This weekend I realised that I have far less fun when I'm trying to be a 'proper' gag cartoonist than when I'm simply doing what I started out doing all those moons ago. Back when I started, I drew things that made me laugh and which I found fun to draw. It sometimes feels like I've lost a lot of the fun from my process. This week, I want to have some fun.
So, here are the first two cartoons. Well, actually, they're cartoons two and three because the first I drew with this mindset was my crucifix cartoon of yesterday. If you don't find them funny, so be it. Go read the Modern Toss instead. This is the stuff I draw entirely to cheer myself up and that's entirely what they do.
Looking through your recent work, I thought that 'Sandra in the Post Office' and 'Peg Leg Pete' would not be out of place in the Spectator. I hope you consider that high praise, as their standard is usually pretty good.
ReplyDeleteI like 'Sleephopping' which is kind of dark.
I take that as high praise and I'm really glad you like 'sleephopping' (look, points at self, smiling). I think I've been rejecting too much of the stuff that goes through my head because I assume it's just me who'd like it and it would never 'sell'. Yet, as somebody said to me recently, it's better if I just try to be me rather than being somebody else. You're encouraging me to delve deeper into the weird. ;)
ReplyDelete...delve deeper into the weird."
ReplyDeleteTake a look at Gary Larsson's Dark Side cartoons; fantastically funny, and most definitely weird (I loved the one of a laboratory filled with dead cats in lab coats - the investigating officer announcing, "It was definitely curiosity that killed these cats.").
Oh, I love Larson. Such a shame he retired. Have pretty much the complete collection, though I still hate 'Forbidden Planet' for cancelling my order for the box set when they were selling them off a couple of years ago. Larson is a bit of a Kliban-lite; weird not so that weird. Doesn't go the full surreal like Kliban.
ReplyDeleteIf my room wasn't such a pigsty, I'd find my favourite book of Larson's cartoons where he publishes all his 'unpublished' work. They're among his absolute best because they push the boundaries of taste. There's a very dark cartoon about a baby being eaten by some creature which I'm now going to have to find before it drives me crazy trying to remember it...
Oops. I meant "Far Side"! A Freudian slip, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. I didn't even notice and I still haven't found the baby eating cartoon he drew. Really annoyed with myself. I'm so untidy and it's too great a book to have lost... ;(
ReplyDeleteAnd look at the Drunken Bakers in Viz. Dark is great - it's counterintuitive and scary, but so's lager and they sell plenty of that.
ReplyDeleteI'd have left the speech bubble off 'Religious Cartoon' and captioned it "Russell Brand's chest or Madonna's Minge? - You decide."
Ah, that's interesting. Never been a Viz reader but just read five of those in a row (I'll be going back to read more) and they're pretty damn good. Bleak and not what I'd expect from Viz, which I always thought was a bit too 'on the nose' with the humour. Then again, found another strip called 'Little Twatt' and it was everything I expect from Viz.
ReplyDelete