Well, hello everyone.

*clears throat*

I haven’t been doing very well at cartooning recently. I’m not going to go into the details, but let’s just say I need a bit of help. So, I’ve set up a small experimental website for discussion of ideas. It may or may not work, but it’s worth a try. To find the ‘Cartoon lab’, go to http://cartoonlab.wordpress.com/.

The idea is that I will post ideas which need a bit of work to turn them into something I can use for a cartoon. Any replies / contributions will be much appreciated, and hopefully the process will be fun too.

I’m hoping the technical side of it all works. Let me know if you make a comment and it doesn’t show up. First comments will need to be moderated I think. If you are a WordPress.com user or know what you are doing you might find that a ‘Gravatar’ icon shows up in the same way it does on this site. But no one really knows for sure. I decided not to use this blog, by the way, so that only the people who specifically want to join in with these discussions would see it. I decided not to use Facebook or Twitter so that people who don’t use those sites can join in.

Thanks in advance for any contributions. I do of course still welcome cartoon ideas via the usual methods: email, stopping me in the street, etc.

Posted by Dave at 1:17 pm on April 27, 2012 and filed under CartoonChurch progress, Cartooning, Ideas appeal.

Comments Off

I’m back from being away on holiday. I can never really tell you about our holidays beforehand for security reasons, but it is now safe to say that we went to Holt in Norfolk, where we stayed in a cottage one minute and fourteen seconds from the Kings Head. Activities included bicycling, railways and pretending not to keep an eye on Twitter.

Being back means that I need to draw diagrams. Oh dear. I have no ideas whatsoever, and so if you have any please feel free to post them below or in an e-mail. Thank you in advance, though I will also try to say thank you in arrears.

Posted by Dave at 8:44 am on June 6, 2011 and filed under Ideas appeal, Mundane.

26 Comments

Every now and then I have a bit of a cartoon ‘ideas appeal’ here on the blog. I’m currently working on a couple of Christmas cartoon projects and would dearly appreciate a small amount of help from anyone who has a minute to spare.

There are two subjects I’m working on:

1) The Parish Christmas tree.
What is hanging on it, and who has hung it there?
Examples: The bell ringers have hung a bell. The parent and toddler group has hung an irritating squeaky toy. You get the idea.

2) Christmas questions.
Which Christmas-related subjects baffle you?
Example (cartoon above): Who thinks up the playlists that get played in shops?

[Any ideas welcomed. They don't have to be good or funny. I may not be able to use all ideas and can't promise any reward. Many thanks in advance.]

‘Playlist’ cartoon originally appeared in my 2005 Advent calendar.

Posted by Dave at 10:32 pm on December 7, 2010 and filed under Cartooning, Ideas appeal.

33 Comments

Pure silliness. Fortunately, it being Monday, very few people are reading.

Optional activity

If anyone has time on my hands I’d welcome thoughts on the following.

Question 1
What do you keep in your vestry? Odd or peculiar items from vestries you have known welcomed.

Question 2
What is kept on the tables at the back of church? Odd or peculiar items from tables you have known at the back of churches you have known welcomed.

Question 3
What might people who pilfered kneelers do with them?

Update: Please feel free to repost this cartoon on your blog – all I ask is that you put a link to my site. Thank you!

Posted by Dave at 7:42 pm on October 4, 2010 and filed under Cartoons, Ideas appeal.

44 Comments

A huge thank-you to the people who have suggested ideas over the last couple of weeks. You might have noticed one or two from the lists appearing and there are more on the way.

If anyone has any inside insights into the following topics then any contributions would be welcomed:

1. Unusual or interesting arrangements for covering services over the summer holidays
2. Things that happen in the vestry in the final moments before the service starts
3. The Anglican selection process. In the past someone has given me information about this, but I can’t remember where or when. It would be useful to know the different steps one has to go through in order to be ordained. Any online resources that explain it clearly welcomed.

[Note: Am away during the day today - will moderate comments in the evening]

Posted by Dave at 9:49 am on August 9, 2009 and filed under Ideas appeal.

5 Comments

Thought I might do a diagram on the subject. If anyone who attends such occasions can help me via the comments (or via e-mail if you don’t want your comments published) that would be super. So, deanery chapter meetings:

• What happens?
• What subjects get talked about?
• What do you like and/or dislike about them?
• The chapter clerk: How are they chosen and what is their role?
• Any other comments

No need to answer all of these – just any that seem appropriate. Many thanks in advance.

Posted by Dave at 10:49 am on September 17, 2008 and filed under Ideas appeal.

26 Comments

[How to tell what is going on, another of the 10 cartoons uploaded yesterday to the cartoons section of the main CartoonChurch.com site.]

If anyone has any requests for subjects for my Church Times ‘Guide to the church’ series I’d be very happy to hear them. There are probably some aspects of church life (local, national, or international) that I have omitted to explore. Please post in the comments below or feel free to contact me directly. I can’t make any promises about which ideas I will use of course, but all responses are very much appreciated.

This is my way of asking for ideas without making it look as if I am too desperate.

Posted by Dave at 9:37 am on May 27, 2008 and filed under Cartoons, Ideas appeal, Religion.

18 Comments

Another post in my ‘ideas appeal’ series.

Today’s subject: What should you take to church? Are there different things you should take at different times of year and in the different liturgical seasons? All comments will be appreciated: sensible or absurd, mundane or creative.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Posted by Dave at 1:10 pm on February 10, 2008 and filed under Ideas appeal, Religion.

45 Comments

Todays idea appeal subject is ‘family services’, or ‘all age services’. Questions:

• What are the essential elements of a family service?
• Do you love them or hate them? Feel free to tell us why.

Anything you can tell me would be a help. Thanks again in advance.

Posted by Dave at 12:12 pm on January 19, 2008 and filed under Church, Ideas appeal, Religion.

49 Comments

Really quick question: What do the clergy carry around with them at all times to help them do their job? Or, what would they ideally be able to carry around with them at all times?

Thanks again – this is a real help to me.

Posted by Dave at 8:05 am on January 8, 2008 and filed under Ideas appeal.

50 Comments

As hinted at in the title, five short posts:

Unicyclist makes the 6pm service
I was impressed to read in the comments of the ‘absenteeism’ post that Sam, a reader of this blog, still made it to the 6pm service having finished his successful 24 hour unicycling world record attempt on the Sunday morning. Sorry Sam, I should have linked to your world record attempt when you were doing it back in September, but was overtaken by events. Very belated congratulations.

Walkers first rule of DIY
“Regardless of the time and energy you have expended getting the tools, equipment and materials together in order to undertake a DIY task a last minute trip to the DIY superstore will always be required within 10 minutes of starting the job.”

This time around it was the 8mm drill bit.

After many hours of toil over the weekend I now have two extra shelves in my office. We hadn’t really got the hang of things for the first one though, so I may only use it to store polystyrene bicycle helmets.

Paypal postage problem persists
After two months I’m afraid people who pay for CartoonChurch licences via Paypal are still being wrongly charged a pound for postage which I’m refunding order by order. Paypal are still unable to resolve this problem, so apologies to all affected. This also means I am delaying sending out some way way waaaay overdue licence reminders. If this is you then just keep using the cartoons and I will hopefully be able to invoice you before too long. I still want to stick with paypal as these things take days to work out and set up, and I don’t have time to do that with a new system.

Mobile phone joy
Talking of technical problems, I’ve finally upgraded my Nokia 6600 phone because if I missed a call it couldn’t tell me who had called me and also when the phone rang it didn’t tell me who was calling. Apparently mobiles should be able to do that by now, but neither Nokia nor Orange could make it do so in three and a bit years. You would think that changing from one Orange pay as you go phone to another Orange pay as you go phone would be easy wouldn’t you? Well, 4 days, several phone calls and a bit of stress and anxiety later I’m hopeful that the new phone is finally up and running. And it seems to work. I’m overjoyed.

Unusual ‘Fresh Expressions’ appeal
Lastly a small ‘idea appeal’ post. Today’s subject is ‘Fresh Expressions of church’ (do a Google search if you have no idea what that means). Have you come across any odd and unusual ‘Fresh Expressions’? Is there a hitherto forgotten group of people for whom a new Fresh Expression is required and if so, what would be different about the service / event?

Rubbish example: Church for lollipop ladies (and men these days) – extra brackets at the ends of pews for their signs and an absence of dilly dallying when crossing the aisle.

Any ideas, creative or otherwise – please do post them in the comments.

Posted by Dave at 3:57 pm on January 7, 2008 and filed under Ideas appeal.

33 Comments

Today has been the first day of my self imposed ‘get a lot done’ cartoon season. It has not been a great success. I have been procrastinating and undertaking non-essential tasks such as allowing my pens to warm up to room temperature. I have worked out that I need to get one really good cartoon done every work day to archive* achieve my goal. Today that has not happened.

But there is always tomorrow. Perhaps I will draw two tomorrow – who know. Actually I have drawn one quite good cartoon which I will post on the blog tomorrow morning but it does not meet the criteria of the ‘get a lot done’ cartoon season.

In the meantime it would be great if you could help me out with an idea or two. This will, I’m afraid, be the first of quite a few during the next two months which are my book deadline months. I will post them all under an ‘Ideas appeal‘ category. It is like a ‘Roof appeal’ but with no roof.

So, today, I need some excuses for being absent from church. They can be good or bad, real-life or made up, plausible or non-plausible. In fact they can be utter rubbish – it makes it all the more fun.

I will not be the only one to benefit from this as you will be able to use the excuses yourself should the need arise. But only if they are true obviously.

Small legal print: If you post an idea in the comments I might use it. If I do you might or might not get a credit in print. You won’t get any money as I will be spending it all on pens that work above or below room temperature. They will be fairly similar to my current ones.

Thanks in advance everyone.

*Spelling mistake left to amuse passers-by.

Posted by Dave at 11:59 pm on January 3, 2008 and filed under Church, Ideas appeal.

50 Comments