A little exposition seemed to be in order today…
If only to disguise the punchline that was coming. I hope you didn’t see it coming.
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Comic
2374 comics.
I worry about hand-lettered signs around town that say “We buy houses” and have a phone number scrawled underneath.
Who the heck that buys houses puts yard sale-style signs out, and if they do, do you wanna sell them your house?
It all sounds a little desperate. At least people that mail you their postcards ponied up for a stamp.
Mud treatments. They crop up. People have put mud on their skin for a long time for a lot of reasons.
Of course, I’m talking about movies and TV. I Love Lucy. There was a mud pack gag there, right? And Arnold Schwarzenegger. He used mud to disguise his body heat from The Predator. In The Rabbit Of Seville, Bugs puts concrete on Elmer’s face in place of a mud treatment. In Lonesome Dove, Janey puts mud on Roscoe’s wasp stings. Yes, Mud for all reasons and for all seasons. Mud.
Feel free to fill the comment section with your own knowledge of mud poultices and mud pies. It’ll distract you from the fact that I filled this space with random gabble because I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say today.
Gonna go draw at the children’s hospital again today. Pictionary. The hospital has a sort of in-house TV studio (much easier since the advent of digital cameras and iPads. It’s nuts. Anyhow, I draw stuff, and kids and their families call to the studio from their rooms (which they are heartily sick of, I’m sure.) and guess what I’m drawing.
Kids are, I dunno, psychic or something. Seriously. I’ve gotta have, like, thirty things to draw figured out because it’s a forty minute show and ten seconds into each drawing, they’re already calling in. Last year around halloween, I had four lines- FOUR- on the board and the phone rings. Kid says “Vampire.” Right.
You know what the four lines were? You know what a ‘greater than’ sign is? Kind of an arrowhead? Yeah, I had two pointed up for the tips of the vampire’s pointed ears, and two pointed down for the collar on his cape. That’s it. Four open ended triangles at the outside edges of the board. First guess. six seconds. Vampire. I drew the rest of it just to prove to everyone else that the kid was right.
Psychic.
I got some new shoes yesterday.
I remember being a kid and having new white shoes that were so bright they looked kinda stupid.
I remember that because it happened again yesterday.
Of course, I’m old enough now to wear them with dark socks and shorts.
I’ve said more than once that I don’t run 5Ks because I’m not being chased by axe murderers that can only go 4.9K.
On the other hand, if you’re wrapping up a Swamp Run, and you’re NOT being pursued by something that’ll help you achieve a personal best speed, then something’s gone wrong somewhere.
I used to really tick people off during critique days at college graphic design classes.
I wasn’t trying to. I thought we were supposed to talk about where we and others could have improved, and what we and others did well, and what lettering looked like it belonged on the side of a hotdog vendor’s cart instead of a can of coffee. You know. Critique.
But some folks in college weren’t old enough or experienced enough to take constructive criticism, and felt that calling their coffee logo ‘hotdog cart lettering’ was going over the line. Fine. It’s also possible I wasn’t old enough or experienced enough or normal enough to know what people were going to take as personal insult just because they’d poured their heart and soul into a coffee label design. Fair’s fair.
Troy, on the other hand, is going well out of his way to become a functioning cartoonist. (I know this ’cause of how we met) He’s also old enough to recognize constructive criticism for what it is, and recognize a socially inept dingbat for what I am…
Having said that, I’m going to offer up a critique of last week’s cartoon. Cartoonist to cartoonist, and you guys get to be privy to it. Or not, if you stop reading now.
So. Overall, it flows well. Left to right. Pace. no worries. I think the action of the first two panels could be reduced to one panel- The old man walking from a rumpled bed, the room dark on the left and brighter on the right hand side toward and open door. Old man scratching with one hand, yawning, and stretching the other hand? That leaves a second panel for the Old Man to be teetering on his toes, feet together, as though he’s stopped his step suddenly at his bedroom door and his upper body might be leaned out from its own momentum. The body angle would give dynamic tension and a sense of unbalance. The word balloon over him… Hmmm. Is “Oh… Crap.” too rude? He’s looking at crap, after all. Judgement call. His Dog could be pressed against the wall, also staring goggle-eyed into the room (that we can’t see, same as Troy has it in this version). He’s thinking “You were the one who fed me week old Bratwurst…” Then there’d be the third panel that’d have to be the final note. I’m not sure Old Man should look so calm and collected as in this version. I think it might be funnier and more engaging if he’s outside in his garfield PJs hammering a sign into the yard “HOUSE FOR SALE- CHEAP. NOW.” next to a box with a plastic bag tied in it. It’s got “ROBOT VACCUUM_ FREE USED ONCE.” on it. That’s my 2 cents. Might not work. I’d have to sketch it out and see what it looks like. And Troy might not like the pace of a three panel instead of a four. It’s pretty subjective, after all.
There you go. Critique.
Did you guys do this? You had to call “No Tag Backs” when the game started, otherwise, tag backs were allowed and complicated things for the slower-reflexed people in the group.
I don’t recall worrying a lot about tag backs, but I don’t want to admit that I was really fast at touching people and running away.
You didn’t think I was gonna let the Tag end, didja?
Oops. I’ve got a crazy deadline. I’ve been trying to lay out 100 drawings that’ll eventually become frames in a couple of training modules (they train employees via modules these days, in case you haven’t started a new job lately)
Aaaaaand of course the initial design sketches are due today. So for a week now I’ve been wondering if I could keep ahead of the Hubris deadlines and do these drawings.
Turns out the answer is, “Almost.”
And I’m behind on The Buckets. And my editorial cartoon for The Memphis Flyer.
But now you guys know why. Nobody else knows why but my wife and kids. I must really like you guys.
I like you so much that you’ll likely get a new Hubris cartoon tomorrow, instead of an excuse.
