Here's a strip that will run in October. The last panel took a bit of work. I spent a substantial (and probably unnecessary) amount of time researching old comic styles. Originally I wanted to do a Victorian political cartoon style but space restrictions and my lack of drawing skills made me turn to George Herriman's pre-Krazy Kat strip "Baron Bean". The mouse at the front of the animal line came out looking way too much like Ignatz, even though I wasn't trying. There is so much comicana (action lines, clouds, sweat beads, dotted eyesight lines) in those old comics. The minimalist influence of Peanuts did away with a lot of that. However, I miss the exaggerated body positions, Vaudevillian theatrics and detailed shading.
As the Giants finish off another dreadful season I kill my time between innings reading vintage Krazy Kat comics. There is no doubt in my mind (and many others) that Krazy Kat is the greatest comic strip ever (Pogo in second place trails a fair way behind). I therefore hesitated to soil the integrity of George Herriman by using his characters in a Rabbits strip. However, I liked copying his raw scratchy style. It's customary when you do this sort of character theft to write "Apologies to [insert artist's name]" somewhere in the frame but seeing as he died in 1944 I just added a copyright notice so his syndicate doesn't call me... although I'm still waiting to hear back from them after sending them a submission package several weeks ago.
