A straggler

Guess some people don't get around to sending out their rejection slips till about six months later.
No sweat, better to do it for love than to do it for a living anyway.

Just for the heck of it

What can I say? I have no time to cartoon this week, I ran across this in an old notebook and I knew this corny joke. Considering the bear market we're in, "I thought, what the heck?"

Watercolor

Just playing around while my students work on their assignments in Painting class.

Am I really that mean?

This offering was submitted to me by one of my Photography students. 'A' for retouching in Photoshop, but do I sense some hostility here? Just wait till I grade y our quiz this weekend Josh!

Dumb ideas #347

Existentialist Cartoonists

From: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/festival/2008/10/groening-barry.html

The cartoonists Matt Groening (“Futurama,” “The Simpsons,” “Life is Hell”) and Lynda Barry (“Ernie Pook’s Comeek,” What It Is) have been friends since they attended the same college, where, they said Saturday afternoon at the Metropolitan Pavilion, Matt tormented hippies and Lynda modeled nude for four dollars an hour. They also found teachers who inspired their offbeat work. Matt’s seminars on Kierkegaard and Nietzsche led to his “Life is Hell” theme, and Lynda’s art classes led to her belief in a natural biological instinct in humans to create “images,” whether by making a drawing, talking to an imaginary friend, or by merely recognizing the personality and significance of an inanimate object.

Also, they are really funny people. Lynda dispelled the false notion that a person should only make art if he or she can make a living from it in the following way (I’m paraphrasing):

That’s like having a baby and as soon as it’s born you jump on it and say, ‘Take me to the store and buy me dinner and go to work and make me some money!’

The point she was making was that you don’t have a baby in order to make money, you make money so you can take care of a baby—just like you make money so you can have time to make art, which is an enjoyable experience. The point I am making is that she pantomimed having a baby and jumping on its back and galloping to the store.

They also had a great interview with Dilbert creator Scott Adams: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/cartoonlounge/2008/10/scott-adams-dilbert.html

Get to work

This is my version of Dilbert's "pointy-haired boss." Actually it's loosely based on a combination of Joe Santos (Sgt. Dennis Becker on the Rockford Files), James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) and Danny DeVito (Louie on Taxi). In case you're wondering, my principal looks more like Joaquin Phoenix and I don't think I'd have the guts to characterize him no matter how frustrating the bureaucratic hoops we have to jump through as teachers get. I wouldn't want his job, he does the best he can. But lets face it, I'm sure plenty of my students think I'm as mean as this cartoon boss some days. Just part of life (see student's drawing of me in the previous post).

Occupational hazard

One of the occupational hazards of teaching high school is that occasionally you become the subject of your student's editorial cartooning. Elsa used to be such a nice girl too, shame about her Yearbook grade.

Pucker Up, Butter-Cup