A Little Somethin' for you Art Fans...

Yeah, I know this is the TCFC Archive, but I also said I'd put up some of my other miscellaneous stuff from the past. This is a picture I painted when I was 16, for my GCSE Art course, and which now hangs proudly above my bed. It's meant to be painted in the style of a famous artist, but I can't remeber which famous artist. If you recognise the style, lemme know. The photo doesn't really do the pic justice (it's actually pretty big in real life) and there's five kinds of crazy glare bouncing off it, but I thought I'd post it just to show that I'm not just a doodler.

Oh, and it doesn't have a name, so if you want to suggest a name, stick it in the comments box below.

Robot (work in progress)

"I'm sorry Mrs. Circuit, but your husband's condition has worsened. You may have to consider pulling the plug..."

This is one where my reach exceeded my grasp. I like to try and keep my cartoons simple: partly because it's easier to colour, partly because it looks better when shrunk down to its published size. The punch-line to this one isn't bad, but nor is it spectacular. It's the little details that make me like this cartoon (note the Ward names and the name of the robot surgeon), but in the end they don't save it from being so-so. If I ever start publishing in a bigger format then it'll make it back in, but as it is, it stays firmly in the drawer.

Penguins (work in progress)

"Gentlemen, I present to you our next plan to take over Great Britain: Operation: 'Beaked Leader'!"

Okay, this one was going to be in the roster for publication, but the knowledge it would take so bloody long to colour, coupled with the fact that it's only funny in my head, meant that it was soon dropped. I think I drew this at a phase when I found penguins trying to take over the world/and dressing in coats to try and look like people funny. In the cold light of day its really not a good stand-alone cartoon. But I thought I'd give it its chance here before it went into 'The Draw from which no Cartoons return...' (aka, the bin).

TCFC Title

This is the TCFC title picture, minus its title. It gets used for the front of portfolios, promo stuff, and was going to be used as the title box that's in front of every cartoon until I decided to simplify it. Every one of the characters that's featured has appeared in (at least) one cartoon, and one or two have recurring roles (keep an eye out for the 3-eyed alien wearing a trilby).

If (and that's one helluva big if) there's ever a collection of my cartoons in book form, you can bet that this is going to be on the front.

Gun (tbp)

Another one based on a 'saying'. I'm not sure how guns reproduce though...perhaps that'll be the subject of a future cartoon...

Book Jacket (to be published)

Aww...literary love...

Only problem with this cartoon is that I forgot to draw labels on the books before I scanned and coloured them in...

It's not massively funny as a cartoon, but it is kinda cute...

Coming soon...

Steroid abusing reindeer! Books on a date! Sharks getting ready for dinner! Son of a Gun! And more...!

Giraffe (4/02/08)

If you're reading this before February 4th then you're getting a sneak peek at the next 'Courier' cartoon, you lucky thing you.

This one took me by surprise - and still does - because it's one that everyone finds funnier than I do. Everyone who's seen it likes it a lot. I just think it's vaguely funny, but I'm not one to disagree with my audience. It's one of two 'lost punch-line' jokes I've done, the other involving a sudden blizzard making pretty much the whole frame and the joke.

I also had to learn to draw a giraffe for this. My early efforts were laughable (and not in a good way), so I had to look at a picture of one to see how its legs were shaped. I'm rather pleased with the colouring on the body. It took forever to do but was well worth it.

Pianos (3/12/07)

I'd worked philosophy into a joke, so as an English Literature graduate I figured I could squeeze out at least one literary pun. Don't ask me how I came up with Frankensteinway & Son, the amalgamation of famous monster and famous piano maker just hit me out of the blue one day.

I didn't realise, but this was for the last issue of 'The Courier' before Christmas, which explains why it's not festive. I'd already got ready a festive joke, thinking there was another issue, but as there wasn't it went back in the draw. I'll put it up on here eventually cos I'm really rather proud of it.

Knight (26/11/07)

This one is pretty self-explanatory, though the idea didn't come from a girl but from me. I was about to go into a Starbucks when I noticed that the guy standing at the back of the queue was wearing the exact same shirt as me. I wasn't about to look like one half of a double act so needless to say I decided to miss my coffee...

Muffin (19/11/07)

Ah...
I have to apologise for this one: it had been a busy week, I wasn't feeling in the right mood to be funny, and I didn't have time to submit anything else. The result is something that's not really funny and is a little obscure. It's not terrible, but it's probably - no, it is - the least amusing cartoon I've ever drawn. Let me know if you disagree, but I doubt there'll be many. On the plus side, I do think it looks quite pretty. And that muffin looks genuinely terrified.

Philosophy (12/11/07)

I have to admit, I'm very proud of this one, partly because (as with economics) it's not easy to fit philosophy into a joke that everyone's going to get (look out for an economics joke soon by the way, all you Adam Smith/David Ricardo fans). I know nothing about philosophy, so I took a phrase from it that even non-philosophy fans would know. As I often do, I tested it out on a couple of people before submission and the response was good enough to warrant its release. It's also the only cartoon not to have come from my back-catalogue and to have been drawn in the week before submission instead, which puts a lot more pressure on.

Square Pig (6/11/07)

A lot of the cartoons I do are based on sayings, idioms and cliche's, and this (along with 'Pear-Shaped') is a prime example. Chronologically it's one of the first cartoons I did, back in the day when I came up with one new joke a month rather than the average of five a week as now. It's not my favourite, but I was running close to my deadline and at the time I thought it was better than the other potentials. It's often the case that I'll choose a cartoon to publish based on how I'm feeling in the days beforehand. But heck, there are days when a square pig seems funny and there are days when it doesn't. C'est la vie.

Pear-Shaped (29/10/07)

This is one that I think provokes a smile rather than a chuckle, but I'm still proud of it.

Rock, Paper, Scissors (22/10/07)

This was one of the first cartoons I'd ever drawn and it's still my favourite. I think it's funny becasue of its simplicity: it's one of those cartoons in which all the elements have their place and fit in it - the drawing, the speech bubble, the lead in line - there's no waste of words or ink. It's also where I got the title for the whole cartoon series (more on that later).

I'm so proud of this one that I think I might have it chiselled onto my headstone when I'm dead.

Dragon (15/10/07)

The first of the cartoons to be published in 'The Courier' and it's one of my favourites. I've never been on a date in which I've been set on fire, but there have been one's where I wished I had been, just so I could get out of there...
As you might notice, I'm not actually that good at drawing people, so I tend to stick to animals and animate objects. Plus, Gary Larson has done pretty much all the good human jokes...

Oh...

And if you're looking for all my non-cartoonatic ramblings, they're currently regenerating into a new blog that'll be appearing soon...

Too Close for Comfort

Welcome to the Too Close for Comfort Archive, where all the cartoons that have featured in Newcastle University's Courier Newspaper - and a lot of ones that haven't - are stored for the amusement of the general public. I'm going to put other random stuff that I draw, so that y'all can have a gander at it. Feel free to let me know what you find funny and what you don't, and hopefully at least one'll tickle the ol' funny bone. As you can see I've just started the blog, so there's not a lot at the minute, but that'll soon change when I've got stuff uploaded. And after that there'll be at least one a week for your delectation.
Enjoy!

ROB