MARTYN Turner is a political cartoonist of enormous stature, being well over six feet tall, whose work is known around the world - not forgetting his cult status among discerning readers of this newspaper.
Every day he reposes on his studio couch, his chaise longue so to speak, where he worries over the state of the nation indeed of the world - before rising, languorously, to commit his shrewd analysis to paper. To deepen the dark shadows beneath the Taoiseach's brow. To highlight Maire Geoghegan Quinn's concerns about pension plans. To illustrate Mary Harney's proposal to send single mothers back home to live with their parents.
It's not easy lying out there in the depths of Kildare, waiting for the gag to strike, the astute comment to ping! He says it's not easy and you have to believe him. A gag every day of the week, and sometimes on weekends? Reader, it's no joke.
Devotees of Turner's wit and style will be delighted, then, to learn that his cartoons will appear in animated form on RTE's The Week In Politics for two weeks during the election, starting tonight. Two inventive young animation companies have given voice and movement to Turner's cast of political outlaws, the first time such a project has been undertaken in this country. Martyn moves - exclusive!
Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O'Connell founded their company - Brown Bag Films - straight out of art college four years ago. They produced the acclaimed Peig series of brief animated cartoons for RTE last year. Their enthusiasm would take your breath away. They came up with the idea - to animate Martyn Turner's daily cartoon for RTE - along with their friend Damian Farrell of CABOOM Animation, whose clients include Zig and Zag. Farrell has also produced high profile commercials television titles, corporate videos and work for Eurovision, no less. They put their proposal to managing editor of The Irish Times, Gerry Smyth, and RTE producer Don MacManus.
"USUALLY our work takes weeks if not months before we see the finished product, so it's very exciting to be turning this around in so short a time. I love the idea of being able to see our work on television almost overnight, says Cathal Gaffney, from their offices in "Space 28", a building off Bachelor's Walk in Dublin full of film companies and other creative multimedia types.
For this test run, their task is to produce 10 animations - five a week - lasting between 10 and 15 seconds each. Their biggest challenge is to match Turner's illustrative style. Ten seconds of animation, incidentally, requires about 80 to 100 individual drawings. All the work is done by hand.
This is how they'll do it: they will receive a cartoon by fax from Martyn once he has finished it for The Irish Times. The team will then work together on - a storyboard. Overnight, Damian, Cathal Darragh, their band of animators ("and a few elves, if we're lucky,") will have converted the static figures into fast talking and even faster running candidates.
Political issues will be tossed about like foot balls. Dick Spring will no longer stare sleeplessly out at you, he'll be sleep walking instead. Bertie will be heard appealing for votes. Bruton will be on the lookout for own goals. Jimmy Magee will provide the commentary. Voiceovers will be provided by Gerry Lavelle, a well known mimic in voiceover circles. He comes courtesy of the Voicebank, a new agency which represents voice impressionists".
It's a great experiment - and one which Turner afficionados should relish as it develops over the next two weeks. This could go wide, as they say in Hollywood.