Popularity

There's no escaping the fact that having a Lugworm and a Seagull as my main characters was not the wisest cartoon decision. Worms and Gulls aren't popular creatures. So, I thought I'd address that in this week's comics by having Quentin pretend to be characters we all know do well in comics. Perhaps I'll see a peak in my comic's popularity this week as readers are fooled into thinking it's a strip about a cat and a dog and a rabbit. 

Gil by Norm Feuti

Great news! The prolific Norm Feuti is going to have his fantastic comic 'Gil' launched by King Features in the new year. For anyone interested in the whole syndication process and the discussions a cartoonist might have with his editor you must check out the lovely Gil Development Blog here. It's going to make for interesting reading in the build up to the launch. It's also a beautifully put together blog.

'Gil' is well worth a read and I hope a decent number of papers run it, especially as Norm will be working 23.5 hours a day on his two comics! Leaving half an hour to eat, sleep and... ahem... the rest. 

Tragedy

My favourite Costa where I do most of my comic writing burnt down yesterday.

Says it all really.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Have you ever dreamed of flying high above the Earth? Astronauts visiting the International Space Station do this every day, circling our restless planet twice every three hours. A dramatic example of their view was compiled in the above time-lapse video from images taken earlier this month. As the ISS speeds into the nighttime half of the globe, familiar constellations of stars remain visible above. An aerosol haze of Earth's thin atmosphere is visible on the horizon as an thin multi-colored ring. Many wonders whiz by below, including vast banks of white clouds, large stretches of deep blue sea, land lit up by the lights of big cities and small towns, and storm clouds flashing with lightning. The video starts over the northern Pacific Ocean and then passes from western North America to western South America, ending near Antarctica as daylight finally approaches.

Sunday Strip in Full

@...

When I first sketched this joke out it was much ruder:
Q: "F@"
O: (Holding baseball bat) "B@"
Q: (Now squashed) "Fl@"
O: Tw@!

I knew I'd never get away with that but it was a fun starting point.

O&Q Musical Trailer

It's been a while since I did one of these so...

The music is 'Frost And Snow/Snow On The Hills' by Magpie Lane.

A few extra pounds

About 15 years ago I was standing in front of a delicious buffet about to help myself to a third huge portion when a thought suddenly popped into my head. I could either have that next portion and therefore choose to get old, fat and unfit or I could now decide to get slim and fit in my middle age (not much I could do about getting old). I decided on the latter. Since that day I have trained at least 3 times a week, run countless 10k 'races' and made some of the most fantastic friends at my various training and running clubs. I'm 48 and now either run, swim or do circuit training almost every day. My body is a bit of a wreck with numerous injuries, aches and pains and I don't run nearly as well as I once did but I do feel great.

So, anyone out there at that 'buffet' stage who wonders if getting old, fat and unhealthy is all that's ahead of them, let me say there is a really great alternative. 

The Way

I saw 'The Way' starring Martin Sheen and directed by his son Emilio Estevez last week because I am very keen to walk The Camino de Santiago one day. Maybe soon. The Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) is a large network of ancient pilgrim routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) in Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. The most popular route is the Camino Francés which stretches 780 km (nearly 500 miles) from St. Jean-Pied-du-Port near Biarritz in France to Santiago. 

The movie is a sweet, tear jerking load of predictable, sentimental twaddle but I loved it all the same. 


I'm 50 at the end of next year so maybe that would be the time to walk it. Better start preparing my feet.

Buen Camino!

Sunday Strip in Full

Marooned on a Desert Island Series

Castaway starring Tom Hanks is one of my favourite movies so this is a tiny homage to that, especially the second strip about making a fire. If you've seen the movie you'll know what I mean.

Chose the wrong green for that tree, it looks far too dull. Sigh.

9/11 Sunday Strip in Full

There are some touching, clever and beautiful comics out today to mark the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. Many of them can be seen at cartoonistsremember911.com including Ollie and Quentin. I wanted to have my guys enjoying something as simple and beautiful as a sunrise to remind us that despite some of the awful things going on in the world it is still a wonderful place.

Adrenaline Friday Series

3D Sunday Strip in Full

Just like a Pixar movie!