Something Old, Something New

SO HERE we are, three days into the futuristic space-year of 2011! Who knows what will happen over the next twelve months? Perhaps we’ll end the year surfing the internet using nothing but THOUGHT, while eating moon-cakes in our futuristic hover-houses, above the atmosphere.

Or maybe it’ll be pretty much like it is now, but we’ll all be a year older.

I can predict one thing coming your way in 2011, however, by gazing into my crystal ball, and by reading my emails. Mostly the email-reading thing, actually. I don’t own a crystal ball.

Anyhoo: this year will see the return of a classic Dandy character, given a new lease of life via my own two hands. Yes, ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls, The Dandy team have kindly let me run wild with one of their older characters, which is both a JOY and also SLIGHTLY TERRIFYING, in case you all think I’ve ruined said character and chase me out of the comic with flaming pitchforks.

Who is it? That, alas, I cannot say right now, as I am sworn to secrecy on pain of DEATH (or at least a very firm telling-off) but I shall give you these minor clues:

1. It is NOT Desperate Dan, Korky the Cat or Bananaman, all of whom have already been successfully reworked by Jamie Smart, Phil Corbett and Wayne Thompson, respectively.

2. It is NOT Biffo the Bear, Dennis the Menace or The Numskulls, as they are all BEANO characters.

3. NO MORE CLUES!

Feel free to speculate away, of course – therein lies some of the fun!

Mwah-hahahaha!

- Fanton.

(Image taken from The Dandy Comic Library No.88, © DC Thomson & Co.)

31 Dec
2010

Posted in: Blog, Pictures, Words
By Fanton

14 Comments

That Was The Year That Was

AND SO it is time to bid farewell to 2010, a year FULL of changes and transformations. The people of Britain chose to end thirteen years of Labour rule, by voting for no-one in particular, resulting in a strange Frankenstein’s monster of political parties leading the country instead. In Doctor Who, we saw The Doctor regenerate from a man looking a lot like David Tennant, to a man looking a lot like an Easter Island statue teaching geography at a public school. Sherlock Holmes found himself transported from the Victorian era to modern-day London where he proved a dab-hand at using mobile phones, while in cinemas across the land, movies decided that being in a mere two-dimensions was no longer enough, and started leaping out of the screen and kicking popcorn in your face.

Elsewhere, The Dandy, Britain’s longest-running comic, underwent its own transformation, changing itself from being half comic, half magazine and all ‘Xtreme’, to going back to doing what it does best – showcasing nothing but excellent COMICS. In doing so, it also transformed me from being a hapless, unemployable wretch, to being a paid cartoonist.

Yes, it was definitely a year of two halves, commencing with me being made redundant from my old job, and left wondering what exactly I do next, misery and despair hanging over me like a particularly noxious guff-cloud. But there was a brighter side to losing my job, and that was that it made me realise I wasn’t really any good at any of my previous jobs, nor did I enjoy them. It was time to focus my energies on something I was vaguely competent at, and which I genuinely, passionately wanted to do – cartooning!

It was when the lovely and legendary Lew Stringer made some very nice comments about my webcomic, The Carrotty Kid, (citing it as being ‘easily on a par with any comic’) that I really got serious about trying to break into the world of strip-cartoonery. If a hugely talented professional like Lew could see merit in my doodles, maybe I COULD get something published?

Shortly thereafter, I was spurned on again by another cartooning great, Jamie Smart, who let me know that The Dandy was looking for new cartoonists and new characters. Not only that, but Jamie seemed genuinely keen to encourage me to go for it, which buoyed my confidence further, and so I did indeed go for it.

Thankfully, the lovely Dandy folk (editor Craig Graham and Michelle O’Donnell) really liked my ‘George vs Dragon‘ idea, and the rest, as they say, is Stuff That Happened In The Past.

Since then, the second half of my year has been immeasurably better than the first, and it has been the happiest and most satisfying experience in all of my working life. I’ve seen my work in print in one of the very comics I grew up reading as a kid, I’ve found myself holding a monster-drawing workshop for children, I’ve been in the local newspaper and I’ve met some more wonderful people along the way. It really has been a fantastic time for me.

So, thank you, 2010, for not being as awful as you first appeared. And thank you, Lew, Jamie, Craig and Michelle for helping to get me here now. And thanks to my lovely family and friends who have supported me, and of course big thanks to YOU, the readers, who have been so quick to take George vs Dragon to your big, collective heart. It all means a very great deal to me.

Here’s hoping 2011 is just as good, if not MORE so. I’ve got some ideas bubbling away, one of which I shall be able to hint about in the new year. Until then, I hope you have yourselves a very, very, VERY Happy New Year, and make 2011 something special!

Twenty Ten was all well and good, but next year it’s going up to ELEVEN.

- Fanton.

24 Dec
2010

Posted in: Blog, Pictures
By Fanton

10 Comments