I apologise, Malky - I just couldn't resist that. But the question was so incredibly funny...
I can't believe anyone would ever have come up with that gag before. It rang no bells with me, and I think you must draw it properly, in your own inimitable style.
As for my style, thanks for the comments, chaps, but they're a double-edged sword. That drawing literally took me about three minutes to complete (if you check the times of our respective posts, that should bear me out - less than 20 minutes all told), and equates to the standard I used to fax to the Daily Record as pencil sketches for my daily editorial cartoons. I'd then redraw the thing properly, including the pencil sketch itself, in full detail, including all cross-hatching and black areas, before inking it all in with painstaking precision. And you're now telling me that the three-minute version would have looked just as good, if not better.
I'm crying into my beer now. Not because I disagree with you (I don't), but because of how rich I could have been if I could have produced saleable drawings that took three minutes rather than three hours.
And I do agree. I've recently been forcing myself to 'hold back' for some of the cartoons I've been drawing for the competition on t'other cartoony site, mostly out of necessity (i.e. lack of time to do them 'properly'), and I do actually like the way they turn out, especially with a little bit of fairly crude colour or tone thrown in where I'd normally spend an hour or two with airbrushing techniques. It won't stop me from going over the top again, probably more often than not, but I'm now feeling more comfortable with 'cutting corners' than ever before. Just shows, you're never too old to learn and re-evaluate.
I met Tony Husband once, a very long time ago, whilst on a visit to see John K. Geering (a great comic artist, who Malky knew well). I was in my early twenties, and writing Bananaman scripts for John. It was a social visit that coincided with Tony arranging to meet up with John in Manchester so that John could give him some advice on possibly breaking into the comics market. John insisted I tag along, since I had many...er...months experience on the editorial side of children's comics. Tony was obviously a very funny guy, but I told him he'd have to sharpen up his drawing style a heck of a lot if he was to stand any chance of being considered for the Beano or the Dandy...
I'm sure he's forgotten all about it - I bloody hope so anyway!
