About...
...the artist...the site
...the comics
...Pirates!
...Bob's Your Uncle
...Marmaduke
...Mak The Yak
...Cyber Pub
About The Artist
Name: Mark Stickley
Age: 44
Height: 6'3"
Weight: That would be telling wouldn't it?
Job: Programmer
Marital Status: Taken :)
Interests: Movies, cartoons, comics, music, books, computers, the internet, designing websites, building PCs and networks, computer games (especially GameCube and Gameboy Advance), food, sleep, fighting crime, long walks along the beach... I could go on but I'd probably be boring you
Artistic Influences: Probably just about any comic or cartoon artist whose work I have enjoyed for a long time. That would include Jim Davis, Bill Waterston, Steve Purcell, Brooke McEldowney, Jef Mallett and Pat Brady
Interested in my work (cartoons, website or otherwise)? Please contact me for a CV!
In fact, please contact me about anything you like, whether it be broken links, praise, constructive criticism or random comments on life (or yaks).
You may be vaguly interested about my apparent obsession with Yaks. I assure you it is not as serious as it may seem. Check out the "About" section for Mak The Yak section for a bit more insight.
Burning to know more? Visit the FAQs. Not on there? Contact me - I'll answer and if it's a good enough question I'll even stick it in the FAQs!
About the Site
This site is owned by me, Mark Stickley. I have owned it for hmmm... about four years and the design is on it's third iteration. The second version looked OK but the code underneath wasn't up to the quality of commercial websites. With an interest in getting into designing websites commercially I thought I should change that and at the same time give the place a facelift! New in version 3 is a user log in system where users can register to receive email updates about new comics, news posts etc. and a comments system where everyone can leave their thoughts on my efforts.TheYakShack.co.uk is written using a wonderful piece of software called "notepad.exe", using HTML (or course), CSS and PHP with a dash of MySQL thrown in for flavour. Never having used any kind of HTML development environment, I find that I feel much more "connected" with the code. It's like it's been lovingly crafted from a shapeless blob, rather than stuck together like lego model with pre-defined building blocks. Not that I have anything against HTML tools, they're just not my bag.
This site and all images and code associated with it are Copyright© Mark Stickley 1991-2024. You may not use or publish any image or material found on this web site without the express permission in writing of the copyright owner. Please check out the Terms and Conditions of the site.
About the Comics
I have what is known un-technically as CADD (Comic Attention Defecit Disorder). That means that I am constantly thinking of neat ideas for new strips which distract me somewhat from my current projects. Hence, instead of one comic, I have five. Two of them I am updating regularly, the other three have fallen by the wayside a bit. Here is a little bit of information about the history of each of these strips:Pirates!
See stripYarr! Thar be pyrates in these waters... Pirates is all about the swashbuckling adventures of a small crew of pirates lead by the fearsome "Cap'n". In actual fact Cap'n is probably the most piratey of them all, the rest of the crew not quite fitting that typical pirate image.
Pete (or 'Pistol' Pete) is a lovable guy who never quite meant to sign up to be a pirate but fate brought him to The Buckleswash and he's very happy there pirating in his own special way. Keith is the Chef, although most of the time the crew would rather eat their own hair than suffer his culinary uniqueness. Which is lucky because he's also very lazy. Jethro is the navigator, from Jamaica. He is the common sense of the crew, although that doesn't mean he's smarter than any of the rest of them! Sam is the only female crew member. She is opinionated, stubborn and determined to maintain her identity as a woman despite all the testosterone flying around. She's a real sweetie once you get to know her though!
I wouldn't say that Pirates of the Caribbean is fully responsible for this strip, but it did remind me how cool pirates were which helped me come up with the idea.the first character I drew was Pete and that was over the Christmas period 2003/2004.
Bob's Your Uncle
See stripMeet Josh and Joe. Josh and Joe are flatmates living in London, both 25. Josh is a fairly normal kind of guy, unlike his Grandparents who have just unexpectedly had another baby. The trouble is they have plans to move to New Zealand for their remaining years and not knowing what to do with their new son, Robert, they present him to Josh as a sort of leaving present with the words "Bob's your uncle".
Josh isn't all that happy about the situation, but Joe, who is about one of the most easy going guys you'll find, thinks it's a blast, despite hating the fact that Bob can beat him on just about any video game! Joe is unemployed and sees Bob as a very good excuse for not continuously looking for a job. Josh works at a local software company programming Java, and doesn't like it.
Bob's Your Uncle is the first comic that I have actually spent a good deal of time thinking up a scenario. Let me know if you like it!
Mak The Yak
See stripMak is a Yak. A Yak is of the bovine family and is generally found atop high mountains, or at least at high altitudes, even if not actually perching canary-like on the peaks. Mak has little background and little story to tell. He is sold as seen and should probably in most cases be taken at face value. He is for the most part grumpy, sullen and sarcastic. So as you can guess, he's a real hit with the ladies.
Mak The Yak is one of those characters that has been around for a long time - a very long time - before ever making it into a cartoon strip. He started off featuring in a series of "Pose" pictures featuring a variety of different Yaks ranging from a "Boffin Yak" to a "Liam Gallagher Yak", all drawn when A-Level Maths lessons became far too boring to pay attention to. You soon will be able to find all those initial drawings in the Yak Archive.
Now Mak is more of a flagship character (after all, this site is named after him), with not so much emphasis on strips, more on just being cool! Mak's first strip was drawn in Autumn of 2002.
Marmaduke
See stripMarmaduke is a Marmosette who lives with his owner, Daniel (Dan) Henderson and his fellow pets, Sidney the Snake and Thomas the Tortoise. He has two adversaries the dogs, Scritch and Scratch who are so mind numbingly stupid that they actually think Marmaduke is a cat and insist upon pursuing him in an appropriate fashion.
Marmaduke the Marmsoette came into existence in about 1993, when I was about 13. Stuck for an original type of animal to turn into a cartoon character (think about it - there aren't many animals that haven't been turned into a fairly well known cartoon character) I somehow came upon the idea of a Marmosette monkey. They're cute and marketable and not too hard to draw! You can probably see that Marmaduke (I had never even heard of the 'other' Marmaduke then, trust me!) bears vague resemblances to Garfield by Jim Davis. This is hardly surprising as I was a BIG Garfield fan! I don't draw him so much these days as all my time is taken up with Pirates! and Bob.
Cyber Pub
See stripPhil Smith is the landlord of the Cyber Pub. That's "like a Cyber Café but less geeky", according to Phil. Regulars at the pub are:
- Stanley Giles (Stan) who thinks he is the man and tries very hard to impress everyone with his techno-knowhow, despite the fact he doesn't really know how at all. Apart from this he is a fairly genuine guy and everyone get along well with him.
- Duane Smeltham. Duane isn't a nerd. I suppose he's more of a geek. He knows relatively little about computers although he tries his best to get along with both the technology and the rest of the patrons.
- Granny is a sweet old lady who gets along with everyone except for Phil who thinks she has to be the most annoying thing since the Eurovision Song Contest. She comes in every week to use the email!
- (more regulars to be added as the strip develops!)
This strip first developed as a doodle on the back of some notes that I was working on for my French Oral presentation for A-Level. It's probably the best thing that I got out of French!! Internet cafés are not really considered so geeky now but at the time they were and so I thought it would be cool to take the geekyness out of it. Even now you don't really get any Internet Pubs. But it's such a good idea! Apart from the obvious beer-flooded keyboard scenario..... Anyway, it's something I'm thinking about raising from the dead because it's a neat concept and I don't think I have explored it's potential very well.
