/acide du citrone-manshow. Le Bédésier (arbre à BD), lui, profite de soins accrus et du coup ne prend qu’un an ou deux pour produire son fruit. Quant aux fruits des bois qui poussent à l’ombre de mes rendez-vous dans la forêt (tome 2), ils seront bientôt mûrs.
Le « hasard » a voulu que presque tous ces fruits arrivent à maturité en même temps...
Du jamais vu à l’atelier!!
L’envoyé 1
Je suis déjà en train d’arroser un nouvel arbre à BD encore tout petit, quand j’entends le téléphone me siffler derrière l’épaule. C’est probablement parce que je ne suis pas encore tout à fait sorti de mon dessin que je n’oppose pas plus de résistance à son étrange requête... A l’autre bout du fil, un médecin me propose une consultation pour me parler de «quelque chose».
Bah, sûrement un psychiatre en recherche d’un cas désespéré...
C’est suffisamment étrange pour que j’aie envie de faire la vaisselle... (vi pask je la fais en papotant avec Dieu...) J’ai une pensée forte qui me vient soudain de mon interlocuteur invisible et qui finit d’aiguiser ma curiosité. Tiens, tiens, tiens, on dirait bien qu’Il est derrière ce rendez-vous...
Je reçois plein de visites à l’atelier, ma foi, elles sont parfois plus étranges les unes que les autres... (Peut-être qu’une de mes plantes exotiques émet un produit hallucinogène dans l’air !?), mais pour le coup, j’accueille celle-ci avec une attention particulière.
Le médecin, un personnage relax mais profond m’explique que le Seigneur l’a mandaté pour créer un groupe destiné à soutenir mon travail.
Moi, dans ma tête :
- Seigneur, tu avais donc quand même entendu cette requête... ?!
Suite à l’épisode des îles Canaries (page 58 de « Rendez-vous dans la forêt »), j’avais fait rééditer toute une palette de BD espagnoles qui pour l’instant se contente de prendre la poussière dans un coin de mon atelier. Voilà-t’y pas que le médecin en embarque 300 sous les bras avec comme première mission : la faire connaître (!)
L’envoyé 2
Quelques jours plus tard, je suis en train de me demander comment m’en sortir avec ces récoltes multiples et imminentes, quand un de mes amis et conseillers se pointe à l’atelier:
– Alain, tu te souviens de ta BD sans parole? Pourquoi ne sort-elle pas? Je trouve qu’il faut faire
quelque chose, alors j’ai consulté deux autres amis (l’un d’eux est le fameux médecin) et ensemble, nous avons décidé d’en financer l’impression. Voici l’argent pour une première édition (5’000 exemplaires)...
– Seigneur... sérieux? Maintenant?
Le temps des réponses
J’ai donc finalement assisté à la naissance de cette BD sans parole, ainsi qu’au groupe de soutien Auderset qui, pour l’instant, a comme principale mission de m’aider à la diffusion de celle-ci.
Suite à cela (le téléphone me siffle souvent jusque dans mon appart’), j’ai eu de nombreuses demandes sortant de l’ordinaire. En voici une particulièrement significative :
– Bonjour Alain, on a besoin de ton aide! On aimerait atteindre les prostituées de ma ville avec le message d’Amour du Christ. Comme elles ne parlent souvent pas le français mais une multitude de langues étrangères très différentes, ne pourrais-tu pas réaliser une BD sans parole ?
– Mais c’est ouf ça, elle vient justement de sortir...!!
Quel baume au cœur de voir que tout avait été ainsi prévu d’avance et que je participe finalement à un projet qui me dépasse en tout point.
Le silence de ces années n’était donc ni une question de retard ou d’échec, mais une question de saisons.
Seul le Maître du temps les connait vraiment, que ce soit pour nos vies ou nos projets.
Quoi qu’il arrive, restons confiants en cette main invisible dans laquelle nous les avons déposées.
Quelques jours plus tard, la BD sans paroles est partie pour une association semblable en faveur des prostituées de Genève, (sans aucune concertation avec la première)...
Le livre a aussi été commandé pour être utilisé en milieu carcéral ainsi que pour d’autres projets étonnants...
Ca Continue
Trois semaines ont suffi pour épuiser totalement les stocks mais grâce à un nouveau don, nous avons pu en réimprimer 7’500 exemplaires (avec les références bibliques traduites en 4 langues).
Dernièrement, une édition spéciale a été commandée par une mission Suisse.
Les échos de personnes touchées par ce drôle de petit ouvrage commencent à arriver à mes oreilles... j’aurai probablement l’occasion de vous en reparler !
ma BD Idées Reçues (ainsi que Robi, Marcel et Willy Grunch ) est maintenant disponible en version numérique en français, anglais, allemand et espagnol.
Avec Saahsal (www.saahsal.com), le groupe de musique on joue de plus en plus souvent dans des hauts lieux du rock...
Que vos pensées soient pour nous un engrais fertilisant sur notre créativité !
Ich habe manchmal den Eindruck, hier unten wie eine Art Gärtner zu sein, der dafür verantwortlich ist, Bäume zu züchten, die direkt aus dem Garten Eden stammen. Diese Bäume sind rein künstlerischer Natur. Ihre Früchte schmecken nach guter Laune und erzeugen Glauben, wenn man reinbeißt (doch, echt!)... Dieses Wunder habe ich Jesus zu verdanken, der paradiesischen Sonne. Und wenn ich nicht jeden Tag in Seiner Gegenwart bräunen würde, würde es meinen Früchten grässlich an Vitaminen mangeln...
Jede Frucht braucht eine emsige Aufmerksamkeit und wächst sehr langsam!
So der musikalische Orangenbaum zum Beispiel: Nicht weniger als fünf Jahre waren nötig, damit die erste Frucht gedeiht. Die CD Saahsal kam dabei heraus (Alternativer Rock)! Ebenso für die DVD mit dem süß-sauren Nachgeschmack der Zitrone-Manshow (Zitr-one-Man-show). Der Comicbaum genießt eine besondere Aufmerksamkeit und braucht daher nur ein bis zwei Jahre, um seine Frucht zu tragen. Und die Waldbeeren, die im Schatten von „Verabredungen im Wald 2“ gedeihen, werden auch bald reif sein.
Der „Zufall“ wollte, dass fast all diese Früchte gleichzeitig zu ihrer Reife gelangen...
Das haben wir im Atelier noch nie gesehen.
Der Gesandte Nr. 1
Ich bin gerade dabei, einen neuen, ganz jungen Comicbaum zu begießen, da bimmelt das Telefon hinter mir. Ich bin noch halb in Gedanken bei meinem Bild und deshalb wehre ich mich nicht gegen die seltsame Bitte des Anrufers... Am Ende der Leitung möchte ein Arzt eine Sprechstunde und will mit mir über „etwas“ reden.
Naja, bestimmt ein Psychiater, der auf der Suche nach einem hoffnungslosen Fall ist...
Die Sache geht mir dermaßen nach, dass ich Lust bekomme, den Abwasch zu machen. (Doch, doch: Ich mache den und schwatze dabei mit Gott). Ich habe einen ganz starken Eindruck von meinem unsichtbaren Gesprächspartner von vorhin, der meine Neugier richtig wachrüttelt. Na? Hab´ doch den Eindruck, dass ER sich hinter diesem Treffen verbirgt... Ich werde sehr häufig in meinem Atelier besucht, die einen sind manchmal seltsamer als die andern... (Vielleicht strahlt eine meiner exotischen Pflanzen eine halluzinogene Substanz aus?!), aber dieses Mal empfange ich diesen Menschen mit einer besonderen Aufmerksamkeit.
Der Arzt, ein chilliger, aber geistreicher Mensch, erklärt mir, dass ihn der Herr beauftragt hat, eine Gruppe zu gründen, die mich bei meiner Aufgabe unterstützen soll.
In meinem Kopf sage ich mir:
- Herr, Du hattest doch diese Bitte gehört... ?!
Nach meinem Abenteuer auf den Kanareninseln (s. Seite 58 von „Verabredungen im Wald“) hatte ich eine ganze Fuhre spanischer Comics neu auflegen lassen, die zu der Zeit in einer Ecke des Ateliers als Staubfänger fungierten. Und davon nimmt er 300 untern Arm, um seinen ersten Auftrag zu erfüllen: sie bekannt zu machen.
Der Gesandte Nr. 2
Einige Tage später bin ich gerade dabei, mir die Frage zu stellen, wie ich mit diesen vielfachen und besonderen Ernten umgehen soll, als einer meiner Freunde und Berater bei mir aufkreuzt:
- Alain, erinnerst du dich noch an das Comic ohne Worte? Warum wird es nicht gedruckt? Ich finde, dass wir was tun sollten, also habe ich die Meinung von zwei Leuten eingeholt (einer von denen ist der besagte Arzt) und wir wollen zusammen den Druck finanzieren. Hier hast du das Geld für die erste Auflage (5000 Exemplare)...
- Herr? Echt? ... Jetzt?
Die Zeit der Antworten
Ich durfte also erleben, wie dieses Comic ohne Worte geboren wurde. Ebenso gibt es jetzt die Unterstützungsgruppe Auderset, die mir momentan hauptsächlich hilft, es zu verbreiten.
In Folge dessen habe ich mehrere außergewöhnliche Bitten erlebt (das Telefon bimmelt oft bis in meine Wohnung hinein). Hier eine dieser Bitten:
- Hallo, Alain, wir bräuchten deine Hilfe. Wir möchten gern die Botschaft der Liebe von Christus an eine Prostituiertengruppe meiner Stadt weitergeben. Da sie selten Französisch reden, sondern eher ganz viele verschiedene Sprachen, wäre es nicht möglich, dass du ein Comic ohne Worte machst?
- Das gibt´s doch nicht! Er ist gerade erschienen!!
Es ist wie Balsam für die Seele, zu erkennen, dass alles sorgfältig geplant worden ist und dass ich letztendlich an einem Projekt teilnehme, das über meinen Verstand geht.
Die Stille, die all diese Jahre hindurch herrschte, war also weder ein Verspätungsproblem, noch eine Sache des Scheiterns, sondern eine Frage der passenden Jahreszeit.
Allein der Herr der Zeiten kennt sie wirklich, seien es unser Leben oder unsere Projekte.
Egal, was passiert, lasst uns weiterhin dieser unsichtbaren Hand vertrauen, in die wir alles hineingelegt haben.
Einige Tage später ist das Comic ohne Worte zu einer Vereinigung gegangen, die sich um Prostituierte in Genf kümmert (ohne jegliche Absprache mit der ersten)...
Das Buch wurde auch bestellt, um in Gefängnissen sowie bei anderen befremdlichen Projekten verwendet zu werden...
Innerhalb von vier Wochen gingen die Lagerbestände zu Ende, aber durch eine weitere Spende konnten 7500 Stück nachgedruckt werden (mit biblischen Zitaten in vier Sprachen).
Neulich wurde eine Sonderausgabe von einer Schweizer Missionsgesellschaft bestellt.
Das Echo derer, die von diesem kleinen Buch angesprochen worden sind, beginnt erst, an mein Ohr zu gelangen... Bestimmt werde ich irgendwann die Gelegenheit haben, euch davon zu erzählen!
Auf iTunes store, I-Book usw.
Weitere fantastische Sache:
Meine Comics Ach, du lieber Himmel Robi, Marcel und Willy Grunch sind nun digital auf Französisch, Englisch, Deutsch und Spanisch zu erhalten.
Mit Saahsal (www.saahsal.com), unserer Musikband, spielen wir immer mehr in den Hot Spots des Rocks...
Mögen eure Gedanken ein wertvolles Düngemittel für unsere Kreativität sein.
I sometimes have the impression that I’m a kind of gardener here on earth, with the responsibility of growing trees directly imported from the Garden of Eden. As far as I’m concerned, they are essentially artistic. Their fruits have a taste of good humour and produce faith when we bite into them (yes, really!). I owe these wonders to Jesus, the Sun of Eden. Without a daily session sunning themselves by His side, my fruits would be seriously lacking in vitamins...
Each of them demands constant attention and grows very slowly! Take the musical orange tree, for example, it took no less than 5 years before producing its first fruit in the form of the CD Saahsal (alternative rock)! The same is true for the DVD with the sweet and sour taste of Lemon–Man-Show (The One Man Show). As for the comic book tree, it benefits from the accumulated care it has received from us, and, as a result, only takes one or two years to bear its fruit. As for the woodland fruits growing in the shade of my Appointments in the Forest(Volume 2), they will soon be ripe.
‘Chance’ has decreed that almost all these fruits reach maturity at the same time...Not something you see every day in the workshop!
The envoy 1
I’m already busy watering a new, still tiny, comic-book tree, when I hear the telephone ringing over my shoulder. It’s probably because I haven’t quite emerged from my drawing that I don’t put up more resistance to his strange request... At the other end of the line, a doctor suggests that I have a consultation with him so that he can speak to me about “something”. Aaargh, probably a psychiatrist looking for a hopeless case...
It’s sufficiently strange for me to have the urge to do the washing up….. (‘cos I do it while chatting to God…). I have a distinct thought which comes to me suddenly from the invisible person I’m conversing with, and which ends up whetting my curiosity….well, well, well…...you’d think that He was behind this appointment….
I get lots of visits at the workshop; and, my goodness, at times some of them are stranger than others …. (maybe one of my exotic plants exudes an hallucinogenic substance into the air!?) but, actually, I welcome such visits with particular attention.
The doctor, a laid-back but thoughtful person, explains to me that the Lord has commissioned him to create a group aimed at supporting my work.
Inside my head, I’m thinking: ‘Lord, so you really had heard that request after all…?!’
I had got a whole pallet of Spanish comic books reprinted, which for the moment are merely gathering dust in a corner of my workshop.(Following the episode in the Canary Islands, http://evangelicalfocus.com/magazine/795/The_Canaries_a_dream) ….and, what do you know, the doctor sets off with 300 of them under his arm with, as his first mission: making it known (!)
The envoy 2
A few days later, I’m just wondering how I’m going to cope with the imminent bumper crops, when one of my friends and counsellors turns up at the studio.
‘Alain, d’you remember your Comic Book Without Words? Why hasn’t it come out? I think that something needs to be done about it, so I’ve consulted two other friends (one of them being the doctor!) and between us we have decided to finance the printing. Here’s the money for a first edition (of 5,000 copies)...
‘Lord….seriously ? Now ?!’
A time for responses
So, in the end, I was present at the birth of that Comic Book Without Words*, as well as of the Auderset support group, whose principle mission, for the moment, is to help me distribute the former.
Following this (the telephone often rings right into my flat), I have had numerous requests that are out of the ordinary. Here’s one particularly meaningful one:
‘Hallo Alain, we need your help! We’d like to reach the prostitutes in my town with the message of Christ’s love, but unfortunately, they all speak a multitude of very different foreign languages, couldn’t you produce a comic book without words?
‘Man, that’s crazy! It’s only just come out...!!’
How heart-warming to see that everything had been planned in advance like that, and that, at last, I’m participating in a project which is so much bigger than I am, in every way... So the silence of all those years wasn’t a question of falling behind or of failure, but a question of seasons.
Only the Master of Time really knows them, whether for our lives or for our projects. Whatever happens, let’s remain confident in this invisible hand into which we have placed them. Some days later, the Comic Book Without Words set off to a similar charity, working amongst prostitutes in Geneva (without any consultation with the first charity)...
The book has also been ordered to be used in a prison setting, as well as for other fantastic projects…..
The story continues
It’s only taken three weeks to run completely out of stock, but thanks to a new gift, we’ve been able to print another 7,500 copies (with Biblical references translated into 4 languages). Recently, a special edition has been ordered by a Swiss mission. The echoes of people touched by this funny little book are beginning to reach my ears... I’ll probably have the opportunity to talk to you about them another time.
In the iTunes store, iBook, etc.
Another fantastic thing: My comic book Conventional Wisdom (as well as Robi, Marcel and Willy Grunch) is now available in a digital version in French, English, German and Spanish.
With Saahsal, (www.saahsal.com) the music group, we’re playing more and more often in real hotspots of rock... May your thoughts towards us be as fertiliser for our creativity!
Otoño de 2015 (3 años más tarde)El tiempo de la cosecha
Algunas veces tengo la impresión de que aquí en la tierra soy una especie de jardinero que tiene la responsabilidad de cultivar unos árboles directamente importados del jardín de Edén. En lo que me concierne, son esencialmente artísticos. Sus frutos tienen gusto a buen humor y producen fe cuando se les muerde (¡sí, literalmente!). Esas maravillas, se las debo a Jesús, el Sol del Edén. Y sin una sesión cotidiana de bronceado a su lado, mis frutos carecerían cruelmente de vitaminas…
¡Cada uno de ellos requiere una atención constante y crece muy lentamente!
Fíjense, por ejemplo, en el naranjo musical, ¡ha tardado por lo menos 5 años en dar su primer fruto en forma del CD: Saahsal (Rock alternativo)!, igual que el DVD, de sabor cítrico agridulce : Manshow. El Comicano (árbol del cómic), disfruta de mayores cuidados y por eso apenas tarda “un” año o dos en dar fruto. En cuanto a los frutos que crecen a la sombra de mis « citas en el bosque » (tomo 2), pronto estarán maduros. El “azar” ha querido que casi todos los frutos hayan madurado al mismo tiempo…
¡¡Lo nunca visto en el taller!!
El enviado I
Me encuentro regando un nuevo árbol de cómic que todavía es muy pequeño, cuando oigo el silbido del teléfono a mis espaldas. Probablemente sea porque todavía sigo inmerso en mi dibujo, que no opongo mucha resistencia a su extraña demanda. Al otro lado de la línea, un médico me propone una cita para consultarme acerca de “algo”.
Bah, seguro que es un siquiatra en busca de un caso desesperado...
Suena tan raro que me dan ganas de fregar los platos …(sí, porque lo hago charlando con Dios…). De repente me llega un pensamiento profundo acerca de mi interlocutor invisible que termina por aumentar mi curiosidad… vaya, vaya, vaya… se diría que Él está detrás de esta cita…
Recibo muchas visitas en mi taller, les doy mi palabra de que a veces son más extrañas las unas que las otras… ( ¿podría ser que alguna de mis plantas exóticas esté impregnando el aire con algún producto alucinógeno?), pero esta, la recibo con una atención especial.
El médico, un personaje relajado pero profundo, me explica que el Señor le ha ordenado crear un grupo destinado a sostener mi trabajo.
Yo, en mi cabeza:
- Señor, ¡¿entonces tú habías oído aquella petición…?!
En respuesta al episodio de las Islas Canarias (http://protestantedigital.com/cultural/36593/Canarias_no_es_un_sueno), yo había hecho reeditar todo un palé de cómics en español que por el momento se contenta con cubrirse de polvo en un rincón de mi taller. Me creas o no, el médico embarcó 300 bajo el brazo teniendo como primera misión: darlos a conocer (!)El enviado 2
Algunos días más tarde, estoy preguntándome como arreglármelas con esas cosechas múltiples e inminentes, cuando uno de mis amigos y consejeros se planta en el taller:
- Alain, ¿Te acuerdas de tu cómic sin palabras? ¿Por qué no sale? Siento que hay que hacer algo, por eso lo he consultado con dos amigos (uno de ellos es el famoso médico) y juntos, hemos decidido financiar la impresión. Aquí tienes el dinero para una primera edición (5000 ejemplares)…
- Señor, ¿estás de broma?¿Ahora?
El tiempo de las respuestas
Por fin he podido asistir al nacimiento de este cómic sin palabras así como al del grupo de apoyo Auderset que, por el momento, tiene como misión principal la difusión de éste. Después de esto (el teléfono me silba a menudo, incluso en mi apartamento), he tenido numerosas peticiones fuera de lo ordinario. Por ejemplo esta, que es especialmente significativa:
- ¡Buenos días Alain, necesitamos tu ayuda! Queremos alcanzar con el mensaje del amor de Cristo a las prostitutas de nuestra ciudad. Como la mayoría de ellas no suele hablar francés sino otras lenguas extranjeras ¿No podrías hacer un cómic sin palabras?
- ¡No me lo puedo creer! ¡si acabamos de editar uno!
Qué gran bálsamo para mi corazón poder ver que todo había sido previsto por adelantado y que finalmente estoy participando en un proyecto que me supera en todos los sentidos. El silencio de estos años no era pues una cuestión de retraso ni de fracaso, sino una cuestión de estaciones.
Solo el Señor de los tiempos los conoce realmente, se trate de nuestras vidas o de nuestros proyectos.
Pase lo que pase, sigamos confiando en esa mano invisible en la que los hemos depositado.
Algunos días más tarde, el cómic sin palabras salió rumbo a una asociación parecida que ayuda a las prostitutas de Ginebra (sin relación con la primera)…
El libro también ha sido pedido para ser utilizado en centros carcelarios así como para otros proyectos sorprendentes.
Esto continúa
Han bastado tres semanas para agotar todas las reservas, pero gracias a un nuevo donativo, hemos podido reimprimir 7500 ejemplares (con las referencias bíblicas traducidas en 4 idiomas).
Últimamente, ha sido encargada una edición especial para una misión suiza.
Los ecos de las personas tocadas por este simpático librito comienzan a resonar en mis oídos…¡quizás se los pueda contar algún día!
En I-tunes I book, étc.
Otra cosa fantástica: mi cómic « Idées reçues » (« ¡Ay, Dios mío! » en español) igual que Robi, Marcel y Willy Grunch, está ahora disponible en versión numérica en francés, inglés, alemán y español...
Con Saahsal www.saahsal.com, mi grupo de música, tocamos cada vez más a menudo en las altas esferas del rock…
¡Qué vuestras oraciones sean para nosotros un abono fertilizante sobre nuestra creatividad!
pincha aquí, para ver este librito: http://www.auderset.com/es/bd-sans-parole
Autumn 2015 (3 years later) A time to harvest I sometimes have the impression that I’m a kind of gardener here on earth, with the responsibility of growing trees directly imported from the Garden of Eden. As far as I’m … More…More…
Posted inBlog|Comments Off on The Master of the Seasons – Part 4