Astounding Horrors: [2]

THE RICH VEIN of Cartoon Horror has thus far been woefully underexploited within the comic-pages of BABY BOOMER, and again there is a lot of potential in there, but up 'til now, it's been kept to a minimum. This is yet another theme bristling with cartoon potential, and the following diagram reveals  the very first public airing of  the 'skellingtons' who inhabit poor JET'S flat to torment him at will.

The 'skellingtons' usually get 'sorted out', though, thru' the usual comic-cavortings. I am aware that the term 'skellington' has been widely used in the Jack Skellington character within the Nightmare before Christmas, but I was using this term long before I ever heard of Tim Burton, and  indeed I used to use this word in my natural speech when I was very young and never knew any better.....to be on the safe side, the skeletons are un-named in the actual strips, especially seeing they are minor supporting characters amidst the cartoon mayhem.


The design of the skeletons are more than likely inspired by the Ub Iwerks versions seen in the very first SILLY SYMPHONY produced by Disney: SKELETON DANCE, from 1929 I believe.

I have been asked if skeletons are difficult to draw: well, not especially...they're much fun to draw actually, they  already have in-built comedy from the outset.

They're bleedin' time-consuming, though! [he said, good-naturedly].








HOW it's DONE:




If anyone reading this [who's not already a cartoonist] is interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff in cartune-ology, well, here's the first rough diagram that was done for the above cartoon; forget flash, expensive computer-gear, this was done with pencil on el-cheapo paper, costing around a half-penny a sheet.[ In fact, I often just use the back blank page of junk-mail from the Council, etc; It doesn't matter in the slightest, as it's only a throwaway sketch].


These very roughly- drawn scribbles are belted out extremely quickly, but for me, they're the most important part of the cartoon process; you can see at a glance if the concept is working effectively or not,---- if not, change it----you've only invested a minute or two on it, so no great loss to rearrange--------then when it's looking fine, transfer onto decent drawing paper.

You can add computer malarkey later, but getting the basics on paper with pencil  first will teach you a lot of useful techniques that are important before you even begin to think about adding embellishments digitally.

This is what works well for me, though other cartoonists likely have different  ways of achieving their desired results: everyone has their own preferences in drawing tech-neek.