Arctic Circle Cartoons » cartooning

Ocean Robot Cartoons

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:21:00 +0000

This series was based on a few articles I had read about robots being used to study all kinds of things in our oceans.

I only got away with this because my editor assumed Oscar had burped...

There is a lot of plastic in the ocean

Artificial intelligence

I don't think anyone in Texas reads Arctic Circle...

One Fine Sunday Cartoon Exhibition

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:19:13 +0000

My good friend, Jason Chatfield, reminded me of an exhibition we have contributed to (he does the legendary comic strip, Ginger Meggs). It kicks off this week and you can read more about it in this Australian Cartoonists Association blog post.

Gwen Joins the Arctic Circle Cast

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:24:37 +0000

I’ve been writing this incarnation of Arctic Circle for over three years and despite being a female cartoonist, the main cast of seven are all male (it’s sort of a default setting for animal characters without eyelashes). When I wrote the Antarctica series, I had great fun with the introduction of a female character, Gwen. So I’ve brought her back. I’m not sure if she’ll stay – I’ve been writing more strips with her in this week – we’ll see how things work out.

My editor thought some of these strips a little sexist, but there are differences between men and women (in general) and the amount of luggage they take is definitely one of them.

I have a whole lot of facebook friends I don't even know and I'm petrified of deleting them

So this is my approach for a lot of my Facebook "friends" whose witterings mean nothing to me

Gwen moves out of the bachelor igloo

My mum actually did this to Dad's shirts once.

Inspired by the Gondola in Christchurch. A pointless apparatus, if ever there was one - you can walk or drive to the top of the hill it goes up!

Junk Mail Cartoons

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:23:50 +0000

I loathe junk mail. It is responsible for so much wasted paper and energy. All the mailboxes in our block have “no junk mail” notices and yet we still get leafleted (though not as badly as without the notices). I’ve got fed up of emailing and calling the perpetrators, as they seem to have the same attitude as spammers – as long as they get a couple of customers out of it, it’s worth alienating a whole lot more.

Howard tries a bad approach for stopping junk mail

Howard becomes uncharacteristically violent

Howard is arrested for going postal

TV arbitration

How I'd like to deal with junk mail.

Midge Bristol #1 in Scientriffic Magazine

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:32:28 +0000

Being syndicated doesn’t cover all my bills (eg. traveling to the Reubens), so I do a fair bit of freelance work on the side. One of my favourite new clients is Scientriffic magazine, who gave me a whole page to have fun with. The result is “Midge Bristol Investigates” and the first episode is in the Jul-Aug issue. I can’t put the full thing up here yet, but you can see the black and white version (and colour it in!) on the CSIRO website.

Part of the first Midge Bristol cartoon

Tim Burton the Cartoonist

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:09:02 +0000

The Tim Burton Exhibition at the ACMI

I never really thought of Tim Burton, the film director, as a cartoonist, but the guy definitely shows the symptoms in his ACMI exhibition. Masses of drawings, a vivid imagination and the desire to tell a story, even in just one panel. You couldn’t take photos, so I had fun trying to sketch some of what I saw.

This started as a sketch on a doodle pad and then became one of his more effective acrylic paintings

There were a lot of fantastic creatures

NB. The exhibition was packed. Even first thing on a Wednesday, a couple of weeks after the exhibition had opened. Despite a $19 entrance fee. This would be unheard of for a cartoonist’s exhibition. Just goes to show that moving pictures are the way to go…

Because Who Buys Original Cartoons Anymore Anyway?

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:08:14 +0000

Paper wasting original layout

I’ve sold a few originals recently and it is always good to do swaps with the few cartoonists who are still working old school, but most of my originals are shoved in cardboard boxes *ahem* neatly archived, never to be seen again. Lemon (see previous post) rightly pointed out to me that I could squeeze two dailies onto the one page, saving trees (and space and a fair bit of cash – Canson illustration paper doesn’t come cheap), even though it would make the cartoons more difficult to frame. There could be a few more inking accidents, but it is saving time in printing and scanning too.

new layout (no spoilers)

The World of Jonathan Lemon

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:59:56 +0000

One of the great things about this US trip was consolidating several cartoonist friendships I’ve made over the internet. I had a hunch that I was really going to like Jonathan Lemon – he is another expat Brit and his cartoons have a wonderful quirky but friendly sensibility that comes from exactly the same traits in him. He and Julia made the boyf and I very welcome and we were sorry to leave.

One of Lemon's recent Rabbits Against Magic strips

He works down in his basement, which is a real treasure trove

Where Lemon works when he isn't in the library

I also owe him an original strip (though sorry, mate – I ain’t water-colouring mine!)…

Justin Thompson & Charles Schulz Museum

admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:34:13 +0000

When the boyf and I were visiting a friend of his in Northern California, we were a hop, skip & a jump away from Santa Rosa, so paid a visit to the Charles Schulz Museum.

detail of the building

Hanging out with two of my childhood icons

In the atrium of the museum

When you get closer you see the tiles are individual Peanuts strips

A superior alternative to papering the bathroom with the comics pages

The highlight was meeting fellow cartoonist, Justin Thompson, and getting the real tour, behind the scenes at the Peanuts studios.

With Justin outside the studios where Schulz used to work

Justin's drawing board

I think he needs a bigger office

This room would have blown my ten year old mind

Lush Designs in Greenwich

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:12:35 +0000

I came across an original and beautiful design store in Greenwich when I was visiting my sister. There was something about the illustrations that harked back to my childhood and the colour combinations are superb. I eagerly bought half a dozen of the cards to send friends and family and enjoyed talking to one of the designers, Maria Living, who forms one half of Lush Designs.

Maria in front of some wonderful sketches

A Lush Design card (detail)

Another Lush Design card