Strewth! by Josh Way

“Strewth!” is a minced oath from the UK, originally a condensed variation on the exclamation “God’s truth!” It remains popular in Australia and New Zealand as a proclamation of agreement or certainty. I chose this title because it is suitably random and silly. Of course, “Strewth!” is also a very unique and marketable title for an online comic. I named my previous comic strip “Chronicle.” You can imagine how that title got lost among the other webcomics!

When I learned to make comics in the 80’s and 90’s I did so with old school pen and ink, but my process today is entirely digital (except for a little sketchbook I carry around with me to capture ideas and work out difficult compositions). I script my comics in Google Docs, and then pencil, ink, and letter them in Adobe Illustrator. The benefit of Illustrator over something like Photoshop is that the artwork I create in Illustrator is clean, crisp, and vector-based so it can be manipulated, resized, printed, and exported more easily. I draw with a Wacom Intuos 2 tablet. With the new Strewth!, for the first time, I’m using Google Sketchup to assist in the drawing of backgrounds and props (for perspective).  Below is a short time-lapse video of me drawing and inking a promotional image for the new Strewth! (note that Conrad’s design was not yet finalized):

Yes. In addition to writing and drawing Strewth!, I also “riff” (perform humorous commentary) on ephemeral short films and cheesy sci-fi flicks through a project I call “Fun With Shorts.” Most of those shorts can be viewed on my YouTube channel. Some can be downloaded through iRiffs.com. All of them are available on DVD from Amazon.com. My fifteen minutes of fame as a writer came when I was hired as a contributor to Mike Nelson’s Rifftrax.com, a riffing enterprise featuring Mike and his Mystery Science Theater 3000 co-stars Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. I wrote jokes for four Rifftrax releases: X-Files: Fight the Future, Spider-man 2, The Dark Knight, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And last but certainly not least, I am currently a writer for the fantastic riffing series Incognito Cinema Warriors XP.