Dead Fish

So the other day I was pondering how much Facebook 'likes' and comments the guys at my comic shop, Comics Etc. get. They posted a Aquaman cartoon that morning as they have a love for Aquaman apparently, so I was thinking "You should do an Aquaman cartoon and try and try to get in on some of that sweet Facebook traffic". Of which I was only half serious, but for some reason this exact idea just popped into my head then and there. I loved it, so I just had to do it! So, I'm not really trying to piggyback on their traffic by hoping they'll post this cartoon. I just liked the idea in the end, and who doesn't like making fun of Aquaman?

As you may or may not know, I'm always seeking new methods, tools and equipment for creating my cartoons and last week I found some cool new stuff! It's amazing just how excited I got when I found this stuff, but I was looking at an office supply store as I also have a weird fetish for office supplies (seriously, I have a massive collection of pens, I kind of collect them and my collection of note taking paraphernalia is pretty good as well) and I found a really cool ink pen and some new card stock for inking my cartoons on. Up until now I've been inking my cartoons on gloss inkjet printer paper, as it doesn't bleed, but it doesn't take pencil very well and the black isn't very 'black'. Now this cardboard I found is just thick enough to trace onto, and although it's not as bleedproof as the inkjet paper, it hardly bleeds much and all my black lines are a nice vivid black. This was my first test on this cartoon and it all scanned up really well. The pen is a just a permanant marker, but it's a really nice thickness. I've always have the problem with felt-tip pens where they're either too thin or too thick, this one is a really nice in between size, I think it's about 0.7 or so. 

So, just in case anyone cares, the board is a Quill White A4 200 GSM: http://www.quillstationery.com.au/p-8737-board-pstebd-200g-a4-wht-50.aspx

And the pen is a plain old Black Staedtler Lumocolor 318: http://www.staedtler.com/en/products/markers-refill-ink/universal-pens/lumocolor-permanent-pen-318-permanent-universal-pen-f/

So I'm looking forward to experimenting with this new board, I was thinking of doing some mixed-media experimenting with it, so inking and then using a pencil to do some shading. Anyway, I hope someone out their found that info useful at least.

See ya later!

Mike

The 2nd Hand

I hope you all appreciate this cartoon, as I had to stay up late Sunday night finishing it! I was so organised for once this week to! I had a bunch of  initial sketches done earlier in the week ready to go for the Friday and once again one of my sons had other plans. Yep, winter is here, and so are sick children. So I had to spend the day with my sick boy instead of drawing cartoons, oh well, I still have some more sketches ready for next Friday....that is if no one else gets sick fingers crossed.

One of my favourite pastimes is hunting through 2nd hand books, as I love books and I love finding bargains. Every 6 months here in Brisbane Lifeline hold a massive 'Bookfest', which is pretty much a giant room full of tables and 2nd hand books, it's awesome. I go every time it's on and buy way too many books. Now one funny thing to note is to see how many books are there that were the 'popular' book to be seen reading on a bus or a train 6 months ago. Which this time happened to be 50 Shades of Grey, there was crap loads of them, in amongst all the copies of the Twilight Saga and Di Vinci Code. Now I'd like to say that this cartoon came to me when I was at Bookfest the other day, but all the credit goes to my lovely lady Penelope, who when she saw all the 50 Shades, said to me "Wow, you wouldn't want to touch a 2nd hand copy of 50 Shades of Grey would you?" I was going to Tweet that when I got home, because it's pretty funny, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised it could be a awesome cartoon instead! This is why I don't Tweet enough, as whenever I get a good idea I like to turn it into a cartoon and not waste it on Twitter. So I pretty much had the entire cartoon idea in my head straight away on this one, So thanks heaps Pen! I went with an old favourite of mine, the 'fishy smelling' ladies angle, so I've now done 2, 50 Shades of Grey cartoons and I'm not sure how many fish smelling ones now....too many? 

I'm kind of enjoying doing some subtle background jokes of late if you hadn't noticed....can you see the 2 I put in this one?

Alrighty, I need to get some sleep, hope you like it! 

Mike