Happy Jolly Merry Ding Dong Christmas Everyone

No Farting

This week's series (where Ollie and Quentin have to go next door into Evil Mrs Cadaver's house to feed her pet canary, Boris) was meant to end differently (and more crudely, hence the change). Quentin gets so worried about what kind of animal 'Boris The Beast' is that he farts and kills the canary. The final strip has Ollie telling Nobby that Quentin is burying the canary not searching for him. Of course this was never going to get through but I decided to go with the rest of the series anyway but it doesn't really work. I like the first couple in the sequence but wish I'd rethought their adventure after that. Oh well, they'll go next door again I'm sure.

Imp of the Perverse

I took a long time researching this. There are a lot more phrases to describe that urge some of us get to throw ourselves off a high building so I had to edit some out just to squeeze the joke into a Sunday strip. I don't get the urge to leap myself but I do sometimes get the irresistible urge to stand up during things like a wedding service and swear at the top of my voice.

The trouble with detailed roughs...

I do very detailed pencil roughs to make the inking stage easier but if my editor at Kings doesn't approve the joke then I've wasted a good couple of hours, probably more in this case. I'm pleased with this drawing and I like this joke but my editor feels it isn't right yet. I'm always happy to work on something I have my own doubts about but I find rewriting jokes I'm happy with very difficult. However, too much effort has gone into this for it to be forgotten so I may just use the first few frames for a completely different joke.

Just as a matter of interest I'd like to know if you get it.

The Mischievous Eggs

Today sees the introduction of Ollie's sister's mischievous kids. They are two unhatched eggs and don't have name's yet because we don't know what they are. They're hoping to hatch out into something cool with sharp fangs and claws like a dinosaur or a...a chicken, anything but a dumb gull. They visit when Ollie's sister needs a break and are loosely based on my own nephew and niece, Spook and Rosanna.