Tortoises in Ra-Ra Skirts. Who Could Ask For More?

I shall have to readily admit that this particular cartoon is obscure to the point of opacity. So what's going on? Why have I drawn a row of tortoises wearing fishnet stockings and dancing the Can-can? Allow me to explain.
This is part of a project that I set myself in the hopes that I would get it published in a rather niche publication. The rather niche publication was very nice about my efforts, but decided against using my material. Fair enough. So, what is actually going on here? The composer Camille Saint-Saens (you shall just have to accept that the umlaut is a given, because I refuse to go fossicking about this computer looking for one) created a piece ostensibly for children called The Carnival of Animals (Le Carnaval des Animaux, for our more edumacated readers). Apparently it is full of musical jokes, one being the fact that he has set one piece, called Tortoises (Tortues - look, do your own translations!) to the tune of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld but   slowed   it   right   down.
All I did was show the tortoises reaction.
I have more of these and they all need a lengthy explanation. I bet you can't wait, can you?

Well, I Thought it Was Funny.

I sent this double-over-with-laughter cartoon to Private Eye, thinking that this one would surely to goodness get published by that esteemed organ. Alas, no, it was not to be. I suppose that with the easing of lockdown measures it is losing its topicality, although it has to be said, it is not the most technically proficient drawing I have ever done. To be honest I panicked a little, thinking that surely somebody else will have thought of this, and so I drew as hurriedly as I could and whizzed it of to Mr. Hislop. 

Well, what does he know about bloody funny cartoons? Nuffink, I tell you. Ner uff fink.

Dominic Cummings as Gollum

The political cartoonist Martin Rowson put out a general invite on Twitter to draw Dominic Cummings. I have done as requested. Now, I have to confess that I am not totally au fait with the way Twitter works, so I thought I had better reproduce it here in case it is lost for all eternity.

Carry on. 

My Most Profuse Apologies to Disney and Universal

Well now, what have we here? This is my entry for this week's Cartoonists' Club Caption Competition. Sorry, allow me to re-phrase that. This is my LOSING entry for this week's caption competition. Not one single point. Nuffink. It was awarded a CJP. CJP stands for Crackerjack Pencil, a consolation prize for child contestants in a British children's television show who had actually won the square root of bugger all. Well, that's me, that is. 

Am I bitter? Am I inconsolable? Has the world become a dreary grey for me? Of course not. It is all a part of life's warp and weft (this is said whilst rhythmically thumping the table with my forehead).

I have to admit that the cartoon is a little - well, odd. It is a strange conflation of the usual Universal film monsters obsession and Walt Disney characters. Universal's Frankenstein was released in 1931 in America (although not until a year later in Great Britain. Don't know why), Snow White was released in 1937, so already there is a little bit of anachronistic license being taken here. Doctor Disney's Monster is an amalgam of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck. All in all this gag cartoon shouldn't really work and lo and behold, it doesn't! Whoda thunk it, eh?

Happy New Year.

In celebration of the Beeb's rather spiffing Dracula, I thought I would re-post this effort from Inktober.
Happy New Year.

A Little Bit of Very Minor Catching Up.

Here we are on the 24th of October 2019 and I am presenting before you days seven and eight of Inktober. I have completed one other inking and several other pencils, but none of them are ready for public viewing yet. They ARE on their way, honest Guv! It's just that some of my ideas are out of sequence and I want to upload them in proper chronological order. A couple of them are also quite ambitious and will take time to get right. So, if I carry on drawing Inktober 2019 pictures into November, is it really going to matter? I do not think so. Just doing it when I get the time is fine with me. No guilt, no shame, just enjoyment

A Cold Day in Hell.

Freeze a  jolly good fellow, Freeze a jolly good fellow, Freeze a jolly good fellow and so say all of us.

Look, if puns were good enough for Shakespeare, then who am I to argue against their use?

Here we are on day ten of Inktober and I have just completed days four, five and six. Why am I so late? It is because I spent an extraordinary amount of time on the scribble above (day four and "Freeze" was the prompt word). Far too much time actually, but I am pleased with the result. I experimented with two different pen nibs. One is a Gillot for very fine lines and the other is, um, not. The not Gillot is a heavier line, but I like them both.

You ought to be able to see days five and six below, but with Blogger who can say?