99 bonk!

What goes 99-bonk? A centipede with a wooden leg. Ai thang yow.

The one Gizmo projectile vomited over.

You think you've got critics - I have a cat that vomits over the strips that he doesn't like! I made the mistake of leaving the book that I draw these strips in open on the floor in the study (I draw on the floor - a habit I've never got out of since I drew cartoons as a kid) and then going out of the house. I also made the mistake of not hanging up my jacket and leaving it on the back of my office chair. Then I fed Gizmo and left the house for an hour.

When I came back I found that Gizmo had decided to bolt his food, then sit on the back of my chair. Then he exploded. There was pureed cat food all over the carpet, the chair, my jacket, and the cartoon book. Blee!

The jacket's survived, thanks to some nifty work by the dry cleaners, though I shall treasure forever the look of horror on the face of the counter assistant when I first produced the jacket, explaining that my cat was possessed by demons. The carpet has a nasty stain and needs cleaning. The worst of the blee was scraped off the cartoon - thankfully I don't use water based inks - and some photoshop work got rid of the rest. The final result is above - while an initial scan of what I had to work with is below.

Cartoon nerds will also note the use of photo-blue pencil to make the initial sketches, and the fact that I actually paste in archy's typewritten dialogue rather than add it in post-production.

Gizmo - biding his time....

Finish this limerick

...or maybe it's best you don't.

The return of archy

You can work out what archy meant to type by consulting a computer keyboard and substituting each character for the one directly to the right. The keyboard this was worked out on was an Apple bluetooth one - Windows machines may not have all their keys in the same position.

Playing catchup

Due to what I can only assume is an error at TalkTalk, I have accidentally had my internet access returned to me. They must do this every time someone gets so frustrated with them that they cancel their account. Too late, TalkTalk, I'm moving to Zen on Friday.

Anyway, let's catch up on the Smith cartoons from the past two weeks...

It's good to do a continuing story every now and again. I have a few stories set up for the summer, but we'll be moving on to a series of of one-shot gags for the next few weeks, before we dive into the purple tinged schmaltz fest of the Royal Wedding.

I was in London last week, at a fairly pointless trade show for magazine publishing (it asked the question 'Whither Publishing?' and came up with the answer 'Buggered if I know'), and took the chance to cruise the bookshops for a copy of Archy and Mehitabel. I finally found the last copy in London in the Gower Street Waterstones (thank you to the man in Hatchards Picadilly who tracked it down on his stocktaking computer). And guess what - I didn't buy it. It didn't feel right. I can't help but feel any copy I have needs to be second hand and covered in sardine stains.

I love Jones' growing hysteria as the situation appears to get stranger and stranger. And, as people have pointed out, there are parallels between the last strip and the Chuck Jones cartoon 'One Froggy Evening' starring Michigan J Frog, something I'd never noticed. That's what I like about the comments on GoComics - the readers come up with some wonderful stuff.

Pencil

Actually, I believe that's what they call a propelling pencil.

Sorry. I'll get my coat.

Stomp.

Every now and again, it's good to put an outrageous pun into the strip. And Archy got what he deserved for using it. But don't worry, he's a cockroach - it'll take more than a cat paw to harm him. He returns on Monday. Just as well, he's proving to be surprisingly popular.

Incidentally, font nerds may be interested to know that the typewriter font Archy uses is Prestige Elite Bold. Not only that - I'm so old school that I insist on printing the words out and sticking it onto the original artwork before scanning the black and white artwork in rather than doing it in Photoshop during post-production. Ironically, it takes up more space but is harder to read than my own handwriting.

Cockroachness

As Ken Dodd almost sang:

Cockroachness, cockroachness,
The greatest gift that I possess
I thank the Lord that I've been blessed
With more than my share of cockroachness.

Play the link, you'll be humming it for ages. Sorry.

enter the cockroach

This is why I introduced the typewriter a few weeks ago.

Yes, his name is archy (with a lower case a). I must reread the Archy and Mehitabel poems at some point - I remember coming across them in Tunbridge Wells Children’s library when I was about eight or nine and devouring every book I could find. I remember the characters, but the poems themselves I’ve forgotten. I must find them again, especially with the George Herriman illustrations...

I’m told Don Marquis did a sequel, Jughead and Mehitabel, but that never sold.

It has been pointed out to me that a certain orange cat has also had dealings with a cockroach called Archy. That may be so, but not to my knowledge - I've deliberately kept away from Garfield just to make sure I don't accidentally lift any of Jim Davis' ideas. Besides, this is actually a redraw of a cartoon I first produced at school in 1981. The original is reproduced below. I couldn't draw straight lines then, either.