David Hurley and Joe Watson have decided to enter “Don’t Pick the Flowers” into The Cartoonist Studio contest. We’ve taken the Dear Family from the Web comic and put them into their own story. There are back stories to the characters and we felt their story would be great for a daily comic strip. This doesn’t mean the other characters will just disappear it just means that there would be a focal point on the Dear Family as a syndicated version. The contest is going on right now, it began February 28th. The Rules of the comic strip are pretty simple. There will be ten rounds of voting, one new cartoon per week will be shown from each contestant. The lowest 10% of the polls at the end of each week will be eliminated, until the final week where the remaining comic will be the winner. The winner of the contest receives a contract with Creators Syndicate. That means being published in every major newspaper. We are posting the synopsis for the comic, plus the characters bios here for you to see. You can register here www.thecartooniststudio.com it only takes one minute to set up an account. Click on the cartoon contest on the top left, login, and search David Hurley in the contest. The Cartoonist Studio is a secure site they won’t be spamming your email. After that you can vote 4 times a day, that’s every six hours. There are a ton of contestants, all very talented with their own fans. The competition is pretty intense, so votes do matter! Taking a minute out of your time while you’re on the internet would be more than appreciated. So while you’re checking your Facebook status, take a minute to show us your support! We greatly appreciate it!
Synopsis of cartoon strip: A whimsical take on modern suburban life focusing on the Dear family, a new family in town who literally has deer antlers growing out of their heads! We follow them as they try to fit into the traditionally conservative, gun-loving suburban lifestyle with their wacky ideas on evolution, vegetarianism, and what it means to truly live the American Dream. . .
Mr. John Dear: The Patriarch of the Dear family, he is an atypical male who enjoys gardening, nature shows, and keeping the peace between his family and the rest of the town while working as the local Park Ranger. He tries to reconcile his family’s deer-like appearance and his personal fondness of all living things with the fact that he processes hunting and gaming licenses for the whole town. He looks at other deer like most people look at monkeys: They kind of look like real people, but they are just animals, not people. Still, you wouldn’t really feel comfortable shooting a monkey, would you?
Mrs. Jane Dear: Unlike her husband, she’s loud and opinionated, and loves pushing her ideas on other people. This gets her into trouble as she has a penchant for handing out brochures and refers to her fellow neighbors as ‘unevolved’. She’s very protective of her family, especially baby Joey.
Baby Joey: a plucky youngster, he runs into all sorts of awkward problems with his ever growing antlers. . .
Henry and James: Henry lives next door to the Dears with his dog, James. A life-long bachelor, Henry is a simple man. He hunts, fishes, and walks James in the park on Sundays. The last thing in the world he expected was that one day he would be living next door to a bunch of antlered weirdo’s who are constantly eating his flowers and making him feel guilty for the mounted deer heads he has on his living room wall . .
Danny: Danny is the whimsical neighborhood kid who lives across the street from the Dears. He has a child-like way of looking at the world, and is the only person in town who sees the Dears as regular people. He loves to fly his kite as often as he can, and talks to anyone who will listen about the simple beauty of the world around them.
