Ditwits

Ditwits
File:Ditlogo.jpg The official logo, as seen on the website as well on the strips.
Author(s)	Jeremy Nell
Current status/schedule	Running
Launch date	June 5, 2007
Syndicate(s)	independent
Genre(s)	Humor

Ditwits is an offbeat, slapstick, and satirical daily comic strip, originating in South Africa on 5 June 2007 as a page-one exclusive feature for one of South Africa's largest national newspapers: The Times (a subsidiary of the widely-read Sunday Times). Its writer and and artist, Jeremy Nell, is also recognised for his prominent daily strip "Urban Trash" (which is also nationally syndicated).

Ditwits is mildly reminiscent of Gary Larson's "The Far Side" in that consists of one panel - sometimes including a caption underneath - and contains no regular characters.

Themes represented in Ditwits are sometimes loosely editorial in nature, such as crime, global warming, and terrorism; while at other times the themes are simply random and somewhat abstract.

Ditwits is illustrated in full colour, and appears daily from Monday through to Friday. No strips appear on Saturdays and Sundays.

Jeremy Nell

Jeremy was born on 16 March 1979, and is considered to be a "street-wise cartoonist."

After a few unsuccessful attempts at tertiary education, Jeremy found a graphics-related job at a mobile entertainment and technology multinational, where he was an employee for just under three years (and where he was eventually promoted to Creative Director). Allegedly, stemming from a series of contentious undisclosed internal happenings, he left the company on 4 November 2005, and immediately decided on following his adolescent dream of becoming a cartoonist.

He claims that he has been drawing since before he could write, and spent most of his childhood reading, watching, and illustrating (including copying) all things cartoons.

Ditwits

Background

According to the Trash Media website,

One night, late 2006, I found myself wanting to attempt a second comic strip; perhaps something weekly and non-committal. I played with some ideas along the lines of what I normally create, but nothing grabbed me. I then tried a single-panel gag, just to be different to Urban Trash. Additionally, creating permanent characters and themes was far too much effort, so I settled on random concepts.

The name was my sister’s idea, and doesn’t really mean anything - although it stemmed from a fusion of “ditz” and “dimwits,” which are both generally terms paralleled with “idiots” or “morons.”

Over a few months, I completed a small handful of strips which virtually no one saw (seen below). That is, until I received a phone-call from the Deputy Editor of the Sunday Times, sometime during May 2007. He had received an email, from someone, containing a selection of Urban Trash strips to which he took an immediate liking. He (the formidable Ray Hartley) requested something special; something fresh; something siutable for the front page of a new national daily newspaper.

Books

No books are available yet.

Links

• The official Ditwits website
• Trash Media (Jeremy's studio - same website as Ditwits)
• Urban Trash on News24
• Urban Trash on iafrica.com
• Urban Trash at The Webcomic List
• Jeremy's profile and random doodles on Cartoonist.co.za