Behind The Characters
Just where on earth do they come from?...
JON THE BOUNCY BALL
This idea, was actually really bizarre! I visit Portland quite a bit. Nearly every year to be exact! The first time we visited, the first thing we did was visit a pub. It was very nice and welcoming and the staff were very polite. Over in the corner of the pub, was a bouncy ball machine that was divided into two sections. One for big bouncy balls at 50p, and one for small bouncy balls at 20p. I decided to buy one just for fun and got a blue ball with white marks on him. Guess what? He's the real life Jon the bouncy ball. Call it very mad and strange, but I named him Jon. I guess it was just a bit of fun. At our hired out cottage in Portland, I was working on the DGmag comic. Back then in 2011, they were much different to how they are now and only consisted of 4 or 6 pages. This issue had 6. The cover star was mainly "Top Cat" as I loved him so much, call it unoriginal, but I gave him some pretty decent strips to laugh over. And anyway, I wasn't online so I could use who I wanted... I digress, For this particular issue, I introduced a different cover star then Top Cat... He was based of the bouncy ball Jon and some other ones that I had collected. Pretty funny idea and it worked a treat. I decided some issues later to return Jon, and he's been in the comic ever since. And after that strip, DG soon returned onto the cover as they are after all, the main characters. Top Cat however, was put inside the issues until I went online in 2013...
BAD BABIES
An image of Lucy and Susan
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This idea has been in my head for some time now. I used to remember back in the Dandy reading Cuddles and Dimples. My idea is practically similar but you'll have to read Cuddles and Dimples if you want to see why. Even comics such as the Beano and Doctor Who Adventures have had these ideas. It's not uncommon to read about babies. They're relatable in a way. However, the main idea has been done many times to characters that are famous and well known. If we take the well know Tom and Jerry and Looney Toons, they have been also, reintroduced as babies. The concept of them not being shown in the past was quite weird however, but I digress... After all the shows and comics having toddlers in, I though it would be a odd but interesting idea to try it out in the DGmag. But this isn't the only time... Back in the 2007 DGmags, I had babies known as "Hyper things". The concept was as bizarre and as strange as ever... The triangle shaped animal things in nappies would cause total mayhem to Dominic and Ginger, who were usually in enough trouble as it was back in the 2007 years. So this isn't a new concept exactly.
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SILLY MUM
After laughing a lot at a Simpsons episode when Bart makes a comic on his dad called "Angry Dad", I was inspired. I too wanted to make a similar idea. I based a comic on my mum and called it "Silly Mum". However, don't worry. My mum thinks they are very funny and humorous as well. And she isn't actually like the character in real life. I over exaggerate. My mum has been slightly silly, but it happens on the rare chances. In fact, only the odd Silly Mums are even inspired from occasions of my mother. The idea started back in... Not sure... However it began before 2009, when Silly Mum was then introduced to my DGmags unlike before, when she was just a one off comic book idea. Anyway, that's were the idea hatched from.
MR. SCREACHER
The Beano and The Dandy have had many teachers over the years being picked on. It's not uncommon for a child to have a sort off hatred with a teacher. If we take examples like Bash Street's teacher, Mrs Creacher, Mr Throbb and Greedy Pigg, we can see just how much humiliation is put into making their lives total chaos. As this idea was well known, I put it upon myself to come up with a teacher who had serious anger management. I decided that he would be called Mr. Screacher as he screams a lot and also a hark to Mrs Creacher's name. I wanted to show a teacher that found it practically nigh on impossible to control his pupils (and also his rage), but also to let the reader decide whether he's just a nasty old fogey, or a teacher that is angry due to his pupil's behavior issues. Whatever the reason, I wanted a comic strip that portrays what life is like set in a troublesome classroom.
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Mr. Screacher ticking off Sandra and Jerry
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DOMINIC & GINGER
An image of Dom stroking Ginger. Mandy is annoyed. Also pictured is Sparkles
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In around 2004, I so badly wanted a cat. So my nine year old or so mind took it upon me to create an imaginary one. I mean, it was so simple. I could even have a conversation with the cat. And real cats wouldn't do that now, would they? Anyway, as I had a love for comics, I decided to create a magazine for me and Ginger to live and document our adventures down in. As the years have progressed, both Dominic and Ginger have aged, more characters have developed, and they also share the magazine with many more characters but remain the two main characters in charge of the comic! Dominic's design was originally a very bad drawing of the real me in 2004. As in... real bad. Later designs included his t-shirt, which came from both Dee Dee's striped colour design in Dexter's Lab and Beano's Dennis's jersey. Later on the face was loosly based on the work of Hunt Emerson who did Little Plum for The Beano. Even further designs were added to Dom's hair that was a loose inspiration from the hair of Ball Boy. (A lot of Beano inspiration here folks). Ginger's design has had the least change, however her name has been removed from her collar.
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TOM & THE PENGUINS
Similar to the Beano, the DGmag needed a story that could wrap up the magazine or at least almost wrap it up. By this is mean a finishing story. The Beano has Dennis as the first, and Roger as the last. But since 2016's new revamp that isn't quite the case at times. Anyway, in 2010, I decided to boost DGmag further and add in two other characters. These were Tom and Mojo. But sometimes Tom and Jojo instead. (Another penguin presumably or I got the name wrong at times). This idea actually came from the Dandy's Ted and the animals. In one particular strip, Ted is confronted with a horde of lost penguins at his doorstep. The almost caused shenanigans inspired me to adapt the idea further where a boy would actually have to LIVE with penguins!! So in 2014, I finally decided to return this strip as I felt that this would be a good story to use that would end each edition of DGmag. And to this day still, Tom will always have to struggle with his wine loving pet penguin and the other couple of hundred or so too. Makes me think though. How on earth does he afford to keep all the penguins 24/7?!! And where did they even come from?!!
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Tom and Mojo mess up Dominic the Editor's iPad
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MINA THE GHOST
I've always found the concept of ghosts fascinating. How they seem spooky and haunting. Just look at them striking fear. Yet let's remember Casper for a moment. Not one bad bone did he have. (Not that he even had any). This showed a more approachable and nicer side to the sinister concept. With this is mind, I wanted to create a ghost that wasn't cruel or mean, yet just so happened to have a difficult time trying to approach people. What would the initial reaction be? Simply stay clear from the ghost! Poor Mina...
STAN AND LIAR
Stan and Liar actually came from the concept of "Back To The Future" starring Doctor Emmett and Marty McFly. The idea also came from The Dandy's "Jack Silver" now drawn by Wilbur Dawbarn. Both ideas shared influence as I came up with two boys who had a shared interest in science dimensions. Stan would be the main technical geek while Liar was a boy inspired loosely by the emotion of Fear. Together both would go on wacky adventures. Getting more and more into trouble as the misadventures get wilder and wilder... So yes. That's were that idea came from...
SYLVISTER
This character was a very strange idea I came up with probably in 2012 as I started to use Sylvister in the 2012 DGmags ("Good use of logic there Dom" - Ginger). Her face and hair apperence is actually based very loosely on that of Barrie Appleby's Jojo in old Beano strip - London B412, first used in 2007. A lab coat strangly seemed to fit this character design as I was a big fanatic of Dexter's Laboratory back then. The name Sylvister came because I was wondering what Sylvie was short for. It turns out it's short for Sylvia incase you're wondering. Strangely I liked the idea of taking the boy's name Sylvester and seeing what would happen if it became a girl's name. And thus all I did was replace the e with an i. I wanted Sylvister to be very clevor but as a mad scientist and inventor. I wanted the idea of her character being questioned. Does she live on her own? Where are her parents? Are they like her? Do they know about her laboratory? And why did I make her evil? Well. That was because I thought that she would possably turn bad someday. With her power it was only a matter of time before it happened. That and the fact that 2015's Duckula revamp was now evil too.
INSPECTOR POLICEMAN
In a 2013 mini toon idea, I decided to put two jobs that someone might do together. I thought, "Why not have a policeman who's an inspector?". And surely enough, I got this character, although his first form was a clipart image. His newer design was to loosely echo the facual features of Inspector Gadget, while his costume would hark the origanal police uniforms worn in the 1960s. I wanted his stripes to remain as this would show his status of how good he was to the police force. His new hat would be in the style of a detective's hat while having both an American and English vibe. The star shows that he's now in charge of the DGmag world and has become the main city police officer. Which possibly isn't too great for DG as all he seems to do is ask really silly questions instead of attending real crimes. A silly crime example was when he agreed to solve the case to see if Fabulous Fizz was too sugary. He also seems to go into some crime arrests without doing much research into the crime first. (ie) When he arrested DG and Mally without fully watching the whole video evidence.
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Mustn't get distracted from the crime scene... Oooooh! Pink Pigs!!
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Little Rude Riding Hood
Who's afraid of the little rude girl?
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This strip first began in 2012 before I went online. I liked the idea of taking Little Red Riding Hood but switching the roles around so that the wolf was now nice and Riding Hood was now rude. The idea of a universe where the tables have turned fascinated me, so I wanted to see a world where Riding Hood consistently torments the poor helpful wolf whom is just trying to be nice to her. Although I did do strips in 2012, the ideas were mainly one panel jokes or one page strips to begin with.
When I returned the strip in 2014, it was to see if I could do more with the character. But alas, this original rendition of Rude Riding Hood only lasted one issue and thus the strip left DGmag again. Until... in 2019, I finally decided to return Little Rude Riding Hood in an all new look and redesign. I was inspired by the Invader Zim comics where Recap kid, a girl dressed in a hoodie would recap all of Zim's previous issues to keep us in the loop. This thus spawned an idea in my head of a more modern up to date Rude Riding Hood rather than the original idea I used in the past. So, I got to work on the revamp, and this idea was originally going to see Riding Hood as a boy, but as that seemed unfaithful to the original ideas, I kept her as a girl. Now her hair was more wilder and frizzy, and this Riding Hood was a little bit more chaotic too. Perhaps partly inspired by Beano's Minnie The Minx? The Big Nice Wolf redesign was actually just a better drawing of the original wolf used, as my talents have improved of drawing cartoon wolves. Hopefully. XD I too, wanted to take her family history further. She wouldn't like her grandma bossing her about. She would talk to The Big Nice Wolf to calm her down. this thus spawned a more immersive universe in which this Riding Hood lives in. Ideas from Doctor Who's Timeless Child arc has too inspired recent strips. Here other Riding Hoods have been lived from her family tree and other dimensions, and they have been kept secret from her. This Riding Hood is adventurous and wants to find answers. This could be partly inspired by Hilda and adventures seen in the Beano comics by Dennis and his friends. |