Cartoon Monkey Man

Studiomates - a toon strip

The cartoonish ramblings of a monkey man and his lethargic studio mate. It's a tale as old as time, err... a cautionary tale for any brave soul willing to chase a creative dream.

"Why are we opening this studio, Walt?" Gloom asks.

"Because we want to make a pict-sha," Walt responds holding an imaginary cigar to his mouth. "Seriously, though. We've been talking about making movies since we were kids. It's as good a time as any."

"But we're both broke."

Walt stands up, grabs a 0.9 leaded pencil from a pen cup, and leans over Gloom's desk. It looks like Gloom could have just woken up from a nap, eye goop and all.

"Means we need to get to work, right?" Walt says. "First 20 pages done by Monday."

And so, the actions (and non-actions) begin. Walt to design a wonderul world, and Gloom to write. The fact is, the road to gold is likely more entertaining than the prize.

Something about a rabbit, a turtle, and a marathon...

Studiomates is a fun strip idea I had a few weeks ago. I'm a big fan of telling a gag or story in four panels. I'm also a big fan of animation, and I thought, hey, wouldn't it be cool to do a strip about two buds opening up a studio and plugging away on their first animated feature?

All the thoughts, happenings, and emotions that go through a person's mind when embarking on such a quest would be interesting to tell, and I'm sure that it's not entirely different than when someone sits down to do their first comic book. I'm building the strip in real time for the most part so let's see what it molds into!

Change Ain’t Easy

It's lift off in the new studio room…

Moving houses is exhausting but going as planned. I've got a bunch of penciled pages queued up that I need to start painting, so the sooner I get the new setup done, the sooner I can get to work.

I'm sure most cartoonists have this problem, but let me reiterate:

It's a sickness, or just a passion- affirming form of expression. Yeah, let's go with the latter.

The holidays are upon us. Hope you're getting to some holiday favorites. I just watched a new Christmas movie starring Jack Black that I refuse to name because holy crap that thing was not good.

Any way, happy holidays!

Thanks for your time,

Nico