Little Bagpipe Boy

Lazy Santa

This is what I'd do if I was Santa.

Tax Santa

How does Santa avoid paying tax?

Tablets For Christmas

So I said to my wife "I think we can afford to get you a tablet for Christmas".  Then I showed her this cartoon.

You may have noticed a lack of cartoons recently.  I am currently busy with another non-blog cartoon project but hopefully I'll be able to fling out a few Christmas chuckles along the way.

3 for 2 wise men

My favourite wise men are back for the competition.  Christmas is coming!

Charles Deckings

Who the dickens chose a theme of Dickens for a cartoon competition? I believe it was Mr Bright who is responsible for me having to submit this tortured pun.

Darth Vader Meditation 2: Ewok Tea Party

This is my second Darth Vader meditation cartoon for a CCGB competition (here was no.1).

iPad Mini

My cartoon take on the new iPad Mini announced today.

Crocodile Bird

This cartoon about Crocodile Birds (or Egyptian Plover) is for the CCGB competition.  However from the Wikipedia article expanded in this blog posting I discover that there is debate whether this relationship actually happens in nature the way Herodotus described it.

With apologies to Warren Photography on whose digital reconstruction this cartoon was based.  You can see the original here http://www.warrenphotographic.co.uk/00955-nile-crocodile-with-egyptian-plover

Goldfish Swimming Lessons

I set the caption for this competition so here's my entry.  The castle is based on the castle in my fish tank but the fish are purely fictitious.

This one came 2nd on the podium of Caption Comp 166.

Bayeux Tapestry Cartoon

Cartoon based on the Bayeux Tapestry which won the CCGB competition 165 theme History (wordless).
Can you believe I first entered this tough competition in Caption Competition No. 86 and after entering most weeks it has taken until Caption Competition 165 before I could register a win.  Hurray!

Nick Clegg's Apology

I'm still not sure of what to make of Nick Clegg's apology over his tuition fee pledge.
Then I imagine what I'd think if my daughter tried the same line with us...

Fly Half

Cartoon for this week's competition with the theme of Rugby.

New iPhone 5

Cartoon about new iPhone 5 launched today - the fanbois are from previous iPhone 5 launch cartoon.

Batmum

Introducing Batmum the new superhero to sort out those misbehaving villains of Gotham City.

Tiger Adoption

For this week's competition.

Christmas in August

Have to get this one off my chest.  I was in a certain garden centre on Sunday and right in the middle of the store they were selling Christmas crackers and some decorations in AUGUST!!  That is a staggering 120 days before when you might possibly need them.  I'm sure if there was a present for the kids with a great discount you may be tempted to snatch it up and put it away somewhere but what sort of person thinks they need Christmas crackers that far in advance.  The worrying thing is that someone must to make it worth their while.

So it's another outing for my Three Wise men.  You may see them again on Black Friday or nearer the big day although it's never too early for Christmas cartoons it seems.

New Season Writeoffs

The new Premiership season kicked off today and already seasons are being written off by tomorrow.

Liverpool crashed out to West Brom 3-0 so that will be their season over.

Also Arsenal failed to score against Sunderland so they will be in crisis as well especially since Song is maybe going to Barcelona.

As always pundits have column inches to fill and fans of all colours have comments to vent at so these clubs are always attracting these stories which later in the season turn out to have been premature.

Football is a simple game and at the last match (Egypt vs Belarus at Hampden) it was easy to shout at both teams for not doing the seemingly easy task of putting the ball in the net.  If we can see it from the paying seats how much more should managers and coaches just be telling their players to just score goals.

Football may be simple but it's not easy and today's defeats while good for headlines are no indicator of future performance.


Above is the version posted to the CCGB competition but after I did it I noticed a glaring error so I post the corrected version below so you can play spot the difference and laugh at my mistake (I pencilled a detail in the rough but forgot to ink it)

Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly

I was researching the nonsense nursery rhyme 'There was an old lady who swallowed a fly' for a competition idea and let my son watch a animated Youtube video of it.  As the women eats the various animals oblivious to her own digestive processes she is at risk of death which is medically not an issue for swallowing flies and spiders at least.  Finally she eats a horse and of course she dies leaving behind a legacy of confusing children as to what to do if they swallow bugs and encouraging poor food preparation and problem solving skills.

So children if you want to eat a cow ask for a Happy Meal in McDonalds and wash it down with a drink rather than a horse.

Post Olympics

Now the 2012 Olympics it's time to adjust to normal life again.  Even the news channels can't stop talking legacy and all sorts of sports stories to just hang on to the moment for just a little longer.

The people I feel sorry for are the mascots.  What are Wenlock and Mandeville going to do after the Paralympics?

Neolithic

For this week competition with the theme Prehistoric Times.  Human Prehistory is of usually broken into three ages Stone, Bronze and Iron.  The Stone Age is further broken down into Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and Neolithic (New Stone Age).  Originally the caption mentioned the iStone 5 but the extra number in an era of illiteracy seemed irrelevant.

Golden Fleece

Singing in the Rain

Drawn for a competition with the theme 'RAIN' the reference is to Gene Kelly in Singing In The Rain.

Wimbledon Final

I don't think the HRH the Queen is going to Wimbledon to see Andy Murray in the final.  However I like to think she may have a secret plan armed with nothing more than a sniper rifle and some plastic bullets.

Science Fair

For this week's CCGB competition.

Christians vs Lions

For this week's CCGB competition.

Prometheus The Plot According To Me (Spoilers)

I saw Ridley Scott's Prometheus last Thursday and came away rather confused.  After arriving home at midnight I attempted to sketch out what I had seen and then decided to turn it into a one page cartoon summary.  However it took me several attempts to try and condense it enough until I realised that it didn't matter if the condensed version was confusing when the entire full length movie didn't entirely make sense.  The result doesn't exactly fit on the page but was as close as I could get it.

If you haven't seen the movie then this contains spoilers and will make no sense, if you have then I hope you get it and can explain what was going on.

It was a shame I love alot of Ridley Scott's previous work like Black Hawk Down and Alien but while it was pretty it was also pretty confusing.

++ UPDATE ++
Plenty of people have had a go at trying to explain the plot and some of them sound quite plausible.
Heres one I quite enjoyed reading http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html.

Predictive Texting

I believe modern technology has made it easier than ever to communicate but also easier than ever to communicate badly. Fonts have no way of expressing the emotion behind them so it impossible to say how your text or Facebook post will be interpreted.

Having said that with smart phones, Siri and AI there should be a way for phones to alert you when you are about to make common relationship errors.

Housemaid's Knee

Earlier this week I did something to my knee and the doctor reckons I have Housemaid's Knee (Prepatellar Bursitis) and it may take a few weeks to clear up.

To cheer myself up I imagined all the inappropriate responses to me telling people this and drew them up as a cartoon.

Roy Hodgson Caricature

What am I doing putting caricatures of the England manager on my cartoon website - well it's for a competition.

Eurovision 2012

This one for the CCGB competition is not merely topical it's live.  I drew it as I watched several European entries in the Eurovision 2012 contest.

It reminds me a bit of a previous CCGB entry entitled Manufactured Pop.

For the record I like the Russian grannies Buranovskiye Babushki.

Galilee Water Park

This was not my first attempt at the CCGB competition but given the topic a cartoon about Jesus seemed obvious.  However apart from this one I don't regularly draw cartoons on this topic mainly because as a Christian it is hard to find an angle that isn't irreverent but still has something to say.

Take Baby Jesus and his presents the other cartoon when I tried to explore the humanity of Jesus the baby against traditional art's interpretation of the nativity.  Here is Jesus showing off?  Am I portraying miracles as something done for a laugh when they always had a serious purpose. Did Jesus have fun?  As always I don't have enough answers but its sometimes fun to pose the questions.

UK unemployment 2012

Quite happy with my caricatures of the Right Honourable David Cameron and George Osborne but not so sure this attempt at the CCGB caption competition "It's a miracle!" is going to cause many laughs.

It is of course based on the news that unemployment fell by 45,000 to 2.63 million in the last 3 months.  My graph is based on the BBC figures from 2007 onwards although I have used that old statistical trick of not starting the Y axis at 0 to make it seem more dramatic.

Hodgson's Choice

Today Roy Hodgson announced his squad for Euro 2012 as the markets crashed around him.

As an Englishman in Scotland I have followed the England side since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and when I read the names in this squad it just felt like World Cup 2010 all over again.  Many of the same players who disappointed in that tournament are back again and there is a lack of new talent.

Thor

Another Avengers character Thor god of Thunder.  Back in the 1960s Stan Lee and Marvel thought that making a superhero a God would be an interesting twist but how would he fair in the modern world?

Premiership Climax

This is for the CCGB caption competition.  I wasn't sure about colouring it in as if I was wrong I couldn't change my entry and would look foolish.

Ironing Man (Avengers 2)

Part two of my avengers series and another obvious pun.  Google 'Ironing Man' and you'll see plenty others examples like this.  I wonder if anyone has a better caption for this one.

In other news this is my 200th blog posting.

Yodaphone

For this week's CCGB competition themed Phone.

This week I say Yoda talking about Vodaphone in a commercial and wondered how much lower the silly muppet could get.

Back to the Avengers series later

Originally I did this gray version but felt it lacked the punch of the colour one.

Modern Avengers #1: The Hulk

The (American) Avengers made their debut in 1963 and now a blockbuster film is being released nearly 40 years later to show them in the modern world.  This lead me to think about how I would portray each of these old characters in the modern world so this is the start of a series of up to six cartoons about each of the Avengers characters.

I start with the Hulk who ought to be the ultimate 'Green' hero.  Thanks to our education system my daughter now shouts at me in supermarket checkout queues if I don't bring reusable bags with me.

Some facts about the Hulk
1. The Hulk was originally grey not green but as green was difficult to print he was turned to green by issue #2 of "The Incredible Hulk" comic series
2. The Hulk has grown over time being originally 7-8ft in the comics, he is now 10-15ft in the films and modern comics.
3. Bruce Banner is one of many Marvel characters with alliterative names e.g. Peter Parker, Matt Murdoch, Green Goblin, Pepper Potts, Silver Surfer,Fantastic Four

How I Met Your Mother (Snow White)

I've always thought this about Snow White!  I was sure I'd already done this idea but my only Snow White cartoon I have done was from way back (check the difference in technique).

Apologies to anyone who came here from Google expecting to find out about the American tv-series.

Titanic

For those who haven't heard it will be the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic tomorrow.  However I actually drew this cartoon for a CCGB competition back in January hence the caption.

The problem was the Saturday of posting the news of the Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia disaster was all over News 24 a fact I was alerted to by another entry for the competition that mentioned boats/liners.  Tying it with the caption then was not a good time for posting this and so I shelved it until now.

I still don't understand why Titanic sinking is such a romantic topic whereas other disasters like planes crashing would just be horrific.

The Scream

Space Tourism

Easter Bunny's Mummy

Hunger Games

I haven't studied either of these in great depth but it does seem strange the different reactions of people only weeks apart.

Scottish Summer Time

For this week's CCGB competition theme 'BRITISH SUMMER TIME'.

The history of British Summer Time is quite interesting you should look at it in Wikipedia.

The Lion, The Witch And The Flat-Pack Wardrobe

Last time I did any DIY I came up with the DIY reactor kit.  This time I was thinking about wardrobes.

I had the feeling that someone must have done this gag before and a bit of googling found one very similar here.  Finding your idea isn't that original happens quite alot and even leads to me seeing cartoons in print that are almost identical to ones I have drawn in the past.  Every week when I draw for the CCGB caption competition I inevitably see some of my ideas drawn by others proof that great minds do think alike.

Granny Tax

A cartoon about George 'We're-All-In-This-Together' Osbourne's recent budget.