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Bushscrubs is a comic strip by Australian artist Vince Steele. It is currently advertised for syndication through Auspac Media and is published online via GoComics and Facebook.

Overview

Bushscrubs is set in a camping ground, in the fictional town of Budgie-Smugglers Bay, somewhere in Far North Queensland. The camp is run by Gazza and his dog Benny, with the help of his long distance neighbour Mick and stranded tourist Doris. As well as his dog, Gazza also owns a pair of cockatoos named Axel and Kerby. The local wildlife is represented by the wild scrub turkeys, a toilet dwelling frog, and a very hungry wild sugar glider. One of the scrub turkeys tours the country in relative luxury after tour-guide Bill mistakenly lets the bird on the bus in Doris' place.

Conception

Bushscrubs began in 2010 as Bushcamp Comics after the artist visited an old friend he hadn't seen for 20 years who had begun his own business running a camping ground at Finch Hatton Gorge in Queensland.^[1]

In 2011 the artist returned to the camp to begin development of the strip. Characters were initially based on his friend and the camp animals. After four weeks of creating 6 daily strips and a Sunday strip each week he then returned to his home in New South Wales to clean up the artwork and ready it for submission to various syndication publishers throughout the world. Initially the strip was rejected with Andrews McMeel Publishing offering the courtesy of sending the artist a letter to state that they wouldn't know how to market it.^[2]

Auspac Media

In 2014 the artist, now living in Tasmania, obtained a digital drawing tablet and took it upon himself to redraw the strips, which produced a cleaner image. He decided that there was such a vast improvement with the redrawn strips that he submitted them to Auspac Media who promptly listed the strip in their online database with the heading of NEW COMIC STRIP TO BE LAUNCHED IN AUSTRALIA.^[3] It then was never picked up as the newspaper industry in Australia is in the process of killing off syndicated comic strips in favour of the cheaper to purchase crossword and soduko puzzles.^[4]

GoComics

In 2016, Bushcamp Comics was added to Comics Sherpa (a site which helps beginning comic strips make their work public over the web) by the artist. This then made it available to view via GoComics, a division of Andrews McMeel Publishing, the very same Syndication publishers who had previously stated they wouldn't know how to market the strip.

Redesign and reboot

It was not long after the strip had begun appearing on GoComics that the person the main character of Gazza was based on began trying to tell the artist to remove central characters because he wouldn't let people like that stay at his real bush camp. In order to avoid having his friend tell him what he could and couldn't have in the strip, the artist then redesigned the main characters and gave them new names to remove the links to the real people they were based on. Bushcamp Comics was relaunched as Bushscrubs via GoComics on the 11th of July, 2016.

The main changes to the strip were as follows:

• The main character of Wazza was renamed Gazza. His beard colour was changed from grey to brown.
• Gazza's dog was renamed from Bear to Benny and coloured a lighter shade of brown to match Gazza's new beard colour.
• The cockatoos, Rocky and Roada were renamed Axel and Kerby respectively.
• Doris started referring to Gazza as Mr Bushscrubs instead of Mr Platypus.
• Gazza the tour bus driver was renamed to Bill as the main character was now called Gazza.
• The drawing of the Platypus was removed from the Sunday Comic Strip title panel completely

GoComics' website redesign and strip hiatus

Just before Christmas 2016, Andrews McMeel Publishing had a major overhaul of the GoComics website, which temporarily removed all content from Comic Sherpa. This in effect removed Bushscrubs from the GoComics website while the Sherpa database was being incorporated into the new look website. Bushscrubs was then put on hiatus by the artist and should resume production after the Sherpa database comes back online in the new GoComics website sometime in February 2017.

List of main characters

Gazza

Gazza is the iconic bush tucker man who runs the Bushscrubs camp. He mainly wears black shorts, a khaki green shirt and matching Akubra style hat.

Benny

Benny is Gazza's faithful dog who unwillingly takes the blame for quite a few of Gazza's bad habits.

Mick

Mick is Gazza's long distance neighbour who lives about a 20 minute drive away from the camp. Mick owns a vintage Harley Davidson motorcycle and lives with his rescued cockatoo Chookers.

Doris/Dory the stranded tourist

Doris is a tourist who ended up stranded at the camp after a scrub turkey stole her clothes and boarded the tour bus in her place. People seem unwilling to drive Dory back to civilisation after mistaking her for some kind of nutcase after witnessing various actions the city dweller takes as she tries to get used to life in the Australian scrub.

Bill the tour bus driver

Bill is a tourist bus driver who's eyesight isn't the best. After letting a scrub turkey on the bus in Dory's place, he then takes the bird on Doris's trip around the country at her expense, using her credit card information to purchase the bird's food and pay for its accommodation at the various towns they visit.

Trevor the travelling scrub turkey

Trevor somehow manages to put on Doris's clothes one day while Doris is swimming in the camp's waterhole. He then gets ushered onto Doris's tour bus and taken around the country at Doris's expense. He regularly sends postcards back to the camp to let his flock know of his adventures.

Kevin the toilet dwelling toad

Kevin is a rather large green toad who lives in the camp toilets, much to Doris's horror.

Nigel the ninja like sugar glider

Nigel is a wild sugar glider with a penchant for junk food. At night he likes to sneak up on his food and catch it by surprise.

The scrub turkeys

Trevor's family, the scrub turkeys, like to make a mess of the camp while they forage for groceries.

The Cockatoos

Kerby is a wild cockatoo with a gammy wing that was damaged when he clipped a power line. Wazza looks after her after the local vet decides that the birds wing will never be fixed.

Axel is a domesticated cockatoo that was evicted from the city for being too noisy. He is often looked down at with disdain by Kerby.

Chookers is a wild cockatoo with an incurable beak and feather disease. He lives with his new foster mum, Mick.