Pony Phobia

pony comic
pony

Three weeks ago the hawthorn had burst into fresh green leaf and our local ponies were tucking into it. My comic strip is based on actual events: we were following two ponies along the lane, one of which whinnied and backed along a track when surprised by a blackbird bursting out of the hedge.

I was asking the rider of the other pony why hers, which was unruffled by the blackbird incident, kept so close to the hedge:

“It’s the hawthorn, he likes anything he can get his mouth around!”

As we stood back to let the ponies go by, a couple of the people who live by the stables were standing nearby drinking their morning coffee.

“Some of the ponies around here could do to see a psychologist!” I suggested.

“Not just the ponies,” the man agreed, “Some of the people too!”

iPad and pen on paper sketches

I’ve struggled with this comic strip. I started drawing on my iPad in Clip Studio Paint, then decided that I’d be better drawing with pen on paper and finally, for the last two panels, I went back to my iPad. As you can see from my rough, I thought about including the blackbird incident and the hawthorn nibbling as panels but then I decided that, rather like a situation comedy, this strip should focus on the relationship between the two ponies on their home turf.

On balance, I probably prefer the extra action in my original rough, but it’s time to leave this strip and go on to a fresh one, and I have got plans to take the characters further afield.

rough for comic

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