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The World of Mr. Toast
Mr. Toast and his friends inhabit the Imaginary World, a fictitious setting created by comic strip artist Dan Goodsell. |
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 You won’t want to eat this toast |
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Several years ago, California-based illustrator Dan Goodsell decided to bring this slice of bread known as Mr. Toast to life. He gave Mr. Toast arms and legs, drew a smiley face on him, and provided him with a group of rather strange friends, so he won’t feel lonely in the Imaginary World.
Mr. Toast’s gang of friends is made up of different objects and food products that the author has endowed with personality. Mr. Toast’s best friend and main cohort is Joe the Egg, a hard-boiled egg who’s always in a good mood. They live in Imaginary World along with other characters such as a naïve lemon called Lemmonhead; Shaky Bacon, an infantile slice of bacon; Mope the Onion, an unselfconscious onion who goes around kissing everyone; Muffin Baker, a fun-loving muffin who procreates by begetting toasted buns; and Professor Encyclopedia, a wise though somewhat outdated professor who is shaped like a book.
Dan Goodsell enrolled in Art School only to drop out after the first semester. For the next ten years he worked at museums and galleries far removed from the world of comic books and illustration. However, Mister Toast himself was born at art school. Years later, Goodsell decided to salvage the character, he needed it in order to develop a project he’d had in mind for years: creating of a Disneyland-style theme park. He knew he had to come up with a group of attractive characters in order to make such a park work, and that’s how Mr. Toast’s companions were born.
Although the park does not exist, Mr. Toast stars in several comic books; Mr. Toast at the Circus, Imaginary World Comics #1, GAGS and The World of Mr. Toast, most of them published by the author himself.
Strips are published weekly in his blog, where you can also read excerpts from all his comics, as well as a new concept called the "24 Hour Comic", comic strips that can be read quickly and easily on the computer screen.
The technique he uses to create his characters consists of drawing eyes and a mouth on an object. With just a few pencil strokes, he manages to give these cute and adorable characters personality. This simplicity is not just the key to drawing his comic strips, it’s also served to create an extensive range of Imaginary World merchandizing: vinyl dolls, handbags, pins, notebooks or toys like Shaky Bacon or Mr. Toast, that you can purchase at Curiosite.
The author has been updating his web site, blog, Flickr and Myspace pages regularly for the past 6 years. Thanks to this widespread presence on the Internet, he’s gotten a lot of feedback, which he uses it to learn what works and what and what doesn’t, what the public likes and what it finds boring.
Will there ever be a theme park with a slice of toast as its main character?
Links
Mister Toast Web Site
Dan Goodsell's MySpace
Dan Goodsell’s Blog
Dan Goodsell’s Flickr Page
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 (24 Dec 2008)
(15 Sep 2008)
(12 Nov 2008)
(9 Dec 2008)
(2 Jan 2009)
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Curioblog
Language English [
