Cow Attacks

The world is definitely getting madder. There have been a spate of cow attacks here in the UK, usually on people walking their dogs too near cows with young calves. This reminds me of a story my mum told me when she was walking her little fat pug in a field of cows last year. The cows got spooked by little plump Otto and chased after him. Trouble is he has a habit of fainting when exerted and promptly keeled over in mid stampede. My mum had to scoop him up and run out of the field with him slung over her back like one of those soft animal backpacks kids buy.

Stupid Idiot Gary

Gary is Quentin's rival for Rosie's affection and is always referred to by his full title of 'Stupid Idiot Gary'. Apologies to all those Gary's who aren't stupid idiots.

The Rhinomato

Off topic here but I had to show you this weird tomato we grew. We call it The Rhinomato or Hippomato for obvious reasons.

Crossover Comic

My attempt at a crossover comic. Apologies if, like me, you're not a fan of these rather embarrassing strips.

Chable and Dork

I think that's probably it for this joke. Spife? Knork?
Nah.

Party Crasher

Hee Hee, every now and again my Google ad appears on other comic sites. I've seen it beside the excellent Pooch Cafe and Pearls Before Swine Comics and today it made an appearance on the Dilbert site. Looking at it now has made me decide to include an Ollie and Quentin comic strip which I could change weekly. Is that a bit cheeky?

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Happy 'Talk Like A Pirate Day' Everyone!
I don't really like adding my signature to my comics, it seems like unnecessary clutter but I guess it's got to be there. Anyway in today's strip I had a bit of fun with it.

One of my favs in Swedish

Roddy Reid the Veterinarian

This is Roddy Reid the Veterinarian. He looks nothing like the real Roddy Reid who also happens to be a Veterinarian and is, in fact, one of my very good running mates. The above photo shows me running the London 10k with Roddy loitering right on my shoulder, almost coming out of my neck and about to overtake me, the swine.

Samples Update

I've added 6 bonus comic strips to the samples page on my Ollie and Quentin website. Click here and see if you can find them.

Space Hopper

Here in the UK Space Hoppers are funny looking orange things that look like this pencil rough. Trouble is they don't have these in the US so I had to change it to the rather dull hopper in the color final. Wish I'd just scrapped the joke.

Lawnmower

I'm a big user of Google Images for reference but in today's case I used my own lawnmower. It's a hand push version so I had to invent an engine. You can see I'm not an engineer or mechanic as my motor looks decidedly odd. This strip was originally nixed by my editor because it seemed a bit too cruel and grim for my comic. I've toned down the grinding noises of the cutter and added a "Grrr" from Ollie to show he's angry but not dead.

Free Comics in The Guardian

This Saturday, The Guardian newspaper starts giving away a free classic comic every day for a week – including the Beano, the Dandy and Jackie.
I was always a 'Sparky' kid myself.

"Where do you get your ideas?" #664

This week's 'Key' Series comes courtesy of my 17 year old daughter who NEVER remembers her key. I work three floors up in the attic of our house so have to struggle down a narrow spiral staircase and two flights of stairs to open the door for her.

Sunday Coincidence

Darn! Another coincidence, this time with fellow Brit and King Features cartoonist Alex Hallatt of 'Arctic Circle'. I do remember a conversation where we were both thinking of a scrabble joke but had no idea we were doing it for the same day.
BTW Alex has a lovely new site for her strip to celebrate it's 2nd birthday in syndication. Click here for a peek.

Belleville Rendezvous by Sylvain Chomet

If you haven't seen Sylvain Chomet's Belleville Rendezvous then you're in for a treat. The animation is just stunning. The backgrounds are to die for but there are two truly gorgeous scenes I wanted to show you. The first is the house witnessing the march of time and the second is the fantastic freight ship chase across the sea. Isn't that a cool way to draw a ship? Cyclists amongst you will love the story too. Enjoy.

Loch Ness Monster Photo

Wow! Look what Google Earth picked up at Loch Ness in Scotland. Yes, finally, it's conclusive proof of the existence of Photoshop, I mean, Nessie.
Click here for the full story.

The Attic Pigeons Series 1

Another chance to see the first series starring Barbara and Nigel, the attic Pigeons.

Morning Glory Clouds over Australia

I know I'm a bit of a bore-nerd-geek about Nasa's Daily Astronomy Picture of the Day Website but I had to show you this incredible photo. Have you ever seen clouds like these? Click here for a description.

H.Amster

O&Q appear on a Swedish newspaper website and every now and again this guy pops up in their banner. His name always gives me a giggle.

Pearls Before Ollie and Quentin

Like a lot of us I'm a big fan of Stephan Pastis' 'Pearls Before Swine'. I was delighted to see today's PBS being very similar to a joke I did a while back. I know Stephan works a long way in advance so there's every possibility he did this first but, hey it's nice to see the greats thinking like us small fry.

Breakfast in Bed

Actually I hate breakfast in bed. It's so awkward and uncomfortable and crumby and my legs get all hot and restless. Does anyone REALLY enjoy eating in bed?

Drop Shot

I had to make the tennis ball pink to get away with this.

Stephen The Lawyer

Stephen really exists. He's my oldest (and shortest) friend from school. I was best man at his wedding, he IS a lawyer, charges at least that much per hour and... actually he can't draw. Plays hockey for England though, but that's another comic.

He's grown now.

"Who are those two people in my photo?"

A laugh out loud moment in the paper this morning and it wasn't the comics...
This cheeky ground squirrel popped up in the foreground after Melissa Brandts and her husband had set the timer on their camera for a picture of them by Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park, Canada.

Perseid Meteor Shower

In celebration of this week's Perseid Meteor shower...

(Thanks to Mike Lynch for the reminder).

!!!!!!

I like this strip but reading it afresh today I noticed just how many exclamation marks I've put in it. Far too many! Less is more in my strip and I should have taken a few of them out.

Today's Sunday Strip

Just so you can see today's Sunday strip in it's entirety.

My view

This is the view I have from my attic studio. It's where I do all the computer bits of my strip (scanning and coloring). We live at the top of a hill so my view stretches to the horizon. On a clear day I can see London over to the right. The sunsets can be fab from here and it's a really cheap spot to enjoy the town fireworks on bonfire night (Nov. 5th).

"Where do you get your ideas?" #632

Ok, this is a pretty lame strip and I bet you can guess where the idea came from. I write in coffee shops and enjoy the noise of life going on around me. I even pick up good comic strip topics from overheard conversations which is always a bonus. One thing I do have to endure, though, is screaming kids. I've had two of my own so I'm not really complaining but there are times when you think the child really needs to leave 'cos it's been screaming the place down for half an hour. Some parents eh?

While I'm on the subject, the results are in:

Best Americano Coffee... Costa (although it does keep me awake till 2am)
Best Decaff Americano... Cafe Nero
Worst Decaff Americano... Starbucks (I have never tasted anything so foul. I honestly thought they must have scooped a mug of dishwater out of the sink).

IMHO

My home page

My home page is Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day. Sounds really nerdy and dweeby but some of the photos are just gorgeous and not all deep space Hubble shots. Here are some of this year's favorites.

Lucky Plant

This is my "Lucky Plant" given to me when I moved to a new studio in 2006. Within days King Features contacted me saying they wanted to syndicate my comic strip. Wow, it had worked!
Since then it has flourished in the same way that the comic industry has.

Who let the dogs out?

I was interested to see how this joke would work for my Swedish readers so I put "Staten och Kapitalet" into my translator program and it came up as "State and Capital"!? I hope that worked in Swedish 'cos it sounds very odd to me.

Red

I'm really pleased with that final frame. I tried coloring everyone in normal colors but it just didn't work so I went for red throughout. I like it so much I now use it for the reverse side of my Ollie and Quentin business card (except I've taken that frown off Quentin's face).