This is a bit of an homage to the great Faceache cartoonist, Ken Reid

The carp and Ed discuss before and after weight loss photos

Another diet

How to lose weight

The Asian carp puts on weight despite himself

I got to finish the series with a terrible pun

Fantastic! You couldn't get away with this in the newspapers

The cartoonist nerd in me also enjoys her blog posts about the cartooning process itself. This piece on ink washes (too scary for me, as yet!):

For those of you who may not know what an ink wash is — it’s just water
with a teeny bit of ink in it. When applied with a brush on paper, it appears grey. The more ink in the water, the darker the grey. You can play around with it to give all kinds of nice tones to a line drawing. This is how my webcomic “Velia, Dear” gets it’s tones, which are called “half-tones”.
If you can master the wash –I’m still learning, but I’m a lot more confident with it than I was a year ago — you can use it to create mood in a cartoon or illustration (some cartoonists prefer to use cross-hatching instead) — it’s a preference. However, I should add that newspaper comics rarely have a wash because of how they’re printed. Am I going off on a tangent here?
Anyway, the ink wash is a ton of fun when you get confident with it.

I look forward to her answer on where she gets her ideas from. It’s got to be good, ‘cos she’s sure got a lot of them.

Hector puts in free wi-fi

Hector turns off free wi-fi

I wrote this after noticing the number of laptop users in my local cafe, Presse. They sure know how to eek out a cappuccino.

The one that is about to get away

Do not try this at your local fishing spot

Can nuclear power truly be green (not just the glow in the dark kind)? Is it enough that it is low carbon emission, when you have to deal with nuclear waste? It is almost impossible to dispose of spent fuel rods completely safely for thousands and thousands of years. I was listening to an NPR Environment podcast where they were talking about how you can communicate to future generations that there is a nuclear waste dump in an area, when you can’t guarantee that thousands of years from now those generations will have the same languages, writing or visual symbols.

You can’t. I’d like to see safe nuclear power as an option, but with no means of safe nuclear waste disposal, I can’t. Also, I’d be happy to have a wind turbine, or solar array in my back yard, but nuclear power?

No way.

Howard and Hector talk energy

Hector buys a nuclear power plant from the Russians on eBay

Nuclear waste disposal, Hector style

weird coffee

The nuclear power plant goes AWOL

I’m much happier to see that fellow King Features strip, The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee was nominated as that is one of my favourite reads. And fellow ACA member, Anton Emdin was nominated for his illustration work.

The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee by John Hambrock, coloured by his wife, Ann

And if Tom Richmond doesn’t get something for all his deserved nominations, something is VERY wrong in the system…

I won the latest round and the strip will be up until 27th Feb.

Arctic Circle comic strip at The Corner Hotel, Swan St, Richmond

Close up of cartoon strip on the pub wall

I asked one of the many security guys milling about the entrances what he thought of the cartoon. “I like it,” he said, “the polar bear in the last panel reminds me of one of my boys – he’s built just like him”.

I also finally got to make good on a promise I made to Adam of The Eastern. I can’t remember why, but I said I’d put his band in one of my comic strips. They are playing in the background of panel 2.