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.

Say "Shark"!

My sister had a baby recently - my first nephew! As you can see, baby talk isn't my strong suit. My mission is to make "Shark" baby Zachary's first word. While I'm at it, I should teach him "baby shark do-do-do-do". 

So much for being punch proof!

There are actually two porcupine-ish characters in my cartoons - each inspired by a different friend. This one is for a friend whose birthday it was yesterday. Actually, I drew it this morning but dated it as yesterday (In my defense, I had the idea last night). You know, I needn't have even revealed this information and let you think I'd actually drawn it on time for someone's birthday. It's because of personality flaws such as this that I wouldn't make a good politician.

The friend involved has this weird notion that I used to beat them up when we were younger. I have no idea what that's about... that doesn't sound even remotely like me!

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.

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.

Move it, Slave!

 

When we were younger, my sister and I used to have a lot of fun on those cascade tricycles. At least, I did. One fine day, she turned around and said that she would not be my rickshaw driver anymore. It was a sad, sad day in my young life. It became worse when she rebelled against all the other things I made her do. Didn't she get the memo that I asked for a sister because I needed someone to do my every bidding? Anyway, it's not as bad as it sounds. I didn't really treat her like a slave (Despite what she might say). Slavery is bad.

If I thought drawing bicycles were hard, tricycles are even worse. I lost interest in drawing that half way through and I wanted to kick myself for thinking of a concept that needed it to be drawn twice!

Love and other icky things

 If one wants to see what Valentine's day is all about, you just need to go to any place that sells cards and other ridiculous things like stuffed white bears holding hearts and flowers. I went to Landmark the day before and as always the silly jewelry counter guy asked me if I wanted to buy diamonds. I was already annoyed that they don't sell recycled paper (but very craftily label them all as "Recyclable" and have the recycle symbol) and I almost stopped and asked why on Earth would I buy diamonds from a bookstore. I mean, what kind of book-hating bookstore would diversify into jewelry and cosmetics (this attracts hoards of people who don't read) ? I also wanted to tell him that it being Valentine's day, he should be asking all the guys if they wanted to buy diamonds. If I didn't hate talking to people so much, I'd be a great salesperson.

 

  

 

You'll notice how I very cleverly did not answer any of the questions.

Also, if there is a bunny in any of my strips, it will almost inevitably get whacked. This reminded me of a funny post my friend had put up which had a bit about rabbits which led to me coming up with these rabbit cooking instructions:
1. Cut off and use tail to brush off any extra dirt.
2. Dip bunnies in veet hair removal cream to get rid of their stupid bunny fur.
3. Wash thoroughly.
4. Chop off ears - can be fried and served as chips.
5. Stuff bunnies with required stuffing (carrots and other silly stuff) and roast and toss into stew.

Title credit goes to my friend Dumpsy.

Apparently I cannot boil an egg

It's a standing joke in my family that I'm lousy at keeping house and so they find it hard to believe that I could be a somewhat decent hostess. I had a friend of mine staying over once while my mom was also staying with me and using my most nonchalant, casual, everyday-use voice I asked my friend what she would like for breakfast. You know, since the options at my house are as varied at the brunch at the Taj. And she thought she would make my life easy by asking for what she assumed was the easiest - a boiled egg. Now, I've never boiled an egg in my life - mostly because I don't like the yolk in a separated form. My mother knows this but instead of being a good parent and offering to save my reputation, she stands there making conversation with my friend with the biggest grin/smirk on her face. So I'm like "Um, how many minutes should I boil it for?" and my friend says "4 minutes". How am I supposed to know it should be on the stove for 4 minutes after the water begins to boil? I just put it on the stove for 4 minutes and very nicely presented it to her. My mum, very innocently asks why I'm not serving it on an egg holder, fully aware of the fact that I don't own an egg holder because I. Don't. Boil. Eggs.
My mother watches with utmost interest and curiosity as my friend breaks open the egg only to find it all gross and gooey. It's not my fault that eggs don't come with instructions or that people did not stay satisfied with scrambled eggs and simply had to go and invent the boiled egg. And in my family, they like replaying such stories and asking me if I've boiled any eggs for guests lately.

Normal people would have just given you a card.

This is probably the longest and most complicated (character-wise) strip I have done. It's quite painful to draw so many creatures. But this was for my friend's birthday and it works out to be a pretty cheap gift (kidding!). For those who are wondering how/what/why this bizarre concept, allow me to de-confuse you. My friend has been very difficult to anthropomorphize (if that's a word). And she gives me a hard time about not doing any sketches with her in it! Then there happened a facebook discussion about the kind of animal she would be and some of the random suggestions were "fish" and then "An armadillo! No, a cockatoo! No, wait -- a slice. of cheese." Thus was conceptualized the Armacockafishadillo. Which I thought would be kind of interesting to attempt. Oh yes, there's the cockages bit which if I don't explain could sound a bit dirty. The above mentioned friend has these little fingers that made me laugh out loud so much when I first saw them. I was like "hahaha, they're like cocktail sausages... we could name them cockages for short (no pun intended)!"

 

 

Anyway, I was quite happy with the way it turned out and then had the nagging feeling that it looked very pokemonish. I hope it's not my subconscious awareness of a pokemon creature that surfaced! I don't really have a goldfish that I pretend is Igor while I create characters. I tried having an aquarium once but that fizzled, literally, when I thought my fish would like a warm water bath.

I was supposed to do a "An Armadillo and cockatoo cross with cheese in its mouth being attacked by a wolf-squirrel cross with wine in its glass" but I shall save that for later.

ps - The fish part of the armacockafishadillo is that it has scales. I didn't want to add fins or puffy lips. I also labeled the fish bit as "tuna" so as not to confuse it with the goldfish. I wish I could draw fish a bit better.

I've got your back

Before you all jump to conclusions, there is no "he". This was merely an idea/situation inspired by a friend. I don't even have a playstation. But after experiencing Wii last month, I wouldn't mind getting one of those.
That posture was one of the hardest I've ever had to draw. And I had to do it twice.

Happy birthday to me!

I was told that I must do a sketch to commemorate the birthday. And since I hardly had time, I didn't think I could. But there are times when you'll have sudden bursts of energy especially when you're dead tired - apparently that's why kids get all hyper around their bedtime. So, once all my party people left and it was still a few minutes before midnight, I started on this and was done by 1am so I am quite proud of it. I did have the "married or dead" drama sometime this year - it should be on the regular blog somewhere.
Someone hardly a decade younger than me called me auntie. I'm trying to convince myself that it was because she forgot my name. But on the whole, I had an awesome birthday... I felt so very blessed with so much (people-wise). I didn't have a surprise party and get fooled this year as well but I did have a wonderfully wonderful one. I have much gratitude in my heart today. Okay, will stop with the mush.

They ought to sell shark seeds

My sister actually got me one of those "Grow your own Millionaire" toys (check the 'Lost in Wonder' link for story) for my birthday and all of us at the party were very excited to see him grow. So we put him in a bucket and waited. They don't work as well as you'd expect.
Recently, a friend said she ought to give me a "Grow your own friend" so that I'd have company while she's away. Here's sort of how the chat session went.

Me: Hello! I'm the one who's emo about people liking me
A: Oh Gawd, here we go again... I'll bring you a "Grow your own friend" when I return
Me: x-(
A: you can talk to 'it', cry to 'it, complain to 'it'... awww...
Me: I'll smack it and flush it
A: Sure you will. It's not a boy so you can't become its best friend and fall in love with it.

I don't care how many times "you told me so"!

It's actually wearing one of those swimmer caps. It's details like that make all the difference. I can't decide whether to refer to it as "it" or "he" or "she". I think I just won't decide and use whatever seems apt for the moment. So much stress can be avoided by indecisiveness.
As one would guess, those are fishing boats out there. I couldn't decide if we were on a boat too or just sitting on a wall near the sea. Either way, my parents would probably scream if I sat on the edge like that.

I would probably never get a nose piercing. For various reasons. It took a lot to get me to get the extra ear piercings. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would but I think I'll just stick to getting shots or getting random blood tests done.

And yes, one could get fish hooks in their nostrils if they didn't heed warnings and wandered off into places that seem like their turf but aren't.

No, I said I need to speak to the eligible doctor! Do you even know what eligible means in singlehood terms?

My mother actually did suggest that second idea. Don't be surprised if my arm is in a cast on my wedding day. Who cares about a few broken bones, scars or side-effects from random pills as long as you're married, right?
The first idea.. well, that would be a good one if one were trying to sift through all the doctors in town. I mean, you see a car with one of those stickers and you go "ooh, I wonder if it's a young, single, attractive one". I think I've done too much brain-storming.

Here's more wall-sitting. This isn't a stone wall though. I'm guessing it's a terrace wall. Another place my parents would freak out if they caught me sitting on.

Where's a cliff and a box when you need one?

I think Stephan Pastis will soon sue me for plagiarism. I got the box idea from his strip about Pig's box of bliss or something like that and then rat does something mean to it.
But yes, this is what I feel like doing to people who speak like that. Or to people in general when I've had too much of them for a day.
Anyway, this strip is intended for someone who will know it when they see it. Hahahaha.

Lost in Wonder link: Stephan Pastis, you made my day!