Death Makes An Apology

Hello, O best beloveds. Do you like the title for this entry? I thought it had a nice thirties or forties pulp feel to it. They often had titles like 'Death Wore High Heels' or 'Lady Don't Run', never titles like 'The Dame Was An Astrophysicist' or 'Mayhem In Comfy Slippers'
Nevertheless, I reaped a lovely seven points this week, despite forgetting to shade part of the armchair: therefore, my thanks and blessings to those lovely people who enjoyed my scribble enough to vote for it. The theme this week was British Summer Time and you may gaze upon all the entries and very worthy winners HERE. A change of cartooning routine enabled me to actually produce something. Lots of room for improvement, but then that's always the case isn't it? If it wasn't, it would be a very complacent world wouldn't it?

The Devil Made Me Do It

Alas and alack, gentle reader, it is with a heavy heart that have to relate my dolorous tale as I take up my crow-quill electronic keyboard. I am afraid your author got naught but nought points in this week's caption competition. And you can see why from the sequential car-crash pictures at the top of this page. It was a weak idea weakly executed and it got worse with each rendition. The theme was evil and I thought well, you can't get much more evil than the devil, now can you? And what could be his most evil act? The thigh-slapping  idea that came to me was that he wouldn't just tell little children that Father Christmas was dead, he would show them. Then I thought, hang on, that's a bit out of season for that. As it's nearly Easter how about showing them the Easter Bunny? Yeah, that'll do it! That'll garner me a bumper crop of points!
How did I finish up with such a grotty drawing? A combination of things, really. I have found that shift-work and Springer Spaniel puppy ownership have really eaten into the available time left for cartooning. That and my own bloody bone-idleness. I only gave myself three quarters of an hour to "ink" the drawing. Halfway through I changed the brush size and towards the end I saw that rather than ink it in black I had used a dark grey! Yes, yes. I am my own worst enemy, I know. Drastic re-think and change of action required. Watch this space.

Hello, Remember Me?

Goodness me! It's been ages, hasn't it? Where on Earth have I been? What time do I call this? I just treat this place like an hotel. I seem to spend all day just picking up things I drop on the floor! Well it's just not good enough. Things are going to change around here... etc. etc.
Well, I can proffer no excuses, merely my indolence for part of the reason. Trying to keep up with a Springer Spaniel puppy is the larger part of the reason.
Nevertheless, what is the pikchar on the left all about? It is my entry for last week's Caption Competition. Or is it? The version I entered is not the version you see here. To see the original you need to click HERE. If you want to read this blog, you're going to have to do a little work. You can't expect to be spoon-fed all your life. For those of you who are too gosh-durned lazy to look HERE the caption was "OK! I'll talk!"
My thoughts turned to parrots and ventriloquist dummies. Others also thought the same way which is why this competition is so intriguing. The same idea may spring up now and again, but the individual treatment and outcome of that idea is what I find so fascinating.
I even contemplated re-using my own ventriloquist cartoon ("Call the golice!"),but changing the caption. It would have worked. Eventually the idea of a stool pigeon entered my fevered mind, so I went with that. My intention was to give the cartoon a film noir feel, so I researched period New York Police uniforms. I think these little details add a certain je ne sais quoi. Or maybe not. I dunno. In the event, I ran out of time and had to submit a very hurried facsimile of my intent. Even so, two people gave me their top marks and two more deemed it worthy of a vote too. All of which pleased me no end.
After the event I gave the cartoon a few tweaks; some subtle, some not so, and the result is what you see above. I also felt that, in keeping with the film noir feel, it could accommodate a new caption. The new caption would go as follows: " Okay, so Louis Pignatarro is at the bottom of the Hudson takin' swimmin' lessons from the fishes. An' he ain't gonna be finishin' them any time soon. Lenny Martello thinks I had a hand in it. What I'm sayin' is things is gettin' hot fer me. Too hot. What I'm sayin' is the ante has just gone up. Ya hear me? Living in a dovecote ain't enough no more. From now on, if you want me to spill, it's gonna have to be a pigeonniere."