When I showed this one to Jenny, my girlfriend and de facto test audience, she laughed at my portrayal of a baby Nob mouse but she was also rather shocked at Frederick’s inclusion in this story. I was surprised by this but that’s probably because I, being the writer, already knew Frederick was going to make an appearance; so it never surprised me when he did.

The purpose of this particular episode is mostly to conclude the story by revealing a little more about Nob Mouse’s origins. As he says, what happened to turn Frederick into his current nutty self is another story; one that I may one day return to but which I have no plans to explain at the moment. I don’t think it’s important to know everything about a character’s past to appreciate the events of their present but I do think that a few little hints, as here, to their background are worthwhile, possible even a necessity, when rounding out the characters.

Next week’s Friday comic will be a return to the joke-a-day format. I’m going to leave the longer serials for the Monday strips for the time being, unless something really special comes to mind that I can do better in the three-panel format. Stay tuned and I’ll see you all next week!

I think this comic is probably the funniest thing I wrote all day when I first sketched it. It’s something that came to me while I was drawing the last two episodes of A trip down memory lane and I’m pretty sure it’s far better-suited to the three-panel format than that story was.

From now on, expect the Friday comics to follow a similar gag-a-day format to this comic, with the longer Monday stories covering the more in-depth, continuity-based stories.

Lately Jenny and I have been discussing the way Health and Safety ‘officers’ and the general ‘health and saferty culture’ are ruining Britain.  When I reference culture in this aspect I am, of course, using it in the same context as, say, bacteria can have culture; i.e. it’s in no way anything near the level of the Renaissance or anything of that calibre.

Anyway, we were discussing the general decline of British culture and how this whole farce of ‘health and safety’ as a means of avoiding having to use common sense was a massive part in the downfall of our civilisation.  The comic stemmed from this, as will its sequel.  This is pretty much how the three-panel comics, and some of the Series Two efforts, come about: I talk about something with people (usually Jenny since she’s readily available for conversations what with living in the same house as me) and then the basis of our conversation will warp out of all proportion in that weird roller-coaster that is my imagination.  I’ll then wander off to jot down some ideas, often simply a series of lines of dialogue, before I forget them.  The comic is born later, out of these lines of dialogue and any hazy recollections of the original conversation that I may still possess.

Such is the means of creativity in the Nob Mouse studio.

I’ve been having a little trouble this past week coming up with story ideas for The Life of Nob T. Mouse and thankfully the wonderful Jennifer Kirk stepped in to help me with this week’s Friday comic.  She provided the storyline, leaving me free to just draw the comic and add the dialogue.  I’m very grateful to her and I recommend that everyone visit her website.  It’s very cool.

Sometimes there’s just nothing you can say, especially when you’re confronted by something so stupid that you can’t believe you heard it in the first place.  I experienced this on an almost daily basis while working in a call centre earlier this year and I’m certain the police hear it all the more often.

That’s the thought process that brought to me today’s comic, where Jip is confronted by absent-minded gluttony.  I especially liked the candles dropped on the floor; a touch that leads me to wonder for just what reason Wilf was taking the cake in question out of the ‘fridge.  That, of course, is for another story entirely.  I might even write that story one day.  Of course I might not, too.  You never can tell.