Flip Animation "L"

1. What the heck is a barrister?

A barrister is a kind of English lawyer - what in the US would be called a trial attorney. Barristers wear old-fashioned gowns and wigs and look like something out of an 18th century lithograph - like John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda. Traditionally, barristers spent most of their time in court. But that is less true than it used to be, as nowadays solicitors (the other kind of English lawyer) can appear in court too. The real difference between the two professions is that barristers tend to spend a lot less time dealing with clients, and a lot more time thinking about law and legal arguments. It's a very rarefied world.

2. You went from law to cartoons. How did that happen?

My father is an animator so I pretty much grew up with animation. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of Dad animating the Zig Zag - the magician in The Thief and The Cobbler - shuffling a deck of cards. Dad's basement studio was covered in little cards being cut out and pasted down. The scene was insanely complex - it took months to finish. Even at age 5 I can remember being amazed at how complicated it all was - and how did he know where to paste down the cards? (I still don't know the answer to this) So it was kind of in my blood from an early age. Then at age 19, I got a job as an in-betweener on Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and while I was at University I would take little freelance commercial jobs to pay my way. So actually I was doing animation long before I did law.

In the mid 1990s animation was booming, off the success of films like Aladdin and The Lion King, and salaries were going through the roof. So the move to Hollywood wasn't exactly a difficult one. Of course since then the industry has reverted to its normal state - which is altogether more challenging for all of us. But we had a great run for a few years; a fabulous time.

Leaving the Bar was a hard decision. Law is like a treadmill and once you get off it's very tough to get back on again. If you stay on board, it can be a very stable and rewarding career. But I didn't love the work - I doubt that very many lawyers do. Of course making animated films is much more fun, and creatively rewarding, though it can be dispiriting at times. And it's not exactly a stable career. But when you get to work on a great project, or with a genius like Brad Bird (as I had the privilege of doing on The Iron Giant) - then it all feels worthwhile. Doing really good work is a reward in itself.

3. Are there any similarities between the process of making an animated film and making a legal case?

Some. Both require a perfectionist mentality in order to do it well, and concentration. A good lawyer will filter out all the irrelevant material in order to focus on the one or two points of importance in the case. I think animation is pretty similar - you have to figure out what the sequence or shot is about and focus on getting that right. But then there are the little details - endless detail, and tons of hard work.

4. Your comic strip, how did that come about?

It started out as a strip about politicians - for a short while I had a job working for an MP at Westminster. But I couldn't sell the strip - I think it was too similar to some TV material out there, and I didn't really understand my target well enough. When I became a law student I put wigs on the characters and turned them into lawyers. And because I was a student lawyer myself, this was obviously an area where I could write material that felt truthful - even autobiographical. I think that most successful comedy must be true on some level. It's truth presented in a way that makes us feel a little bit uncomfortable, and we laugh to relieve the discomfort.

When I started Queen's Counsel in the early 90's there was this wave of lawyer jokes - mostly hate jokes really - and I found that I had tapped into some kind of a zeitgeist (my strip is a lot gentler though - it's not about hate jokes, it's gentle satire. It's more like a knowing wink than a damning indictment). In 1993 I sent the strip to 3 publications, and I got two offers. Since I was broke at the time, I picked the publication that paid the most - The Times. And they have a special legal page every Tuesday, so it seemed like a good long term fit. Which it has been.

I rough everything in pencil first, then ink it. I couldn't do it any other way. One of the consolations of being an artist is that you tend to get better with practice. When I look at the drawings I did 10 or 15 years ago I wish I could do them all over again, make them better. But cartoonists mainly have to be funny - the drawing is secondary to the joke. Make people smile, and they will forgive a bad drawing.

I have had two other strips published, one in The Times and one in The Tatler, but they didn't last too long. It's hard to find something that really strikes a chord with the public and will stand the test of time. I would like to do more though; I always have new ideas I'm working on. But to do a full-time daily strip is a grind. To be funny every single day? That's really a challenge. I would rather do a weekly - much less stress.

5. Are lawyers funny?

Sometimes, but mostly unwittingly. Judges occasionally make jokes in court, but it tends to be a rather dry academic sort of humour. Generally the lawyers will laugh, partly because it's good to laugh at the judge's joke, partly out of nerves, and partly because court proceedings are dry, and any kind of humour alleviates the tedium. Of course there are some hilarious lawyers out there - but they tend to be comedians in the wrong profession. I have worked with a number of lawyers over the years who have helped me write material, but they mostly tend to run out after a while. Part of the problem may be that, over time, you start to believe in the system. You start out your career thinking "this is ridiculous - how can the process be this terrible?" - and then after a while you find your place in it and it doesn't seem so silly anymore. And so the jokes don't come so easily, because you no longer see the absurdity of it.

+1. What do you think of contemporary comic strips?

I love them. But it's kind of a dying art because newspapers are in such steep decline. It's all moving online and the budgets just aren't there anymore. There's no real business model for online cartoonists - at least none that I've discovered. And the newspapers - in the US at any rate - are stuffed with these ancient strips that no-one can kill off because they've been around since the dawn of time. So it's hard to find room for fresh material. It's a little easier here in London because we're all stuck on public transport every day, so we still need something to read. As a result the newspapers still have a bit of life left in them.

My favourite is probably Doonesbury. I adore Gary Trudeau's work. I think he even won a Pulitzer Prize at some point - which is a tough trick to pull off, to be funny and serious at the same time.

Apart from Trudeau, there's a strip in The Daily Telegraph called "Alex" - about investment bankers - by Charles Peattie and Russel Taylor, which was a huge influence. It's very current, very satirical. I love Jules Feiffer's cartoons, and Steve Bell in The Guardian. Posy Simmons' work is incredibly good. I love satire - I prefer the work of cartoonists who are just a little bit angry about the world. But not too angry.

+2. Have you been able to use your personal experiences in the legal profession in your character animation?

Ha! Not really, there's not much crossover. The only really useful bit is that I know how to read a contract and I know how to talk to lawyers, which helps during negotiations. Also most business affairs people at the studios are a bit scared of lawyers, so I can sometimes intimidate them a little. Well, maybe that''s just wishful thinking on my part.

I know an independent film producer whose mantra for contracts is "End Date, Money, Credit". I think she's right - those are the three vital things. I would add to that list to try to get some decent vacation time. Animated films can go on for ever and the studios never want to let you take any time off. But the main thing is to read the contract - and don't EVER sign a contract with an "option" for the studio to "pick up your contract" for another year - or two years, or whatever. It's ridiculous - why would anyone sign such a thing? I tend ask for a fixed term contract or a run-of-picture deal. Anything else gives the studio too much control over your life.

See more Queen's Council comics on the web!
Alex has had several volumes of Queen's Council published. Buy one of each! Send Alex back to law school!
See Alex's animation work on his site.

All artwork for this article is the property of Alex Williams.