The robot with no name
Thoughts on storytelling and spaghetti westerns.
This drawing was inspired by Spaghetti Westerns. It’s always fun to drop a robot in a setting where they don’t belong. And yes, he’s chewing on a battery.
I’ve recently been on a kick to watch old movies. Much like my appreciation for older comics, I guess I hit a certain age where some older stuff that I blew off in my younger (dumber) years is coming across my radar and I’m realizing how great it is.
This is especially apparent when you think about how innovative the storytelling concepts in these older movies really were. We take a lot of things for granted, like extreme close ups on a character’s eyes, or music choices, or a character’s motivations. At the time these movies were made, though, they were completely new concepts.
It makes me sad that newer generations can’t appreciate the genius of artists who were trying new things. Guys like Sergio Leone in the spaghetti western genre, or Jack Kirby in comics pushed the envelope and paved the way for a lot of things that are now common.
There’s also a lot to be said about the way these things were produced. Spaghetti Westerns usually had small budgets but they came up with different ways to work around that and still produce really cool projects. It reminds me of stories of Jack Kirby creating 4 or 5 pages of comic art in a day (insane!). Sure some little things might be noticeable, but the story is the most important thing so as long as it doesn’t detract from the storytelling that’s all that matters.
When you actually study what they’re doing in these old movies, rather than just turning off your brain like I usually do, you notice a lot of little things that make it so much more interesting. I recently watched Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars for the first time and it’s pretty amazing, especially for a movie made 60 years ago.
Fun fact, that I somehow didn’t know… the term ‘Spaghetti Western’ started as a derogatory term for Westerns made in Europe, usually Italy. I love when people take these terms meant as insults and completely flip the meaning.
Thanks for reading, I appreciate you! I also appreciate all of you who jumped in with me on my new political cartoon/newsletter called Political Nomad. If you haven’t yet, this week’s is sure to ruffle some feathers. If you’re not easily offended or if you want to be pushed outside of your political comfort zone, I’d love it if you join me over there. Either way, thanks for reading!
If you want to follow me on my social medias, you can find me here on Substack Notes or on X. I’ve also started using Cara a bit more so I’ll be posting more artwork over there.
Have a great week!
-Brad