I launched a new webcomic strip today. Or I should say, I finally gave a name and a home to a sporadically produced collection of single and multi-panel strips featuring a cat who talks to a cartoon version of myself. The name of the cat and thus the name of the strip is “Fetch”. You can find it here: http://mooretoons.com/comics/fetch/
Why Fetch? Because a fetch is a wraith, a spirit, a supernatural figure who often acts as a person’s double and in some tales presages death. (Read more about it at Fairy Beliefs – Irish Folklore.) After wracking my brains out over an appropriate name, my friend Aubry, who knows from Irish folklore and how I think, suggested the name. I love it. The cat is meant to be a manifestation of the thoughts lurking in my subconsciousness, the kind that bubble up and disrupt my day, derailing me from my appointed task; or alternately reminding me to do something important; sometimes a trickster, sometimes a call to my conscience. Sometimes a pain in the ass. Anyway, don’t expect a faithful reproduction of this folkloric figure; the cat has its own personality, that the name and the allusion seem to fit.
Other critters will most likely make an appearance. I have a menagerie of animal symbols representing facets of my psyche that I want to bring out into the open, turn into cartoons, and generate humor with.
Most of the strips have been drawn using Paper by 53 — much like many of the drawings you will find in other galleries on this site. It’s very handy to create a finished looking drawing using nothing but a Bamboo stylus and an iPad. I will also use more pen, ink and brush tools, because I favor those more than digital methods. I’m no snob, but I get more of a kick out of what a brush stroke will do to a drawing.
I plan to produce one strip a week. Life may disrupt that, but now that I have a home and a name for the cat, I feel more motivated. It feels more real.