Farmageddon (comic strip)

The Funny Farm

Farmageddon started life in 1991 as a comic strip called 'The Funny Farm' and was created by Niel Bushnell & Gordon Fraser. Bushnell & Fraser were friends from school and both wanted careers as comic artists. They began to develop an idea for a newspaper comic strip based around a farm. Initially inspired by American comic strips such as Calvin & Hobbes and Garfield, the comic soon found its own blend of humour.

The Funny Farm was published in the Hartlepool Mail from 1992 until 1994. It was also published in a short lived Sunday paper called the News & Echo. In 1994 a new editor joined the Hartlepool Mail who didn't like The Funny Farm and cancelled its run. The demise of the comic strip coincided with Niel moving to London to pursue a career in animation.

In 1997 Niel & Gordon began to develop The Funny Farm as an animated series. The pair travelled to Annecy in France for the annual animation festival held there. A meeting with Nelvana, a Canadian animation company, led to a 3-year option being agreed with Bushnell & Fraser. Three years later Nelvana failed to develop The Funny Farm further, the show and its rights returned to Bushnell & Fraser.

Fast forward to 2006. After further development the project has been renamed as Farmageddon and is being developed by Niel's animation studio, Qurios Entertainment as a 3D project.

From January 2011 the Farmageddon comic strip began to be re-printed on the Birmingham Mail's website as part of the Speech Balloon page.

References

• Farmageddon official website [1]
• Farmageddon blog [2]
• Qurios Entertainment website [3]
• Newcastle Journal News Article [4]
• Birmingham Mail's Speech Balloon page [5]