About nine years ago I was commissioned to produce artwork for a Ronald McDonald mini-comic. If memory serves me correctly the comic was to be given away with Happy Meals at McDonald's. The job came my way via Egmont, who edited and packaged the comic for McDonald's.
As with any licensed property, the client want the characters to be as 'on model' as possible and McDonald's were no exception. They really wanted Ronald and his pals to be exactly as seen in the style guide, even down to the colours. It took a couple of attempts to get the strip exactly as they wanted it. You can see the final results here. Above is the cover to the comic, and below is one of the four pages of the strip (before speech balloons were added).
I was also asked to provide a Funny Find It puzzle spread, based on the sort of thing I had done for Egmont's Know How magazine. There was more flexibility with this, and I was able to draw it in my own style. I believe the rest of the comic featured various puzzles supplied by Egmont.
I never saw the published comic unfortunately, so I don't really know what the actual title of it was or if there was more than one issue. (I only contributed to the one.) If any of you out there have a copy of the one shown here, I'd appreciate more info about it if possible.
since that is the 2003 redesigns, the comic was just called 'Ronald McDonald'. about 5 issues. In Sweden, atlest issue 5 was called 'Ronald McDonald och hans vänner på äventyr' (Ronald McDonald and his friends on an adventure).
ReplyDeleteI think. Here is a picture of the first 4 issues. http://members.iinet.net.au/~mclerp/catalog/03comics.jpg
I don't have the comics, though they seam to be pretty cheap to pick up, so I can't confirm your work was printed in one of them, and none of them 4 match up with the cover design, but I think it's a good bet.
Thanks Manic. That's the style I had to follow but it doesn't look like any of those were the one I contributed to. (Unless they substituted a different cover at the last minute.)
DeleteFor years, I've had a few issues of this Ronald McDonald comic, still got them.. but never ever knew you drew them! It was a A5 sized-comic titled "Ronald McDonald" and as you rightly said, it was given away free with McDonald's Happy Meals- I think there were about four issues at the most. I know there weren't many printed. I'll try and find a copy!
ReplyDeleteI only drew the one issue, Ben. The football story which I've show part of above. I don't know which issue that was in.
Deletethe Swedish reprint had 5, so I would think at lest 5. I got a scan of a Japanese reprint (which they call him Donald McDonald) of issue 1 I think. odd but the Japanese version is dual language in the speech balloons
ReplyDeleteOh, forgot to say.. in that Find it funny.. that one guy doesn't half look like Captain Haddock with glasses..
ReplyDeleteI really love these "find it" pages! They remind me of "Where's Wally" but far more intersting and fun. Its a pity you don't have the rights to these. I can image an awsome childrens book compilation of these. Any chance that this one or the Coco Pop one might be headed to auction at some point? :)
ReplyDeleteIf I can find the original art, there's a strong possibility I'll put them on eBay soon! :)
DeleteI'm starting to think I might be wrong.. while that is clearly the right time and style. the comics I found seam to have a continuing story that is an adventure strip.. I'm wondering if they did what they sometimes do, and give the UK a different comic, or was there a new one in late 2005/2006 which it is from.. the other series was 2004/2005.. unless they gave up the adventure side (though clearly same format with story Plus a couple of puzzle pages) after issue 5...
ReplyDeleteNo idea, Manic. All I know is I drew it in 2004 so presumably it was published that year.
Delete