Ideas

I can do a six-page frame story either set on a hillside or on the dreaded Johnsonville train. It’ll definitely have Brunswick and Alex. It might be something funny or it might be something that plays with the format a bit to show people comics are more than just Garfield. It has to be colourful and look good. It’ll be set in Wellington and the backgrounds will probably be treated photos.

The second most exciting thing about being a cartoonist – apart from sharpening pencils

The Salient office is such a nice place to hang around now. I’m doing something elaborate for Tristan in the next few weeks. I bought enough paper to draw…80 pages worth of stuff on. Which, as I pointed out, is enough Salient cartoons until 2014. I’m also glad that I’ve nearly doubled the readership of my cartoons in the past few weeks.

From 32,000 to 50,000 soundtrack:
Don’t Stand Me Down ~Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Hairspray Soundtrack ~Various Artists
99.9 F° ~Suzanne Vega

Die Boomers Die!

Well, I finished another one. Took me all day, unfortunately. But it’s quite funny.

I could’ve done that!

We had a plumber come round today to fix our shower. He… uh… stuck a cork in it, and left.

Now why didn’t I think of that?

Bleah 3

You can take it as read that I’m already dealing with one thing. But to have a bad cold that won’t go away after two weeks and a houseguest means I’m dealing with three things. And, therefore, not dealing with anything.

Bleah again

It’s very difficult being ill when you’ve got someone staying with you for a few days. I’ve updated the Brunswick site with the new Salient cartoon. Now I gotta do another one…

Bleah.

Haven’t done anything of note. Quite ill. Can’t hear anything because of my cold. Laura told me on Thursday how thin I looked. I weigh about 57kg at the moment.

Ill soundtrack:
Bedtime For Democracy ~Dead Kennedys
…And Justice For All ~Metallica
If He is Protecting Our Nation, Then Who Will Protect Big Oil, Our Children? ~Of Montreal

Boastfulness and the continuum of lame

It was one of my more varied days. I was exhausted but still in a really good mood after actually managing to draw something that wasn’t Jitterati. I didn’t really want to do anything tonight because I still have a bad cold, but then I found out my flatmate was holding an impromptu BBQ. So with three hours notice, I texted a bunch of people, who I can arrange along a continuum of lameness:

LAMEST: The ones who didn’t reply.
SLIGHTLY LAME: People who replied after a few hours.
NOT LAME, BUT FROM MY P.O.V. POSSESSING TENDENCIES TOWARDS LAMENESS: Those who texted back immediately to say they already had plans for the evening.
NOT LAME AT ALL: Peter, who actually turned up and then took me to see Loudon Wainwright III.

Now that was an interesting time. I haven’t heard any of his songs before but I knew who he was – he’s most famous now for being the father of Martha and Rufus Wainwright, and appearing in ‘Knocked Up’. I liked his serious songs more than his ‘comedy’ songs. The audience was overwhelmingly Boomers, except for a few alt hipsters. Colin Morris and all the other independent record store owners were there. Amusingly, Jemaine Clement and Loren Horsley were there as well, looking much cooler than their Eagle vs Shark characters. I hadn’t met Horsley before – she was tiny! I told Jemaine I was glad to hear about his Grammy. A very Wellington day.

Grindy grind…

Well, I actually did it. I finished a new Salient cartoon.

I got up early to look over the ideas I scripted yesterday – the concept this year is to do a single episode each of 26 different strip cartoons, drawn in various styles. This isn’t as hard to write as it sounds, because the strips are all built around specific jokes. Brunswick characters pop up often (for example, Fitz demonstrates how to make cocktails one week), but there’s no regular cast.

Anyway, I tried to start drawing and was overcome with a tremendous wave of nausea and pain. It was like having an allergic reaction to my drawing board. So I lay down for a few hours before going to a doctor’s appointment, and visited the Salient office (which gets easier every time) and saw Laura for the first time in several months. I told Tristan to tell me to go home and draw something, so he did – and then I did.

The cartoon above is appearing on Monday in black & white – I might re-colour it for the website because I’m still not pleased with the quality of the scan.

The gears slowly grind

I’ve written a few Salient toons, by trawling through lists of ideas from the past few years… I’m going to steel myself to draw one tomorrow morning.

I’ve been watching the DVD of Beyond the Fringe. Although audio performances of this influential satirical revue have been around for the past forty years, this 1964 recording was only discovered a few years ago. It’s a revelation to see how subdued Peter Cook is, how tall Alan Bennett is, how much Jonathan Miller overacts and just how damn talented Dudley Moore is.

I might actually make it to a Fringe performance tomorrow. I’ve had a strange couple of weeks – my sleeping patterns are becoming more normal but I find myself listless and unmotivated. Doing those few drawings last week really took it out of me. Still, I’ll see what I can get done tomorrow.