Category / Smith

by Andrew Pilcher

Autumn

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Actually, the leaves are still on the trees at the moment, something which is particularly amazing considering the storm that blew through here last week.

Sorry this went up a bit late – I’ve had a bit of a hectic few weeks and I’ve now got some serious catching up to do with the cartoon.

This what I’ve been up to… Guys and Dolls with The Hastleons at the White Rock Theatre, Hastings.
I’m the one on the right playing Nicely Nicely Johnson, along with Chris Eyre as Benny Southstreet (left) and Rick Baker as Nathan Detroit.

The show itself was spent in a fug of cold medicines, as I battled a sore throat that suddenly appeared during the dress rehearsal, and developed into a cold. But all seemed to go well, though by the last night I was exhausted.

This week’s strip was drawn backstage inbetween scenes. Luckily, the scanning has tidied up the art on the last panel a lot, but on the original you can see the smudges where my sweaty hands picked up the ink and spread it all over the page.

by Andrew Pilcher

Names

a575-131027This year’s Halloween cartoon is another one inspired by that weird cat calendar on my desk at work. This is one of those facts that the calendar throws at you, but worded in such a peculiar way that this was the first thing I thought of. I think what they mean is that cats have the power to see ghosts, rather than identify them.

So, who are the cats Jones mentions in this strip?

Humphrey – the Downing Street cat, chief mouser under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Named after Sir Humphrey Appleby, the leading civil servant in the TV series “Yes, Minister”.

Skimbleshanks – the railway cat, from TS Eliot’s, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. You’ll find him in act II of the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical.

Custard – a pink cat who lived next door to a green dog called Roobarb. Appeared in a show with the best theme tune ever.

Thomas – the full name of Tom, the antihero of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, though only the housekeeper ever called him that.

Mr Jinks – a later Hanna Barbera cat, this one starred with two mice called Pixie and Dixie. Mr Jinks and Pixie wore bow ties, while Dixie had a waistcoat. Why?

Prudence Kitten – a forgotten British Children’s TV puppet from the 1950s. It predates me but I remember my sister having a Prudence Kitten book. She was a glove puppet of a kitten who wore a voluminous flowery dress, and I think she was a spin off from the Muffin the Mule show.

Felix – a black and white cartoon cat from the silent movies. (This ones from 1919).

Angus – an eccentric persian domestic cat from the movie ‘Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging’, a British teen movie filmed down the road in Eastbourne and Brighton. Recommended.

Michael – of What’s Michael by Makoto Kobayashi, the best cat comic ever.

by Andrew Pilcher

Shred from cover to cover

a574-131020I no longer religiously buy a Sunday paper, but I’ll occasionally succumb to the Sunday Times or the Sunday Post. When I was a kid we would get The Observer, and Dad would never let anyone read any of the paper’s many sections until he’d read them first.

by Andrew Pilcher

The mirror act

a573-131013Based on an hoary old music hall routine.  I may get the cats to do more old music hall gags in the future. Now, how do I get Smith and Jones to do a Wilson, Keppel and Betty sand dance routine? (It starts at 0:20).

by Andrew Pilcher

Trampette

a572-131006I was checking Google Earth around my neighbourhood, you know, the way you do because its easier than climbing over the walls of neighbour’s gardens. And I found that many of the gardens in the bigger houses had identical black circles in them. It took me a while to realise that these were abandoned trampettes, those miniature trampolines usually bought to back up a well-meaning new years resolution to keep fit, used for a month and then abandoned and left to rust at the bottom of the garden by around Easter. Obviously, the cats’ garden couldn’t be complete without one.

by Andrew Pilcher

Jones’ favourite show

a571-130929The only way the real world imposes itself on the cats in this strip is through the TV set, which is why I use photographs and screenshots on the TV screen. Well, that’s how I explain it now – it was originally a device I used to save having to draw caricatures of famous people. The irony is, the picture research takes twice as long as it would to do the drawing.

by Andrew Pilcher

I like lamp

a570-130922I’m hoping you’re noticing the difference between the daily strips drawn four years ago, and the current Sunday ones. (Check out smithcomic.blogspot.co.uk where I was rerunning the first year of Smith at the same time as running these Sundays.) I’m finding that the more panels I have, the less dialogue I have to use, and the last few have been pretty well silent. Also the colouring is less brash and the drawing is looser. The cats expressions convey their emotions more clearly as well.

Very much a Billy and Annabelle inspired strip, this one. The last few months have been flutterby season. Any moth or crane fly that dares to enter our house gets stalked, caught, and then toyed with for a quarter of an hour before finally being eaten. Bella is the tactician, Billy is the muscle. And if we had an invasion of moths like these not an ornament in the house would still be left standing.

by Andrew Pilcher

A second stretch

a569-130915More Billy inspired stretching material.

by Andrew Pilcher

Stre-e-e-etch

a568-130908Inspired by Billy, who is a very elastic cat. I’ve never seen any cat stretch to the lengths that he can manage.

Incidentally, if you’re wondering why I’m not drawing these Sunday strips in the traditional three-bank funny pages format, it’s because I don’t think that’s how Smith will be seen in the future. Print is dead, and the parameters we have to work to nowadays are not those that suit newspaper production, but those that suit smart phones and tablets. It’s an interesting space to work with, and it’s let me try several ideas that just wouldn’t have worked before. This is a strip I could never have done in the daily format.

by Andrew Pilcher

Humbug!

a567-130901Regular reader, Scott the Badger, this is for you.

Let’s say thank you to whoever put that conveniently placed hillock there, which made the job of the reveal on the last three panels so much easier.

Also, thanks to the two badgers who were cavorting outside my study window on the night the controversial badger cull began. You wouldn’t believe they noise they make when they’re playing – there’s scuffling, there’s snorting, and best of all, there’s the cartoonish galloping sound their claws make on the concrete drive way when they’re chasing one another.

The badger cull isn’t happening around our parts, thank heavens – that’s a trial that’s happening in the west country. I have every sympathy with the farmers who are blaming the rising incidence of TB in cattle on the badger population, but I’m not sure shooting badgers is the answer. Maybe if cattle vaccines were a more sensible price it would be more economical to vaccinate the herds than hire badger shooting posses.