Predate predate

Originally published: Feb 17, 2010

I like the sound effects I've used here: "sneak sneak" and "predate predate", a trick I borrowed from Frank Dickens Bristow. More about that in this post.

This strip has clouds in it. I now tend to keep my skies cloudless because I want to have backgrounds that bring the mainly uncoloured characters into relief, rather than blend in with them.

This is my first gull. Living on the coast, I tend to treat gulls as feathery thugs, the kind that will nick your chips and then shit them all over your car, just because they can. If seagulls ever develop talons, mankind is doomed.

For a more positive cartoon strip about a gull, take a look at Piers bakers delightful Ollie and Quentin.

Incise Incise

All cartoonists are to a certain extent a collection of influences from those who come before them, as a rule we tend to be self taught and we learn from the masters. This is a tribute to two of them.

First of all we have the freewheeling madness and slapstick of the Looney Tunes cartoons. This could really only be improved by having an extra frame showing Smith hovering above the ice hole, carrying a sign with: 'Oh no!' written on it.

Second, Bristow, by Frank Dickens. Dickens had a habit of using wonderfully literate sound effects in his strip, something I like to do occasionally as well. Why use 'scratch scratch' when 'incise incise' communicates what is happening even better?

See below for an example of the original. © Frank Dickens 1969.

Other treasured examples: Bristow shaving - Gillette, Gillette. Bristow shaking his fist - Brandish, Brandish. Snow falling in three panels while carollers sing - Deep, deep; crisp, crisp; even, even.