The Diary of Arnold Annuson: a Sneak Peek

Work on the children's book Michel the Merman is is going really well. A substantial chunk has been finished and I'll being posting up a walk through of my progress soon.

Since a lot of the concept work of the book is finished, the time during commute to teaching gigs is being taken by a new project.

It's called the Diary of Arnold Annuson.

Here's some inked pages and some concept drawings of Arnold to give you a teaser of the story.

It's an idea I've had for a long time, but it go fully fleshed out when my friends and I were having a meal at Dieter Sanchez. Their reaction lead to more pitching ideas from me and the guys. Till I finally said "Let's do this"

I'll be posting the first issue here and may give it it's own site at one stage, we'll see how it goes. I am very excited in exploring the ideas I have for Arnold, trust me things get..... Wierd. ;-)

Duckie the Self-Aware Duck #6 A ReQuack

Here's the last in the get to know Rock arc:

Easily in my top 10 Duckie's of all time. Duckie puts Rock in his place not even meaning to hurt his feelings. 

Virgil the Ferocious Vegetarian: The Complete works

There are many great reasons for becoming vegetarian or vegan, I was even semiveg for quite a few years. Virgil's reasons are somewhat...... unique.

Virgil has been published by Funtime Comics and the gig guide the package from time to time.

This is the very first Virgil comic created at the turn of century 2000!

The stories while simple were a lot of fun with a bunch of easter eggs in each comic.

Here's Virgil the Ferocious Vegetarian number 1

Was first published in the Package in 2000. A few Easter eggs were: 

Panel 1: My band at the time (Maestro Cooltones and the Phantasmacies) Logo on the calendar

Panel 3: Portrait of Micheal from the comic Valin I was drawing at the time.

VFV 2 further expanded on the Virgil's quest to save the world:

The Boss in this comic was fun to draw, his head is never actually attached to his neck and kind of floats there. If you read the blah blahs there's a subliminal message in there.

VFV 3 

I thought I had lost this comic forever having lost the original was happy to see it published in Funtime Comics years later since I forgot I even submitted it. Like finding money in your couch! Looking back I probably would have spent more time on the background in the last panel.

Clockwork Orange Logo for the Title Panel. 
Pak n' Cheap is a play on New Zealand's Cheapest Supermarket Pak n' Save
Floaty head bosses are back!
That Pesky Cooltones logo is back on the coffee mug.

Virgil 4 2004

Page 1

Page 2

4 years later I finally draw another VFV. My girlfriend's (now Wife) favourite character of mine at the time and wanted to see another Virgil.

The Virgil I'm most proud of. I really wanted to step up the detail. The sign slogans were fun to come up with. My favourite is the cow saying "MEAT MAKES US MOOOODY!"

Tons of Street Fighter and Jojo's characters with cameos in the crowd shots. Even my friend Mike D makes an appearance in the black baseball cap.

The stoner in the last panel was cool to draw. "The truth is out of it"

Virgil is a fun character to draw and I still have a backlog of ideas. Maybe I'll revisit this character sometime and see what he's been up to.

Don't let this stay panel fool you. Chances are we'll see Virgil's return one day. Who else is going to save us when Veges rise up to take over the world?

Duckie the Self-Aware Duck #2 a ReQuack

Here's Duckie number 2

This comic was a ton of fun. It kind of introduces you to the trusting naivete of Duckie. At this stage I realized I'm going to need someone for Duckie to talk to. You'll see that character in part 3 :)

Duckie the Self-Aware Duck #1 a ReQuack

This is comic series of mine currently being published by Funtime Comics in my hometown of Christchurch New Zealand.

Duckie the Self-Aware Duck and a cult Internet following back when I was pumping these out once or twice a week. I stopped Duckie after about 64 comics when work commitments interfered.

I don't think there has ever been a complete Duckie collection posted anywhere so I'll put it all in this site for people to see.

I'll try to remember to post a Duckie here a few times per week and provide commentary about each one.

Here's the very first cartoon.

The first sketch of the Duckie character was drawn on a long bus ride in Mexico. As soon as I returned to New Zealand I attended a Arts Festival in Tauranga where I hosted pavement workshops for kids. To introduce people to the sidewalk gallery The kids were creating I drew Duckie with his trademark beret.

Looking at him throughout the week I thought: What if this Duck knew he was a Duck but Duck's shouldn't be able even think these thoughts? And so the first Duckie was born.

Looking back, the duck here is too smart and seems to be reacting to Duckie which is part of the joke. If I had to redraw it I'd make the other duck more brain dead like how the other ducks are portrayed later in the series.