Trouble Down Pit

I think I can honestly say that this is the best cartoon image I’ve ever drawn. Yay!

It’s really nice to be drawing regularly again. I’ve spent so long working in animation that it’s easy to forget the fun of sitting down with a blank screen and creating something afresh without having to worry how I’m going to make it move, direct the eye around the screen with the animation, synch up the sounds, suggest depth of space with the movements, ensure that the composition remains balanced, yadda yadda yadda… I’m finding that daily drawing is making all those old lessons come flooding back and pay dividends. These are the times that years of art education were all for!

Well… Those years probably weren’t intended to help me draw a giant squid with an eye-patch, but that’s what they’ve done!

What do you think of the comic so far? I’ve got two new characters coming in on Friday, which will be fun, and I’ve got some major tangents to wander off along at some point in the not-too-distant future.

How soon that future comes is a big question. Currently I only have enough time to do two strips per week, so I need to work out a way to turn comic strips into rent (real life sucks, I heartily recommend avoiding it for as long as possible). At the moment, there are two easy ways to help this strip:

Tell your friends. Yep, link to https://comic.matazone.co.uk/ wherever you can, link directly to the images and make a link back to the main page if you want – the more people reading the better!

When you’re shopping from Amazon, start your trip with a search using the boxes below; this site then gets 5% of whatever you spend. That’s not a lot really, but it does add up over time. I’ve just used the last 18 months worth of Amazon.com credit to get myself a new, desperately needed, graphics tablet so I can speed up the strip production time. That’s the kind of thing that really helps me out, so thanks to everyone who’s already used the links! Bear this in mind for school books, and while buying presents for Christmas please!

There is a third way: my shop, at time of writing this (18th Sept 2006), doesn’t have any Trouble Down Pit merchandise in it, but there’s loads of other cool stuff. Have a look, you might see something you fancy!

So, tell your friends, use the Amazon links, check out my shop. Thanks! I’d love to be able to make this my living and post five strips a week, but I’m going to need your support!

I’m being organised again: this is going online at 8:17am. Woohoo!

Have a great week, and see you on Friday!

P.S. Did I mention to tell your friends? 😉