Walt Disney versus Universal Studios (Hint: Bambi Wins).

The quicker witted among you will have noticed that, once more, Universal Studios' usual suspects have been dragged kicking and screaming into one of my cartoons for your delight and, um, stuff. The quickerer wittededer among you will have noticed an anachronistic Dalek in the line-up. Well, so what? I like Daleks and they can travel through time and space. He-e-e-ey, just a minute! They're a bit like Dr Who!
Annie Whay, this is my entry for this Cartoon Competition number one hundred et deux, which (regular readers will know) may be found here. It was a free-for-all, choose yer own blimmin' caption option with a theme of Horror Films. There are some real beauties this week, so go and have a look. Stroll around. Enjoy yourselves. We only pass this way but once and I wouldn't want you to miss them. I got seven points this week week was rather satisfying and preened my ego until it purred like a duck-billed platypus.
As I am blowing my own trumpet, I'll tell you about the bits that please me with this one. Actually, no I won't, at least not yet.
Hands. Bloody hands! They just will not come right for me. Frankenstein's monster's hands are just about tolerable. Just. About. Dracula's mitt! Do you want to know how many sodding times I drew dracula's hand? AND STILL GOT IT SODDING WRONG? The answer is lots and lots and lots. Each time in a different pose. A new position with each attempt. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong. Curse you, Dracula! You unnatural beast!
Good bits: facial expressions. Tick. Body language. Tick(ish - sodding hands!). Dalek's lights popping off in shock. Tick.
Ooh! I nearly forgot Bambi. I found him disturbingly easy to draw. Brrrrrr! Disturbing!

Do Bears Wear a Tall Hat?

Those of you who have warm and cherished childhood memories of A. A. Milne LOOK AWAY NOW. Ah! Too late.
This is another one I couldn't sell. Too scatological, perhaps? My original caption read as follows: "Ah, Winnie, there you are!" When I put it up on the critic's forum at the Cartoonist's Club of Great Britain (for goodness' sake, don't make me put in another link! Oh very well) it was pointed out to me that Christopher Robin called his bear Pooh rather than Winnie. So I removed the name all together. I have a tendency to over-explain my cartoons through the caption. I call this patronizing, just in case you didn't understand. By removing such an obvious signpost, I think the cartoon works much better and emphasizes location rather than action. It is an allusion to the phrase 'do bears do number two doo-doos in the woods?' and, by jove, just look at where the famous bear is sitting.
I drew the original in pencil, free-hand. By that, I mean that I did not scan in E. H. Shepard's illustration and copy over it. Nah, that would be too easy. Why shouldn't I make life more difficult for myself? No, I reverted to the old eye-hand co-ordination method of drawing and then scanned my pencils into my Bamboo. Mr. Shepard's model for my version of Pooh may be found in the first chapter of Winnie-The-Pooh (Winnie-The Pooh and Some Bees) and his model for my Christopher Robin is at the very end of Expotition to the North Pole in the same volume. I only draw your attention to these facts in order to emphasize what a supreme master of his craft Shepard was. Twee, cosy and middle class? So what? When did charm become something to denigrate? Oh my god! I've just turned into the Daily Mail, haven't I?