Cartoonist Attempting To Both Run And Live-Draw NYC Marathon
Whoa. Because running the NYC Marathon is apparently not enough of a challenge on its own, one man is attempting to "live-draw" his way through the route in real-time. Meet Christoph Niemann, the "Abstract Sunday" cartoonist at the New York Times, who is undertaking a mission to document his every mile this November, as it happens. Nevermind that it's his first marathon! We spoke to Niemann to find out more about his arguably insane idea.
"It's either the smartest or the most idiotic idea ever," laughs Niemann. He wanted to tell a personal story—"but I realized I'm running out of stories, because my life isn't that interesting." So he signed up for the marathon. "I like the idea of working without being able to go back into the studio for a week," he says. "There's something about the urgency of deadlines that interests me. I'm pushing the idea of live reporting to the limits!"
As for the logistics of the race itself, Niemann is in the process of figuring it all out. He's doing physical training to prepare for his first-ever marathon, and thinks he'll probably end up running a mile and half and then walking half a mile while he draws. He's designing a sort of fold-out drawing table that he can carry in a backpack during the race, and he plans to draw about 15 sketches during the run, which he'll also live-tweet. "The big challenge is to do this without getting on everybody's nerves. I know runners take this very seriously...I want to make sure I'm not going to be beaten up," said Neimann.
