Lloyd and the Bear

So we can all agree that 2020 sucked but during that time, and lockdown, I managed to find something positive while out walking (other than getting exercise – and by exercise I mean playing Pokemon Go).

With everywhere being so quiet and also being lucky enough to live close to the London West End I was able to take unique photos of London’s empty streets, parks and popular landmarks.

This resulting photos meant I had complete freedom to add characters in to a scene without having to worry about removing or hiding anyone that happened to end up in the photo which was super awesome!

I had already been toying with the idea of doing photo backgrounds for exterior shots but this guaranteed it. Although I toyed with also doing photos for interior shots I decided instead to draw them as not only would it be easier than trying to get a ton of photos of furnishings (at one point I considered using whatever we had around our small flat but that wasn’t going to work!)

Am I going to try having more exterior shots so it saves me drawing interiors? I sure hope so! Do I have enough photos for the rest of this series? Ehhhh, if not I guess I’ll be up early to take some more photos!

More soon! Bear hugs!

So the origin for Fenton Hud surprisingly didn’t come about from the likes of ‘alternative facts’ being used in US news back in 2018 but rather from a conversation I was having with my other half about the light from the moon.

Now, I know that the moon is lit up by the sun, seriously, I know this, but as the conversation went along I mentioned moon rays and how it can feel cold, y’know, at night when your outside and the moon is in the sky…

I was having a moment but from that it gave me the idea of a comic because, hey, what if I was right? And what if we needed a hero out there to tell us of these truths?!? And so Fenton Hud Member of F.A.C.T.  was created!

As I put the early plans in place I wanted a story that I could sketch in my lunchbreak while at work and do a panel a day. Added there wouldn’t be much in the way of a plot or storyline and as ideas came to me the story would change and shift accordingly.

Here’s the problem though. Doing a 24 page story that would flow when I kept coming up with new ideas I figured would be an absolute mess so I realised that what I needed to do was create breaks in the storyline. And these breaks would come in the form of adverts that I’d put together. They would allow me to create small story shorts that would then have the advert allow the story to move from one scene to another while at the same time provide some necessary background knowledge or narration without feeling like it was doing that.

I also thought I could then turn these adverts in to posters and sell them so, y’know, that’s a bonus! (Hopefully!)

And the first advert I came up with? Duh! Moon rays!

I’ll show the other adverts as I go along but I’m so happy that I put this in place. As I worked on the adverts I started to add extra bits like who the company of sponsor was and that way I got to add a few extra jokes which was cool.

And hey, with this one I got to re-work one of the Governments lockdown lines; Stay at home | Protect the NHS | Save lives (and I hope everyone totally gets it’s a respectful nod to that line)

Really hope you like this! Bear hugs!