Studs Up

A lot of the cartoons I do are hyper-topical but there are often times, especially during international week, where there’s really no news that sticks to my brain and gets the ideas going.

In these times, my mind begins to wander. Transfer Shaman, Pengy, jokes about auto-erotic asphyxiation – these are all by-products of a slow news day but all ended up being some of my (and yours, from the feedback) favourite characters and sketches.

I do a lot of doodling and sketching during the day, often just weird football-related art like pirate ships or football pastries. Dr. Football came into being after I was practicing my “old style” footballs.

Naturally, at some point I decided to put a giant moustache on it. For some reason it took me back to a favourite childhood story of mine, the Australian book The Magic Pudding.

Thus, I wrote today’s strip with a view to working a this new character in somehow. It’s not much of a plot, but I try not to force it with new characters and instead let some natural dialogue and personality emerge from them as I write. What we have learned about Dr. Football so far, it turns out, is that he is a Doctor, loves the ladies and is perhaps not too fond of constantly being kicked in the arse. A shame given he’s a football.

I’m hoping to get him into some proper stories in the near future once something interesting happens in football, but in the mean time I hope you guys grow as fond of him as I quickly have already!