#6 Harold’s Planet – The Original Joyful Failure

August 2, 2024

The very first evening I met Ralph at Khan’s Indian restaurant in London in 1998, he told me the story of Harold’s Planet.

Genesis
The man awoke at sunrise. It was a beautiful morning and so he decided to go for a walk. He whistled as he made his way across the open plain. But he was so busy watching the sky, that he didn’t notice a hole in the ground in front of him.

The hole was deep and down he fell, for forty days and forty nights. Down and down into the depths of the planet, finally hitting the bottom with a bump.

Up on the ground meanwhile, the man’s wife grew worried. When she came upon the hole, she guessed the truth, and so jumped in herself. For forty days and forty dark nights she fell, finally reaching the bottom.

He husband was overjoyed to see her. There wasn’t much to do at the bottom of the hole…and so…

…soon the hole was filled with the cries of newborn babies.

The years went by and the man and his wife grew old. On their deathbed they spoke of the world above, of the yellow light at sunrise, the open plains and dusty hills. And breathing their last, they told their children how they could finally get back to the surface.

The children began their task. They pushed their parents’ bones into the soil to make a ladder, and began the journey upwards.

Hours became days. Days melted into weeks, which drifted into months. Months became years, and relentlessly the group continued upwards, though getting ever smaller.

It was a difficult journey and after many years there was only one left. Harold.

Harold knew he was close to the end of his journey, because the tunnel was getting lighter and lighter every day.

Finally he reached the surface. And before him he saw the yellow sunrise, the open plains, the dusty hills. Harold’s Planet.

It was the best story I’d ever heard.

Ralph had been writing and drawing Harold’s Planet stories for years, and was looking for a ‘collaborator’ (wink wink) to develop them, so I jumped at the chance. Ralph was, and is, the main creative force behind Harold’s Planet so perhaps it’s odd for me to include on ‘my’ creative journey….but it was such a big part of my life…and so beautiful and original … and so few people have ever seen the really great stuff…so…

Hello Harold
Harold was an old soul in a goofy, bobbly-big-nosed body, walking along the open plain, encountering marvellous things like mountains and waves and traveling cactus salesmen and flying grannies. Despite having just a dot for an eye and no mouth at all, he was wonderfully expressive.

Harold was an active little thing – climbing, digging, bathing, inventing, building. At a certain point …

…was it after visiting Botswana and seeing the original ‘open plains? Or the hundredth time Ralph took a shovel to the beach (’for the kids!’) and dug halfway to Australia? Or noticing how very much he liked bathing… and wine… and wind and waves…

…I realised Harold and Ralph were very closely related indeed… (spot the difference, above and below)…

Waiting for a Eureka Moment | Muizenberg Kitesurfing 2024 | Harold keeps busy

After a slow start trying to get Harold’s Planet short stories published (our favourite rejection letter chided Ralph for his “faux naive” drawing style “… as if we had the talent to fake naivety!) Harold’s Planet began to build some momentum.

Our Precocious Firstborn
Within a year of that fateful Indian meal, we had [1] won the Annecy Animation Festival TV series Proposal Grand Prix in France [2] got representation from a hotshot agent at a London literary agency and [3] signed a TV deal with the giant French production company Gaumont (the CEO compared Harold to Voltaire’s Candide, oh yes indeedee). In the Gaumont deal we reserved the theme park rights – this is the sort of dreamers we were.

What better excuse to go to the Seychelles for a year, to develop an animation series…

We both gave up our day jobs (myself – a cheerful but untalented graphic designer, Ralph – a talented but miserable Wall Street type person) and headed for that tiny archipelago between India, Tanzania and Madagascar, in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

But then…

Not even two years later, we had separated from our agent and parted company with Gaumont.

Cottage Industry
Undeterred, back in London we self-published a set of greeting cards starring Harold.

Fuelled by our irrepressible energy and outrageous optimism, we thought they were the most brilliant designs we had ever seen. So we printed 120,000 (that’s a lot).

You know how this one ends. But hey we all like a story of hubris and failure so let’s go!

A Case Study: Contemplating Horseness
“Contemplating Horseness” was a beige card showing a starving horse sitting on a rickety structure, and unintelligible text. We thought it was hilarious and deep and silly, who could refuse its charms? Well actually I have a definitive answer to that because we printed 5,000, and so I know for a fact that at least 5,000 people refused its charms as we sold not one. This doesn’t make sense mathematically, I know. But – you get the picture, you feel our pain.

It was around then that we discovered this thing called The Licensing Industry – which was a very annoying industry to work in, especially when at a dinner party – no-one has heard of it, it’s impossible to explain, and no-one cares about it anyway. Maybe I’ve bored you with an explanation back in the day so I won’t do it again now.

Suffice it to say we moved the cards out of our spare room and to a lovely card publisher, who are still licensing Harold’s Planet to this day. Millions of cards have been sold, and yes! he still tramps the open plain, and is loved by many people, not least us.

Since then, Harold has had various lives, various chances for greatness. Another TV show proposal, field-guides filled with incredible inventions and creatures, a youtube video that went viral in the millions (but only the pirated video), story books about over-loved lemons and lovers in search of ice, strip syndication in newspapers. All had a moment of feverish excitement, then came to nought.

Watch on youtube! The Evolution of the Computer | Yoga for Winelovers | Tweet Tweet Tweet 

Who knows what other lives Harold may yet lead? I’m hatching plans for a Harold’s Planet – Glass Cathedrals collaborative exhibition as we speak….

So was Harold a success or a failure?

We had dreams of the world discovering all the joys and rich diversity and originality of Harold’s Planet, somehow. It has not.

But – here we still are 25 years later – still building the Harold world, making people smile with our greeting cards, seeing echoes of Harold’s Planet in all the best aspects of our own planet, and loving the ride.

Next week – The Joy of Many Failures!

After that – so much about Glass Cathedrals you’ll be sick of them!

Hope you’re enjoying,
Love Lisa

Time to tick!

1. The Short Origin Story ✔
2. The Long Origin Story ✔
3. A Treasure Trove of Small Stories ✔
4. Africa in My Blood ✔
5. Oppositting with Ralph ✔
6. Harold’s Planet – The Original Joyful Failure ✔
7. The Joy of Many Failures: Last Lemon Productions
8. Starting the Art Adventure
9. 2004 – Making Off-the-Shelf Glass Cathedrals
10. 2009 – The World of Custom Commissions
11. 2012 – Wedding Portraits Galore
12. Glass Cathedrals of My Very Own Life
13. 2015 Project 1: One Small Thing (maybe not?)
14. 2016 Project 2: This is What Humanity Looks Like
15. 2016 Project 3: The Traveling Bookbox Show
16. 2018 Project 4: The Swerling Circus of Small
17. 2019 Project 5: Here, it’s Beautiful California
18. 2019 Project 6: Cinerama
19. 2020 Project 7: Starstuff
20. Why I Love What I Do

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