Cartoon-a-Day

[Inky_Ben]

[Inky_Ben]

[LizEF]

Love the alligator-dog, @Inky_Ben!

[edmundronald]

Look like you need to hire the cartoon equivalent of an intimacy coordinator to ensure mutual safety of your characters. 

[Inky_Ben]

@edmundronald:  LOL.   Well here are three takes on a set of adversaries familiar to the fountain pen world, in increasing levels of abstraction.    I have been thinking about the quick brown fox.   Here's that old fellow with an Ackerman pen and Manga G nib.  

 

I really like the Ackerman pens -- not a traditional fountain pen. But if you ever wanted to use India Ink (or here, Birmingham Pen Co's Quantum Teal, which dries with a sheen not obvious in my scan), or a watercolor this is one way to go.  I actually have several of these, and you have to commit to breaking the thing down for a pretty thorough cleaning before you initially ink it up (the G nib, particularly, which comes coated with a protective anti-rust oil that doesn't play well with water-based inks).  But once you have it flowing nicely, you have access to a broad array of materials and nibs.  And it is so user serviceable that you don't really have to worry about the nib rusting or wearing out.   I have one set up with a 5.5 FPR Ultra Flex nib . . .  But it helps to think of the thing like a paintbrush:  clean after using or suffer the wrath of the art gods. And the deities minor that govern the physics of dried ink.

 

 

Well what follows is perhaps the next level of abstraction.   Sure the the Quantum Teal fox is quick, and that dog sure seems lazy:

 

 

This is actually scanned as grayscale. I had been told that my blue sketch lines would vanish upon scanning . . . gotta see about those scan settings, as they seem obvious to me.  I feel like the G-nib's line variation gets shown off in this version, but I have to find my high-polymer eraser . . .

 

Finally, here's the "cartoon", which succeeds if you can tell that the representation of a fox is supposed to be a fox.  Actually that poor lazy dog came out looking like a mutant otter. . . .

 

 

 

[edmundronald]

And here I was thinking the Dog was a  somnolent tributary of the Cam, over there on the other side of the pond. 

[Inky_Ben]

@edmundronald:  Well shame on another American for being so literal! Do you think you can you punt on the Dog?

[edmundronald]

10 hours ago, Inky_Ben said:

@edmundronald:  Well shame on another American for being so literal! Do you think you can you punt on the Dog?

 if you help me drag the punt up over the rollers to get upstream from the Backs 😀

 

Edmund

[Inky_Ben]

Pelikan 400 NN F, FPR Classic Black Ink

[edmundronald]

57 minutes ago, Inky_Ben said:

Pelikan 400 NN F, FPR Classic Black Ink

I'd say THE INKING INSIDE THE BOX is quite well done

[Inky_Ben]

Rules of the house:  Do not move a sleeping cat (or child . . . but the cat is easier to draw)

 

Burmingham Pen Co. Alumina pen. Nemosine F nib.  Pelikan 4001 black ink.

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, Inky_Ben said:

Do not move a sleeping cat

[Inky_Ben]

11 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Believe it or not, one my "heroes" is Bill Waterson, the creator of Calvin & Hobbes.  I always thought that if one could make a living by delighting folks, that that would be a pretty good life lived.   Well, baby steps.  Glad you smiled.

[LizEF]

Just now, Inky_Ben said:

Believe it or not, one my "heroes" is Bill Waterson, the creator of Calvin & Hobbes.  I always thought that if one could make a living by delighting folks, that that would be a pretty good life lived.   Well, baby steps.  Glad you smiled.

Indeed!  Am very much enjoying your drawings, though I don't comment much.  I have had similar thoughts about my favorite authors - to be able to carry someone away into another world for hours on end is a gift indeed.

 

I smiled because I have two cats - I know "the rules" - including when they're sleeping on you - must not move!

[Mercian]

On 4/22/2025 at 3:47 PM, Inky_Ben said:

Thought I might try the discipline of drawing and posting a cartoon a day for a month.  All drawn with a fountain pen, of course.   First offering, penned with a Ranga Madras and an Ultra Flex nib, Pelikan 4001 black ink (why?  because it comes in quart bottles, of course):

 

 

 

 

This drawing makes me wonder whether middle-aged Charlie is still being constantly humiliated by Lucy, and what form that might take at his age.
I mean, surely he can't still be trying to kick that pigskin, and having her snatch it out of the way every time!

[Inky_Ben]

Oh, can't he?  LOL.  I always thought there was something modestly profound, if somewhat depressing, about that particular Lucy/Charlie dynamic.   Like Aesop's frog and the scorpion, they could only be true to their essential natures.  I think it is one of the reasons that the gag resonated with so many of us.

[inkstainedruth]

7 hours ago, Inky_Ben said:

Believe it or not, one my "heroes" is Bill Waterson, the creator of Calvin & Hobbes.  I always thought that if one could make a living by delighting folks, that that would be a pretty good life lived.   Well, baby steps.  Glad you smiled.

A friend of my mom's didn't like that strip for the longest time and it wasn't until she realized that any time anyone else was in a frame Hobbes was just a TOY tiger....  Whereas, for a number of years running, my mom would buy my dad and my brother the "page a day" C&H desk calendars for Christmas.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Inky_Ben]

 

Burmingham Pen Co. Alumina pen. Nemosine F nib.  Pelikan 4001 black ink.

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, Inky_Ben said:

 

Burmingham Pen Co. Alumina pen. Nemosine F nib.  Pelikan 4001 black ink.

[Inky_Ben]

I have to take a brief hiatus to conduct some NYC parental care.   I expect to be producing the cartoons. . . naturally.   But I won't have an easy way to scan and post them.   So I am putting the FPN-facing part of this project on hold for a week or so.