Cartooning

Glenn Marshall: Getting Filthy with Fountain Pens

"My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling forms on a plane"
© Glenn Marshall

The New Cartoonist regular contributor, Glenn Marshall, has written a piece about fountain pens and his experiments with them. As a fountain pen connoisseur, I share much of his insights and affinity for a Fude nib pen.

Two of my favourite ‘drawists’ who often use fountain pens are Róisín Curé (Insta: @roisincure)  the self-described ’sketching evangelist’ and Caroline Smith (Insta: @urban_sketchliner) who draws incredible urban landscapes from life. Róisín’s tutorials are fantastic; it was she who inspired me to get the Japanese Sailor Fude nib pen (pronounced FOOD apparently…which is fude for thought) and from her I learned weird alchemy such as mixing THREE colours together, which to me is some sort of voodoo.

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I particularly like the Bamf which has been customised with the Japanese Zebra G dip pen nib. I can’t really afford the above, it costs more than my first car did although some of the current elite pens from the likes of Mont Blanc cost into the thousands…more than my current car cost. 

Pens in the review include: Noodler’s Ahab pen, Fude De Mannen with Wakatake 55 degree nib, Platinum Preppy, Rotring pen and ink, Pentel Fude Brush Pen (not a fountain pen), TWSBI Eco, and Inkursive Pens Fude nib.

I’ll give a non-sponsored plug for Peter Songi’s bi-monthly digital magazine The New Cartoonist. Check out the TNC Cover Artists page with accompanying video of a tour of the cartoonist’s studio (or YouTube playlist).

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Comments 1

  1. One of the marvelous little stores here in Manhattan is “The Fountain Pen Hospital,” which is quite close to City Hall. Aside from new limited-edition fountain pens, ink, and high-quality notebooks, they also sell vintage Parker, Shaeffer, Waterman and other fountain pens. I have a largish collection of Duofolds and Vacumatics, and have been there many times.

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