The fickle finger of fashion

This is very me. You'll always know when a particular trend has ended - it's usually three hours after I give in and join in with it.

Flying the flag for Chumley

This week's series is an adaptation of one I did when I was drawing Smith the first time round as a teenager, and apart from some recasting, and some cutting, it's stood up pretty well. However, todays strip is brand new - just before I started drawing it I decided the gag wasn't good enough and came up with a better idea, one which continued the story.

The original strip (dated Friday August 28 1991) is below. The cat taking Chumley's place is Max, another cat from the neighbourhood I lived in. Max's character was a sort of less extreme version of Scrumpy - he was a vent for my teenage angst. I think I prefer the much more happy-go-lucky Chumley we have now.

The outsider

Chumley finds himself in the unusual position of cyclical outsider in this run of strips. Normally that would be Smith's role, but as the kink fashion specifically concerns Siamese cats he's one of the insiders this time.

U

Does anyone still talk about things being 'U' and 'Non-U' any more? That's my staunchly middle class Tunbridge Wells upbringing coming out, I'm afraid.

Click!

Oh you lucky lucky people. You're going to get twelve cartoons on the blog over the next fortnight. You'll find out why next Monday, but in the meantime, the strips I was planning to run next week have been pushed forward to join this week's.

This is the first of a run of six. The second one you see underneath was going to run on Comics Sherpa, but it didn't seem strong enough. It's essentially all set up and no punchline, and the rest of the story still makes sense without it, so I've cut it from Sherpa and just kept it as an extra for the blog. Say thank you.

This week's story is dedicated to anyone who thought London Fashion Week was ridiculous. (My spies tell me that includes a lot of the people who were involved in it.)

Fashion

Drawn by someone who tends to buy clothes cheap just as they've fallen out of fashion and then only throws them away just as tiresome teeter-totter of trend falls back in line with what I've bought. I'm all for looking smart, but I have no time for worrying about the exact width of my lapels this week.

And don't get me started on Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister. What is the point of buying clothes there when you can get exactly the same stuff for a tenth of the price in Wal-Mart? - only without the advertising all over the front, and in a shop with proper lighting.