Sunny friends!

It's been a while since I did a comic strip - and it's been a while since I featured La-la-la bear. It's my sister's birthday so I thought I'd draw something apt for her. I got this idea from a tweet by Lydia the shark (@RockStarLydia) where she posted my beach buds drawing and captioned it "Friends are the sunshine of life". I had to go and do this.

I'm FINished With Fins

I've been loving the FINished With Fins campaign especially their posters with celebrities covering their mouths and wanted to try it. I was so happy when Shark Savers and Wild Aid responded and gave me permission to use the logos.
My Shark is not cannibalistic or anything - it just really wanted to join the picture.
Sign the pledge here.

It's my high unicorn and I will not get down.

I know someone who loves unicorns. If she were on a high horse, it would be a unicorn.

Not another cat one!

Just when you think sharks are growing in popularity, a cat comes along and ruins everything. That's just what cats do.
Okay, I must admit that some of their pictures are rather likeable. But sharks are awesomer.

Sharks love to photobomb!

Animals that photobomb are hilarious! Notice how the bear is mortified when it gets photobombed?... .that's how much this bear loves photos of itself.
The Shark in the first photo was just a trial sketch but the expression cracked me up so much that I had to keep it.

The Shark's Poem

I grew up reading the poems/rhymes of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Ogden Nash and Shel Silverstein.  I love those but I really can't appreciate many other forms of poetry. Especially the "deep" and "painful" ones.
Many years ago I wrote a poem about a shark which I thought was pretty good for a ten-year old. I've searched all over for that notebook but sadly, it is lost. And so, I attempted to write another shark poem. My poetic skills obviously haven't improved but it was fun writing this. I didn't get to do an Earth day strip this year but I mentioned it in the poem. :D

Here's a separate panel with just the poem.

Sharks - Extinction is NOT an option - CITES 2013

CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Over the next couple of weeks in March 2013, parties will vote on a record number of proposals for controlling trade in a variety of threatened sharks and rays, including hammerheads and mantas.
Project Aware started this campaign #CITES4Sharks to raise awareness about the importance of this meeting. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to draw and comic and be a part of this.
Sharks and Rays need your love and awe and support.

Shark vs. Penguin

Penguins have comic potential, don't they? They could almost be as good as squirrels. This is just a random comic... no point or purpose.

Shark! The Herald Angels Sing...Merry Christmas 2012!

This is my Christmas card for 2012.  Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

Evolution of the species as observed by The Shark

This was originally going to be the Evolution poster by itself and then I thought the dialogue between the cockroach and shark would be a pretty funny addition. I seem to have missed out a few characters! I should probably do a stand-alone poster and include the rest of my characters.

If evolution is supposed to make a species better than it was, humans should see if they could become more shark-ish. Why aim to be like those awful monkeys?  (or is it the other way around?). That would be kind of cool - as long as the primitive (un-evolved) humans don't start chopping up our limbs for soup. 

"Thank you" to my 500 (and counting) fans!

I had actually drawn this out when I was 14 fans short of 400 and as usual I procrastinated. Who would've thought I'd reach 500 fans? I'm so thankful to everyone single one of you who like my Facebook page. This seemed like good post to mark the 500 milestone. Imagine how grateful I'd be if I had a thousand fans!
Notice how my sketches can't seem to decide what shade or pencil stroke to go with. It's terrible how I play around with them and post them whichever way they turn out, isn't it?  I'm trying to find a good pencil look (because I do miss the old fashioned ones) to stick with and also an inked+colour version but if I'm lucky enough to get a decent looking output, I stop before I ruin it completely.
Anyway, thanks again, you guys!

Musical Gym Shoes

There's an old pair of gym shoes at home and for some reason, it squeaks when used. It's impossible to wear them because the sound would annoy everyone. It reminds me of those light & sound shoes that kids wear. There's no way I'd wear those shoes out in public, let alone a zumba (sounds much funnier than aerobics) class. Not that I'm in any such class.

If I'm ever that cheerful, please do smack me.

I thought it had been a while since annoyingly-happy bear had gotten smacked. And since we were on a roll with this topic, I thought meh, why not?

The glass is always half...

I got this idea from something my mum said when she ate most of my sister's caramel popcorn and the put the remaining kernels in the little tupperware box. While coming up with the sketch version, I knew I had to bring in the annoying, ever-optimistic bear and a reference to the "half empty vs half full" idea. And how the notion that everything is half full can come around to bite your bottom. Yes, the cynicism only gets worse.

ps - Assuming that no one can figure out what the drawings are because, let's face it, it looks like they could be holding just about anything in their "hands"- In frame 2, the bear transfers the chocolate milk from the glass to a smaller glass. And in the final frame, the shark transfers the remaining popcorn into a smaller box.

Well, I don't play favourites!

A friend asked me to do one that involved both our younger siblings because we get a kick out of them being the pickeds and us being the wickeds. And them whining about it. I was trying to figure out how I might do a sketch with another picked on character and I thought of this a while ago but thanks to unforeseen circumstances was unable to post until now.

The butt-ler did it!

The thought of poached lemon fish makes my stomach turn. But I did enjoy drawing the little bath tub and lemonade cups.

Sharing = caring, it seems!

Yeah, well... sharing was never a good thing for me while growing up (according to my mother). Apparently, I did not play well with others when my toys were involved. They even tried some of those children's songs about giving & sharing. I really liked the songs so I didn't share those tapes with anyone. Which was good because the group that sang them turned out to be a cult.
I'd probably still have trouble sharing my mum's chocolate cheesecake. But now it's for noble reasons, of course.

Splash goes the conscience

These sorts of things happen at my house a lot. I'm surrounded by so much inspiration that I take it for granted.

Sopsquatch (tattle)tales

This is actually what whiny drama queen bears do.

 I would not be surprised if family was the #1 cause of premature greys. I can hear them say "premature? HA!".
Ps - Does anyone else think "sopsquatch" is a clever term?

Nice is not!

There are times when I do think that overtly sweet and sugary people are far more dangerous than those who, well, don't like being associated with sweetness. I simply had to use the "hug-me is the new kick-me" bit again. I did this as an optional final scene which could or couldn't add a bit of spice to it. Or maybe it adds too much to the annoying bear's persona.

I'll leave it up to y'all.