Debbie's Thoughtful Spot Is Anyone Out There?
Sometimes drawing a webcomic feels like sending out messages in a bottle. I send them out, they float around, but I never know if anyone actually reads them (besides friends and family). I'm aware that my total lack of a consistent schedule doesn't help, but when you just get the same three or four people commenting on them, you've got to wonder, "Is it really worth my time?" I highly doubt that Fluffy and Mervin will ever make me a penny, but I continue to draw them because I enjoy it. My output may slow down and speed up unexpectedly, but I like what I do, and if I can make those few people smile or chuckle, then it's worth it.
Drawing Sabrina With Debbie
Up Late Drawing Manga With Debbie
A Few Thoughts on Today's Fluffy and Mervin
I updated Fluffy and Mervin today, and this particular strip http://fluffyandmervin.com/archive/93/ was one that I felt was fun to write and draw. It began as a sketch in my sketchbook featuring Lucy and Charlie Brown, but then I thought that it would work well for Mervin. Mervin is both a fun and a challenging character to write for because he is so different from my own personality. Mervin is a way to blow off steam sometimes. He grouches and complains and gets into trouble so I don't have to. The art in this one was fun, too. I got to put some nice poses and expressions in this one. Sherry says that my art has a Hanna-Barbera influence to it, and I can see it a bit sometimes. I try to make the characters look lively when I can, rather than just talking heads in the same pose in both panels. I can easily imagine Fluffy and Mervin animated in a style similar to the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. I just have to then stage the scene in just two panels, which is a bit of a challenge sometimes.
Thank You!
I would like to thank Sherry and Michael Howell for all of their work and support with my webcomic, and their help in keeping my site (and sometimes ME) running. Thank you for believing in me.
Happy New Year!
A Peanuts Cartoon That Caused a Lot of Trouble in 1963
Good grief, Charlie Brown is 60!
Today marks the 60th anniversary of one of my personal favorite comic strips, Peanuts. Admittedly, the past 10 years haven't necessarily been too eventful in the comic itself, as it has been in repeats since February of 2000, when the last new Sunday page appeared. The focus of the past decade has been nostalgia, whether for the strip, Schulz himself, or the animated TV specials (sadly, my personal favorite of the animated Peanuts library, 1969's "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", the first feature film featuring everyone's favorite blockhead seems to have been mostly forgotten, except for a bare-bones DVD release). But just how many more years does Peanuts have left in it? As much as I love them, Charlie Brown and Snoopy and friends seem dated in 2010, like a time capsule view of the 1950's and 60's. But to update them would also seem wrong, seeing Snoopy typing out his newest novel on a laptop, to see Lucy calling Schroeder on a cell phone, or Charlie Brown checking his Facebook page to see if anyone added him as a friend (and replying "Rats!" when no one has) just wouldn't ring true to Schulz's creations. It is a bittersweet anniversay for Peanuts, knowing that the glory days of the strip (and newspaper comics in general, not to mention newspapers themselves) have passed.
Debbie's Thoughtful Spot 2.0
Welcome to the grand re-opening of my personal blog, "Debbie's Thoutgtful Spot". I decided to reboot my blog because as it was before, it was just a catch-all for my old Live Journal posts and the now defunct "Debbie's Sketchbook" posts, with no real identity of its own. My LJ is still there, but most likely will not be updated for the foreseeable future. As previously stated, "Debbie's Sketchbook" is no more, as it is no longer needed with "Fluffy and Mervin" having moved to their own site, fluffyandmervin.com (which seems like a logical name for the page, wouldn't you agree?)
