On Holidays....

Day 49

 

Merry Everything everyone.

 

 

Day 48

 

It's Christmas Eve and so...

Andrea thinks this one isn't clear because of the movie called Reindeer Games. She thought I was parodying the Hunger Games movie and the Reindeer Games movie and thusly found this stupid. When we discussed that I was in fact making fun of the classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer song and the Hunger Games movie it made much more sense to her. What is your experience? Did you have that same thought process?

Day 47

 

This is the cartoon that started them all. Well, relatively speaking. This is the cartoon idea I had that made me think, "Hey maybe I can be a professional cartoonist. I even had the joy of passing a copy of this on to the wonderful magical couple David and Abi Haines. It was really fun to give a cartoon to someone who really enjoyed it and I imagine the joy of syndication would be ten fold. Or at least there would be a lot more money.

Day 46

 

               This is just cute and could very well live on the front of a cheesy greeting card. Oh wait! That's why I drew it! Muah hahaha! Notice the nice clean backround line? Thanks Czar!

Day 45

 

As you might have noticed I am working on an "Optimist" theme here. You may have also noticed that the third panel is slightly larger than the other ones. I need to spend way more time with a ruler. I'd prefer a Czar but this 12 inch straight edge will do...

Day 44

I've been informed that this is not funny. For so many reasons. Three main ones: 1. all I've done is broken up a word. 2. I telegraphed said broken up word by using a hyphen in the text and 3. I didn't do anything witty with said broken up word other than point out the fact that I did indeed break it up. I am willing to bet though, if this panel appeared in a Far Side strip, someone, somewhere would cut it out and put it on their fridge. Probably an eye doctor with no sense or humour or more likely the equally humourless mother of the eye doctor who clips and and sends anything dealing with glasses to her son. 

Day 43

 

Again I felt like I wanted to explore how these letter characters relate with one another and what jobs they might have in their world. "I" had to work in a stereotypical girls diary today and the two "l"s and the "o" are actually "I"s buddys "A",'E", and "U" that were transformed into l.o.l by their shared mirth.
P.S I've been at sea for three days now and I'm starting to smell like it.

Day 42

 

 

I wanted to play with acronyms and their meaning. I spent an awfully long time trying to draw O.B.G.Y.N so it looked like a pregnant woman giving birth. I didn't want to add features or alter the letters, just to rotate and position them. It didn't really work. But it got me thinking about other acronym. This is Y.O.L.O or You Only Live Once. It's become a pretty big meme with today's youth. Also the little squares are the periods from the acronym. 

Day 41

 

This weeks theme is "Keep posting cartoons every day even though your at sea and Internet less". It's a theme I've tackled before and I feel up to the challenge. This time I feel slightly less guilty because the cartoons I am pre-uploading for this week are all cartoons I've drawn since beginning the ABC's project and with the intention of using them as blog filler while I am away at work. I chose this one to start the week because hopefully I am doing something similar right now. As you read this I am hopefully sunning myself somewhere in the Bahamas. Truthfully I am probably in my cabin battling sea sickness and drawing more cartoons. What can I say, I'm a man obsessed. 

Day 40

 

And the end of the week of hack cartoons ends with of course, a visual pun. Probably the thing that cartoons (myself included) do the most. Today I leave for another cruise ship but I leave you in the competent hands of Blogger and her mysterious postings....

Day 39

 

The ultimate of hack cartoon ideas: "The fill-in-your-own caption" cartoon. Probably the bedrock of modern cartooning and a brilliant ploy on the part of professional cartoonists. It's the self serve frozen yogurt stand of art. People are actually happy to come in and do your work for you. They get excited about it. It's really fun and there is a whole culture of cartoon caption submitting. Look how popular the New Yorker's cartoon caption contest is. It's unbelievable. So Day 39 is a caption contest. The winner will receive the original artwork, framed and delivered because I am, obviously, at the same level of the New Yorker and should hold myself to the same standards. Fire away!

Day 38

Today I tackled the deserted desert island. A favourite among cartoonists, especially in the 50's and 60's. I tried to stay true to my theme of letters and am happy with the results. This cartoon has some problems in that it isn't very polished. However, I am fully aware that it is a feat in and of itself to publish a new cartoon everyday and they all can't be winners.

Day 37

 

In the continuation of hack cartoon ideas I have my version of the therapist and client stereotype. I couldn't find any inspiration in the ABC's so I switched to inanimate objects mostly because I am awful at drawing cartoon people. This cartoon was heavily edited in microsoft paint because I had drawn in a worse punchline and then digitally erased it to add this one but then the expression on the chaise lounge didn't fit anymore so I altered that as well. Technology is cool and I can see why most modern panel cartoonists have switched to digital creation.

Day 36

Day 36 includes for the first time....typed text! Thanks microsoft paint for letting me write and re write the line without having to re draw the photo because I made a mistake! Whoopie. What an advance and look how much more professional it looks. I like it. For my Canadian and European readers: "It says pardon out dust, we're expanind. Grand re-opening 13/12/12" 

Day 35

Today's theme and hack cartoon premise was/is Hell. If I were a letter this is what I imagine Hell would be like. The best part of the Heaven and Hell cartoons, Days 34 and 35, has been the back round characters. In the Heaven cartoon there is a third letter angel playing the harp on a cloud. That letter is an "H" for harpist. Today's has little devil "D"s. For some reason both cartoons feature the letter "A". No reason. But perhaps I'd be a better cartoonist if there were...

Day 34

 

This week theme is "Tired, cliched, and hack premises". The world of cartooning, especially single panel "gag" cartoons is full of rich tradition and standards. This includes things like the therapists couch, heaven, hell, and (for a brief period in the 50's) a dog bringing slippers to his "master". These stock images have become standards and are repeated so much there are even jokes about their commonness. The New Yorker, according to cartoonist lore, won't even take submissions of desert island cartoons. I decided to start this weeks challenge with "Heaven" a place I am likely to never see. 

Day 33

 

My last day of Roman Numeral themed jokes. Maybe not ever but for the purpose of this "assignment" if you will. It was a good exercise is forcing creativity and working within parameters. If someone had come to me and said "Hey I need a vaguely Roman Numeral themed cartoon" I feel reasonable confident I would have been able to come up with at least one they would have wanted. In particular I feel pretty strongly about the cartoon of the "V" on the scale. I think that's a solid cartoon and worth doing the exercise for. Comedy Guru Scotty Meltzer (R.I.P) wrote a great article about the process of writing many jokes just to get one that is semi decent. This week has been proof. 7 ideas decent enough for me to consider posting them on the Internet and countless ones too bad to share and of those 1 that has some potential. Or should I say I? I've included a bonus Roman Numeral themed cartoon at the end of this blog post because I don't want to have to publish it tomorrow and go past my week.

 



 

Interlude 2

 

I've been working on a gag very similar to this one for a while now and imagine my surprise when this popped into my inbox courtesy of "My Daily Comic". I really love this strip and "The Argyle Sweater" often produces awesome panels. When I put this picture on the page for the blog I realised how very far I have to go. 

 

 

Day 32

 

My last Roman Numeral themed cartoon was a bit of a dud. This one might be better but honestly I am losing sight of what is or isn't funny when concerning roman numeral themed cartoons. 

Day 31

I have to say that the well of Roman Numeral jokes is running dry. I also came up with a panel that depicted King Henry the VIII trying to convince a mathematician to update numbers so it would be easier to write his name in the snow. I know. It's not very good. I ended up here and I think it's alright. Better than the King Henry idea. Special thanks to Andrea for convincing me that the King Henry idea was a no go.

Day 30

 

This one took me forever to get right. Not only did it take many many re-writes to get the joke to a place where I felt like it made sense but when I was actually drawing the cartoon I kept messing up the text. I started tracing the image on the back of the mistakes so every other page this same drawing kept switching perspective: one facing left, then one facing right, et cetera. This is my favourite so far of the roman numeral series though I think it's funny that it's day number IV instead of day V. Oh vell. 

Day 29

 

Really coming in under the wire here with less than thirty minutes left in the day. But it's better than late. This is day III of the roman numeral challenge to myself and I really like this one except the punchline isn't quite right. It is almost there. I feel confident in the idea and all that's left is to find a better way to execute it. Suggestions? 

Day 28

 

 Due to internet problems this posted 43 minutes after midnight. Shoot.

Day 27

 

This week's theme is Roman Numerals. I decided to pick an idea and see how many I can come up with on that idea. Hopefully by the end of the week I will have created at least one saleable idea. Or at least an idea I can be proud of. It's a fun thing that if you read the sentence: "Or at least an idea I can be proud of" as a Roman Numeral-ed sentence it would read as "Or at least an idea one can be proud of". Still works. 

Day 26

 

Feeling lazy today so....

Day 25

 

I started thinking about more language based gags while accidentally spending a few minutes re-drawing the umlaut joke that I already did. I was disappointed to have wasted so much time drawing a slightly different version of a joke I already did but I was happy to get my brain on the track of different languages and letters. This is one of the results. 

Day 24

 

I tried to make each of the letters look like they were speaking their "sound". I don't know if I was successful or not but I tried. And that's what counts. Or letters. 

Day 23

 

 

As part of my quest to gain insight into being a professional cartoonist I have been "reading" lots of cartoons. My favourites tend to be panels that are some kind of visual pun. This is an example of that. I realised after I drew this that an lowercase "i" followed by any word looks like an advert for Apple Computers though. iTeam by Apple, the newest addition to the Mac family ruining sayings everywhere. Next month iCryoverspiltmilk will be available for the iPad mini. Cheers. 

Day 22

 

Today marks three weeks of a new(ish) cartoon everyday. Not so bad. Actually it hasn't been as much of a chore as I thought it would be and I have found some comfort in resuming sketching every day and with the added structure of posting the pictures for people to see I have also began to introduce the kind of pace I would need if I ever wanted to be a professional cartoonist. This is the final draft of an idea I had while on the cruise ship and I (obviously) think it's a riot. 

 

Day 21

 

It's amazing how quickly you start to run out of good ideas. Luckily though there are thousands of bads ones waiting to charge into that breach. Here is today's cartoon in all it's glory. Some days I guess you just have to drag something out onto the paper. In my head this was much funnier than it appears in print. Oh well!

 

Day 20

 

I drew this on board the Enchantment of the Seas during a Thanksgiving week cruise. I tried to draw a new cartoon every day while on board and then I submitted them to the on board daily t.v show. This was Thanksgiving Day's submission.

Day 19

 

This is the last day of recycled toons! Well...kind of. I've finally arrived back home from my cruise and I have a whole slew of cartoons I drew on the cruise that I want to upload. It feels different from re-cycling because I drew them after the start of the blog and the project and not in the years proceeding the decision to spend more time and focus on cartooning with the eventual goal of making a carear as a cartoonist.

Day 18

 

This was the first cartoon I almost sold. So close. It was also the first cartoon I ever drew that someone else "color filled" and I learned how important it is to close all of your lines so the person coloring your cartoons has an easier time of it. Though, I have been spending a lot of time reading the "funnies" lately and have noticed that there are many unfinished lines and perfect color. 

Day 17

 

If you think that I drew this one recently...we have a problem. This is a visual pun. I LOVE puns. I made a whole puppet show based around egg puns. It's a problem. But I'm not trying to get rid of it. If you never comment on any of my cartoons please comment here and leave your favourite pun. Or your own drawing of a pun. 

Day 16

 

Day 16! Can you believe it. I am still on board the ship. I may have died by now. Not literally, but in the way that comedians say that they've died. Though I am probably trying to spread the meme of comics "drowning" on a cruise ship stage. I LOVE this cartoon. I wish they were all this much fun to think up. This was the first cartoon I drew in clown school after a few year hiatus from sketching. 

 

Day 15

 

Again with the cheating. This is another, mostly forgotten, sketch from clown school. I should point out at some point that I've been drawing cartoons and doodling for a long time. Those of you 

creepy facebook friends can browse my pictures and find some paintings I did in High School when I thought I wanted to be an proper artist. Despite drawing cartoons for a long time, this is the first time I have done it every day with some kind of goal. I remember this time of my life well and I had just started to discover what I think is my "style" at that time.

Day 14

 

So this one is definitely cheating. I drew this years ago while I was in clown school. My wonderful wife named it "Pie a la Commode". Which I think is brilliant. My favourite part was (and is) the horrified plunger. Like it can't believe what's happening and is really worried about the next couple hours of its life. I remember drawing a face on the toilet paper at one point but deciding that it had crossed some kind of line. 

Day 13

 

This was just a sketch at the bottom of a page full of puzzle piece joke attempts. This one wouldn't have made the cut I think if I hadn't been forced to scrape the bottom of my creative barrel. Try not to think about what my creative barrel looks like. I bet you can't not think about it. Still a post every day not bad for a man out at sea. 

Day 12

 

I ran out of pre drawn ABC themed cartoons and panels so I started dipping into the sketchbooks non-letter themed doodles. I really really really like this one and if I hadn't mis-managed my project with working then I would have had to wait a long time to reveal this one. 

Day 11

 

Those avid and creepy followers of my Facebook know that I am on a cruise ship right now performing as a comedy juggler somewhere on the Ocean. I can't say which cruise line I am on but I can say that the fairy tale was wrong, instead of the frog turning into a Prince with her kiss, she instead turned into a giant cruise ship. Hint hint. I digress. I had to abandon the pursuit of the ellusive 3 panel series because I wouldn't have consistent internet access. I didn't want to miss a day so I had to find a solution. And that solution was pre-posting a bunch. Which meant that I had to dredge up some half finsihed ideas. This is one of them. 

Day 10

 

Series entry #2 an attempt at a continuation from series entry #1 or you may know it as it's alias "Day 9". I am fond of the idea of this one but I think I missed a logic step in it's execution. I'm making an effort to publish it first and critique it later because I tend to obsess and I would never post anything because I would change little things as they came up. This allows me to post something imperfect and think about it and make solid, informed decisions about what needs to change. Yay Day 10!  

Day 9

 

This is my first attempt at a series. I learned that I need to draw them bigger so they can be compressed to a smaller size rather than draw them actual size. Also I put the date in between the 2nd and 3rd panel like a true professional. The goal is for the next six days to be a continuation of this idea. I know I already posted the first panel so I only get 2/3rds credit for day but I really like the "f and u" idea best of everything I've come up with and it's where the inspiration for more strips was the strongest. 

Day 8

 

 

I survived a whole week! I managed to draw, edit, and "publish" one cartoon per day. I tried to draw this one every day. It was one of my first ideas but I couldn't find the right style or voice for the idea. I had the "n" looking at a poster of a marquee letter while eating a light bulb, "n" being chastised by it's mother about eating light bulbs in order to grow up to be a marquee like his father, and so on. But I liked this one enough to make it day 8. This next week I am going to start trying some 3 panel "series" in an attempt to challenge myself. 







Interlude

 

Yesterday I was walking past Tim Horton's (see: Canadian Starbucks) and a homeless man asked me for some spare change and I apologized because I didn't have any and then he asked me again if I could give him a looney (see: Canadian dollar coin) to buy a cup of coffee. I told him again I didn't have any and then he offered to draw me a cartoon for a cup of coffe. I said deal, gave him a piece of paper and a pen and went inside to buy a dollar cup of coffee with my credit card (He likes two sugars and three creams if you're wondering). He told me that he drew cartoons every day and was a cartoonist so I went back inside and bought him a sandwhich (see: wanted to feed future me).

Day 7

 

 

A weeks worth of cartoons. Nuts. I cannot believe that some people produce a daily 3 panel strip and then a larger, colour, 9 panel strip on Sunday. Every week. All year. I understand that some days they may come up with ten good strips that they then hoard and such but still, at the very least they are coming up with 365 publishable cartoons. Power to the professionals.

 

I find it really interesting that when dealing with letters you start to look for the word the letters are "supposed" to be. There (for me anyway) is a need for there to be a deeper or funnier meaning. And unfortunately there isn't. They're just letters. Looking back though "S"s friend should have been and "E" and she should have been saying, "Don't look, it's our ex". Oh well. 

Day 6

 

This is unbelievably corny and that is exactly why I like it. I wrote a bunch around the theme of "crossing your 'T's and dotting your 'I's" and this one was my favourite. The nice thing about picking a theme (ABC's) is that the jokes (or attempt at them) tend to write themselves. Anthropomorphising any well known saying is an easy way to write a joke and an even easier way to craft a single panel cartoon. 

 

Day 5

 

This one actually started as a joke I tried on Facebook: "Call me old fashioned but when I swear I like to use cursive". It din't get much response there but I still have faith in the idea. My wife Andrea suggested I make it into a three frame with the "A" crashing into a wall on his trike and turning into a cursive letter "A" and then reverting back to a standard "A" to call the tow truck. I really like the idea that the letters turn into other kinds of letters or fonts to express different emotions. 

Day 4

This one was inspired by my time in Germany. I loved how ingenious the German people were at hiding and disguising the umlaut's dots. One of the most common was making the whole thing into a smiley face. I discovered a lot drawing this cartoon, mainly that I need a ruler and a better way to get the images of the cartoons onto my computor. A scanner seems like the easiest solution but I much prefer my current method of taking a picture with my ipad and emailing it to myself. The email fails to send but somehow the image ends up in the failed delivery message where I copy it onto my laptop before uploading it onto Blogger. 

 

Day 3

I really like this one. It was a good lesson as well. In several of the rough drafts all of the letters had faces but I realized that it was getting confusing and only the characters who are directly involved in the action should have faces. This probably doesn't apply if you are drawing people.