Jones o’Lantern

Originally published 29 October 2010

Combining a traditional jack o lantern with cats’ penchant for squeezing themselves into completely unsuitable spaces.

Good meaty nourishment

Originally published 27 October 2010

Another gag recycled from 1981. The original tagline was “Ah yes, Wiskas is good meaty nourishment alright!”, echoing Wiskas’ cat food’s slogan of the time, but it got changed to something less libellous this time around. I’d like to point out that Wiskas does not contain any of the ingredients mentioned, unless theres yet another food labelling scandal pending which we don’t know about yet…

Halloween

Originally published 25 October 2010

How seasonal. This strip was a word perfect redraw of one I originally did in 1981. And I used the gag in a Millie cartoon in the early 90s as well. Where will it turn up next?

Names

This year's halloween cartoon is another one inspired by that wierd cat calendar on my desk at work. This is one of those facts that the calendar throws at you, but worded in such a peculair way that this was the first thing I thought of. I think what they mean is that cats have the power to see ghosts, rather than identify them.

So, who are the cats Jones mentions in this strip?

Humphrey - the Downing Street cat, chief mouser under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Named after Sir Humphrey Appleby, the leading civil servant in the TV series "Yes, Minister".

Skimbleshanks - the railway cat, from TS Eliot's, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. You'll find him in act II of the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical.

Custard - a pink cat who lived next door to a green dog called Roobarb. Appeared in a show with the best theme tune ever.

Thomas - the full name of Tom, the antihero of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, though only the housekeeper ever called him that.

Mr Jinks - a later Hanna Barbera cat, this one starred with two mice called Pixie and Dixie. Mr Jinks and Pixie wore bow ties, while Dixie had a waistcoat. Why?

Prudence Kitten - a forgotten British Children's TV puppet from the 1950s. It predates me but I remember my sister having a Prudence Kitten book. She was a glove puppet of a kitten who wore a voluminous flowery dress, and I think she was a spin off from the Muffin the Mule show.

Felix - a black and white cartoon cat from the silent movies. (This ones from 1919).

Angus - an eccentric persian domestic cat from the movie 'Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging', a British teen movie filmed down the road in Eastbourne and Brighton. Recommended.

Michael - of What's Michael by Makoto Kobayashi, the best cat comic ever.

Halloween II

Just in time! My schedule over October hasn't given me much time to do any cartoons - I was hoping to do a lot of drawing backstage while appearing in Oliver, but found myself on stage doing chorus work much more than I was expecting. So, here, just in time, is today's cartoon. I think I'm going to be spending most of November catching up with myself, working through to the new year. And then I shall rest, and start writing again...

'Bumme', fake Olde English for 'Bum', like 'Shoppe' or 'Reneaiesseancee Fayreeeee'. Not a request.

Bobbing

We're at that time of the year when the strip starts to follow a regular pattern, as the calendar follows its usual path toward Christmas and the new year. Halloween is followed by Guy Fawkes, Remembrance Day and then Thanksgiving (or my birthday as it is known around here) and the long haul towards Christmas. My usual habit is to have the strips written months in advance and then draw them just in time for posting on the site, and this year my main inspiration for ideas has been the calendar. There are a couple of extra events this year that have been added to the schedule, you'll recognize them when you reach them.

So for the moment we're at Halloween, that bizarre celebration of the macabre that originated in Europe, mutated into something else entirely in America and recently got sold back to us in its new orange and black polyester clad form. Here's Smith's take on apple bobbing.

Millie Week 9 Mon 29 - Wed 31 October 1990

Click to enlarge

The first strip may be familiar to people who read Smith on GoComics around this time last year. Yes, it is a recycled gag, but it's been recycled more times than you would think. It's actually a gag that I wrote in 1981, then reused in Millie in 1990, and then returned to its original characters in 2010. Expect to see it again around 2021. In 3D, probably.

Strip two is another old Smith gag (one I haven't reused) with the set up changed significantly but the punchline remaining the same.

Trick or treating was pretty rare in the UK in 1990 - it really only entered British consciousness in 1982 when ET came out. Mass produced Halloween costumes and seasonal sweets have only started appearing in supermarkets over the past three years or so. That's why it was decided to spell out exactly what was going on in the last frame - even now people are a bit hazy about the rules, so imagine what it was like 21 years ago.

I've been party to a Facebook discussion today where a friend of mine at stage school was debating her Halloween costume - should she be a Dead Tinkerbell or a Dead Wonder Woman? I think she's now been persuaded that she doesn't have to be a dead anything - so if you're in London and Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast turns up at your door on Monday, say Hi to Lucy for me.

Here's the Smith version of strip 1...