Silly Idea

I dunno. What do you think? I think it needs to be re-drawn and re-lettered.

A Victorian "Selfie".

I just cannot believe my good fortune! I am the winner (Just! By two points) of this week's Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain's caption competition. As usual, I wish I had allowed myself more time. Had I done so I would have added an aspidistra or two and swags of velvet would have been hung about. The time I had set aside was gobbled up by me chatting to fellow dog walkers. Having said that, the need to work quickly certainly loosened up my style and gives the finished article a bit of zip and verve.
There used to be a Punch cartoonist called Sprod and bits of this week's drawing remind me of him. Enny whey, cheshire cat grin time for yaws truly.

The Homophone: Where Would Cartoons Be Without 'Em?

Tada! This week's competition entry. Pre-pencilled, scanned and digitally inked. I consciously worked on perspective this week and I think the effort has really paid dividends. As usual, I was in a bit of a rush and therefore the drawing has suffered as a consequence. Having said that, I am very, very pleased with this. Got quite a few votes too, despite buggering up the caption. OOPS! Should have been "Now that could be a problem." It should have meant instant disqualification, but the gentle souls at the Cartoonists' Club are a very forgiving lot.
For those who think a homophone is a gay means of communication, steak sounds a lot like stake. Okay yah?

O, That These Two Too Hurried Messes Would Melt...

Two cartoons created purely on the graphics pad and not a single lead pencil or hot pressed sheet of paper in sight. And by crikey doesn't it show. I really need to give myself more time to execute these drawings and actually pay more attention to their composition. If I had drawn these in pencils from the word go I think I would have had a pair of little crackers. Neither cartoon is actually awful and lacking in merit per se, but they both could have been considerably better had I given myself more time in their preparation. More time and energy and a little less Merlot, perhaps.

Addendum

I know, I know! Vacuum is a noun. You see, this is what happens when one starts to rant. All reasoned and objective thought goes flying out of the window. Let this be a lesson to you all.

Universal Monsters Once Again!

This was my entry for the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain Caption Competition from a couple of weeks ago. I've reverted to scanning in preparatory pencils and using a much tighter line and, as a consequence, I am much happier with the result. It isn't perfect, but I am not about to point out any failings that are in the drawing. To my mind there are far more positives than there are negatives. The biggest positive, of course, is that I find it grotesquely amusing. So, what were the thought processes that lead to this - this - travesty? The caption was set by Steve Bright (this is me name-dropping) who opted for the wild card form of caption. Don't [blank] it... Now then, I don't know how many verbs there are in the English language, quite a few dozen I should think, but we are adding to the list daily by also employing nouns as verbs (to hoover, to text. What's wrong with vacuuming or sending a text message? Our cooker was built by Hoover, does this mean I hoover our grub every time I cook? No, it bloody well doesn't! --- end of rant). So, which verb to use from a choice of so many? In times of crisis my mind goes into default mode and I naturally thought of Frankenstein's monster being goaded by Igor (I know, it is rather worrying, isn't it?). What could Igor use with which to tease the monster? Tease, hmm, tease. Striptease? Yes, striptease could work. Except, Igor disrobing in front of the monster could be open to all manner of unintended misinterpretation of a homo-erotic nature. But, I still liked the idea of a striptease. Hmmm. Some time ago I attended two Burlesque shows; one at the Edinburgh Festival and the other at a place called the Wet Spot, in Leeds. I have to say both were far more entertaining and inventive than I expected, but thinking along burlesque lines of thought, I came up with the idea of an old-fashioned fan dance. It still goes on today, research revealed. There are specialist manufacturers of fans for fan dancing! Talk about niche markets! How do they make a profit? How many ostriches are there in the world?
Enny whey. I suppose there are still echoes of homo-eroticism in Igor's dance, but hardly exciting and hopefully amusing.

Possibly In Poor Taste.

As you can see, very quickly drawn, but given the current weather conditions, very pertinent. Still couldn't sell the bugger!