Church Bulletin Doodles

Acts 2/Joel 2 the Holy Spirit makes ordinary people extraordinary servants. #pentecost 

I've left this blog fallow for too long just because I've been so busy. Maybe since I can use this iPod instead of a scanner, I can actually make the summer cartoon-diary idea work this time. Wish me luck.

Bear Necessities

 

Summer Diary

Sorry its been a few days. The yearbook took longer than I expected. So did wasting time on Pinterest. We'll see how spotty I get from here on out. I don't enjoy our scanner at home as much as the one I have at school. Then there's softball games and 4H and family stuff. Perhaps I will draw more in June, but you won't see them till July/August. Whatever. It's not like its more than a hobby. Whatever. Have a great summer everybody. Make sure you read some funnies somewhere. Maybe even in some newspapers. Won't that be quaint?

SUMMER DIARY

Don't ask. Suffice to say, some years it feels SO good to hibernate.

SUMMER DIARY

I crack myself up. This is my idea of a "dirty" joke, by the way. I'm such a dork.

SUMMER DIARY

Dedicated to a friend from high school.

SUMMER DIARY

Seriously? It has been December since I've posted any collages and LAST SUMMER since I've put any cartoons up here? I'd like to say that was due to a shameful lack of discipline, but really I've just been way way way too busy. I can't believe that 30 years ago I dreamed that this would be my vocation, not just a hobby. Today I don't even have time for a hobby, let alone this one. C'est la vie, no? C'est ci bon, c'est ci bon. Hey that reminds me of an old Eartha Kitt song.

No promises THIS summer, especially with all thats going on; dance, softball, family visits, 4H, etc. etc. But,  by girls did get me this nifty notebook for Easter, and sitting there at softball practice last night, I actually started sketching again. So, here's the first fruits. Now, back to work finishing the school yearbook, working on the district newsletter, updating the school website, yadda yadda yadda...

Here's a less sexy version of that Eartha Kitt song, only by Stan Freberg and the Muppets!

Great comic- check it out

GoComics (@gocomics) 3/21/12 6:15 PM How to Figure Out Who You Really Are: bit.ly/basicinstructi… #BasicInstructions #comics #humor

Mallory at 3/17/2010 03:19:00 AM

Sent from my iPod

facebook needs sound effects

Halloween Warning

Arrrgh.

Yes, I realize that LEGALLY, he's actually correct- but come on, it still sounds absurd and amoral coming out of anyone's mouth. That's because it is absurd and not just amoral, but immoral. How'd I do at making him look as plastic, stiff, polished and fake as I could?

By the way, here's the Wikipedia entry on why this election will be as frightening as any in our history, in case you're interested:

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 08-205 (2010), was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court holding that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited—because of the First Amendment. The 5–4 decision, in favor of Citizens United, resulted from a dispute over whether the non-profit corporation Citizens United could air a film critical of Hillary Clinton, and whether the group could advertise the film in broadcast ads featuring Clinton's image, in apparent violation of the 2002Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, commonly known as the McCain–Feingold Act.^[2]

The South Will Rise Again!

Let's face it, Nixon had a "Southern Strategy" and Lee Atwater had Reagan start his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi to take advantage of "latent" prejudices essentially to the capture the Confederate voters who left the Democratic party when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act and the Republican party has pretty much been the party of anti-intellectual, straight, white, Evangelical males ever since. Now we have Rick Perry because Mitt Romney isn't Christian enough and Sarah Palin and Michelle Michelle Bachmann are still women.

A 'C' student governor from Texas that everybody would love to have a beer with... hmmm, where have I seen this movie before?

No Mr. Bond-Market, I expect you to DIE!

Conciliatory to a fault?

Smurfalicious

Mal•Adjusted

Sheez. I forgot how much work it takes to draw, scan, process, and write these silly trifles. 

Sometimes the phonetic pronunciation fits more than others

Obstructions-R-US

Head Drama

Exclusive; Rare Sighting!

Stupid Chic

I have plenty of other things I should've been doing today, but the anger and bile just got too backed up and I had to either let it out or it was about to kill me. Sorry, loved ones, I've fallen off the wagon. I know how much political cartooning hurts everyone around me, but I just wasn't able to keep walking the straight and narrow. Tomorrow is another day and another opportunity to behave civilly. I'll ask my higher-power to help me. Meanwhile SOMEONE has to point out that politicians should really be required to pass a test in U.S. History and Civics before even being allowed to open their mouths on camera, let alone run for President.

More Equal Than Others

An homage to two great heroes, George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and Grant Wood's 'Daughters of the American Revolution.' 

Something New

At last, something new. But I'm not promising much. As the toon implies, this is really a test-run. I had to do some PC repair for my wife and daughter so they can print project reports for 4H, since we have a combo printer/scanner, this gave me the opportunity to test them both. I'm interested in the different feel I got by just using an old fashioned #2 pencil instead of pen before scanning it into Photohop. 

Notice also the stitches from where I had that bump on my forehead removed last week. My kids say it looks creepy and my wife called me "FrankenTed" today.

I can see trying to simply keep a cartoon diary. Nothing as elaborate as "American Splendor," the cult-classic alternative/underground  autobiographical comic books by the late Harvey Pekar that I think are the inspiration for 2003 film staring Paul Giamatti, just single-panel gags riffing on the banal, mundane, tedium of being me. But I don't know if I could do that daily or even weekly, though it would certainly be good creative-discipline to try.  And I'm all about discipline, just ask my wife. 

Okay, that didn't come out right- that was meant to be an ironic statement about my being an adult-ADHD scatterbrain. If you thought it sounded like I like being disciplined, get your mind out of my gutter!

Anyway, now that I know I have a scanner at home, that's one less excuse. But, cartooning has the same difficulties as writing- "Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself - it is the occurring which is difficult." ~Stephen Leacock

I seem to find myself somewhere between fame and fortune or wide spread prominence (cartooning for thousands of readers) and absolute obscurity (cartooning just for myself). It means a lot to me that the few of you are out there, long time friends and something like "fans," encouraging me with comments on facebook about how you want me to toon s'more and post them here. Thank you, I appreciate it.

Man Overboard

This could be a commentary on the 500-Year-Floods on the Missouri River.

It could be more of a visual analogy; the "waves" of corn in the fields can make driving through the countryside feel a little bit like being on the oceans. In that way, this could be seen as a form of visual poetry.

Of course, it could also be that I wanted to finally post something to my cartooning blog, felt like playing in Photoshop, was too lazy to get out of my chair and look for my sketchpad, and a boat floating in corn is the only thing I could think of. Oops, did I just end a run-on sentence with a preposition? Watch out for the grammar NAZI's. 

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Making plans to return to tooning regularly as a hobby- just haven't quite got the gumption yet. Wish me some.

America's Original Sin

I'm not really sure what this means. You sometimes hear of slavery or racism referred to as "America's Original Sin." I've been reading a lot of Cornel West lately and I'm beginning to wonder if either "manifest destiny" or imperialism/colonialism/mercantilism aren't our "forbidden fruit," we fought for our independence from Brittan, but couldn't wait for those opportunities to be the big man on campus- Mexican War, Spanish-American War, WWI, oil and influence. 

Of course, being a bleeding-heart  liberal, I could believe that any of Martin Luther King's big 3 evils are our corporate sins- Materialism, Militarism, and Racism. 

I believe it was Republican President Calvin Coolidge who said that the chief business of America is business and that "The man who builds a factory builds a temple." Too bad manufacturing is pretty much dead now days, I suppose if Cool Cal were around today he'd consider Goldman Sacs a temple. Conservatives like to go on about our Christian heritage, but they forget to mention that the Pilgrims were working for the London Virginia Company or that the Jamestown settlers were working for the London Company. It would be great if America were really founded on Biblical morals and religious freedom, but let's face it, gold, tobacco, competition for global trade, cotton, and slavery all played pretty hefty roles.

Anyway- just trying to provoke critical thinking. It's been a long time since I either drew a cartoon or collaged a piece of satire like this. Have fun being provoked. Happy National Cartoonist Day.

MAY 5, Every Year

Been a long time

Obviously this is inspired by the song about Santa Claus.
I suppose you could substitute Big Brother for the NSA, CIA or Wikileaks,
depending on your personal paranoia.

Has it actually been a year or more since I've posted any cartoons at all? Well, these are REALLY fast/sketch ones. I just had these ideas for jokes and our school upgraded our Photoshop, so I thought I'd throw them together quickly. Can't promise I'm back in the habit, but I'll try to take a sketchbook home with me over Christmas break. Who knows.

I couldn't decide whether to make the cook the donkey, Uncle Sam, or President Obama. This one is really vague and broad, so it could almost be timeless. Beltway Republicans like red herrings. They also like to put up "straw-men" so they can knock them down. Previous examples were flag burning and gay marriage, not to mention terrorist boogie-men. These days they're claiming to be deficit-hawks who want to cut government spending, even though they're pretty bad at math since they're so hell-bent on tax cuts for the super rich. Watch, next will be Tax "Reform," and of course Wikileaks. 

Yeah, maybe you think it's cheap or "cheating" to use some collage elements in there instead of actually drawing them but let me point out-

1. I said I threw them together quick so I wasn't being really meticulous.
2. These are pretty much just for me or for this blog, so there's no editor or publisher to try to impress. 
3. Check out some of the work of German 1920's/30's DADAist John Heartfield (aka: Helmut Herzfeld). The guy was a genius. 

His politically charged photomontages provoked the ire of the Third Reich. I admire Heartfield almost as much as I do Thomas Nast or Jeff McNelly, so I see no problem with using all the tools available to craft whatever it is you call what I have saved on this blog thing here.

Funnies Aficionado; Strangers in Paradise

http://www.strangersinparadise.com/sipindex.html

I love visual/graphic, sequential, story telling. Ok, "Comics." But I'm not really into aliens and mutants and people in tight, colorful costumes (well, except maybe for Mardigras).I once spent an hour and a half in a comic book store trying to find a graphic novel by a specific writer/artist team because their book emphasized relationships and emotional/intellectual struggles, not just action and violence. I finally found what I wanted, only to realize once I got home that it was the very same comic that I had already bought and read a year before.

What can I say? I guess other readers (presumably younger ones) are more interested in imagination and escapism, maybe even living vicariously- but I'm more interested in compelling story telling.

Terry Moore is a compelling story teller. It's no wonder Moore had already won one Will Eisner award and has been nominated for another, plus a Rubin, plus a Harvey award. Personally I think that Moore's style, both writing and drawing is far more reminiscent of Will Eisner' "the Spirit,' than the team DC Comics has reviving that series.

But Moore's characters aren't fighting crime or saving the world (usually), they're just trying to figure themselves out and help each other get through life, sort of like the rest of us. Unfortunately for me, as usual, I'm climbing on the band-wagon after the parade is over. Moore is wrapping up his master comic, 'Stranger's in Paradise,' after a 17 year run.

Strangers ("SIP") is a character-driven "dramadie" that revolves around Francine, Katina, and David, twenty-something friends caught in an unrequited love triangle. The tension is subtly played, it took me three issues to begin to catch on. David is an ex gang-banger/Art Major who's in love with Katina, who is a successful artist who's in love with Francine, who's Katina's straight best friend just an average girl with your average weight complex and an average job who's trying to make her way in the world.

There really isn't a lot of sexual tension in SIB, the emphasis is placed on friendship and loyalty. No kissing, not flirting or indulging in the erotic... at least not between the three main characters. There's plenty of dating and relationship struggles and angst.

Moore's drawing style is fluid, nuanced, attractive and at times sultry, without ever becoming exploitative. As a reader, I appreciate female protagonists, but as a comics reader it's hard to find authentic women characters. Let's face it, She-Hulk, Cat Woman, even Wonder Woman (who was originally created as a positive role model for young girls by a psychologist) are all pretty much soft-core porn for 10-14 year old boys. Moore isn't shamelessly preoccupied with bodies like say, Frank Cho's 'Liberty Meadows' comic strip.

As a matter of fact, I was convinced that Terry Moore was a woman, until I visited his website. Turns out, he's not gay either. Come to think of it, he's not between the ages of 14 and 30. He's not even single. All of these facts are amazing because he knows his characters, he seems to understand them, and have an uncanny empathy for them. That's what I appreciate most about Strangers in Paradise, that the characters are so genuine- authentic, real, honest, human, multidimensional, etc. etc.

I can't praise him enough for this. As a junior high and high school teacher, I'd like to think I've observed enough adolescents to be considered a credible witness to how realistic Moore makes his young characters and their constant, neurotic inner-conflicts.

It's a shame that Moore will no longer be producing new issues of SIB. It's a shame there aren't more comics like it, standing out among all of the typical overly commercialized, weird, violent, and formulaic stuff. It would also be a huge shame if all the straight readers were scared off by the understandably loyal LGBT following SIB built up over the last two decades.

If you're a true comics aficionado, you really owe it to yourself to give SIB a try. If you never thought of yourself as someone who'd enjoy comic books or graphic novels, then you really owe it to yourself to give SIB a look, it will really show you what a remarkable genre visual/graphic, sequential, story telling can be!

Being a superhero sucks, but this book doesn't

Daredevil Vol. 7: Hardcore by Brian Michael Bendis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


You can have your Frank Miller. For my money Bendis and Maleev are the best team in the comics biz. These guys know how to pull you into a story and keep the story moving in an unique, stylish manner.

This is not your typical comic book superhero thing with weird powers, costumes and mutants or people from other planets. This graphic novel is gritty, dark and plausible.

Matt Murdock struggles with civic responsibility, a blown secret identity, a faltering law practice, an FBI investigation into his activities as a vigilante in Hell's Kitchen in New York AND a new girlfriend- when a psychotic contract killer sets him on fire- announcing the return of his old nemesis, the organized crime boss bent on revenge. Did I mention that Murdock is blind?

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