3 Takeaways from November

What was I thinking when I did some of this stuff? Well, almost as important is what do I think of it now, too.

Key takeaways
- multiple panels can aid comedic timing. Don't restrict yourself to only single-panel comics.
- give yourself the space for artistic expression. You need space to tell your story.
- hand lettering can give you the specific intonation in each word and letter, leading to a more specific reading of your text.

Here's the rough work before I went on to finalize them, and you can see it was still back when I was just folding a page into four squares and restricting the work to the size of a quarter page. I've moved on from this and think it's going to rememdy some of my observations on past "work."

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Holy Guacamole was an indecisive spinoff of the silly things Robin used to say to Adam West's Batman. No particular gag was especially poignant when I was writing it, but it was easy to come up with a few different punchlines to hopefully make it worth the visit to read them?

No, it wasn't very timely, but I thinkthe artwork matched the original title sequence on the television show. The framing worked out well, too. The concept of finding a moment when these expressions would be a fitting pun for Robin to use was the basis --perhaps there was something more creative to be done? Now I'm second-guessing myself.

I really liked this joke, but it didn't get the response I thought it might. I guess so long as I'm happy with it - - validation is nice, too, though.

Ahead of Schedule is kind of based on a conversation I had with another couple at a wedding a few weeks ago. They have two kids, one about the same age as our first, and we were just commenting on how "busy" our kids are before they're even two. We figured they reached the Terrible Twos early -- though I believe the consensus was:

"If you think THIS is bad now, just wait another eight months and you'll be WISHING he was only 21 months old again."

I feel like I should comment on each joke, but I don't really have much to say about Work Those Gluts. I think the punchline "Soon you'll be able to rip a phonebook in half with your ASS" has great potential to be delivered with great effect, but I'm not sure it was captured here.

This might have been achieved with a few more panels building up to the punchline? I'm interested in doing fewer single-panel jokes - - telling a joke requires timing, and a single panel is very limiting, even if they're much quicker to produce.

Finally, Nice of You to Join Us is another example of a joke I personally enjoyed a lot, but may not have translated to the masses with much effect.

First of all, I think it was a lot of fun to conceive how Beard-o might cope without his beloved ducks. Obviously it would lead to substance abuse - - and that's how this whole story arc developed. Drinking toilet duck and having a stupid hallucination was a fun idea, and being able to draw King St. from a completely different prespective (a bird's-eye view) was intriguing as well. Plus, it set up nicely into the payoff at the end of the arc.

I'm still struggling to get the lettering and the word-balloons to look the way I think they should. By using larger panels when I'm creating the gags (though this is before I started doing that) I've got more space to write the letters by hand, rather than relying on the word processer to do the work for me. I think hand-drawn letters is more the style I'm going for - though don't expect that to happen for a few more weeks, as other items in my production schedule are coming up.

Anyhow, thanks for reading. If you've got any questions about how things are going / coming along, drop me a line.

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Short Cuts and Execution

Sometimes I go through a stretch where you look back at what you've done, and you're not entirely proud of it ... and this pasta joke is one of them. Definitely an err in judgement.

While it's funny when it happens to someone else, it's hardly a well-written joke. And it wasn't especially well drawn, nor was it particularly well coloured, and no gag was written along with it to add any special value. So there's another lesson learned. Here's how it turned out.

Seems that lately there's been more "lessons learned" than things I'm proud of.... 

As for drinking toilet duck, this story arc just wrapped up on the main blog and I think it covered all the bases I wanted to cover. Towards the end of the arc, the artwork and framing really improved. At this point I was still simply drawing elements of a panel and them assembling them digitally - - whereas I think a cleaner panel is created when you do it all on the page. Adding extra elements might be "easier" digitally, but it looks like you took a shortcut. You can see how these elements came together in the final strip here.

Obviously, skipping any setting or background made this look rushed and incomplete. When I speak of "lessons learned," I guess what I'm hoping is that I won't repeat the same mistakes as in the past.

I've taken some steps to eliminate those "shortcuts," and I think it's paying off, but, of course, it means things are taking a bit more time, too.

Business Man @ Home is designed to be a whole lot simpler, though. One panel, one frame, one line of dialogue, minimal setting - - and I think it works as a motif, but ... I think people are losing their lust for the strip, though. In any case, I think the minimalist structure and the trope on "Crying Over Spilled Milk" worked well for this gag, and you can see how it turned out here.

Most of these strips were drawn back in October at some point, and I've since taken some corrections to give myself more space to build a panelled comic. I'm not just folding a sheet of paper into quarters and building a strip from there. I'm taking more time to use the space more effectively and add more detail to the images - - I think it's been working out, but we'll have to wait and see as those strips start appearing on the main site.

Something I've been looking to improve are the "brush strokes" in the comics. Frankly, none of these have the "swishing" strokes you find in clean, more professional-looking strips - - and I'm not sure I've got the correct hardware to create those lines. I MAY have to get nibs and actual ink and stuff, rather than the pigment liners I've been using.

If that happens, that'll be a whole different kettle of fish to unpack, set up, practice and keep out of the reach of my 2-year-old :S

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom! I hardly even proof-read these posts all the way down here!

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Boogers, Sorcery, Bidets and Shitty Diapers

My Jack-o-lanterns are from "The Shining" this year

If there were ever a series of gags worthy of my Definitely Classy banner, this was it.

Snot rockets (the horrible locker-room scene good men suffer through while someone on the ball diamond has to clear his nose, .... .uggh.  The joke wasn't hilarious, but it was something I had to get off my chest, I suppose.

Caveman Inventor is a personal favourite, and that was before it became one of my most successfully received strips. It went over so well I have wanted to revisit the characters and their world and see what I can do to explore their world a little more in depth. Cavemen have been a source of comic ideas for a long time, but ... perhaps there's something there I could devine from it that hasn't been seen before.

It's certainly appealing and I'd be very pleased to do more on it. I think there's a great source of humour to be found in juxtaposing high-end concepts and primitive neandrathals at once. I'll have to wait and see what comes out of it.

Vivace Bidet Pruzzo was another joke I was eager to get out of my notes - - however, it wasn't received as well as I feel it deserved. Shortly after I came up with this idea, there were commercials about ass wetnaps which were advertized on network television, although the only thing I can link to is something promoted on the Howard Stern show, called One Wipe Charlies.

MY idea is way more funny and I especially felt designing it like a Toilet Duck bottle was even better - - nobody agreed :(

"I Stink At Financing" is taken to another level in Business Man @ Home, too - - I guess this was just an extsrapolation of that concept, put into "At-Home Dad" terms. Nothing too hilarious, I agree.

Anyhow, thanks for reading, and if you ever have any questions about the strips, just drop me a line.

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Business Man @ Home

Something I learned that derived from my expansion in the Twitterverse is something I'd noticed for a while, but never really took the time to investigate. Reddit.

I knew OF it, but didn't know what it meant to me, or any of these dumb strips -- but I did notice that on "publishing dates," people I follow on Twitter were very vocal about "Up voting" their work. It seemed like a certain coterie of them were heavily involved on the Reddit site, and I perked an ear to the idea.

Just this week I went to the site, set up an account, and searched around just a little. I posted about three items onto the www.reddit.com/r/webcomics page and before too long I had, believe this, like tripled my regular traffic.Which is definitely impressive - - plus, commenting and feedback seem to flow much more fluidly on Reddit than on a blog or website page.

So it's been an interesting journey to see how content reacts to being in a space where people specifically go to share and view and comment on webcomics.

Here are some of the rough "before" drafts of some of the recent Business Man @ Home strips:

On a related note, it's opened my eyes to the possibilities of sharing some of the more "Business related" strips I've had (specifically business man @ home) on the LinkedIN feed, as well. As far as the tracking is concerned, the first topic I posted received 20 views and the next about 11, so there's another bunch of eyeballs that weren't checking them out before, too.

Better Offer
The art of the sales pitch / negotiations. I wish I was in the "negotiating" phase with my toddler. He's not speaking or really listening yet, so you still have to just go with the flow and do whatever you can to satisfy is wants (which you'd do cheefully, except for when he "wants" to lift the cat up by her hair, or climb shelves or go for a 25-minute walk every hour, on the hour).

I'd imagine this'd be a wasted skill on a At-home dad, if they were a CBA pro.

Social Media Campaign
This is a nod to my old job where there was a recurring interest to get more involved in social media and creating campaigns with the content we were producing. Successful social media campaigns are often random, unexpected and fickle beings, and most of the time we were just eager to sharpen our skills to get another one going.

I just imagine that business man would miss the excitement of sharing new developments with followers, and would likely be eager to jump back into the online milieu. 

Profits
Hey, running a business is hard. You've got to scrape together everything you've got to turn a profit, and digging through couch cushions would be a great way to add a little coushioning to the balance sheet.

Climbing the Corporate Footstool
This was intended to be a "climbing the corporate ladder" gag, but ... I don't think it realized the concept's full potential. In any case, damned toddlers will climb ANYTHING!

As always, if you have any questions or comments on what's up with any of the Capers, Chickens, Business Men or Advice, drop me a line and I'll be happy to answer your questions.

Thanks for reading. 

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Don't Bother Painting That Beautiful Fresh Snowfall

In our cozy little town, once in a while, the local-artist community has a bit of a neighbourhood tour, where they'll put their art in their garages and have interested shoppers/art supporters visit (and of course they cross their fingers hoping somebody, ANYBODY, will buy something).

There are some terrific artists around here and there is plenty of inspiration to be found in town; beautiful wildlife, incredible sunrises, fluffy and colourful bushes, flowers, waterways and quaint streets/shops that are an artists' dream to capture on canvas.

So, when one of the neighbours down the street had a sign at the end of his driveway indicating he was on the tour, my wife and I strolled over and snooped through his garage to check his work out. There were some great paintings for sure, but my favourites are the winterscapes. They're serene and subtle, there's something peaceful about the undisturbed snow during a sunrise. Plus, depending on the medium, the texture of paint on canvas lends itself so nicely to the shape and texture of snow on an evergreen's branches.

I asked the painter/neighbour why he didn't do more winterscapes, because they were so beautiful - - and he responded quickly, as if he'd done one too many winterscapes already, by saying "Nobody buys them."

And there it was, the corruption of commercialism in the face of artistry. To think you'd be stymied from artistically expressing yourself because not enough people would agree with you to make it worth while? Now THAT'S an artist, am I right!?

That's obviously the inspiration behind Studio Lesson:
(I also liked the painting the painter is working on - - giving hate the middle finger :)

Safety Citation
I see my kid climbing all over everything, and of course health and safety are important facets of any good business. This is one of my favourtie Business Man comics so far!

Stilt Merchants
As for SIRI on Beard-o's SmartPhone, I like that there's a poor, minimalist v. consumerism debate going on between the two - - however subtle/nonexistent. I guess what I'm saying is I'd LIKE there to be more of a philosophical struggle between SIRI and Beard-o (as would be inspired by Bill Watterson's work with Calvin & Hobbes). We'll see what the future holds in store. Most importantly about this comic, is how much these characters despise each other, yet still stand across the street and face off every single day.

Opa!
I'd been sitting on this joke for ages, obviously the Greek debt crisis is OLD news, but the joke finally made the list of comics to write. So here it is!

In 1904 Parents Washed Out Your Mouth With What!?

I've always wondered why Dr. Seuss had to take such liberties with the "English" language to get his rhymes -- and it bothered me. He was just being silly, but I thought it was a little unfair that he could make words up to make his stories flow.

Now that I've read many of his stories over again with our little one I realize that what appeared so inane not long ago, is a terrific teaching aid for anyone who's learning to read. The similarities and differences between words really illustrates the phonics and graphics of a word -- which will be really handy when our first born starts to read on his own (and before that with our help, of course).

BUT all of that said, there's GOT to be some reason Seuss turned to this beyond the pure pedagogic intentions. My best guess is that children from 1904 were raised by parents who washed his mouth out with something a whole lot worse than soap. If Seuss had to enter into some Jewish version of Pig Latin to express himself, it must have been awful. Something that could only be conceived by the mind of a German beer-maker who lost his brewery due to prohibition.

When your father immigrates to New England to live out his dream to be a successful German brewer to only have the Yankees enter into prohibition, I'll BET you learn some interesting words around the house, too.

Without further ado, here are some other thoughts on some of the latest comics we've had up on Spring Chickens.

Way Down There
The stilts were an idea I came up with to introduce a new character to King St. - - someone who was a bother to me LONG before I met Mr. Minestrone or Beardo. He just lived over on Parkhill so I never really made the connection between him and King St.

I thought, what could be the wackiest setup I could think of, which I could have interrupted by this new character? Beardo on stilts seemed like a good fit. However, I liked the idea so much, that I thought of a couple ways it could pay off - - so you can expect some more stilts in the future on King St.

Gogh for It
A friend on Facebook made a status update "I could cut my ear off" and my immediate response was "Gogh for it!" but .... I didn't write it. He seemed in genuine anguish and I didn't feel like leaving graphic evidence that I'm a big jerk. I mean, I AM a big jerk, but leaving proof for everyone to see isn't my style.

But believe me, when I read your Facebook status, my immediate and default response is pure "Jerk."

(And yes, I did fashion the anguished guy off of Ernie from Sesame Street ... )

Employee Ownership
My biggest concern about employee ownership is the divestment of ownership after you no longer want to have it - - I mean, who buys this stuff from you?

And what happens when you own part of a business, like a German start-up brewery, and then the States institute prohibition again - - how do you get your money out of it THEN? You lose your job and all your investments, too -- yikes.

I'm not against Employee Ownership, I just wonder how you'd ever leave or retire. Or what to do with all that unsold home-brew left over. Would you use it to wash your kid's mouth out when he swears around the house, obviously leading to a whole new insane world of Zizzer Zazzer Zuzzs, Gecks and Wumps?

Kate Middleton, Office Space and Complete Disasters

I make a lot of illogical connections in my head - - and I've made some exceptionally loose connections between my characters and things like Hurricane Katrina, the Duchess of Cambridge, Ron Livingstone in Office Space and my cat Indiana Jones, to make a few more jokes .

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FEMA Response, Feline Contempt, Cover Letters and Ship Christenings

Some more behind-the-scenes stuff on a few comics - - the latest of which is FEMA Response in the King St. Capers. I'm far ahead with the Capers, and I usually have the art complete more than a month before it's published, whereas the other comics are usually only a few weeks ahead of time.

What happens when I'm ahead like this, I feel like a comic is "old news" by the time it goes live, whereas it's still sitting scheduled and ready to go. It's kind of weird.

FEMA Response is the comic I was alluding to in an earlier post when I'd jotted down the idea while working on an earlier comic.

As for Feline Contempt, the idea originated from my own cat, of course. Indiana Jones always seems to upset that she's not being fed enough, when of course, she has plenty kibble, but would prefer her wet food. She can be bothersome (I don't like having a wet nose rubbed all over me. It's like I'm being painted with a highlighter).

Anyhow, she just had this impression like she was so full of contempt, but of course was helpless to serve her own wet food. This joke was just a snapshot into a grouchy cat's mind. And, no doubt, I'm sure you'd recognize the cat's design to resemble "Grouchy Cat," too.

The Business Man @ Home joke was a bit of a takeoff on Office Space and the classic dialogue surrounding the new coverletters we're putting on each of the TPS reports now. Didn't you get that memo?

I can't imagine any office-themed joke goes very far before it flutters upon the "memo gag." And of course, this is the second post in this series, and here we are. For the record, I didn't draw the child's art - - I cut and paste it from a Google search.

The final product didn't mention the "memo" or "TPS Reports" or anything like that, but the joke is firmly rooted in an homage to Office Space.

The last joke on here was "Ship Christening," which is sort of a personal favourite. My wife and I were watching the news and the Duchess of Cambridge was christening the Nebuchanezzer in June. I laughed at what a waste it was to bother shattering a bottle of champagne, and the first thing to come out of my mouth was basically this joke as you see it.

I thought it was funny, anyhow. In my "research" to get this comic done, I took pointers from this image.

Those poor champagne-less kids in Africa, right?

Anyhow, there's a little insight into the goings-on of where some of these jokes come from. No doubt, joking around with my wife is a great source of inspiration - - and she's come up with a classic idea or two in her time, which I'll credit gratefully when the time comes to publishing them.

Thanks for reading, and if there are absolutely any questions about any of these series, ask away, and I'll answer them as best as I can. 

Concept Art | Business Man @ Home

Behind the Scenes of creating the new series, Business Man @ Home

The Premise: "Business Man @ Home" is a cathartic exploration regarding how toddlers are absolutely vacant of any professionalism whatsoever.

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Here are some of the thoughts I had on designing this new series.

So here is some of the concept art I threw together when I was thinking up what I wanted Business Man @ Home to look like. To keep it simple (read, fast to make) I wanted to retain a real minimalist appearance, and not get too bogged down with backgrounds and things like that.

In my head, I had "Herman" in mind, and jotted down Jim Unger's name. By that I mean, a single-paneled gag without too much attention to the background. Like this:

Herman is so funny!

I took a little time to draft up the Header for the comic, too - - which I felt would be neat if it resembled a corporate ID badge, similar to this:

The bar code, picture and details are featured in the header.

And the design for the main character was meant to imply a very menial job, but one that has to be taken seriously, anyhow. Maybe it's in sales or whatever, or "account managers" but I really wanted to make the characters look like that dude from the Men's Room door.

But of course, he must appear more "professional," so he has a jacket and tie to go along with it. Of course!

I hope you like it!

In a way, there are some similarities with Bill Taylor's Cautionary Tales that embraced a "caution sign" aesthetic to tell its jokes. I hope this can be half as interesting as what he has accomplished.

Anyhow, if you ever have any questions, feel free to ask - - I'd be happy to respond. 

I Plagiarized a Joke From My Cat

I plagiarized a joke from my cat - - just another insight into the makings of some of these stupid jokes. I'll tell you more about the cat's joke in a sec.

First, here are a few more behind-the-scenes glimpses into the making of the King St. Capers and other terrible comic series.

Once again, this sneak-peek reveals my hopes to be efficient is drawing four comics on a single page, which keeps the images small, the resources small (fewer sheets of paper to sort) and the images small when I go to add colour in the final steps.

Plus, it saves on scanning multiple images, too. It's one sheet of paper, slipped into the scanner, and presto. Sort of.

Great Idea, Quarterly Review, Cat Sniffs, and Failed Bumper Sticker.

So, here you see the hilarious Caper that I've not released yet. There's no caption on the image, so you'll just have to wonder what on earth might be being said in that panel. Also, an illegible note for ANOTHER Caper idea is just sitting there on the page, but you can't read it!

So TWO Capers are potentially being spoiled early, but I trust they'll still be a bit of a surprise when they're finally released. Stay tuned.

Also on the page are three other comics which have all been posted now. I'm most excited to introduce "Business Man @ Home," which is a new series that's serving as catharsis in my continued observation of how a one-year-old is lacking any professionalism whatsoever.

I took a little time to do some product development, and drafted up a fun banner to include on each strip, and I hope people will enjoy it. I think there's plenty of material to continue the series for a while, plus they're quick and easy to execute, which is imperative!

Next is Most Interesting Thing in the Room, starring my cat Indy. She's been the artistic template I've used to create this cat. She also basically wrote this joke. Indy has discovered that my armpits quickly become a crack-heroine version of catnip to her, and she wants to rub, snuggle, scratch and claw at them whenever she can. It tickles.

Lastly, was just a dumb bumper-sticker idea I figured would be terrible. That's how my sense of humour/mind works, it flawlessly takes information and then finds the worst possible scenario that would create the most intolerant and awful outcomes ever, because for some reason I think that's funny.

It's never a constructive thought. It's never a positive thought. It's without fail, always the worst thing possible  - - and then I laugh to myself, and people ask me: What? And then I've got to change the subject instead of reveal my awful thoughts.

I figure one of the nastiest practical jokes you could play on someone would be to take a really offensive or dangerous bumper sticker and put it on someone else's car. Who knows how long they'd be driving around getting dirty looks and being identified with whatever dumb thing you've written on their car?

Hilarious, right? That and emptying a hot deep fryer on the hood of someone's car. I imagine that'd be pretty crazy, too.

I hate drawing cars, so I just stuck the sticker onto an existing image of a car. Man I hate drawing cars.