ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.01 - APRIL 2000

Creativity After Hours: The Visual Evolutions of Michel Gagné
(continued from page 3)


Gagné creates an ink and collage piece reminiscent of 18th century illustrations. © Michel Gagné.

As production on Quest for Camelot was winding down, production assistant Scott Grieder expressed his admiration for Gagné's drawing style, and proposed writing a children's book with Gagné illustrating it.

Gagné recalls, "I did this drawing really quickly on a piece of animation paper. It was this little fox standing in front of a weird creature. I gave it to Scott and I said, 'Okay, write a story with this.' The next thing I knew, I had 20 more illustrations done. Suddenly I started seeing this story in this world, and that it was about my own life. It was agreed between me and Scott that the story had become too personal, and Scott wasn't comfortable writing it anymore."


The beginning of what would become Search for Meaning. © Michel Gagné.

The story became A Search for Meaning: The Story of Rex, which echoed Gagné's search for meaning in his own life. "I was scared even writing the Rex book because I can't think of myself writing professionally. I'm okay with pictures," Gagné says. "I was very intimidated but I said, 'You know what? I'm just going to write with my heart. I'm just going to write what comes out and that'll be my own style. Even though it's full of weird rhythms and stuff it'll be my own style.'

"I feel much more comfortable with my writing as I keep evolving with my books. I look at words the way I looked at paint when I started painting. Who cares? Anything goes. Who makes the rules about how poetry should be done? I just go with my guts and my heart."

Gagné decided to self-publish his work in a limited edition of 1000, all signed by himself. "I started talking to people in the book industry and basically realized that I did not want the book to go through an editor at that point," Gagné says. "Now, my wife is really my editor, and I have a professional reader who makes sure that my grammar is good. That's as much editing as I want in the book.

"I wanted the immediacy of self-publishing. If you submit yourself to a book publishing company, they're going to take two years to publish the book. And I'm not going to be excited in two years about the book. I needed to get the book out there to communicate that excitement. If a project is two years old, it's not the same.

"And, no, I did not want anybody tampering with the work, with the odd format that I chose, which is not an official format. It is much more expensive because it's 11 x 11. I wanted to choose the paper. I really wanted the complete freedom.

"It's why I produced Prelude to Eden myself. I love the freedom. When I work for the studios, I have a certain amount of freedom, but I basically have to do it for the team. I have to do the work in the context of the film.

"When I do the books, I don't want to answer to anybody."

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