Happy 40th Birthday Gemma

It's my lovely sister's 40th birthday today. She won't be happy I've told everyone how old she is. Happy Birthday Gemma.

Stray Kid

Caffeine

It's comic strip appreciation week here 'cos another great strip I read every day is Between Friends by Sandra Bell-Lundy. I can really relate to her current series about being a caffeinaholic.
I gave up caffeine a couple of years ago but still sometimes go to coffee shops to write my comic strip. I sit there drinking disgusting watery decaffeinated coffee. So weak are some of these coffees that I was even falling asleep at the tables using my blank notebook as a pillow. Last week I accidentally ordered a proper coffee and WOW, not only did I stay awake but the ideas came thick and fast.
So Thursday, my writing day, is now my caffeine day too or do you think I'm kidding myself and am about to completely fall off the wagon?

Fishy

The first strip I read every day is Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan. I love it although it always reminds me of the faux pas I made when meeting the great King Features Sales Team for the first time. I was asked which my favorite comic strips were and I instantly replied Pooch Cafe before my brain engaged and yelled at me that I should be naming King Features comics first. Of course I then listed some of the Kings greats but by then the damage was done.
Anyway Pooch Cafe has a fish called Fish. Ollie and Quentin have a fish called Fishy who even sits on a similar table in an identical round fish bowl. My Fishy existed long before I'd ever seen Pooch Cafe, honest.
The character came about because my son has two fish that refuse to die. He's had them about 9 years! All the others died about 8 years ago but for some reason these two just live on. We struggled to give them names but finally decided on Beany (because one looked like my old school friend Christopher Bean) and B*stard because he's... well, a right little b*stard and probably the reason all the others died. I'd like to call Ollie and Quentin's Fishy 'Beany' but Quentin looks so much like a Jelly Bean himself that it might be misleading. 'Sushi' seemed a bit obvious so until I hear from Paul Gilligan's lawyers it's going to have to remain 'Fishy'.

Paul Thompson

I love Richard Thompson's brilliant Cul de Sac cartoon strip and have promised to name a lugworm after him if ever I get the chance. The above strip was the perfect opportunity and my rough did indeed use Richard for the Worm Twister Champion's name but when I came to do the artwork it just wouldn't fit!
Next time.

Happy Dad's Day Dads

South Downs Marathon Relay

Regular readers of this blog will know I love my running. On sunday 4 teams from my running club entered the South Downs Marathon Relay where each member of the team runs approximately a quarter of a marathon each over the beautiful but hilly English South Downs. This is a very rare shot of me actually smiling during a race. The photographer made me laugh by scrambling frantically out of our way as we ran past.
I wish I could say I think of lots of cartoon strip ideas while I'm running but so far I think I can only say I've thought of one and a half.

Website Samples Update

It's been a while since I updated the samples on the Ollie and Quentin website. Click here to see a few new ones.

Ollie and Quentin visit Arctic Circle

Look at this! An Ollie and Quentin lunchbox in Alex Hallatt's wonderful Arctic Circle comic strip. This made my hair stand on end when I saw it whilst reading my comics over on DailyInk. Arctic Circle, by fellow Brit Alex, was launched just ahead of Ollie and Quentin and has quickly found it's voice. I love Alex's bold drawing style which really stands out on the page. Go look at her website www.moontoon.com or read her new blog here.
Thanks Alex, one day I hope to repay the favor.

Excuse

Sorry, it's been ages since my last post. My illustration work (the day job) has been deathly quiet this year and then like buses two meaty jobs come in together. One of them has the most crazy, stupid, mad and totally unreasonable timings ever so I've been drawing away like a nut job to try and stay on schedule. So far I'm only a week behind and am at that "don't answer the phone when it rings" stage.

There, that's my excuse.

Ollie and Quentin Blocked

I received this from my good friend Roddy. He was blocked from accessing the Ollie and Quentin website at the school where he works for the most bizarre and flattering reason.

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.

Quentin Blake and The Big Draw

Here I am with cartoonist Quentin Blake (center) and Michael Newman-Horwell of English Heritage (right). Michael and I have just received an award for our Big Draw Event at Battle Abbey near Hastings where we helped hundreds of kids recreate the Bayeaux Tapestry in cartoon form. Quentin Blake is one of my favorite cartoonists and it was a pleasure to meet him (even though you should never meet your heroes). He was as charming and delightful as his illustrations. I didn't have the nerve to tell him I had a character called Quentin in my cartoon strip as I worried I'd sound like a creepy, stalking weirdo. Don't I look enormous next to him? I also appear to have lost an arm.

It was while I was working at Battle Abbey those 2 days back in October 2006 that I received my call from King Features Syndicate saying that they were interested in my comic strip. (I still have the voicemail recording which I'll put onto this blog one day).

Quentin treated us to a live cartoon drawing display and you can see something similar if you visit The Campaign for Drawing's website.

"The Campaign for Drawing's aim is simple: to encourage everyone to draw. Its annual showpiece, The Big Draw, proves that drawing can be a public activity as well as a private passion. Every October, 1000 venues across Britain, from large national institutions to village halls, join in to offer many thousands of people of all ages the chance to discover that drawing is enjoyable, liberating and at everyone's fingertips."

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