Build It and They Will Come

Welcome to the first new cartoon of the year! If you were reading last week you'd know that I'm attempting some new years resolutions this year in regards to this blog, already failed on the mid-week update thing, sorry I'll try again this week. Hey baby steps! The other is to have some cartoons on standby ready to go so I can have a day off every now and again, that one is going well. I have another sketch done and ready to go and once I finish typing this up I'll do some more work on it so all is good!

Last night I had a really good brainstorming session, I came up with the 2 ideas I've drawn today and a few others that need some polishing. Damn it's a good feeling to work out some awesome ideas, in fact last night I had a really good idea about an art project I'm going to try that involves ideas. I'll keep you posted on that one as I nut out the details and do some test runs. As you may or may not know I have a love/hate relationship with Ikea, I like their products, hell I even like going to the stores (those Swedish meatballs and $1 hot-dogs are the bomb) but I goddamn hate putting the stupid shit together with a passion. Last time I wrestled with an Allen key I Tweeted something along the lines of "Now I know how UFC fighters work themselves up before a fight, they attempt to build Ikea furniture". Which was the first part I used for this idea, the second I found as I was going through my notebooks last night and came across the idea "The real reason why the Angry Birds are so angry". So all I did was combine the two ideas to form this cartoon idea! Combining things is fun, like Scotch and Dry...hmmmm i could go a scotch right about now.... So in the past year I've done 2 Ikea cartoons and 2 Angry Birds cartoon....what does that say? I spend too much time playing Angry Birds and attempting to construct Ikea furniture?  Maybe.

Alrighty, I better do some more work, even though it is stupidly hot here today, hopefully my sweaty hand won't stick to the page....wait, that came out wrong....So I'll once again attempt to upload something of interest during the week, possibly on Friday night, who knows, see you then!

Mike

(I need a cool sign off catch phrase)

Coming Soon....Frustration

As promised, here's a new cartoon! See, I try and keep my promises, even though I probably shouldn't have today as we really should have gotten the house sprayed again for fleas again. Yes, we still have friggin' fleas in the house, it would have been easier to spray today as my son is at daycare, but no I wanted to do a cartoon and I promised so I couldn't very well bail on that now could I? Anyway we'll get it sprayed tomorrow. What I really want to do is the get the forwarding address for the previous tenants to this place and post them a box full of live fleas with a note saying: "You left these behind, thought you might miss them".....douchebags.

Also as promised this week is an Ikea themed cartoon, I actually thought of this idea ages ago...in fact I think it was the last time I went to Ikea. I really liked the idea that it's not just their products they sell that require assembly with a goddamn allen key. Personally I'd love to watch some guys trying to put an entire building together using really vague picture diagrams for instructions and a giant fuck off allen key. Of course I am a rather sadistic prick. Which remind's me, I goddamn need to put the 2nd shelving unit together today, there's another afternoon gone of me yelling at an inanimate object and almost smashing it, oh and of course cursing Swedish people (sorry if your Swedish, I know it's not your fault, feel free to blame me for Bindi Irwin and Fosters)....ahhhh good times, fuck you Mr Allen and you dumb-ass keys.

Oh and a quick mention, I'm going to try experimenting with a new shadow technique, did you notice? I'm basically outlining the straight hatching areas, what do you think? I'll try it a bit more in the next few weeks and see how I like it.

I have quite a few creative friends, strangely enough I've met them most of them at my work (my other day job at a electrical retailer), one of these days I want to get as many of them together and make an awesome creative 'super group', it would be so awesome! We'd all be rich and successful together and make lots of cool shit. So one of my mates Adam is going all out and has stared a production company and is planing a short film, but he needs funding support. So please go to his site: http://www.pozible.com.au/index.php/archive/index/4227/description/0/0 and donate a couple of bucks to help him out. It's an awesome thing to go out on a limb and pursue your creative dreams, I respect all who do as one day I'd like to be able to make a living doing something creative myself as I've always got lots of ideas and dreams I want to accomplish. 

Ok, until next week my friends!

Mike

Son of a Clown!

Look, I know I said I'd have a brand new cartoon for you this week, but I didn't get a chance again sorry. I promise I'll have a new one next week, I promise this time, trust me. But in my own defence I have a really good reason this week as this morning whist my son was at daycare my lady and I were at the hospital, where she was getting her 19 week scan....yep, we're having another baby boy! Hence why I chose a baby related cartoon from the old vault and as you may know I really do love making fun of Ronald McDonald (and his 'crew')....can't say why, I just do.

So I did have a few hours spare this afternoon, not enough time to do a cartoon, or maybe, but I didn't want to rush it and do something half-arsed. Anyway I had something much more frustrating to do anyway. As I've mentioned over the last couple of weeks, we just moved house, we needed a few new things so we went out to Ikea yesterday. Some of the things we bought were too big for our car so we got them delivered today, 3 things in all; 2 shelving units and a sofa bed thing. In my spare couple of hours I thought I could knock out the 2 shelving units at least, oh how wrong I was.....I won't go into the details but after several cock-ups on my part (I blame the awfully vague picture diagram instruction bullshit.....that and I'm handyman retarded). I seriously contemplated smashing it to pieces and buying a new one. I was thinking "$79 for a couple of minutes of relief and pleasure, it's cheaper than a prostitute at least, with very similar result (just more messy...or maybe not, depends what gets you off I guess). I think it was the annoying long drive (a trip I made friggin' twice yesterday as I forgot a vital piece of my son's new bed!) back to Ikea that stopped me in the end, that and I'm sure Penelope wouldn't have been very impressed with me. How do you say "Shove you damn Allen Key up your ass!" in Swedish anyway? I'm pretty sure I'll be doing an Ikea themed cartoon next week, just a heads up....stupid little fucking Allen keys, god I hate them!

Until next week!

Mike