Smith is moving house

Not to worry, Smith, you're going to need that ID collar where you're going. Yes, after four and a half years and over 700 cartoons, Smith is moving to a new website and a new format.

Cartoons don't have to be the shape newspapers dictated they should be in the early 20th Century - and they definitely don't need to be the shrivelled size newspapers demand nowadays. Cartoons are now delivered to mobile phones, tablets and all sorts of screens, so they should take advantage of the infinite oblong now at their disposal.

So Smith is no longer going to be a long strip every time. Sometimes it'll be a square, sometimes a rectangle - it all depends on what serves the gag best on any particular day. Whatever happens, it'll be bigger and clearer that ever before, as we deal with the loophole GoComics has given us about file sizes - so long as the image supplied isn't wider than 600 pixels wide, if doesn't matter how deep you go.

The story continues as ever at GoComics, and join Smith at the new improved blog at smith.ink

And if you're new here, why not start at the beginning on January 1st 2011 and work your way through the back catalogue. Have fun.

Recap

You know you've been accepted back home when they banish you to the naughty step just like they used to. A brief recap of the story so far before the next thing happens. I like it when a story just seems to evolve organically like this one is doing...

Home again

Home at last - and it's like they've never been away.

Halfway through colouring this strip in I realised I'd forgotten to draw any street lamps. So I lit the strip with windows instead.

The neighbourhood I've drawn could be anywhere on either side of the Atlantic - there's a bungaloid strain to Sussex that could just as well be Levittown. I've modelled this neighbourhood on the 60's ranch houses and bungalows around Ashford Way, about five minutes away from my house.

Scruff

Another rushed cartoon, which explains the loose drawing and the lack of background. Normal service will be resumed on Monday.

This was inspired by a trick for telling what someone's age is from the skin on their fingers. Try this. Take a look at the first joint of your middle finger. There's some looseish skin around it. Pinch it with your other hand and gently pull it up. Then let go. It should take one second per decade of your age for the skin to settle again. Mine takes five seconds, which is spot on.

Chase

This and Friday's strip are not as well drawn as I'd hope them to be. It's been a hectic couple of weeks at work, with the launches of several magazines and websites happening at the same time (to see the day job, take a look at New Steel Construction, ITS [UK] Review and CIHT Jobs) so I've been drawing whenever I get a spare moment. These two strips were inked at work today during a snatched half hour lunchbreak using some rather naff gel pens which skitter all over the page. Thank heavens the scanning, colouring and reduction process tightens up the drawings so much.

We B Pets

You all know this place - in America it's PetSmart and the UK equivalent is Pets at Home. They're essentially the same on both sides of the Atlantic, big pet warehouses with stack of rodent cages and walls of aquariums, though it must be said the British version doesn't look quite so industrial. We don't sell dogs and cats in them either - I got quite a turn the first time I walked through an American mall and found kittens playing in a window display.

Of course, to Smith and Jones, this isn't a pet store. It's more like one of those oriental supermarkets where you can pick out your own fish.

Parallel Lines

We're nearly home - there's just a road to cross and a trek down the hill before they get there. However, there may be a few stops along the way...

School's in...

Awwwww!

Perspective Fest

I'm quite proud of this sequence of the milk float going over the brow of the hill and descending into town. I find perspective really hard so I reserve it for special occasions.

Float

OK, I'll stop slaughtering pheasants now - Smith and Jones have finally found their way back home. They're very lucky as these milk floats are rapidly vanishing from our streets. When I lived in Tunbridge Wells I'd always be able to tell when it was 4am in the morning, as I could always hear the whine of the float's electric motor and the merry jangling of the milk bottles as I lay awake in bed. Alas, the rise of plastic bottles from supermarkets has meant hardly anyone gets their milk delivered anymore.

Pheasantgeddon!

Is this a comment on the slaughter of the First World War and the cheerfulness with which the Tommies went to their deaths? Or am I just fed up with the number of dead pheasants i see at the side of the road on my daily commute? You decide.

Pheasant

Pheasants are possibly the most stupid creatures on Earth, and they definitely have no idea what road safety is. I've never hit a pheasant on the road, but it's been a close run thing sometimes. I drive to work every day down rural B-roads in Kent and Sussex, and you quite often find yourself rounding a corner to find a dumb bird in the middle of the road, and when you swerve to avoid him he will walk deliberately into the path of your car.

How stupid are pheasants? I was cycling down a country lane once when I came across one next to a wooden fence. The pheasant ducked behind one end of the fence, walked behind it and then appeared at the other end. I got off my bike to say hello to it and it hid behind the fence again. When it reappeared at the other end, I was there waiting for it. Eeeek! It went behind the fence again, I walked back to the other end and the pheasant popped its head out once more. Repeat this sequence for half an hour. (To be honest, the pheasant is probably telling the same story to his friends, only he starts it with 'How stupid are cyclists?')