Slimey Oliver

Meet the celebrity chef on the Moonbugs' little moon. The poor squidgey bamf are having a hard time of it as usual. I really love the way gelato looks against the backdrop of stars. His gelatenous body is just a lovely thing, I must put him against stars more often.

It's a small world

This is a strip which emphasises the small size of the Moonbugs home moon. Wow, I just sold a t-shirt on I am so excited, I have made a tiny, titchy, tiny amount of money from the google adds on this page and now I've sold a t-shirt. If you look at this very low amount of money as advertising revenue and a merchandising sale then that makes me a professional comic strip artist, at least in my own mind, and I think that's how I'll be signing into forums from now on. I might wait a little while before I officialy add it to my CV but in my mind the change has been made. I've recently just finnished reading Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto, and it's great. The sort of metaphysical and unusual book I really love. It's not a comic book title, or even comic book related but I like it so much I had to mention it.

More of the Space Mummy

For anyone who's interested there was a space ship inside the kinder egg I mentioned yesterday. This strip has a second installment to the earlier mummy episode http://moonbugs.blogspot.com/2008/03/here-comes-mummy.html Today I would like to mention the slightly old fashioned and sentimental but very well drawn The Spirit, a pulp fiction comic strip hero from way back in the day, long before I was born. I like the spirit because he is very fallable, and I also love the complex and outdated dialog. Great comic book.

Easter with the Moonbugs

Easter has arrived with us again. A beautiful pagan fertility festival celebrated with eggs, rabbits, chocolate and all good things. Right now we have a kinder egg in the hotel mini bar waiting to be opened tommorrow morning, I will report on what lies inside. The Moonbugs are in an easter mood too, with Robodude talking for what I believe is the first time. I picked out some nice scien fiction characters for him to talk with from the bunch that comes with photoshop. I hope that doesn't make things too busy. Today's comic book recommendation comes from Babsi who's favourite has a pouncing tiger on front.

TV Dinner

Again you could say that the influences of Calvin and Hobbes are showing. Bill Wattersons contempt for TV is evident in his strip. I think I have a slightly different take on TV though. Bill never mentioned a show by name, but I think certain shows rise above the ordinary level of the rubbish on TV.
I've included a sort of mention of Desperate Housewives here and I really
think It's one of those shows that rises above.

Here comes the mummy.

Here comes the Space Mummy Caz, you shouldn't have taken his stuff. It was really quite interesting producing this image but it ended up looking much slicker than I intended. My partner in crime Babsi compared it to a disney look, and anyone who has checked in with this comic strip blog should know that I'm much more after a Bill Waterson look! Oh well. I am also trying to find other people on blogger or typepad or whatever who are doing the same thing as this and publishing a comic strip blog. So far I have only managed to find the dilbert creators blog, (another favourite of mine, not for the art of course but for the ideas) and not much else. I'm finding it really hard to sift through all the blogs out there and find really good comic strip blogs to read and enjoy. When I find them I'll do my best to make note of the link and make some kind of blog roll someplace here on this site. That's a project for the future though. Right now just because I mentioned him a link to a Dilbert book.

But what does it mean?

THis comic strip is, I hope, quite arty but at the same time sort of funny. The Moonbugs find an inscription on a wall left by a long dead era in human history. To us an URL is instantly recognisable, but to them of course it's just giberish.

You may have realised that I am totaly into comic books and comic strips and I've decided to share some of my hard won insights and expertise about what is worth a look. To start with an undisputed genius who all comic strip fans must have read, and if not they should go out and get immediately, Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. The influence of this strip on the moonbugs is incredible, right down to me copying the way Bill does his signature. I always loved Calvin and Hobbes and my favourite part was always when Calvin imagined himself to be Spaceman Spiff. The Moonbugs is very much grounded in those Spaceman Spiff adventures. Here's a link to the book where it all started.

Heavy

This comic strip was inspired by the weekly competition run by http://www.illustrationfriday.com/ where the idea is to do an illustration based on a word. This weeks word (unless they have updated it) is heavy. I wracked my brains a little bit and came up with a little joke the Moonbugs characters could do based on the word heavy. It is a little hard on Caz's dignity but them's the breaks.