King Features will be launching a new comic on August 27. The new feature, Arctic Circle by Alex Hallatt, is a bout a trio of penguins who emigrate from Antarctica to the Arctic.
The strip centers on the friendship between three charismatic penguins, Oscar, Ed and Gordo, who move to the North Pole to escape mistakes they made in Antarctica. Other characters who round out the engaging cast include a cynical middle-aged polar bear, a gullible lemming, an intellectual snow bunny and a ruthless Arctic tern.
â??When I first thought up the strip, I based it in the Arctic because I wanted a blank canvas for my characters. Penguins are funny birds to begin with and moving them to the northern hemisphere created a fantastic creative situation for me,â? explains Hallatt. â??The interplay between the penguins and the polar bear was the genesis of the strip, but these characters have developed to the point where the location of the strip has become secondary to the characters and the funny situations they find themselves in.â?
Alex is originally from the United Kingdom by has since moved to New Zealand. In addition to her work on the comic strip, she also has done illustrations for newspapers, books and magazines.
You can see a bit of her work on her web site.
Congratulations, Alex!
I look forward to your launch.
Since this strip will begin just a day after “Triple Take” will end, it will hopefully pick up those 30-something newspapers.
Alex’s work is definitely worth the attention she’s getting. Good luck with everything.
Good luck Alex, looking forward to getting Arctic Circle daily!
Go Alex! Long may you penguins thrive! And I hope to see that beanstalk strip in there someday.
Richard, beanstalk strips are a lot harder to sell to readers than golf ones, you know that…
Well I must say congrats to Alex! I have a weird little penguin pet peeve. Every year at Christmas I see this big plastic light up penguin lawn ornaments and it drives me nuts. Penguins have nothing to do with Christmas. Not even remotely, as penguins are SOUTH pole creatures, not NORTH pole creatures. So creating a strip where three penguins emigrate to the Artic somehow restores a little order to my universe. Thank you Alex!
Hey Alex.
Read the samples. Good stuff.
Plus, I figured out why you named the geekiest penguin Ed. It’s irony, right? Like calling the bald Stooge ‘Curly’. ‘Ed’ is so cool and macho a name that it lends itself comedically to give it to a geeky character, right?
Actually, you don’t even have to answer. I’m sure that’s the reason.
But seriously…good stuff! Can’t wait to add it to my ‘Daily Ink’.
Later!
-Ed
About time you got the recognition you deserve – am hoping that people realise that your penguins are much funnier than some of the big budget dross that is deluging our screens at the moment.
Congratulations again, Alex.
All the best,
Scott
Congratulations to a very talented artist!
Way to go!!
Good for you… It’s great to see talent recognised