Pre-Loxie & Zoot: On The Beach
The very first nudist cartoon I experimented with didn't include Loxie and Zoot or any of the other characters who have subsequently emerged. Here's a look at the drafts of what could have been the direction and cast of my noodtooning...

On the Beach drafts As mentioned in the main article, On the Beach was my first experiment with a nudist themed comic and the intention was to utilise characters from some other "healthy lifestyle" mini-comics I was producing at the time. Rather than write comics at a typewriter, I find it's usually easier to sketch out the ideas and scribble in the words as I go. The only time I produce a full script is when I'm writing a story for another artist. Drafting allows me to work out frame composure, body postures and facial expressions, etc. Also, the drafts form the basis for the final art. Anyway, enough about process...! Page one introduces the characters Stodgy, Shaz, Matt, Nikka and Jenni, setting up but Nikka and Stodgy (what kind of name was that anyway??) as the nervous newbies and their pals as the the easy-go-lucky 'converts'. Beyond the basic 'first time' experience - generally popular amongst other nudists - there was no actual story... And that's it! There's nothing overly remarkable about page 2, except for the fact that it marks where I ran out of ideas for the story and enthusiasm for this particular project. In those days I was more inclined towards keeping my drafts and roughs. To be honest, it was shaping up to be a retelling of the first time I went to a nudist beach with two other friends back in 1987 - they were the relaxed "been-there-done-that" twosome whereas I was the slightly freaked out noob! Nothing out of the ordinary happened then either - other than it was the start of an ongoing appreciation for the lifestyle... but I could hardly capture that in a comic now could I?!