I Made A Comic!

I’ve often talked about wanting to do my own comic. A nice, easy three panel web comic that is fast to create and easy to maintain. But I’ve never followed through on that.

Or so it would seem. 

You see, for the last year I’ve been holding out on you, dear reader. Once a month I’ve been producing something creative and fun and not sharing it with you. It’s been a rewarding project, and I’ve had to learn new skills every month. I’ve even gotten new technology to help polish it up and present it better. 

We moved into our new home in a co-op here in Vancouver last year, and during our first month here there was a general meeting to bring all the membership up to date with developments within the co-op and make decisions as a group. We were introduced to the members we hadn’t met up to then, but mostly sat quietly watching and listening. 

One of the topics that came up related to the grass area within the co-ops grounds, and the apparent presence of moles digging it up and causing issues. For some reason, I found this hilarious. I immediately went home that night and started sketching these moles, doodling and refining a pair of them, slowly evolving them into simplier, cleaner shapes. I couldn’t stop. They were adorable to draw. But I had no idea what to do with them. 

Then I discovered that not only was there an internal monthly newsletter, but that members were welcome to submit material for it. Perfect. Now I just needed a gag. And the general meeting that inspired the moles provided that too. 

This was the first appearance of the Moles, Doug (left) and Scoop (right). This first era of the comic was drawn on a sketch pad, photographed with my phone and then adjusted to look a bit better for print, but there’s only so much you can do when it’s not a proper scan. Also, this first comic was left black & white due to time constraints. It all came together late in the month, and newsletter submissions have to be in for the 29th of each month. The gag came from a discussion at the general meeting about whether the grassy area in the co-op was a detention pond or a retention pond. Apparently there’s an important difference. I just thought it was all a bit silly.

Issue two saw the title change to the ongoing title, The Mariner Moles, “The Mariner” being the name of our internal newsletter. I had a lot of fun designing the costumes for the two moles and both went through several iterations. I’m especially proud of Doug’s expression in the second panel.

The fifth issue would see more changes, with Doug getting a new mouth shape. By now, their personalities were emerging. Doug is the one that talks, and Scoop just kind of goes along with him, but is probably much wiser than his friend. This is also one of the very few times we get to see either mole facing the other way. I pointedly avoided the blind comic character cliche of having Scoop facing the wrong way in conversations. 

I love the idea that the moles are aware and interested in CSI. I threw around a bunch of different shows I could have used, but kept coming back to CSI. It just made me laugh every time. Still does. Again, Scoop’s world smarts shine through Doug’s enthusiasm. I hope people got the double gag of the power plug, but also the fact that it’s not a TV.

And that ended the first age of Mariner Moles. There were more than four issues shown here. I drew eight in total in my sketchbook, as well as a few Bonus Panels related to particular events in the co-op.

I’ll show off the second age in another post.