On the Bright Side

This is another one of those awesome times when all it takes is for me to see a sign that says: "Free Wi-Fi" and I pretty much get an idea. Well kind of, all I wrote down in my notebook was "Free Wi-Fi" and later on I worked on the idea in my head. I started thinking about how much people love free wi-fi, as there's always people out the front of my local Apple shop sponging it, and I wondered what it would take to not be excited about it. Maybe nothing, it's all a mater of perspective. Originally I had these two guys stuck on a tiny deserted island, one guy looked depressed and the other excited as he found free wi-fi. I kind of liked the idea that it wasn't really possible and rather silly, but later on I came up with this zombie idea, that kind of makes more sense. That and drawing 2 guys on a tiny island is kind of boring and I ended up liking this more anyway so I went with it.

Hope you like it, until next time,

Mike

100 Days of Drawing: Day 5

Once again, trying something different, I drew this entirely in ballpoint pen as I actually like drawing in pen, it's fun. What I did do, which was a good idea but it didn't quite work, was I drew a normal guy in blue pen and then I drew a zombie overlay in black. I still like this idea, but I think I have to execute it better next time. Overall I'm really happy with this one:

Mike

Junk Food

So as you may have guessed, I really hate Big Bang Theory. But I have to admit it, this cartoon was originally a dig at Nickelback, as I hate them just as much. But I thought against it, as it's very similar to another gag I did awhile ago, with a very similar 'punch line' as this one (I'm a lazy bastard). So once I new I wanted to make this cartoon a dig at Big Bang Theory, and basically all those annoying pricks who wear "Bazinga!" t-shirts (seriously, what the hell does Bazinga even mean?) who I see all the time at my local shopping centre, I was hesitant. Why? Well I wasn't quite sure how many people share my hatred of this pile of shit TV show. And you know what? I'm sick of people saying to me "But you're a geek, you'd love it". No, seriously...no. No real geek or nerd I know of likes this show, you know why? Well, it's shit and not funny, yes, but it just makes fun of geeks and nerds by using over exaggerated stereotypes. You want a good nerd/geek TV show? Watch IT Crowd....you're welcome. So anyway I sat on the idea for awhile and honestly tried to think of something else to put on the guys' t-shirt, but I couldn't. It wasn't until the other day that I was in a shop and noticed this atrocity:

So I took a photo of it and posted it on Instagram/Facebook with this caption: "The only Big Bang Theory fact I know is that it's a giant steaming piece of shit of a show. Do you think that's in there?" 

I was actually expecting a bit of 'backlash' from Big Bang fans, but no! I got some awesome comments, I thought I was alone! So I posted a question on my Brinks Cartoons Facebook page to see if anyone wanted me to make fun of Big Bang, and I got quite a few likes and comments! Honestly, it would have only taken one comment and I would have done it anyway, I just needed an excuse. 

You may have noticed a few things different in this cartoon? Well, I feel like experimenting a bit lately so I thought I'd try inserting some real life images into my 'toons to see what it looks like. What do you think? I always do have an aversion to backgrounds, hence why I used a real photo for it just to stuff around. What is that background? It's actually my other 'real' paying workplace! Hey I needed a DVD type shop background, and I work at one so why not! I had to throw a couple of Photoshop filters on it though to distort it for two reasons. 1) So I'm not advertising any DVD's and stuff and 2) So it's not to distracting from the cartoon and more in the 'background'. The other thing I did was to insert an actual Big Bang DVD case in the guys' hand, I did that just because I could really, no other reason.

Hope you all like it (even you Big Bang fans), and I look forward to doing some more experimenting soon! And if you hate something and want me to do a cartoon making fun of it, please feel free to post it on my Facebook page and I'll see what I can come up with.

See ya!

Mike

The Wanking Dead

So after all my drama's and such I went out and bought a new scanner, and it's pretty awesome I must say. Feels good to finally finish this cartoon as I think I started drawing it about a month ago! I had all the pencil work done about a month ago and I finished the inking last week when my scanner died and I've been colouring and finishing it off last Friday, phew! What a mission! There was a fair bit of work in this one compared to normal so I plan on going into it in more detail on Wednesday for a Special Features post, so look out for it. Now that I have a whole day to draw cartoons again I can do more stuff like this that might take longer than my usual quick cartoons. 

I've had this idea for a bit now, as I'm a big fan of The Walking Dead comics (This is actually inspired by an actual Walking Dead comic cover, #30 to be exact), so I probably got the idea whilst reading them, I don't quite remember honestly. The only thing I was a tad unsure about was how many people in the world know what a 'wank' is? I know it's "Chiefly British Vulgar Slang" (Thank you http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wank) and mainly only used in England and Australia. So I hope you American guys actually get the joke, I'll let freedictionary explain again: 

"1. An act of masturbation." Get it? 

Even with these concerns I just knew I had to do this anyway as I really loved the idea, and hey if only Aussies and Pom's get it then so be it, I can live with that. I just hope all the Americans read this post to get the joke.

So, new month, new pageview stats! I'm really hoping to beat last month, which was a really, really good month I must say, so please help by spreading the word for me. Ok, see you all next time!

Mike

Friday Night Art 8

Hooray! It's back! After weeks of saying I was going to do it, I've finally gotten around to doing some Friday Night Art! I had an idea the other day, as every time I've done these Friday night art posts I always post them way to late in the night as I'm usually drawing them that night. Not so now, tonight I thought I'd post up some of my old favourite sketches first and then do some drawing so I can then, next week post tonight's drawings and then do some new ones! Damn I'm clever....


Both these two sketches ending up being used in one way or another for friends of mine, this first one:

Was for a mate of mine who was having a zombie pizza night at his house, which ended up being a really awesome idea and it was good fun I must say. Anyway, he asked me to draw something up for the invites to his "ZombiePizzaLooza" so I came up with this.

Now this next one is one of my favourites:

This sketch I drew years and years ago on a train ride home from work. I have no idea what the inspiration was, I just started drawing, I still love this character design. A good buddy of mine had this band way back when and he asked me to design a t-shirt for the band and I ended up using this character for that, hence why I later added the "Run Amok" logo on the t-shirt as that was the band name. I'm thinking I might do some more sketches of this guy again soon and I think I'll keep the t-shirt, even though the band isn't around any more as I like the idea and it can be a homage to those guys.

Anyway, hope you like my sketches! See you again on Monday!

Mike

A Dead Root

Hello, I bet you didn't think I'd be posting a new cartoon today did you? You know with my 2nd child due tomorrow morning and all, this just shows how much I care doesn't it? That and this blog has now become my 3rd child and just don't abandon your children like that. As I have my mother-in-law staying with us at the moment it just took some good time management on my behalf to get this 'toon done on time, especially as she's sleeping in my office, so no late night drawing sessions for me. I pretty much spent last night drawing this and today when I got a spare moment I coloured it and now I'm typing the blog. So honestly it wasn't that hard really, hopefully I can keep it up for the next few weeks with a baby in the house, I'll see how I go! If all else fails I may just post some oldies from my extensive back catalogue, which I assume most of you haven't seen anyway. They'll just look dated....

I've had the basic idea of a zombie sleeping with a dead chick for some time now (bet you don't hear that sentence everyday) and the idea did take on many different shapes and forms before I finally settled on this one. The first idea was about a zombie having a big night out and waking up next to a dead chick, which is a good idea, but kind of difficult to get across, especially in one panel. I was contemplating doing it as a strip for a bit, something about the zombies mates tricking him by putting a dead chick next to him while he'd passed out. Then I was going to do something about a zombies having sex and one complaining that the other was a "dead root", but I then realised that 'root' is a very Aussie term and a lot of people wouldn't get it. In the end I changed the title of the cartoon from "Drop Dead Gorgeous" to "A Dead Root" instead. Still confused? Go here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dead%20Root. Another idea I was tossing up for awhile was after the zombie apocalypse the male zombies turn the morgue into a brothel for guys to come have sex with dead women...once again, a good idea, hard to execute. The thought process that led me to this idea I got whilst on a bus the other day, in one of the rare occasions I get to ride the bus by myself (If you ever need a good place to brainstorm ideas, riding a bus or train is awesome by the way). I thought about zombies using dead women as love dolls (Yep, that's what I think about on the bus, what do you think about?) which led me to think about some zombie mates giving another mate a dead chick as a 21st birthday present. Which led me to finally come up with this idea, a guy busting his mate with a dead chick in bed and claiming she's a love doll. I think the original joke has always been the idea that even though zombies are un-dead, they think it's sick to have sex with regular dead people, so essentially I'm making a statement about racism in modern society.....ha! As if......

Anyway, better go, wish me luck for the birth tomorrow, I'll post all the details with a pic soon.

Mike  

Why Bother?

Greetings again my friends and happy Monday! This week's cartoon is a combination of 2 of my favourite things, zombies and hating on Nickleback. Odds are though that at least one of you actually likes Nickleback, if that's the case than I sincerely apologise....for the fact you have shit taste in music, it can't be helped I'm sorry. The scariest thing about this cartoon is that if it came true then the world would be populated by Nickleback and their fans! Now that is way more scarier than the actual zombie outbreak! Man I love zombie video games, you want to know why they are so popular? Because you can kill hordes of zombies in horrible, gruesome ways and not feel guilty like killing a normal person! They're already dead, you're doing them a favour really. It's mass killing and not feeling weird for liking it! I never understood why they love brains so much though.  


So I got this idea yesterday why I was looking through one of my old idea books, the original entry was this: "Suspecting that your neighbour is a zombie". So how did I get to the whole Nickleback concert thing? Well I kept trying to flesh out the idea of a zombie neighbour and I started focusing on the whole brain eating thing, like would the guy get brains home delivered like Pizza Hut (Brain Hut?). Next thing I thought, what if a zombie horde where looking for brains, what large group of people have the least amount of brains? First off I though of a convention of some sort, a Two and a Half Men convention? No I only did a Two and a Half Men joke a few weeks back, what about a Scientology 'Church'? No, and the last line I wrote was this: "Fans of something? (what?)". Later that day as I was driving around it dawned on me, a music concert! But who would be playing? I consulted my new "Things that Annoy Me" list, and can you guess what one of the entries was? Yep "Nickleback"! Ah ha! God I hate Nickleback and their stupid Paddlepop Lion lead singer.....I tell you what making a "Things that Annoy Me" list was a really good idea generation tool I must say, give it go, it's very therapeutic if anything. 


I spent a fair bit of time drawing the background for this one, honestly it could have more detail, but I didn't think it was that important for the joke really, plus I do have time constraints after all. I did do a Google image search for 'Stadium Entrances' and used one as a rough reference for the background. Thank you Google Images, I use it so much for visual reference, it's awesome. I'm a big fan of silhouettes, hence why the crowd are in the background are done like that. I still need to experiment with silhouettes a bit more though, especially in backgrounds. Anyway, I hope you all like it!


Oh and before I go, I forgot to add 2 new entries into my "The Top Blights of the Modern Automotive Age" from last week:


1) Baby on Board Stickers/Signs:- Oh how did I forget this one! Why oh why do people use these? If I know you have a baby on board am I going to not accidentally hit you? The only practical use I can think of is that when they drive like idiots then you can't yell expletives at them, just in case the baby hears.


2) Dicky Personalised Number Plates:- Oh my god, I swear, where I live in Brisbane Australia, it's the capital for bad personalised plates! I've seen so many bad ones! The worst are the ones where it's really obvious that they couldn't get what they wanted so the had to be 'creative' with using numbers instead of letters!


Ahhh, some more good venting...ahhhhh, I feel better now. Ok I'll see you all again hopefully soon!




Mike