Mermaid's Cove: A Special Illustration

I am very proud to announce a new illustration that I hope will become part of a series. This began as my tribute to the California coast, and turned into a very special piece for a very special someone.  And yes, that is Flash the studio cat, sniffing at the bucket of fish. :0)

Mermaid's Cove is my own creation, but after leaving Comic-con in San Diego this year, I drove up the coast and visited many strange and beautiful places along the California shore.  I'd love to go back and explore some more, but for now I'm there in my imagination.


Mermaid's Cove is now available as a print at my DeviantArt Gallery, where you can see it in better detail.  The print will also be available soon in our shop and at conventions that we attend.

 Please let me know what you think of this illustration.    Thanks,    JOHN :0)

Cats and Continuity (updated)

So my last two posts have dealt with the newest addition to my home, and how I deal with such matters in my comic strip.  I'm talking, of course, about Snowie the cat, who has complicated my life tremendously, and yet has given me loads of comic strip material by joining the cast of Knight and Day.

I also mentioned how fortuitous her arrival was, since I was actually in the early planning stages of introducing the idea of Iris wanting a cat.  Of course, once I started asking for advice on facebook, everyone wanted Snowie in the strip, and so she was, the very next day.  The only problem with that was, with people enjoying the strips, I felt obligated to do more.  However, a cat like Snowie can't just magically appear in a comic strip.  Besides, she deserves an introduction, and her own little storyline, doesn't she?

And so I find myself going back and forth between brand new strips featuring Snowie and brand new strips introducing the idea of Snowie, and then Snowie herself.  Not to mention the backlog of other strips written and waiting to be drawn!  So please bear with me.  I'll post Snowie strips at the website, and on facebook, and post some pre Snowie strips here.  Soon, I hope, I will have filled in the gaps, and will either post the storyline on a special webpage, or save it for the next comic strip collection.

Hopefully for you, the reader, each strip stands alone, and yet fits into the overall continuity.  Kind of like reading someone's journal by flipping back and forth through the pages looking for juicy stuff. :0)

All the best,    JOHN :0)

Art Preceding Life, and Vice Versa!

[updated:  all strips added]



I posted last about Snowie, the latest addition to the Knight and Day comic strip.  When she arrived at my doorstep, I asked for advice from my facebook friends, and immediately got requests for her to join the strip.  Who am I to argue, I thought, and Snowie joined the cast.

Now, at this moment in time I happen to be extremely busy, what with the taxes, and a new freelance project, so I drew some Snowie toons from life, and what was happening.  Then, recently, I sat down with my project notebook to see my To Do list.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw that I was kind of heading in this direction on my own. :0)

Yeah, I know... it's hard to surprise yourself, but hey, I said I've been busy!  And besides, my project notebook is full of scribblings, sketches, and thoughts... many of which may never become cartoons.  Still, it was funny to find a page of notes for Knight and Day, all dealing with Iris wanting a cat, and getting... something different.  Funny, and useful!

This actually solves my problem of continuity, by giving me a transition from pre-Snowie to Snowie.   Eventually there will be another Knight and Day collection which, generally, follows my drawing order, but sometimes involves strips being shifted around for a variety of reasons, mainly that they make better reading in a new order.  Also, truth be told, I sometimes draw strips 'out of order', either because I need to draw a certain strip first so I can establish the scene visually, or just because one strip seems more fun to draw and I don't want to wait.

So, anyway, here are a few of those pre-Snowie strips.  Once we get these told, we can go back to telling Snowie's story.

Cheers,    JOHN :0)

PS By the way, if there is anything you particularly want me to write about, feel free to let me know.  I sometimes wonder if I should do more basic Cartooning posts, or more advanced?  Meanwhile, I'll try to keep a good mix. :0)

Art Imitating Life: Snowie

They say that Life imitates Art, but for a cartoonist, Art so often comes from real life. It’s the ‘write what you know’ theory. In this case, a hungry white cat showed up on our doorstep one night and turned our lives upside down. It was immediately expected, by those following the story on facebook, that this blizzard of fur had to appear in Knight and Day.

Oddly enough, I once had a cat very much like Snowie, and it was always my intention to have Snowball appear in my comic strip one day. As nice as that would have been, it just didn’t feel right when Knight and Day rolled around. However, you can see her in a few of my earliest comic strips, in my book Once Upon a Times....

Now, however, I can pay homage to both cats at the same time, and get inspiration from both real life and from happy memories.

A star is born. :0)

JOHN :0)
PS On my iPod?  Sarah Brightman, La Luna