New Alfie Cartoon for June!

Here is the new Alfie cartoon for June! This gag is based on all the times that Alfie has gotten wrapped around the tree in the backyard chasing the squirells or bunnies and then I have to go out to then untangle him. I have a several more ideas and gags of him being tied up which I'll work out as well into strips. He can sometimes untangle himself but there are times during the heat of the chase he forgets how many times he goes around the tree. The backyard shot is all based on the actual look of it which really does give it much more weight. The bunny's name is Rascal. He's a lazy bunny who likes to collect pinecones for some unknown reason and he has a big ball of string that he keeps adding to whenever he finds a new piece lying around somewhere. The squirrels are Pocket, Tricky and Scooter. I went a bit easier on the coloring with this one than the others I've done simply because of time. It can take me a while to color a strip and get it the way I want it, so while I'm happy with this strip, I may go into in and add more dimension to it with more color tones.

Alfie first newspaper strip for January 2008!

Here is a first new strip I did for Alfie, It's a verbal gag but one that most small dog owners can relate to. There will be a new Alfie strip printed in Delaware County Magazine each month, which is a magazine that is in my area that I edit, design and write for. The publisher wanted a comic page and I thought Alfie would be perfect to get some exposure. So Alfie is starting off with a 120,000 copies a month run! This cartoon is in the January '08 issue which was printed this week! One of the Christmas strips ran in the December issue. His strip will also be on the magazine's website, but I'll post them here as well of course since this is also Alfie's Backyard!

Alfie's comic adventures will be on Sugary Serials which is located at www.sugaryserials.com! A great site for all kid-friendly and all ages comics! There will also be other downloadable Alfie stuff there soon. I got a lot planned! This blog will post the behind the scenes stuff and the working process to it all. A diary with art if you will!

Even though the action is static in this first cartoon, there is movement in each panel by the wag of both Alfie's tail and Pocket's tail. Even though I did not name him in the strip, the squirrel's name is Pocket and he is one of three squirrels that perplex Alfie. These other characters will all be revealed soon as I go along. There's a whole neighborhood that will be in here. Still debating if humans will be shown though...

Also, in the strip and comic book, I figure Alfie to be around 1 and a half or two years old at the most. I wanted to keep him younger since most of the stories are based on stuff from his perspective at that age that he had in real life. Which will be explained in future stories. He is also meant for younger readers so it helps to be around their age range.

The original intent for Alfie was for it to model a young reader book and be for beginning readers to help them learn to read, which is why I use larger word balloons and a more limited vocabulary. Anything I create for Alfie I want to all be consistant with what I originally set out to do and who my demographic would be. More on this later...