Extreme Survival Tips

It'd been a while since I did this kind of comic. This one's a little text-heavy, but this format was always a good way to cram in a lot of jokes. 

This strip was also pretty rough on eternal easy target Kenny G, but I hear he's actually a fan of the comic and found this one pretty funny.*

* Not true. 

You're an Idiot

I'd had the last panel of this comic worked out for a long time, and I'd cycled through various scenarios to set it up before settling on this one. It'd probably help to be familiar with the classic riddle he's trying to tell, but hopefully this works without it.

Shooting Cans

I remember feeling like I'd nailed this one after I finished it, and looking back it probably still is the comic I'm most proud of. I never thought I'd be able to make two giant cans sitting in a car look menacing, but I think I pulled it off.

Flatting Life, Part II

In which I reveal that it was me all along! Hah! Whether or not this was a genuine surprise for some readers, I'll never know. 

At this stage I'd obviously decided that Edgar and pretentious art dude were the most appropriate ambassadors for the comic (along with the bloodthirsty Huggable Playtime Pal). Sounds about right.  

Flatting Life, Part I

This was my first comic of the second semester, and the idea was to fool everyone into thinking that Canned Laughter had been replaced by this shitty, pandering-to-the-masses flatting-themed comic. Most of my friends saw right through it, of course – I used the same pen, for a start, and it was just the kind of thing that I would do. A few people stopped me and asked what happened to Canned Laughter, though, so it kind of worked. Whether the general reader noticed or even cared, I have no idea.

The Glasses

It was fun doing a comic with no dialogue, although the lack of speech bubbles really meant that I had more space than I knew what to do with.

The Short Film

One of the rare times I brought a character back. I remember sketching the idea for this in a stats lecture, of all places. 

'Not if I run' may just be my favourite single line in Canned Laughter. (I worked at Kmart when I was a teenager, and I used to have recurring nightmares that I was back there. To me that represented having failed at life.)

The Huggable Playtime Pals

This was the first time I tried any crosshatching. I think it worked...? 

I Hope No One Sees This...

"Local Woman Large, In Charge" was a fake headline I'd wanted to use for a while, and my dream was finally realised in this comic. 

Surrealism Outbreak

That dude at the end really deserved his own spin-off comic.

Did I Just Hit Something?

I have a fantasy of 'revealing' that everyone is on a hidden camera show whenever I find myself in an awkward situation involving strangers. 

I'm yet to follow through.

Edgar's First Day

Poor old Edgar. I've seen this happen a few times in real life: someone makes a moderately funny joke, gets a few laughs, and then takes that as encouragement to keep making increasingly terrible jokes. Love it.

Lesser-Known Legendary Beasts

I don't know why I find references to Tony Danza funny.

Shunned by the Establishment

I would read the shit out of that book.

Mr. Can't-Take-a-Hint

Loosely based on actual experiences where people wouldn't take the hint and just leave already. I had played with the idea of bringing Mr. Can't-Take-a-Hint back in different scenarios (getting rejected by a girl, getting fired, etc.), but it never really happened.

Also, drawing people lying in bed was surprisingly tricky.

Conversation Killers

Drawing people's reactions was the most fun part of this comic. Also, the final panel contains the last meta-gag I ever did. (Really. I checked.)

What I Did in My Holiday's

This was the first comic of 2006 (after a long summer break), which began what I consider to be my  best year of Canned Laughter. The strips were looking better, and I had (mostly) ditched the self-referential humour for actual setups and punchlines. First up, a homage to my five year-old self.

Closed for the Summer

The last comic of 2005. Now I think about it, it was kind of morbid to imply that I'd die over the summer. (I didn't.)

Just For Kids!

I like to think that this is the kids' page in the same newspaper as this comic strip. My only regret now is that I should've made the maze even more insultingly easy. 

Canned Laughter Guide to Space Travel

This companion piece to the Guide to Time Travel contains a rare Otago-specific reference (this very comic was written in a freezing student flat), as well as an overt Spinal Tap reference. 

The Adventures of Cheap Prescription Drugs

Well, here we have it: the thrilling conclusion to the 'New Character' trilogy. This is the last time we see the big-chinned guy, or any 'host' of Canned Laughter, which marks a turn into less self-referential humour and more straight-up ol' fashioned jokes. 

If I remember correctly, the phrase 'crotch-achingly awful' was from a review for 'The Master of Disguise' in Empire magazine. The film has a fresh rating of 1% on Rotten Tomatoes and is indeed terrible. Highly recommended.

Canned Laughter Official Character Poll

I thought this whole idea was pretty darn clever at the time. Whether people actually thought it was funny, of course, was a whole different story.

I like the idea that Jeremy Sprinkler got the most 'real' votes. (Of course, in reality no one actually voted. Which is fine.)

Mailbag #5: New Character

The last mailbag comic I did. The previous 'host' of Canned Laughter had to be replaced, since he was drawn in the old style, so instead we get this large-chinned gentleman reading our mail. This new guy didn't last long, as I was phasing out this kind of self-referential humour anyway, but at least he went out in a blaze of glory: this comic is the first installment of my highly ambitious three-part 'New Character' saga.

Long-time fans (i.e. my family) will know that Sneaky Weasel was the eponymous character in a series of comics I wrote when I was a teenager. It's also interesting to note that I was offered a TV deal for Stuart Pencil, M.D., which went on to be the longest-running stationery-themed medical drama of all time.

Tinned Humour

I'd had the idea of doing a British version of the comic called Tinned Humour for quite a while, so it was fun to finally make it happen. This was one example of having more space than I knew what to do with, and I'm not sure that the awkwardly-drawn top hat really helped.

The Funniest Cartoon in the World

I guess the joke here is the idea that you could create the funniest cartoon in the world simply by drawing a lot of 'wacky' stuff in the same place. It was probably more fun to draw than it was to read, but I'm okay with that. I included a lot of references to previous comics (oh my god, it's The Square!) that I'm sure went unnoticed by almost everybody. 

The Canned Laughter Guide to Time Travel

The first 'guide to' in a while. This one's pretty text-heavy, but I think it works.

The Funny Pages

This was inspired by lame newspaper comics such as Hagar the Horrible and was a shitload of fun to draw. The text above the comic comes from Mr. Bungle's Platypus, which reflects my ongoing obsession with all things Mike Patton at the time. Of course, all I notice when I look at this comic now is that the 'p' in 'problem' (top-left corner) is inexplicably too big.

Obscure Proverbs

Keeping to the 'new and improved' promise, I definitely felt at the time that this was the best comic I had written so far - both visually and in terms of humour. And hey, I'm still pretty proud of it. Especially the guy staring blankly at his knife in the last frame (about to make peanut butter and jam on toast, which was a craze sweeping my flat at the time). 

New and Improved!

This was the first comic I submitted when Critic returned for the second semester of 2005. The whole 'New and Improved' thing was obviously meant to be tongue-in-cheek, yet I did feel there was some truth to it: I had left the Simpsons-derived characters behind for something more my own, and I felt that the new comics I was writing were just that little bit better.

And yes, the obscure in-jokes were indeed actual in-jokes (you may recognise 'cake or death?' from the classic Eddie Izzard routine, but the rest are incomprehensible to the common man). I suspect that the 'MB' on the guy's shirt is also an in-joke, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was supposed to stand for. Milton Bradley? Monty Burns? Millennium Baby? God, this is going to drive me nuts.

EDIT: It stands for Mr. Bungle, obviously. I can't believe that took me over a month to realise. 

Canned Laughter B.C.

Around this time I'd been experimenting with different styles, trying to move away from the obvious Simpsons influence. The most notable thing about these cavemen was that their mouths were completely inside their faces, losing that distinctively Simpson-esque overbite. The 'evolved' characters - which, ironically, were drawn in the old style - just looked shitty in comparison, and this was when I decided to ditch them for good. Farewell, shitty Simpsons-looking guys.

The Five Secrets of Success

Coming up with fake brands and companies is always fun. I'm pretty sure that Ren & Stimpy inspired the lard one.