Comic Stripper 06: Water Cartoon! Show

The latest comic competition held by IDC in Mumbai as part of their conference on sustainability with a "focus on water" led to these two. If you've been following the Comic Stripper series (here, here, here, here and here), you'll know that I try out a style and then forget about the meaning I was trying to convey, stubbornly sticking to the final product even if it doesn't make much sense. 
The simple storyline of a fish throwing garbage out of the water as revenge for humans polluting the oceans is lost to anyone who sees this Japan-influenced single panel entry:

Of course, the irony of chewing synthetic gum is lost on that fish

Anyway, this was my second entry, the first one was a simpler attempt at a paper cut-out look, using stock cowboy vectors and a lazy punchline:

I would have used the word "shit" instead of "stuff" if I had my way

Notes:

• Do
• Re
• Mi (couldn't resist)
• The second comic (which has been shown here first, just to make things dramatic difficult) was more of a forced attempt to make at least one more idea. Since it didn't come naturally, I felt the need to "dress it up", of course, further obscuring the joke. Ah well.
• The first one was the result of some day dreaming, like the more random one-joke strips of Calvin and Hobbes that I enjoy. I trust those kind of ideas instinctively, and don't bother as much about the finish. As much.
• I also broke out of monochrome, with no idea how, so I lifted the whole colour palette and patterning of the Japanese-style one from a simple Google search, but I don't think some dead guy from 100 years ago would mind. The skin tone and expression on the woman's face was directly inspired from this image of Chitrangada Singh, since I felt an Indian character would be more relevant to a competition held in Mumbai. Plus, it's Chitrangada Singh.

Anyway, to balance all this self-deprecation, both comics were selected among a group of other finalists (=they won!), and will be exhibited at the conference and published. Details of that here.