Spot the obvious and (ahem,) intentional mistake. Prize for the first person to mention it in the comments.

(Prize is non transferable, refundable and almost certainly non fiscal. Prize is awarded at author's discretion and subject to his sense of taste. If you don't like the prize... tough.)

 

I'm pretty happy with this strip. I think I managed to capture the sense of realisation in the last panel. Even though Alex has to stand on tip-toes to see into the mirror in panel 3, he doesn't realise what's happened until the last panel. I even spent a short while deciding which way round his arms and legs should go in the last panel...

 

Still waiting for the penny to drop. Even though Alex has realised he's changed, Danny is still unaware, which makes Alex think he's the only one. Wow, not very observant these guys huh?

 

Possibly my favourite strip so far. I wonder if anyone notices the fact that Alex breaks out of the second panel - just something I wanted to try, but fairly subtly instead of the usual obvious panel breaks you see in superhero comics. I like Alex's expression in panel 2 and Danny's in panel 3 - kind of looking down at his belly in surprise. I'm also fairly pleased with the speech baloon placement between 2 & 3, although Danny's balloon in 3 is a little lopsided.

 

Not 100% happy with this one. I'm not sure about Alex in the last panel, but I couldn't figure out how else to draw him looking up. Also I think the text in the first panel is a little too large, so it almost looks like they're raising their voices a bit compared to panel 2. Of course Alex is supposed to be shouting in the last panel. What can I say? It's a learning process.

 

This strip actually got put into the story earlier than expected as my girlfriend thought the story wasn't moving fast enough and I should start introducing the other characters sooner. I had about another 3 or 4 strips planned with just Alex and Danny but I think she was right. You wouldn't believe the trouble I've had trying to pin down the Character design for Travis the Bat. I still need to draw a full version of him for the character gallery. Oh, and add him to the logo banner...

 

Woo! Almost didn't make it this week, talk about last minute! I had intended to draw this strip all week, but other things got in the way and when I finally sat down to draw it, I couldn't figure out how I wanted it to go. The early inclusion of Travis last strip meant the story wasn't where I expected it to be for this one and I had to spend some time re-thinking and re-writing the strips for the next few issues. Yeah I know, you're thinking, "he actually WRITES this stuff?" but it's true. I have the story plotted out for another 5-10 strips or so and then about another 20 or more non-story strips, that are basically just funny ideas that I had for the guys. Also I've already drawn strip 12, although it was originally strip 7 and now because of the move aruond it may change again. I had the character designs for Alex and Milton ready and I wanted to see if I could just sit down and draw a strip. That strip just has those two in, so that's the one I drew first, as a test. Since then they've been drawn in order. Anyway, once we've got these guys used to their predicament, (not too much longer, maybe another 3 strips,) I'll start including some of the standalone ones.

 

My own housemate gave this a read through as I was getting ready to post it as I was unsure about how it read and wanted an outsider's opinon. She came up with a better version of the dialogue than I had, which you can see above, but also a better way of ending the last panel, which unfortunately I couldn't do because of the way the characters were drawn - their body language etc. Maybe I'll consult her at the rough stage from now on and hope she doesn't start charging me for editing services! (Thanks Taya.)

 

Got this one done earlier than usual. Getting better at making sure there is room for the dialogue, and creating word balloons that look ok.

Any guesses as to what Alex is yet? There's a few more strips before you find out, so email your guesses to mike at exotic soup dot co dot uk. 1st correct guess wins an original piece of artwork of Alex! 

Also if you have any comments, feel free to leave them below, or email me at the above address. I'd love to hear from you! 

 

A day early this week, due to having to work tomorrow, (Sunday,) grumble, sassa, frassa...

BUT! I've made it to ten strips! Woo hoo! Double figures! Yeah I know, nothing major to celebrate, but I'm proud of having got this far. 

About this weeks strip: My mum is not your normal, average sort of mum. The most obscene jokes I get by text message are always from her and she was once on the local news browsing through bongs in the background of a shot while a guy from the local headshop was being interviewed. She did however, say something very mum-like when I asked her what she thought of my comic which was, “Oh yeah, I saw it. The thing with the little dinosaur. Yeah it’s nice.” which roughly translates as, “I have no idea what it’s about or why you are drawing cartoons at your age but if it makes you happy (and doesn’t hurt anyone,) then go for it.” Thanks for the inspiration for this strip mum. X

 

Ok, so first thing you might notice is that the artwork in this strip differs slightly from last weeks issue. the reason for that, is that this is actually the first Exotic Soup strip I drew! I had Alex and Milton's character designs done and wanted to draw a strip with those two in to see how it would go. Back then Milton was obviously slightly wider than he is now (and he wasn't called Milton back then either.). Anyway, hope you enjoy the strip.

Sorry there hasn't been a new episode of Exotic Soup for a couple of weeks - I've been ridiculously busy at work. The weekend just gone was my first day off in 3 weeks and I've been working long hours. I should've done a strip last weekend but I needed the time just to relax and catch up on some sleep! I promise I'll have one up for this week and we will finally find out what type of animal Alex is! Stay tuned and sorry for the lapse again.

Cheers,

Mike. 

 

Sorry it's a day late, but I wanted to do a double issue to make up for not updating for the last couple of weeks. I got most of it done yesterday but then I went out for a few drinks for a friend's birthday and needless to say when I got back it was very late and I was in no fit state to work on the comic. Anyway, it's here now, I've done a double issue for you and you'll finally get to find out what Alex is!

Cheers. 

Sorry again, no comic for this week and next week. This last week I have been rushed off my feet at work due to the fact that I'm on holiday this coming week! I'm off to France for a week to relax and recuperate. I'm not at the stage yet where I can get guest artists to draw a strip in my absence, (any artists wanting to do a guest strip in future please email mike at exoticsoup dot co dot uk.).I'll do another double issue again on my return, so keep your eyes peeled on the weekend of the 18th & 19th!

Thanks for your patience and I'll see you when I get back!

 

I know, I know... I said by the weekend and I said a double issue to make up for abandoning you and going to France on holiday. Well all I can do is refer you to one of my all time favourite quotes:

"Life is what happens while you're making other plans." (John Lennon.) 

Wow. 10 months it's taken me to get back into doing this. No, I haven't had a kid or anything, just been very busy.

This is the first strip I've done entirely in Photoshop - usually I draw in pencil & ink and then scan it in. It seems to be a quicker way to get the strip done, so I'll continue this way. PS (along with my graphics tablet,) allows me to use pressure to vary the line width. This is more akin to inking with a brush rather than the technical pens I used previously. I liked the look of the inking before, but this gives a quality to the line work that the old version was lacking. It makes the drawings look more alive to me. Anyway, hope you like the slightly new look. 

And I'll try to update in less than 10 months next time...

Ok this one was not my fault. Seriously. Ok, it KIND of was, but the thing is, I can't get on this site from home. At all. Don't know why, most other sites are ok, apart from Facebook. So I had this strip done a week ago and I've had to organise putting it on a usb stick, bringing it to work, copying it to a hard drive on my work machine, (because for some reason, mass memory devices don't show up under 'my computer' on my work machine...) and finally uploading. Sheesh, what a palaver!

So I missed doing one this week, (this is the previous week's technically...) but I'll get back to the regular schedule soon, because if nothing else, I will be moving in with my GF in 3 weeks, meaning a new isp & hopefully will be able to get on from home.

No your eyes do not decieve you, this strip is in colour! W00t! It's like the 60's all over again. *ahem.*

Anyway, still can't get onto this site from home and still can't figure out why, so doing this from work. </naughty> ;)

This strip represents the beginning of a story arc for the guys, centered around the idea of them being superheros. And no, I didn't spell it wrong. Well I did, but intentionally: 'Souperheros' - Exotic Soup. See what I did there? ;)

 

Ooh! Before I forget, Exotic Soup now has it's own Facebook page: 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Exotic-Soup/19273334013?ref=nf 

Go become a fan! (The myspace page: www.myspace.com/exoticsoup is still out there too for you myspacers!)

 

See ya next time!

I STILL can't get on this site from home - really annoying, as it means I have to upload the image to Facebook, (which resizes it to 640px wide instead of 1000,) and then download it to my work pc, then upload it here. Gah. Anyway, here's the latest strip, continuing with both the colour and the Souperheros plotline. I'll put the 1000px wide version of this and the last strip onto a usb key and upload them soon so they display the right size.