Keep the fins

Here's another one to go with the album cover series. Bon Jovi's 'Keep the faith' was one of my favourite albums in school. I'd been playing with this idea for a while and sadly my art skills are not adequate for such a task - it would look awesome in traditional media. Anyway, the point is, let sharks keep their fins. It shocks me that finning is still a thing.
Find an alternative to the sharkfin soup already - pumpkin is wonderful.

The Shark's Poem (Now in technicolor)

A slightly modified version of my Shark poem. It somewhat captures what a shark is and what we have done to the species. We need our oceans, our oceans need sharks, ergo we need sharks. We don't need shark fin soup as much as we need oceans. Hopefully we will see an increase in intelligence in this matter in this generation.
Sharks are usually the main attraction in aquariums. Watching them makes life better even if just for the moment. They're on almost all kids' apparel brands these days (mostly on boys' but girls love sharks as much if not more). Don't let sharks die out.

Sandbar Shark Appreciation Day!

The Sandbar Shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) is a species of requiem shark, and part of the family Carcharhinidae. It is distinguishable by its very high first dorsal fin and inter-dorsal ridge. 

The sandbar shark is classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List.

It has been rarely associated with threats on humans. And yet, they are probably thrown in the "oh my gawd.... it's a big scary shark" category and fished recreationally (probably for the purpose of selfies). 

World Oceans Day 2016

Yes, Sharks are that important. There are many ways in which Sharks keep the ecosystem in a balance. Being top predator of the oceans, they keep prey in check which in turn keeps reefs etc healthy and therefore the oceans stay healthy. Overfishing of sharks will affect everything. If the sharks go, the oceans will get affected and so will the Earth.
We have been put on this planet to take care of it. All of creation was given to us to protect and nurture and use as we needed. We have abused that privilege and our future generations will have to reap the consequences unless we change things today.

World Oceans Day

Join The Shark Side!

Everyone's getting excited about the upcoming Star Wars movie. I loved the first three, no, last three... (well, you know which ones I mean). I haven't watched the clone wars - would I need to watch those before the next movie comes out?
Anyway, I wanted to do a Star Wars drawing but was a bit intimidated because I didn't think I would be able to sharkify (or sharkize) the characters. But I tried it and I'm quite happy with the result.
Just to clarify, I'm not telling people to join the "dark side" through a pun. I think The Shark Side is the side where everyone joins fins to save sharks (and other creatures).

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.

The Greenlantern Shark at ComicCon

I just realised that I never posted this here. I'd done this last year just before Comic Con. People should dress up as Greenlantern shark!

I am #FinFree

I actually had quite a graphic dream about shark finning last night. I don't know if that meant I'm drawing too many sharks or not enough. That got me working on two anti-finning sketches. This is the first one.
Show your support for the #FinFree global movement by visiting this link and signing the petition.

RSVP to be eaten.

I'd drawn this a while ago as requested by "No Fin No Sin". I just realised that I hadn't posted it yet. I drew this with Manga Studio and was quite happy with the result. I did miss my fonts and brushes though.

How "human" is "inhuman"?

It's interesting how "Invaluable" means to have incalculable value (usually is a positive thing) and "inhuman" means to not show human traits (not really a compliment). But just what makes a human being cross over from being "human" to "inhuman"? Sometimes it seems that being "inhuman" is more the norm for humans than otherwise. Many humans seem to have it "in" them to be cruel or heartless and the depth of depravity keeps increasing in its shock value. Perhaps one day it will end up being almost an "invaluable" kind of shocking.
We can only pray for true change in the hearts of men and women.

(Every now and then, even comics need to address serious stuff and speak up for change. )

Keep your fins on: Shark fin soup vs human limb soup

I was asked to do a new anti-finning sketch and thought I'd do this one. I'd had this idea for an anti-sharkfin soup sketch for a while but had put it off because of the kind of morbid theme. Yes, even plastic looking limbs without even an indication of blood can make me go pale. This is why I haven't watched "Saw" or such movies. The last gory movie I watched was probably one of the Scream ones. These days, there's more focus on the gore and raunchiness than a story. It's no wonder there's so much killing and mutilation in the world. We really shouldn't be surprised at the heartlessness of it all... I just hope all of creation will one day be restored to what it is meant to be. 

I couldn't decide on the captions so I did three of them. Which one do you like the best?

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.

Go and Fin no more!

This comic could probably also work with the first panel alone. Jesus would tell off people for the cruel and wasteful act of finning. And He'd most likely be clever and witty about it too.

Don't break it until you can fix it.

I'm sorry for the mushy-melancholic theme of today's comic (can you still call it a comic if it were sad?). Just to be clear, that's not my particular shark missing a fin. It represents any shark.

What if they designed fins for sharks like that kid did a tail for the dragon in "How to train your dragon?". Of course, it wouldn't then be okay to continue to fin the sharks and just get them artificial replacements. 

I'd done a few "Stop finning" sketches in case people want to use them and this was one of them. We'll resume the regular silly posts soon. 

Painting the Wall

Now that I'm a super duper expert in photoshop (who can't still figure out how to draw shapes and get them to intersect and/or overlap), I tried colouring "The wall" picture. The idea for the caption is actually inspired by my friends at Congratulafins who said that they liked this picture because the message they got from it was "that sharks have the right to their fins, just like our right to have out feet to move free".

It makes a pretty cool desktop wallpaper so if anyone would like to have this as a wallpaper, I can put up a larger file on facebook - just let me know the size most prefer.

Wedding RSVP cards for Congratulafins

I posted these on Facebook but forgot to post them here! These are a couple of wedding RSVP cards that were done mostly by my friends at Congratulafins. I did the sketches for the front side of the card and all the lettering, logos etc were all done by Congratulafins. I think it's a really great idea for a Chinese wedding RSVP card considering that sharkfin soup is such an important part of the wedding. But they might as well give up having at weddings now or they'd be forced to in some years when there aren't any sharks left to serve in a bowl.

Sharkfin soup for the soul??

Cheesy but true. Stop shark finning. It's cruel and wasteful.
In the rare event that you don't know about the Chicken soup for the soul books, please check it out.

Hmm..what could be scarier than "Jaws"?

This poster would be awesome in colour! I just need to learn how to colour. And draw those bubble burst messages. Oh how the tables have turned for poor old Jaws. I figured I wouldn't be the first one to think of this and sure enough, I found this poster (looks way better than mine, of course). I think it's quite a good anti-shark-eating message.
I actually liked "Jaws" - it was a well made creature movie. It's sad that people took one look, freaked out about sharks and deemed them evil. That's like watching "Cujo" and deciding that all dogs are evil.
I do hope that the people who made the new "Piranha" don't do a remake of "Jaws" though. That movie was simply awful... way too gory (and most of the gore wasn't even because of the fish), too much nudity and profanity (I won't be able to let my kids watch and enjoy it like I did with "Jaws"?) - yeah, those things are a bit over-rated. If you need those to sell a movie, you must be extremely untalented.

Shark finning makes sense (sensibility being relative)

Every now and then I'll point out things like human rights violations and shark finning issues.  Talking about serious stuff in comic strips does not make light of them but it's done in hopes that all medium will resonate with awareness of what needs to change.
I'm not always in tune with the latest news so I'm not sure if everybody was good to everybody else today (the cynic in me says no). If they were and my strip was pointless, then I hope it stays that way.

Sharks are friends not food!

My original one was sort of like the sharks one for the "Finding Nemo" posters. But it looked more like a bad educational poster than what I'd imagined. I got this image in one of my sleep-wake modes and thought it would be fun idea to do instead. The other sharks are supposed to be a Tiger shark, Hammer-head, Mako and blue shark. =D