Comics UK

Lew Stringer wrote:Good stylized work Arnaud and well accomplished. It'd be good to see a comic strip in that style. Do you have any examples to show us?

Thanks Lew, I love your comics ! Examples ? Sure ! I did many comics for french publications, here is two pages I drew for Pif Gadget magazine :

stevezodiac wrote:If you can draw but cannot write scripts it might be a good idea to redo some existing strips in your own style. DC Thomson will need to know if you have a good storytelling technique. But try not to copy the existing layouts as that will defeat the object.

I can write scripts but my english is so bad that I'd prefer to work on DC's scripts When I'll apply I'll send pages of my own comics (got lots of them, they'll know if my storytelling sucks or not ). Then perhaps they'll send me samples of their scripts to show what I'm worth !

Funny work Arnaud. Made even more surreal because I can't speak French! My loss.

A strong modern style. I really like it. Your sense of colour is excellent.

Do you use Illustrator software to draw these?

No sir, I draw it all the traditional way (colors are done by Photoshop however)

Really happy that you like it !

Arnaud wrote:No sir, I draw it all the traditional way (colors are done by Photoshop however)

Really happy that you like it !

I'm even more impressed now I know you don't use Illustrator!

Are you still working for Pif? (Is it still around? I think I bought one 20 years ago in Angouleme.)

Publisher liquidated last year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pif_gadget

Translation of the last panel of Arnaud's second strip:

Now I have two right hands and an outer armpit

note, it is convenient to greet several people at once

Doesn't make it any less surreal!

I'm pretty fortunate that I have always been extremely shy which means you develop a sense of humour to cover for it. Today my colleague made an innocuous remark to me and within a couple of minutes I had turned it into a cartoon. Cartoonist's brain! I have been known to split my sides laughing at my own texts as I am keying them in to send to a mate.

Hi there !

Lew Stringer wrote:I'm even more impressed now I know you don't use Illustrator!

Nothing special, really. Fancy inking to hide bad drawings !

So you went to Angoulême's festival ? Was it good ? I used to live in Angoulême for five years !

Digifiend wrote:Publisher liquidated last year.

That's right. So I'm currently unemployed and I've got lot of time to draw british characters

Pif Gadget's end was kind of sad, for sure. Pif really was the french Beano, and as a kid I used to read it. Lots of other cartoonists did. I was really proud when I started to draw comics for this magazine, and that's one reason I'd like to work for DC Thomson. The spirit is similar, popular comics for newstands, not expansive glossy books (well, annuals apart ! ). Crazy humour, classic characters for today's audience. Yeah I think I'd like that but we'll see

Digifiend wrote:Doesn't make it any less surreal!

Well it might be kinda complicated to explain Prof Hairybutt feels gloomy because his left arm is seriously damaged. But he is a talented scientist so he works all night to reproduced his valid arm ! He succeed but now he has two right arms. Incendtly it's very useful to shake hanks with two fellows at the same time (NEVER shake hands with your left arm ! )

The first one is waaaaaaaay too complicated to explain. Let's say it's Bibop & Loula's very first page so I present their (imaginary) country, Francobelgia. The national meal is fried Camembert with biscuits and beer. Then there's political considerations (a businessman become president then Charlie Schlingo chase him and become king). Finally I present the main characters, Roger Bibop who was catching doggy's pooh on his motorcycle and Loula Dubreuil who washed old women's pets. Then they get bored of those jobs and decided to become abnormal's detectives ! Prof Hairybutt is just a zanny old foggy who made stupid inventions and has beard on his butt. Well, that's that

stevezodiac wrote:I'm pretty fortunate that I have always been extremely shy which means you develop a sense of humour to cover for it.

Same here !

And now, for something totally different :

Gnash ! Gnash ! Gnash !



(Now I'm happy because Pulp is back ! )

More drawings !

Fred's bed



This guy



Herman from Ratz !

Ah you included a Fleetway character this time! Will be interesting to see a certain someone's reaction to that Tom Thug image...

Those images are as good as always. Consistently stylised but always recognisable.

Tom Thug? Flippin' brilliant mate!

Digifiend wrote:Ah you included a Fleetway character this time!

I'll do some more, like Buster (Reg Parlett style). Or Shiner ! Gosh, there's so much great characters ! And I don't even know them all !

Digifiend wrote:Those images are as good as always. Consistently stylised but always recognisable.

Thanks ! That's my goal ; draw well-known characters in my own style (hell, I haven't any other !) but not to forgot their identity.

Lew Stringer wrote:Tom Thug? Flippin' brilliant mate!

YOUR character is flippin' brilliant at first

Today : Dan !

A cow-pie



Cruncher from the Numskulls

arnaud your artwork is brilliant ,much better than the majority of the work in the dandy at the moment and i for one wouldnt mind seeing you draw a classic strip or 3 like bananaman or korky etc in dandy and beano every week

I think your Desperate Dan is the best you've done yet, you've got him pretty much spot-on in my opinion.

Arnaud: get your artwork sent into D C Thomson, you can e-mail it in, as I'm sure you are aware. This could be just the sort of thing they are looking for. I'ts definately modern-looking and I'm sure they will notice your stuff in an instant.


Send your artwork directly to:



artwork@dandy.com


[ they should likely reply within two weeks].


It will only take you a couple of minutes!