I Made A Comic About A Dragon In The Fire Service, And It Actually Makes Sense (Part 2)

Tim and Bash are on a new adventure, and it picks up from last week’s episode, ‘A Local Story’.

Tim is a firefighter who has adopted a baby dragon called Bash, which keeps life interesting for everyone! Except, Bash doesn’t seem overly interested in becoming a firefighter… can Tim train him to save people’s lives?

Stay tuned for what happens in Episode 3 next week!

You can catch up on Episode 1 here or here.

More info: timandbash.com | webtoons.com | tiktok.com | youtube.com | Facebook | Instagram

The original idea for “Tim and Bash” came about when my friend Andy Bashforth and I were looking to start a new animation project. After spending several years in the animation industry on films like “Klaus”, “Space Jam 2”, “Sonic 2”, and “Disenchanted”, we felt ready to create something of our own and see if it could grow into a business.

We noticed there was space on TikTok and YouTube Shorts for a high-quality CG character, and we wanted it to be something that could appeal to a wide audience. Dragons have captured people’s imaginations for centuries and have recently seen a resurgence thanks to franchises like “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Game of Thrones”. They’ve always intrigued us with their elusive, powerful presence, and we feel there’s still plenty of untapped potential in how dragons are portrayed in film.

We thought a baby dragon was a fun and slightly more original direction that we hadn’t seen much of, and it opened up loads of storytelling possibilities. From the start, we knew Bash needed a human companion, someone to look after him. While we considered keeping the setting entirely within a fantasy world, it felt more engaging to bring those familiar fantasy themes into a modern context, especially for a TikTok audience.

That’s when we landed on the idea of pairing Bash with a firefighter, because who better to care for a fire-breathing creature? It also gave Bash a great narrative arc: could he actually be helpful in the fire service?

Once the idea was in place, I reached out to my friend Tim Northcott, a former firefighter, to see if he’d be interested in the project. Tim’s a big fan of comics and films, so he was excited to get involved and generously let us use his name for the character. Over the past couple of years, we’ve been working on a series of live-action videos alongside a weekly webcomic to introduce the world and the characters.

We wanted Bash to have a distinct design, especially in the way his head looked. We leaned into a more bird-like style, drawing inspiration from Harpy Eagles and their dramatic head feathers, which we thought could resemble the familiar horn shapes many dragons have. We also wanted Bash to move in a unique way, and ended up taking cues from bear cubs, who have a twinkle-toed, clumsy quality that’s both adorable and full of personality.

The balance between humor and adventure came quite naturally, since the premise already invites comedy. Bash tends to misinterpret situations, stir up trouble, and toss out sassy remarks, while Tim is the eternal optimist, always hoping Bash can become something that goes completely against his nature.

When I write, I try to build scenarios that feel relatable, and the humor usually follows from imagining how the characters would react in those moments. Our goal for the series has always been to make people laugh, so that’s the main focus when we come up with storylines.

The biggest challenge has been filtering out the mildly funny ideas in favor of the ones that really land. We’ve been hard on ourselves, avoiding the temptation to get too attached to anything and reworking ideas until they have the right surprise and energy to make them work.

It’s also taken a massive amount of artwork to bring it to life—over 200 panels for this saga so far—and this is only the second episode. We’ll be releasing all 15 episodes weekly, so stay tuned!

Have you watched the live-action videos of Tim and Bash on YouTube yet? We have 6 live-action videos and more on the way, so now is a perfect time to catch up!

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