David Dixon, the cartoonist behind Bring Me the Head of David Dixon, talks about his unique blog name.
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Coming up with just the right title for your blog can be nerve-wracking — we often decide what sites to visit (or skip) based simply on a title. Do you go clever? Punny? Long and descriptive, or short and cryptically punchy? Should it include your name? Does it offer enough context?
Scared? Don’t be! To help, we’ve been talking to bloggers about how and why they landed on their great names, so we can share the wisdom. Up today: cartoonist David Dixon, the pen behind Bring Me the Head of David Dixon on how his name, a favorite film, Carl Jung, and a bit of serendipity created something just right.
On Bring Me the Head of David Dixon, David publishes mixed-media comics: old photos, with a smattering of speech bubbles and one person’s head replaced with a caricature of his own. It’s nostalgic, so dry it’s practically brittle, and very, very funny.
Where did the concept for the blog come from?
I wanted to express something imperfect and rough, and create most of the material by hand with only a scanner in the middle. I started in with a Tumblr in 2009, posting pencil scribbles and handwritten short stories. These were things directly out of my head, with no effort to make them smooth or slick. The warm, imperfect, shaggy dog-aesthetics of the analog era (something I love) seemed to be vanishing and I wanted to bring some of that to what I was doing.
This led to me playing with a caricature I had drawn of myself. I had some old photographs — some of my family, some just found — and after toying with them for a while, I felt like I had something solid and, weirdly, something that fit perfectly with the name I had chosen for the blog. Around that time, I moved the blog over to WordPress.com, which turned out to be a better fit for what I do.
How did you decide on Bring Me the Head of David Dixon?
It’s an alteration of the title of a Sam Peckinpah film, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, but wasn’t intended to reference the content of that particular movie — although the star, Warren Oates, embodies the unconventional authenticity of a certain period of the 20th Century that I am deeply fond of.
These were just things that I was originally pouring out of my head with no alteration. I had no idea that the title would eventually fit an entirely different concept and that I would keep up with a webcomic.
The titular head relaxes in the garden. (Photo courtesy of David Dixon.)
Your tagline — “Fulfilling the peculiarity of my nature, one comic strip at a time” — is intriguing. Can you tell us more about it?
The tagline references Carl Jung’s definition of “individuation,” a subject of great interest to me, along with all his writings on psychology. Individuation is a process of growth that often takes place in adulthood, whereby a person becomes wholly themselves. (It’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the basic idea.)
Here is where the quote comes from:
Individuation, therefore, can only mean a process of psychological development that fulfills the individual qualities given; in other words, it is a process by which a man becomes the definite, unique being he in fact is. In so doing he does not become “selfish” in the ordinary sense of the word, but is merely fulfilling the peculiarity of his nature, and this, as we have said, is vastly different from egotism or individualism.
C.G. Jung, in “Two Essays in Analytical Psychology”
The webcomic expresses something that I, either correctly or incorrectly, deem to have grown uniquely out of my personal experience. A part of me, something that happened naturally.
Do you use BMTHODD on other social networks?
Yes. I still maintain a presence on Tumblr, where I post single frame links to my WordPress.com site. I am also on Twitter.
When and why did you decide to buy a custom domain name?
I acquired the domain name in the summer of 2010, just wanting to establish my authorship. If that’s important to you, I think it’s a terrific idea.
Are you still happy with the name? Are there names that you considered but rejected?
I’m happy with the name, but I don’t know if anyone would know it if it weren’t for a couple of people who generously shared my page with their followers.
Somehow this was the only name that I came up with, so I’m glad it’s so fitting!
Thanks for taking the time to chat, David!
Other posts in the series:
- Choosing the Perfect Blog Name: The Goat that Wrote
- Choosing the Perfect Blog Name: Museum in a Bottle
- Choosing the Perfect Blog Name: Talking Covers
- Choosing the Perfect Blog Name: Two WordPressers Share Their Secrets
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The Daily Post 
I believe that a good blog name will bring me very considerable benefits, but I think for a long time can not think of a great name. So I can only use the name now
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It is interesting what names get chosen and which names eventually become brands, I have heard that short domain names are often worth more. I was really happy when I got the domain trendrat.com ..it is only 8 letters, but just because I think it is cool doesnt mean the rest of the world will agree!? If we work hard any name can become a brand I think =D thanks for yet another great post!
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I have questions about changing my blog name. 1st, how much does it affect your visibility? 2nd, does the name update on blog rolls of followers and friends who have you listed? Are there potential pitfalls that others have mentioned?
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I think my blog name “Chicago Gore” is a little too generic. Gore is my last name and I’d like to incorporate it somehow. Any suggestions?
lennygore.wordpress.com
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