Mum and Dad

Meet Barbara and Nigel, 2 Pigeons living in Ollie and Quentin's attic since 1937. Barbara is, in fact my lovely mum's name and Nigel, my great dad's. He wasn't too pleased to hear I'd made fun of his sore foot but I couldn't resist it. He's gonna hate that red nose.

I've started to write strips that follow on from each other, with a punchline every day of course. In the past I might have a short story covering a couple of days but now I'm going for the full week which I'm really enjoying. This has been a natural development. In trying to write one off jokes I found myself thinking about how my characters got into that situation or what happened next. This is something I love about creating a cartoon strip. It's kinda organic. I'm just going in the direction the strip wants to take me.

Best job in the world?

Could being a syndicated cartoonist be the best job in the world?

Thursdays are my ideas days, here's what I did today:

I packed a thermos flask of coffee, some water and sandwiches and set off, notebook in hand, on a ten mile walk through the beautiful Surrey countryside beside my home. It has been one of those rare but glorious British early summer days. Clear blue skies, birds singing, bluebells in the woods, gentle breeze in the air, sunlight dancing through the trees. Just fantastic.

I had lunch at the top of St. Martha's Hill next to the church (see above) overlooking miles of beautiful English hills. You can see eight counties from this spot. The location is said to have provided the inspiration for The Hill of Difficulty in The Pilgrim's Progress, going back to the time when John Bunyan lived in nearby Shalford. Winnie-the-Pooh artist, E H Shepard, frequented the spot and one of his drawings is in the church. It was a place of worship for pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, but pagans can marvel at four Druid circles on the south face.

I came home 6 hours later with a weeks worth of ideas down in my book and a tan on my neck.

Now, if I could make syndication pay me a living wage this would be the best job in the world.

Fish out of water

My partner Teresa is a very talented curtain and loose cover maker. My illustration work has been very quiet lately so I agreed to help her install some curtains she'd made at one of her clients houses. I was under strict instructions to look like I knew what I was doing. I am not very practical so going onto a building site and trying to look like I was comfortable in that environment was impossible. I don't look or sound like a builder.

As soon as we arrived the client started talking to me about the construction of the walls and where I might have problems with fixings. My face must have been a picture. I had no idea what language he was speaking and tried desperately to say the right things but I know I looked like a startled rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. I could sense Teresa thinking "oh my god" and my scalp started tingling. I just hoped he would go away soon before I burst out laughing and gave the game away.

Later when we got down to work we both kept humming the Laurel and Hardy theme tune 'cos any second I expected to either fall off the ladder, fall through the window, drive a screw through a water pipe or drill through my hand.

Think I'll stick to cartooning.

Earth Day

King Features and Earth Day 2008

Next tuesday (April 22nd) is Earth Day. Forty six King Features' cartoonists are taking part in this first-of-its-kind comics initiative to raise awareness about the environment and the health of our planet. Ollie and Quentin for that day discuss the environmental impact of flying and dropping bird poo on freshly cleaned cars. Click here to see all the current King Features strips at Comics Kingdom.

Star Banner, Florida

Readers of the Star Banner in Ocala, Florida will have a month long chance to enjoy 'Ollie and Quentin' starting this week. If this is your local paper and you like the strip please let them know what you think. Thanks.

Wikipedia Lugworm Page

Ok, so I know Wikipedia hasn't got the greatest reputation in the world but I was amazed to see a paragraph at the end of the 'Lugworm' page about 'Ollie and Quentin'. I love the quote they've used.