Saturday, July 17, 2010
Wit
It's a Crunchy, Made To Malfunction,
Suburban Fairy Tale. It's...
Francis Bonnet
I’ve been working hard at comics for as long as I can remember.
I’ve always been drawing something, but it wasn’t until 2003
that I started seriously pushing my work and publishing it
on the web. My first web comic was Crunchy,
which was actually based on a character I created
in high school. I worked on the strip for about four years
(the first year was never published online).
ALL IMAGES CLICK LARGER
After a while, I felt that Crunchy wasn’t really going anywhere.
I was sick of the main character and found myself writing
more about the side characters. It wasn’t the same strip anymore,
so I wanted to try something different. I actually had two ideas
for a new strip pop up in my head around that time.
The first idea I had would be to put fairy tale characters in a
modern-day suburban high school. The second idea I had
would be about an inventor and his housekeeping robot.
I decided to go with the fairy tale strip as I thought
it might appeal to more people,
and thus Suburban Fairy Tales was born.
I worked on Suburban Fairy Tales for about 15 months.
At around the 10-month mark, that previous idea I had
about an inventor and his housekeeping robot
was burning a hole in my head. I really wanted to work on it,
but I’m the kind of person who likes to put all his effort into
one project at a time. If I was really going to work on that new strip,
Suburban Fairy Tales would have to end. .. and so it did.
Made To Malfunction was the strip to follow Suburban Fairy Tales.
Instead of just a simple gag strip, it followed longer story arcs mixed
with science fiction and comedy. I worked on the strip for two years.
During this time I was also sending my work off to the syndicates.
To my surprise, The Washington Post Writers Group
showed interest in Suburban Fairy Tales and wanted to see more.
My dilemma was that I wasn’t working on it anymore.
So I had to end Made To Malfunction abruptly
(thankfully not in the middle of a story arc)
and pick up working on Suburban Fairy Tales.
I’m still working in Suburban Fairy Tales to this day.
It actually felt good to return to this strip as I felt it had ended
prematurely. I’ve been at it for almost 20 consecutive months,
which has now exceeded its original run.
I just recently sent a sample off to the syndicate,
so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
When I’m not cartooning I work as a graphic artist.
I have a regular job and I also do freelance. Right now,
one of my freelance jobs is a website called The Ecobabe.
All the Ecobabe illustrations are my artwork.
They were done exclusively using Adobe Illustrator,
which is different than I do my comic strips.
My comics are usually always hand-drawn.
Thank you Francis for sharing the interesting
twists and turns your artwork has taken.
CCU is glad you've carved out a place in
the world of comic strips...three times.
What will you do next?
Come back and show us ASAP. Until then we'll
live our Suburban Fairy Tale along with yours.
Posts
