Berkeley Mews' creator calls it a dark humor comic series that exposes the seedy underbelly of everything wholesome and pure. "It takes fairy tales and Disney movies and fond remembrances of childhood and turns them into horrible nightmares - but, like, in a fun way," Ben Zaehringer told Bored Panda.
Ben took some art classes in high school and at the nearby community college, where he learned life-drawing and basic anatomy. "We were also taught to draw cars," he said. "Cars are the bane of every cartoonist, so I'm glad that I was forced to draw them early." Now, he's using these skills to unleash his creative ideas, and people think he's doing a great job. His dark comics has about 200K followers on Instagram and Facebook, and this number is constantly growing.
More info: berkeleymews.com
This post may include affiliate links.
"I've been doing these cartoon drawings for as long as I can remember," Ben said. "My mom's cousin, Steve Moore, is a cartoonist, so right away I thought of cartooning as a vocation. My first comics were all in the style of newspaper comic strips, like FoxTrot and Peanuts, only bad instead of good."
"My friend Kevin Garvey and I would make comic books every day after school, by folding two sheets of paper together and then filling them in with funny comics. Mine were mainly parodies of Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, and Kevin's were these epic, super-funny space operas. When we were done, we'd show them to each other and to our friends. This was the best comics education I ever got. If you are an aspiring cartoonist, make a friend who draws comics (or make your friends draw comics)."
The creator of the webcomics said that disappointment is the main theme in Berkeley Mews. "When I'm writing I ask myself, 'How can something fun be made disappointing?' Recurring motifs include: God, Santa, love, death, childhood, and 90s pop culture references. Life moves fast, so I try to only riff on things that are timeless, like Disney movies that get remade every ten years."
Whats dark about this? I went to speech therapy for years as a kid and found the whole experience enjoyable. Its the only reason i speak without my horrible speech impediment I had
It's dark because the nice gesture is not acknowledged and we only focus on the faults.
Load More Replies...Its dark because her dad was focusing on what he saw as a flaw and not how sweet, cute and generous she is. I can relate..lol
I went to speech therapy as a kid. I don't think it helped much. I still speak rather quickly compared to other people.
My son needs it, but the one doctor that actually works with him is not covered, and charges much more than we can pay. The in network doctor? Scares the c**p out of my son so badly that he cries even mentioning going. We don't take him, but work on it constantly at home (but this is just one facet of a plethora of issues)
You can get it free through the school districts if you are in the U.S.A. If he is not school age contact the parents as teachers program with the school. Also look into a program called first steps and head start. What really helped my son was making up hand gestures to do for each sound, like sliding your hand up your arm for a snake when making the S sound. Or holding your finger curved like hook for a pirate for the R. Make up your own.
Load More Replies...I went in fourth grade. Missed class to play board games and talk. I enjoyed it.
Note: this post originally had 107 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Someone missed the upvote button- so I fixed it :)
Load More Replies...Ben said, "We were also taught to draw cars. Cars are the bane of every cartoonist, so I'm glad that I was forced to draw them early." I'm not an artist or cartoonist. Why are cars the bane of every cartoonist?
Top Ten Bored Panda Items. These are so good. It's all in the context.
Someone missed the upvote button- so I fixed it :)
Load More Replies...Ben said, "We were also taught to draw cars. Cars are the bane of every cartoonist, so I'm glad that I was forced to draw them early." I'm not an artist or cartoonist. Why are cars the bane of every cartoonist?
Top Ten Bored Panda Items. These are so good. It's all in the context.