Let me share a little bit about the strip, and me, the person typing this with my hands on a laptop. Crashlander revolves around the daily life of an 8-year old girl called Merrin Maddison, plus a trio of alien characters who are completely trapped on Earth. They all have to live with her Grandfather (a former space marine type-of-guy, now in his old fart era) until the intergalactic travel gates re-open and everyone can go home. It's like Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets Family Ties (if you're old those references make sense). It's supposed to be classic family sitcom setup, but influenced by lots of sci-fi stuff. Unashamedly inspired by Calvin & Hobbes, but also Garfield (I'm serious), Vaughn Bode, and every Amblin movie ever made.
As for who makes it, it's me, James Hutchinson. I'm originally from a town called Reading in the UK, but now I live in LA. (They're basically the same The Oracle is just like Westfield Century City Mall, but raining.) I've worked at Disney and Warner Bros. and I'm currently a Creative Director in animation. I'm also extremely bald :( You can stop reading/unsubcribe now. I'll understand.
With that said, you'll not only see comics and updates on here, but I'm also planning on dropping some thoughts about the animation industry and the behind-the-scenes process of getting things made. Hint: it's really difficult. I hope you'll stick around!
Believe it or not, Crashlander was one of the first comic strips on the web way (I mean waaaay) back in 1997 (going by the name Pet Alien). It had a loud and probably annoying Flash site with a looping sample ripped shamelessly from a De La Soul track. It was a different time. Then the characters appeared in a series of e-greeting cards for which I actually got paid for (the one where Spork farted in space was egreetings.com most sent card one month. Art.) Next, the strip got reprinted in Japan in a magazine called SOTOKOTO. I stopped uploading new strips until 2005 when I contributed full page Crashlander strips to a game fanzine called Blessed in the UK. That got me a gig supplying a Sunday-style strip in Edge magazine, which I did for five years. Then when I moved from the UK to the US I was able to get Crashlander set up as an animated show at Amazon Studios. My luck was turning around! Naturally they pivoted to adult animation right when I was getting developed, so thanks a bunch Invincible.
Now it's 2026 and we're all lucky to be alive, frankly. I thought - what with website visits a thing of the past and internet traffic at its all-time lowest point - now would be the perfect time to bring back my webcomic. I predict absolutely nothing can go wrong. So in the parlance of our times, get "locked in", sit forward at a ninety degree angle, and get ready from some new strips. *dramatic lightning strike*
