Many moons ago, we interviewed Stephen Crowley, the Australian cartoonist who’s behind the highly regarded nudist comics series Loxie and Zoot and The Bare Pit. He took a long sabbatical but is now back with new material for his fans. He tells us in his own words about his return…

The Bare Pit has become my primary nudist cartooning project, having finished up Loxie & Zoot around April 2006. The idea behind The Bare Pit was to widen the scope to include stories that used a range of characters from within the fictional Koala Bay Bares ‘universe’ without necessarily having to include Loxie or Zoot, the namesakes of the previous series. Another change in The Bare Pit was a simplification of the art work - I could sometimes spend many hours, even days, working on any given page, especially those that included lots of people. My preference has shifted towards getting the story out quickly which necessitated changing to a somewhat more ‘cartoonish’ style. Although my original style could hardly be considered ‘realistic’ the change was noticeable enough for there to be a bit of a debate amongst some readers unhappy with the new look. I’m always experimenting with the way I draw though and the style has started to settle into somewhere between the cartoony/realistic look over the last year.

In changing over to The Bare Pit concept I’ve also taken to exploring stories that cover any number of concepts. The narrative shift between individual stories has probably been a bit jarring for some readers who prefer things to stay on an even footing and use the same characters. This is another area I’m still trying to get a handle on in order to improve the overall flow. Partly the problem has been caused by the variety of ideas and concepts I want to explore in the stories. Plus I am keen to have stories that have nothing to do with nudism per se, they just happen to have stories that include naked characters. An example of a non-nudist story was “Twinkle” which was about Zinni, one of the youngest cast members. It’s a kid’s story that was based on an idea I had for a children’s book years ago. At the time I thought of the original concept it was set in the usual textile environment, there was a point where I realized the story could be adapted for The Bare Pit using existing characters - five year old Zinni and her mother Kim. It’s a story set within a nudist environment but there’s not one single panel where either character reference nudism. Like most children’s literature the story itself probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to adults but young kids should love it!

A story that was very popular at the time it ran was “Chicken Little” which was a sideways look at the issue of penis size. This subject is a regular favorite on nudist forums and has been rehashed and discussed to the point of utter tedium - but that wasn’t going to stop me from tackling it! A new character, Ben - a young police officer, was introduced and I teamed him up with fellow police officer Tina, who had been seen in “It’s a Nood, Nood, Nood, Nood World” - an earlier Loxie & Zoot story. Essentially the story was more about male body image issues and social attitudes than it was about nudity, but the setting of a nudist resort helps to expose Ben’s exaggerated self-doubts. Possibly the thing I enjoyed most about writing this was playing against readers expectations that “naturism will ‘cure’ Ben”. Without giving anything away, I’d have to say that Ben pursues some interesting tactics to cover his perceived shortcomings.

“Enchanted” was a story that probably tested the patience of long time readers more than any other. Apart from the a somewhat bumpy update schedule, brought on by conflicting work and real life commitments, the story itself was mostly transplanted into a total fantasy world of nude gnomes, fairies, trolls and elves. What is the magical thrall clothing has over the majority of people in our own world? Even in cultures where they never previously had the same moralistic fear towards nudity that the Western and Islamic worlds do? Pretty hard to answer without going into a doctoral thesis - which I wasn’t about to do in the comic - but I put forward a few ideas all the same! Probably it annoyed many readers because it was well outside the realm of reality that has been the norm of Loxie & Zoot. All I can say is that I believe some stories are better told in a more nebulous environment where the hard and fast rules of reality don’t exist. That’s not to say all future stories will have fantasy elements but it does give me the opportunity to widen the possibilities.

The other great thing about the “Enchanted” story was that I was able to reintroduce fantasy characters from a comic I had previously attempted several years ago. With the hindsight of better narrative techniques, I think was able to spin a better tale than would have otherwise been possible back in those days. Also present in the tale was a character from fellow cartoonist Reinder Dijkhuis’ webcomic - Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan. Reinder’s fantasy oriented comics frequently feature characters with very natural and relaxed attitudes towards nudity.

After completing “Enchanted” I decided to take a six month break from noodtooning as I had other projects that required my attention and I felt I’d only drag the quality of The Bare Pit down if I forced myself to continue updating regardless. The series restarted in October and, in keeping with the theme of the month (at least for many countries in the Northern Hemisphere) it’s a Halloween special. In the vein of the Simpson’s Halloween Spooktaculars it is a series of short stories using all the usual Halloween cliches - the difference being it’s cast in a nudist vein. Beyond that there are many stories yet to be told.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Loxie and Zoot’s first printed appearance in Australian nudist magazine Sun & Health (issue #60). My simple idea for a nudist-oriented comic has certainly come a long way in that time. Certainly it could have gone a lot further had I the time and resources to dedicate to it however I believe there’s still a fair bit of mileage to the concept. As long as I can keep coming up with some interesting and fun stories then I’ll continue to draw them.

Nudist Day interview

The Bare Pit