Cartoonist's toolkit essentials: pens, paper and digital shortcuts

Every cartoonist ends up with a kit that somehow fits together. The right pen feels like an old friend, the paper stops fighting back, and the tablet quietly takes over when deadlines loom. For Andy Fanton, who cut his teeth on strips like George vs Dragon and Boo! for The Dandy, the toolkit has grown from a battered pencil case into a small, slightly chaotic studio.

There is no single perfect setup. The best combinations come from trying things, breaking things, and quietly swearing at the scanner. Whether sketching at a barbie in Brisbane or hunched over a Cintiq in a Fitzroy share house, the tools should disappear when you're in flow.

Australian cartoonists work with quirks worth noting. Newsagents stock the basics, specialist shops like Kings Comics in Sydney or All Star Comics in Melbourne carry the good stuff, and overseas shipping often doubles once it clears customs. Pricing in Australian dollars adds a sobering layer to every upgrade.

A cartoonist's day rarely stays in one place, and neither does the kit. Some sessions are pure ink on paper, others live in Procreate, and the cleverest shortcut is knowing when each mode earns its keep.

Choosing pens that feel like an extension of the hand

Fineliners from Sakura Pigma Micron and Staedtler Lumograph earn their place in Australian studios. They glide without skipping, take a light wash, and rarely bleed through decent paper. A 0.05 nib handles tight facial work, while a 0.5 or 0.8 nib suits strips like Bad Grandad. Brush pens open another world: the Tombow Dual Brush forgives shaky lines, and a Pentel Pocket Brush survives a Mornington Peninsula day trip in a backpack.

Layout work calls for softer grades. A 2B or 4B mechanical pencil sketches lightly, a kneaded eraser lifts without scarring the surface, and a retractable eraser pen cleans up panels before they head to the scanner. None of these cost much, and a tidy pencil case of travel-ready tools beats an expensive one that sits at home.

Paper choices that survive coffee spills and travelling sketches

Cartridge paper remains the workhorse for British-style gag strips like Carrotty Kid. It takes ink cleanly, erases without ghosting, and costs roughly twelve to fifteen dollars for a hefty pad at a local newsagent. For tighter reproduction, a hot-pressed Bristol board gives a smoother surface that scanners love. Watercolour cartoonists lean toward 300gsm cold-pressed paper, which handles ink and a sloppy tea wash without buckling.

Keeping sheets in a plastic sleeve lets them survive the tram from Carlton. For sketching on the go, a Moleskine pocket sketchbook slips into a back jeans pocket, ready for the next idea struck during a long lunch. If you print your own zines, keep a small stash of different paper stocks: Risograph printers, found in many Melbourne and Brisbane print shops, reward artists who understand how uncoated paper absorbs ink.

Digital shortcuts for the modern ink slinger

Procreate on the iPad has quietly become a staple for Australian illustrators. Brushes are customisable, layers stay tidy, and the undo button forgives shaky 1am inking sessions. Sketching on a Penrith to Central train and arriving with finished art saves hours. For a peek at character work evolving alongside ink, see the boo-meets-a-friendly-skeleton-tips guide on Andy's site.

Clip Studio Paint remains a favourite for comic-specific tasks. Its vector layers let you ink once and resize forever, the panel tools save hours of fiddling, and the licence is friendlier than Photoshop for solo creators. A Wacom Cintiq or Huion Kamvas gives the feel of paper while keeping undo, and both are stocked in Sydney and Perth.

The biggest digital shortcut is a clean folder structure and a habit of saving layered files alongside flattened JPEGs. A project folder called 'George_Dragon_Issue04' with dated subfolders beats any cloud service when hunting for an old gag from three years ago.

Building a workspace that earns its keep

A good drawing surface need not be expensive, but it must be honest. A tilted drafting table or adjustable laptop stand keeps your back from seizing. Light matters more than most beginners budget for, and a daylight LED bar clipped above the desk makes ink lines pop in a way a dim lamp never will. Storage should match your habits: a wide shallow drawer for paper sheets beats a tall filing cabinet, and a labelled box of original art protects work from a humid Brisbane summer.

Sound and company quietly shape output. Many Australian cartoonists swear by a quiet corner with a window, a kettle within reach, and a podcast playing. Some prefer a buzzing cafe in Surry Hills or a co-working space in Adelaide. Whatever the setting, the workspace should remove friction rather than add to it.

Workflow habits borrowed from the page

Thumbnailing on cheap paper before going digital saves hours of fiddling. Even rough squares on a post-it note reveal whether a three-panel gag has enough beats. Australian comic educators recommend thumbnail passes at A6 size before committing to a finished page, and the habit translates across strips, books and storyboards.

Reference gathering has become easier and harder at once. A physical folder of clipped magazine pages, sketchbook scans and printed character sheets gives better long-term recall than yet another Pinterest board. A flatbed scanner with decent colour accuracy, paired with a simple Lightroom pass, gets archives into shape without fuss.

Breaks matter. Stretching every hour and grabbing lunch that isn't another flat white keeps the eyes sharp. For proof that food can be art, look at how the Belo Horizonte food poets turn everyday ingredients into poetry. The same playful eye serves anyone sketching snags at a family barbie.

Travel kits, convention prep and the road

A reliable travel kit fits in a small satchel and survives a weekend at Oz Comic-Con or a market stall in Hobart. Two fineliners, one brush pen, a sketchbook, a water bottle, and a few business cards cover most situations. A portable LED light makes your table more inviting than the harsh overhead fluorescents in most convention centres.

Backups save careers. A small SSD in the bag holds scanned work, originals sit on a home drive, and a cheap cloud subscription handles off-site redundancy. Selling at fairs means thinking about presentation: carded mini-prints in clear sleeves, a small Perspex stand, and a Square reader for tap payments cover most Australian customers. A friendly sign explaining that Bad Grandad appears in The Dandy helps new readers find back issues, and a few dollars of profit per strip quickly turns a hobby into a side hustle.

If this toolkit peek has stirred up ideas, grab a pen, rip a sheet from the nearest pad, and start scribbling tonight. The tools keep improving, but the spark is still yours. Head to Andy's site, send through your best gag, and keep drawing the kind of comics that make strangers laugh in newsagent queues from Perth to Brisbane.