It's a love story that started a long time ago. Maybe you noticed but we love webcomics, and we love to get the chance to show you some of the best we can find out there. Benson Comics is one of those secret lovers you can't stop texting (or sexting, depending on the mood). After weeks and weeks of seeing each other secretly, we’re giving you a ‘coming out’ today, and it's not because Benson Comics' fathers are two men, don't be so judgmental. FML readers, here come today’s artists!

-What's your name and surname?
-Peter Durston and Tristram Baumber.

-How old are you?
-34 and 32 respectively.

-Where do you live?
-Wollongong, Australia and London, UK respectively.

-What do you do for a living?
-Both working in TV, slaving away behind the scenes.

-What's your story?
-We both grew up in Wollongong but went to different schools and didn't know each other.  We met through a now-defunct group of filmmakers and writers and started drawing comic strips together as a way to pass the time in a soul-destroying call centre job.  (More details here: http://www.bensoncomics.com/p/how-benson-exists.html)

-What are your projects?
-We've worked on a couple of television pilot scripts together, which are in varying stages of development.  Peter is illustrating a childrens' book and Tristram is currently writing feature screenplays.

-Can you tell us about your blog/website? (How did it started, etc..)
-It started back in '06, as we realised that the 3 years worth of comics we had in various manila folders needed a home free of fingerprint smudging and sweaty fidgeting.  Where but the internet is free of those things?  We tried out daily strips, then Tuesdays and Fridays which is where we felt most at home!
 
-What inspires you (artists, movies, etc..)?
-There's so much it boggles our tiny minds!  A lot of comedians like Louis CK, Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Ricky Gervais.  Programmes like Arrested Development, 30 Rock and Eastbound and Down.  Also a lot of UK series like Peep Show, The Thick of It and Alan Partridge.  In terms of comics, Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes have been huge influences.

-What makes you laugh the most?
-We write Benson by switching panels between each other; that way we are always surprised by how they turn out.  Our biggest laughs always come when we see the latest panel from the other artist - we're never prepared for the story's new direction!

-Why did you choose this FML?
-When we first read this we thought, "Wow, that's one of our main characters right there."  Thumby is always put-upon; he's the straight guy to Benson's wackiness.  It felt like a natural fit.

-Do you have your own FML anecdote that you can share us?
-Once we were drawing a comic strip lampooning Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il, only to turn around and see he was standing right behind us and had read the whole thing!

Ah Kim Jong-Il, what  a naughty boy. You know, we're pretty sure he's a huge FML fan. Anyway, many thanks to you guys! (And see you on Monday, don't forget the Chantilly cream.)

Peter and Tristram's website: http://www.bensoncomics.com/

If you want to be the next published artist, send an email to alice@fmylife.com including a link to your website/blog/DA. But DON'T send your illustration right away! You need first to get in touch with Alice who will tell you what you have to do!

Hey hey hey! We're very excited today, not because Renée Perry is one hell of a housewife, but because The 30-Second Bunnies Theatre is on FML today! It can be pretty boring can to see a movie to find out in the end that there were only a few worthy minutes in it. Jennifer Shiman (http://www.angryalien.com/) has decided to help us save some time, and re-created some of the greatest (or worst) movies of all time, in 30 seconds. And it works. Otherwise she wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be that excited. Let's go for a non-30 second interview!

-What's your name and surname?
-Jennifer Shiman


-How old are you?
-41


-Where do you live?
-Los Angeles, California USA

-What are your projects?
-My longest-running project has been 30-Second Bunnies Theatre, in which animated bunnies re-enact and summarize movies in roughly thirty
seconds.

-Why bunnies?
-They work really hard.

Clic to see the illustration on FMyLife.com !

Well, we would have said yes, we simply can't say no to a funny woman. That's our Seinfeld chromosome. Thank you very much Jennifer for your participation!

On theater right now: http://www.angryalien.com/

If you want to be the next published artist, send an email to alice@fmylife.com including a link to your website/blog/DA. But DON'T send your illustration right away! You need first to get in touch with Alice, who's currently waiting for the bride to say "yes", who will tell you what you have to do!

There's nothing cuter than a cat. It can be noisy, it can scratch your leg or puke on your pillow, but it's always cute. And cute, or "kawaii", is something today's artist sure does know about, as he created a blog full of "aaaw" creatures that he called Boximals. As we totally had a crush on those adorable little ones, we had to share it with you. Please everybody welcome...

-Jeffrey Jang !

-How old are you?
-20 years old.

-Where do you live?
-Coquitlam, British Columbia

-What do you do for a living?
-I currently freelance as a graphic designer and illustrator, but otherwise work at a warehouse doing repetitive things all day.

-What's your story?
-I actually wanted to be a concept artist coming out of high school, but decided to give graphic design some thought as I could still work on my illustration skills on my own while learning how to be commercial through design school. I realized I had a much better flair for design than illustration, and haven't looked back since then.

-What are your projects?
-When not occupied at my day job, the major projects I devote time to involve revising my portfolio, my personal website, and Boximals. 

-Can you tell us about your blog/website?
-Boximals came about after I designed a line of characters for a client. Disappointed that I couldn't use them myself I decided to go and design my own characters and brand. I'm mainly focusing on building more designs first, but have been communicating with shirt printers and will redesign the current website to incorporate a shop soon.

-What inspires you?
-It's probably odd being an artist that I only have one person as my inspiration. Kristen Perry is one of the talented concept artists at ArenaNet (think Guild Wars), and has been my friend, mentor and teacher for a few years now. I owe her everything, even though she'll deny it if went and asked her.

 
-What makes you laugh the most?
-Humor like that of Family Guy or The Whitest Kids You Know will make me laugh quite a bit. Most of the time I am just pretending to laugh at things to be polite, but I'd never let you know that.
 
-Why did you choose this FML?
-When looking through the FMLs I was mainly looking for one that involved animals as I wanted to use my Boximals characters for it. This one not only had a cat, but a very cute twist that I was able to work with.

-Do you have your own FML anecdote that you can share us?
-It's not as crazy as some of the FMLs here but every day I think about how I haven't found a graphic design job and go "FML". To be fair I haven't been at it for very long, but I figure it's good form of motivation until I get one.

Many thanks for your illustration Jeffrey !

Boximals: http://boximals.com/

If you want to be the next published artist, send an email to alice@fmylife.com including a link to your website/blog/DA. But DON'T send your illustration right away! You need first to get in touch with Alice who will tell you what you have to do!

Cock-a-doodle-do everybody! We're pretty excited because today we're welcoming a big beaked artist who sure knows how to please us with chickens, without grilling them or pulling their wings off. You must have once come across one of his comics: a yellow background, simple black lines depicting talking chickens that actually make you laugh. Well, the author is here with us today, and we're enjoying it so much we got to interview him.

What's your name and surname?
Doug Savage

Where do you live?
Doug Savage : Vancouver, BC

What do you do for a living?
Doug Savage : By day, I'm an editor for a giant software corporation. By night, I'm a cartoonist. At parties, I introduce myself as a cartoonist because it leads to more interesting conversations.

What's your story? (school, job..)
Doug Savage : When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cartoonist. And then somehow I ended up working in an office. I forgot about my cartooning dream. I even forgot how to draw. And then years later, the lack of creativity really started to get to me; I started getting migraines with increasing frequency -- big nasty migraines with what they call "aura" side-effects, which basically means that your vision goes all wobbly. I knew something had to change. And then I started doodling chickens on sticky notes, and having a creative outlet made life so much better. Haven't had a migraine in three years! (Knock wood)??.

What are your projects?
Doug Savage : I draw Savage Chickens, a cartoon drawn entirely on sticky notes. I'm working on a book of the chickens for Perigee Books, which is due out in March 2011. I also do occasional stop-motion animation projects, such as the "July Flame" music video I created for Portland musician Laura Veirs.

Can you tell us about your blog/website? (How did it started, etc..)
Doug Savage : I started putting my cartoons online in January 2005 and I've been posting a cartoon every weekday since. Almost 1500 cartoons so far! The site really started to take off when I got featured on MyYahoo and Blogger.

Why chickens?
Doug Savage : By the time I started drawing again, I had basically forgotten everything I ever knew about cartooning. The only thing I remembered how to draw was chickens. So I drew chickens!

What inspires you (artists, movies, etc..)?
Doug Savage : Like most cartoonists, my work is inspired by everything around me: pop culture, life experiences, overheard conversations, etc. But to be more specific, I'm personally inspired by creative people doing what they love. People like Wes Anderson, Brandon Bird, Tina Fey, Frank Gehry, Ricky Gervais, Andy Goldsworthy, Jim Henson, James Hill, Geddy Lee, Steve Martin, and so on. Creative people doing creative things and having a blast.

How can you be that funny?
Doug Savage : I don't know any other way to be! I think a lot of humor comes from being able to mentally step outside of the world and look at it from an outsider perspective, because then you can see how ridiculous it is. Humor is really a way of perceiving and deconstructing the world around us. Some people react to the world by throwing up their arms and saying "Augh! It's a cruel world!"; I prefer to say "OMG! This place is hilarious!"

What makes you laugh the most?
Doug Savage : Absurdity. Things that don't belong together being mashed together, or things that are bizarre and completely unexpected. Or fart jokes. Everybody laughs at fart jokes even if they don't like to admit it.

Why did you choose this FML?
Doug Savage : I read through a whole heap of them and this one caught my eye because it took place in Denmark, which immediately made me think of Hamlet and I started thinking how he might be involved in this person's bad day.

Do you have your own FML anecdote that you can share us?
Doug Savage : Heheh yeah I fell asleep in a meeting once. I know, that happens to a lot of people, but this particular meeting was just me and one other guy. Pretty embarrassing.

Clic to see the illustration on FMyLife.com

You're unique Doug, that's why we love you. Let's eat birseeds in the poultry-yard to celebrate our love.

Doug's website full of chickens HOW COOL IS THAT : http://www.savagechickens.com/

If you want to be the next published artist, send an email to alice@fmylife.com including a link to your website/blog/DA. But DON'T send your illustration right away! You need first to get in touch with Alice who will tell you what you have to do!

"Oh, you're here, we didn't see you, sorry." Horrible feeling, huh? Don't worry folks, you know the FML team isn't like all those co-workers or schoolmates who have a certain taste for humiliating you. It's mean, it's cruel, yes, but, it's also really funny when you're not in the firing line, and that's why today's artist Joe Combs chose to illustrate this particular story. Let's have some fun being mean, shall we?

-How old are you?
-33 (side note: years? liters? we'll never know.)


-Where do you live?
-Twin Cities, Minnesota


-What do you do for a living?
-Programmer.  I hope to one day do illustration and design full-time, but until then, those mortgages don't pay themselves.


-What's your story?
-I was born and raised in Kentucky so I bring a lot of country to the city. On the flip side, when I visit my hometown, people say that I'm too city these days.  It's a lose-lose.


-What are your projects?
-My main project is my long-running webcomic, Business Casual.  It focuses on business, technology, and the pure inanity that lives in all of the offices around the world.  I also create a webcomic called Rusty The Wonderdog   that's an odd, single panel webcomic with no real theme.  Business Casual currently updates 3 times a week while Rusty The Wonderdog is a comic that I just do in bursts.  I also occasionally create mini-comics, sketch cards, and do some freelance web design and illustration.


-Can you tell us about Business Casual and Rusty The Wonderdog?
-Business Casual started in 2003 as an outlet for some frustrations that I was having in my job at the time.  I created some simple comics poking fun at co-workers and the things that went on at my company.  After sharing them with others around the office, I threw together a quick webpage and put the comics out where anyone could read them.  As of September 2010, the archives now contain over 550 strips.
The idea for Rusty The Wonderdog actually started around the same time as Business Casual.  I would doodle cartoons on the whiteboards at work all the time and Rusty started showing up more and more often on them. After a while, he became kind of a mascot for myself and the office.  And when I wanted to do a new comics project a few years ago for a 24 hr comic event, I immediately thought back to that odd little dog I used to draw all the time.


-What inspires you?
-Daily life is probably my largest inspiration for what goes on in my comic. While I do have artistic and humor influences that I can point to, actual life provides me with most of the situations that I lampoon in Business Casual.  As for other influences, I enjoy reading and am always inspired to create more after finishing a good story, comic, or a collection of comic strips.



-What makes you laugh the most?
I really enjoy witty humor and sly wordplay in the style of the Marx Brothers and Monty Python.  However, I'm not above laughing at the simple-pleasures in life like people falling down.


-Why did you choose this FML?
-Since the Work category plays to my strengths, I wanted to choose another FML from that category as I did with the last FML I submitted.  This particular one caught my interest because it reminds me of some former co-workers of mine.  I've worked with both the quiet, shy ones that you can hardly tell are at the office and also the ones who would lock the door and turn the lights out on a coworker as a prank.

-Do you have your own FML anecdote that you can share us?
-Today, my youngest son just started walking and getting into everything that not's either locked or nailed down in my house. FML

 

Click to see the illustration on FMyLife.com

Many thanks for your second illustration Joe, we're not going to forget you anytime soon.

  "Oh, you're here, we didn't see you, sorry." Horrible feeling, huh? Don't worry folks, you know the FML team isn't like all those co-workers or schoolmates who have a certain taste for humiliating you. It's mean, it's cruel, yes, but, it's also really funny when you're not in the firing line, and that's why today's artist Joe Combs chose to illustrate this particular story. Let's have some fun being mean, shall we?

#638 - Illustrated FML - On 09/10/2010 at 5:53am by - 4 comments