Advent part 2

 Advent 2020 is very different from previous years as there was rumours of Christmas restrictions being tightened these advent topical cartoons tried to capture the moment.

Advent day 16 and the Ghost of Christmas Present started to haunt us as the rumours of tighter restrictions started to circulate.  Enjoyed drawing the Christmas Carols scene though

Advent day 18 was a cartoon from the reject pile (although I did get a cartoon about container ships and Christmas into the Christmas edition of Private Eye).  There was plenty of Santa-tiser gags around but I still had to draw this.

Advent day 20 I decided to talk about one of my favourite Christmas Carols in the bleak midwinter which like many other Christmas Carols doesn't make 100% sense if you take it literally and ask about why there would be deep snow and snowmen in Bethlehem.

Advent day 22 we now know we're in Tier 4 lockdown from Boxing Day so we have to prepare ourselves with some epic jigsaws.

Advent day 22 the newly announced mutation of the virus lead to lorries stuck in Kent and fears of food shortages in supermarkets which leads to fears of panic buying.  In reality I didn't see much evidence of it but I couldn't find bananas in Sainsburys on Christmas Eve Eve.

Have a good Christmas and may 2021 be a resurgent year for us all.

Advent 2020 Part 1

 Advent 2020 like everything else in 2020 has been very different. On social media I’ve been posting a cartoon every day some ghosts of Christmas past and some of Christmas present.  Here are a selection of my favourite new cartoons from the first two weeks...

Day 3 was a twist on the angels appearing to shepherds that I have done in various guises.  I could equally have done another Brexit gag here.

Day 7 was a working from home elf who couldn’t get his deliveries before December 25th

Day 12 and as non essential shops reopened wise men just went with wherever didn’t have big queues

Day 14 and there is creeping confusion as to what exactly the rules for Christmas will end up being as authorities start to row back from earlier plans for relaxed family gatherings.

Day 15 and after watching some Christmas concerts online I imagine a little drummer boy scenario.

Follow me on twitter and instagram to see how the rest of advent 2020 unfolds.

Advent 22 Last Day Of Work

The perceived wisdom in IT is that you shouldn't release any code or generally break the systems the last day before you go on holiday (or on a Friday afternoon), because you might be coming back to a big pile of mess.

Compare this with the 2011 Santa's IT woes cartoon for a visual representation on how IT systems and my drawing style/colouring has progressed.

Advent 19 Little Drum and Bass Boy

Was thinking of the noisy manager and the Little Drummer boy song and came up with this.  I did a different drummer boy cartoon back in 2012.  My drum and bass knowledge is very limited and so I avoided making him say stuff like 'That is wicked' or other phrases that would advertise my lack of cultural awareness.

Advent 18 Treebeard's Christmas Revisited

Reworking a Lord of the Rings Christmas classic from 2010 for your ent-ertainment in full technicolour.

Advent 17 Perfect Christmas Presents

Drew this cartoon for the CCGB cartoon with the caption 'It's Perfect'.

Doesn't need much explanation but I do remember making lots of fun things with boxes presents came in.

Advent 15 Santa knows it all

Was sure I'd done a similar Santa gag to this in the past but I prefer this one done for colour collective's Venetian Red week.

You're always worried when you google 'What materials make up a nuclear reactor' you're going to end up on some government watch list as a potential terrorist making a dirty bomb.  However I think these three ingredients are pretty common knowledge.

Advent 13 grumpy christmas tortoise

This advent cartoon was drawn for a shape challenge but I liked including non traditional animals in a Christmas setting and also the fact that tortoise, which are the longest living land animal in the world, would have seen Christmas change alot in their lifetimes.

Advent 10 Elf Employed

I drew this Christmas cartoon for the CCGB and my advent cartoon campaign. 

I've been quite rough on old Santa this year as an unfair employer of elves, and he's certainly not a benevolent socialist (otherwise all kids would get the same level of parents). 

The other good thing about elves is how easily you can use them in puns like low elf-esteem, self elf, and the National elf service which I cartooned about before.

Advent Day 5: Mince Pies

For advent day 5 I tackle a really controversial subject mince pies the British Christmas dessert that doesn't contain meet just dried fruit in pastry masquerading as a sweet dessert.  Yes they have plenty of fans but as I said in a Twitter rant if there was a zombie apocalypse and I was stranded in a supermarket warehouse with unlimited mince pies and water I would vote to fight my way out...

Advent Day 3: Christmas Godzilla

For advent day 3 I drew Christmas Godzilla because of a Twitter weekend challenge to draw something monster-y.

Advent 1: No Self-Control Advent Calendar (Reworked)

For this year's Christmas I'm doing another advent campaign of one Christmas-y cartoon a day.

For day 1 I redrew one of my favourite gags from way back in 2011.  That time the style was basic to convey the gag - this time I went for more of an illustration style and I quite liked the retro looking result.

I have drawn other advent calendar cartoons like this one.