Magical Tech. Support

Digging out some of my old cartoons a couple of posts back seems to have ignited something in my head, as I went on to have the idea for a new cartoon.

When I had the initial idea for this (on the bus, where all the best ideas come to me), I had an image of a cute-looking young witch, complete with headset and computer and she would be saying the “Have you tried….” line. This seemed quite amusing to me, but maybe a little too bland and inoffensive.

Then I thought about having an angry and frustrated-looking Gandalf-type wizard on the phone and he would be hearing that line from the person at the other end.

Better, harder-hitting, but still not quite right.

So, how about having something going horribly wrong in the background – a monster climbing out of the grimoire or a massive explosion which has trashed the place?

Now this seemed like the way forward. When I started sketching, however, I just couldn’t seem to fit in the background detail and get it to be completely obvious what was going on whilst at the same time having the enraged wizard in the foreground. And where to put the speech balloon so it did not obstruct the image but still remain easily visible?

Meh!

It was when I began to draw a few try-outs for the monster’s head that I hit on the idea of the disaster already having happened and there being not much left of the hapless wizard (saves me having to draw him!). Now, if the creature could be munching on what was obviously an arm or leg, the message would be clear enough, I thought.

So that’s what I went with, adding a few touches like the torn hat, glasses, broken wand, etc. for extra gruesomeness.

There are a few technical prblems (OK, loads, probably) but it's turned out pretty much how I wanted it.

So there it is. That’s how things get done in my brain.

Don’t worry, this is not going to turn into a cartoons-only blog. I just thought it would be fun to share the picture and thought processes that went into making it.