Maybe my cartoons aren't so bad after all...

...because I found a sculpture based on one today! Oh wait, it's in another "Touch of Ass" style catalog. Nevermind. But you have to admit that the second Dressed up Dachshund down from the top does seem a bit familiar. I should sue! All I want is what's coming to me. All I want is my fair share. ;)

47 Reasons I Didn't Become A Cartoonist: Part 11

Do-over again

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Looks like I could have used a few more tries.

How exactly did he get in there? Is it some sort of Phantom Zone style prison?

Exactly what I like to see...lots of improvements in ability and choices. More background detail and a more complex character design. The sense of scale seems to have gone downhill, but you can't have everything.

Kudos to my 10 year old self for knowing about the reputation of a vehicle that stopped production 20 years earlier.

Weird...looking for when the Edsel stopped production, the Wikipedia entry included the following information:

When coming up with a name for the Edsel, Ford also asked poet Marianne Moore for suggestions, and she submitted a list which included "The Intelligent Whale," "The Utopian Turtletop," "The Pastelogram," and "The Mongoose Civique."

I'm at a loss for words. Imagine that.

No real improvements...the original was better. Why isn't the fuse lit? Is it because Volvo's aren't actually bad cars?

Embarassing myself for your amusement...again

While digging in a box of cassette tapes tonight, I found an old mix tape I put together labeled:

Slow Mix 2/92
for Jessica - Valentines Day

I've told many of you about the musical horrors in my past. But this is THE perfect illustration of just how bad my musical tastes once were. How in the world did I ever expect to get anywhere with a girl once she'd realized THIS was what I thought was romantic?

Here's the track list in all it's horror:

Side A
In The Air Tonight	Phil Collins
More Than Words	Extreme
Why Can't I Fall In Love	Ivan Neville
In Your Eyes	Peter Gabriel
Hello	Lionel Richie
Groovy Kind of Love	Phil Collins
She's Always A Woman	Billy Joel
Hold On To The Night	Richard Marx
Suddenly	Billy Ocean
Once In A While	Rocky Horror Picture Show
Jessica's Theme	Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Side B
This Must Be Love	Phil Collins
Open Arms	Journey
That's What Love Is All About	Michael Bolton
Take My Breath Away	Berlin
It Must Have Been Love	Roxette
And So It Goes	Billy Joel
Heaven In Your Eyes	Loverboy
Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay	Michael Bolton
You're The Inspiration	Chicago
Lost In Your Eyes	Debbie Gibson
Eternal Flame	Bangles
She's Got A Way	Billy Joel

Dipping into the cesspool of mediocrity that is Phil Collins three times? What was I thinking?

Bringing on the color...Photoshop style.

Another of my heavy line art sketches from a recent drawing day, but scanned in for coloring in Photohshop. It's done with lots of adjustment layers so I can change the colors, intensity of shading and highlighting.

This image sprouted from a head shape that formed from playing with my kneaded eraser.

Spindle and mutilate

Today I got my order of super-slim dvd cases from SuperMediaStore.com. At a scant 5mm, they're almost 1/3 the thickness of a standard case (14mm).

There are a few downsides. I have to fold under about 3/8" of the back cover. You also only see about half of the spine. Most titles are still decipherable, but a few almost lose the title entirely. Then there's the ones with special cases. Those I may have to scan and build suitable covers for. But I'm certainly not going to do that for all of them. I did consider it briefly, but my slackerhood managed to beat out my OCD.

With with our limited space dedicated to DVD storage (the 2 small cabinets above the TV), this is a GREAT solution.

47 Reasons I Didn't Become A Cartoonist: Part 10

Literal is funny...right?

This is about as bad as it gets people. The good news is there's only two more installments until the hurting can finally stop (for all of us).

A hot dog...on skis. Whee! It doesn't get more whimsical than this...oh, to have the imagination of a young boy again.

It's funny that their father was taken from them...cut, de-barked, pulped, boiled, bleached, cut again, printed, glued. And amazing they could recognize him after all that.

Why yes indeed he is. Welcome to the bottom of the barrel, folks. I hope you enjoyed the ride. It's only upwards from here.

See, I told you it would get better. This one is a bit more sophisticated. I'm particularly fond of the bottles of Ketchup and Mowrer. Wait a minute...EWW!

Science is fun!

Back in May, I did a logo for Dan Fleischman: Food Scientist. He's the guy behind colored marshmallows and the Taco Bell hot sauces. It's true (and quite impressive)! What a fun thing to design, especially with my love of 1950s better living through chemistry. This was one of my final three designs that didn't end up getting used. It really turned out rather well...

47 Reasons I Didn't Become A Cartoonist: Part 9

Do-over

Sometimes I had the good sense to revisit an idea. Interesting to see the improvement in draftsmanship.

SHAKEY'S Pizza Parlor. *sigh* Another fine bit of comedy struck down in the prime of life by a simple spelling error.

Multiple gags, silly incorporated signature, bodily functions...this one's got everything!

A lightly anthropomorphized first stage of a Saturn 5 rocket. Where's the human drama?

Ah! There it is. And look! I've evolved into using word balloons! Interesting that in this one I included all the letters of "Saturn V" on the side, whereas in the first one, the S and part of the A ran off the top. Maybe I had to explain it too many times.

The Posies Archies style t-shirt

Today I decided to poke my head in over at http://www.theposies.net...and I got quite a surprise:

Archies Shirts Are Back

First off, to whoever added to the comments that I was the original designer...a big THANK YOU! Tomorrow I'll be going through my top 5 likely candidates and see if I can ferret them out. :)

But I digress. Some of you may know that waaaaaaaay back in 1995 I designed the original shirt. I really wish that someone had contacted me to do the update...but I can actually lay a little of the blame on myself. This site also did a reproduction of the original shirt back in January. I came across it in February after the order period was up (I really wanted to order one! I've got a few, but they don't fit!). But I never got off my ass and dropped them a line. A situation I've rectified this time around. I might even drag out some sketches and photos from the production to share.

If you'd like to see my original, you'll find a copy of it in my portfolio.

Here's a head swelling thing I came across during all this: The shirts are now all around the world. 10 years and people are still excited about this design. That really made my day.

My first game work released!

I really like my job. I got to design a set of icons and new color scheme for Autumn Bejeweled. It's a special skin for one of our most popular games, Bejeweled. It was a lot of fun and a real rush to play a game where I designed the pieces! One thing I learned; if it's going to end up in Flash, building in Illustrator is a waste of time. You can bring the shapes from Illustrator to Flash, but you lose all of your gradients (and alpha effects too, I think). Plus, I've found that drawing in Flash works well with my style.

47 Reasons I Didn't Become A Cartoonist: Part 8

War...nuclear or otherwise

I find it a bit sad that my 10 year old self had to deal with these issues. I blame "The Day After".

Understatement of the century. But why is H in quotations? Does it stand for something other than hydrogen? Happy, hilarity, hair, hussy, hotdog, horny, hippy, horse, house, Hitler, heart, hymen, hydrangea, hyper-keratosis...oh now I'm just getting silly. :P

Now that the pesky surface dwellers and their dessicated land masses are gone the kingdom of Atlantis will rule the planet!

They want to shoot our flag out of a cannon? Perhaps I should have thought about this one a bit more. Let's just pretend it's the Ayatollah Khomeini wiping his ass with the flag so we can all have a good chuckle.

I like technology

Lee got a camera phone. This is now what he sees whenever I call him. I should call him a lot.

Angie says this should be the cover for Odd Music for Odd People 3...and I'm inclined to agree.