The Wonder of it All

Conventions aren't really my thing but since there's one breaking out right under my nose, you might see me at WonderCon this weekend in San Francisco lurking behind or around the Cartoon Art Museum table (824) and/or the National Cartoonists Society table (719). In case you have trouble recognizing me, I'll be the only one there not dressed in some sort of superhero costume. Please be sure to drop by and say "hi" and get a free rabbit sketch.

The Curmudgeon Bump

Here's the graphic that I see when I check my website stats. I usually get about 2000 - 4000 hits a day (most of which I presume are from search engines, web crawlers and other automated internet surf creatures). However, as you can see it took quite a spike the day I appeared on the Comics Curmudgeon. My previous high (Feb 2nd, when I launched on GoComics) is a mere blip compared to the K2 of yesterday, a 9,882.35% increase. Thanks Josh! Your check is in the mail.

The Rake's Progress

Some people didn't get this one at first when it ran a few weeks ago. You have to look carefully at Eightball's rake since it adopts an optical illusion known as a blivet (or Devil's Tuning Fork). This usually has only three prongs so it was extra difficult to work out how to do it with six since one of the lines cannot be attached.

Foobishness

I'm a huge fan of the Comic Curmudgeon, a fabulous daily commentary by Josh Fruhlinger who uses wonderfully ironic dry humor to mock the comic strips that deep down you know he truly loves. Today in the Comics Curmudgeon my strip was featured. Hardly surprising when you see the blatant product placement. Josh has been killed off in several comic strips before so I hope he doesn't take it personally.

Telling Tales

I'm honored to be featured on an upcoming episode (# 15 I believe) of the most excellent Tall Tale Radio. Listen out for exclusive details on why I use rocks to grind my own ink and how I eat great works of fiction in the name of performance art. Since it won't be posted for a few days, you could always check out the current episode with Charley & Company creator Mike Sieber or any of the other archived shows. Host Tom Racine, an accomplished cartoonist himself, does an excellent job.

Resident's Day

Here's the other "introduction" strip I did (see previous post) and also one of the rare Rabbits strips that has a human in. My original overall concept for the strip was to have the magician's top hat as a kind of portal that the rabbits could pass through. When they were inside the hat they would be able to talk and do the usual comic strip type antics but when they emerged into the real world on the other side of the brim, the drawing style was going to change to be a more realistic, black and white style and the animals would be mute. After drawing a couple of roughs I decided that wasn't going to work at all for a comic strip although it still sounds intriguing. Maybe for the graphic novel.

The Origin of Species

Since we are celebrating the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin today I thought it would be appropriate to run this "origin" strip of Rabbits Against Magic. This is not the actual first strip chronologically but I drew it to be inserted near the beginning of the timeline should it ever appear in print. Notice the "Dove for Peace" sign in the background of the first panel.

You can have the whole world in your hand

I'm very excited about the future of comic strips on hand held devices, especially with the news that the uClick/GoComics reader application is currently the number one ranked top app on the iPhone. Here you can see Rabbits Against Magic on a new G1 Googlephone. The dimensions and colors of most comic strips seem to fit really nicely on the screen and are very readable making it perfect for flipping through comics on the go. I think this sort of gadgetry could really save the comic strip as the newspaper market sadly diminishes.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

I had fun with this Sunday strip thinking up all the book titles with numbers in the titles. It was also the first Sunday strip (and so far only) with the "traditional" panel layout that can be re-ordered to fill different configurations on the page with the so-called "throw away" panels included. That's the name for the top row that is usually not used, especially these days when space in newspapers is at a premium. I think I might have done it wrong though this time. Oh well.

Fetch

Here's another of the mysterious pet dog series I mention in an earlier post. It's a different dog than the green one. Maybe Eightball is working part-time as a dog walker. One of the good things about having the word "magic" in the title of your strip is that you don't really have to explain anything that falls outside of the usual boundaries of reality.

Giff-tickle

The uber-talented Justin Thompson has introduced a new character to his Mythtickle strip this week. It's a baby griffin called Giff which is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Justin's strip is possibly the best drawn strip currently running. Justin is also host of the essential podcast Comics Coast to Coast (a.k.a. CC2C) My sincere apologies to Justin for the way I rendered his new character in the "tribute" above.

In Living Color

This is an odd strip because it only works in color. I'm not sure where Eightball got the dog from.

Universal Thanks

A quick shout out to another wonderful blog, lovingly updated by the legendary John Glynn (and some of the other editors) at Universal Press Syndicate--and not just because he gave a plug to Rabbits Against Magic today. The blog is a rare and fascinating look inside the workings of a major US cartoon syndicate. John is a LOL amusing writer as well as having an obvious eye for major talent :-)

Rabbits in the Sandbox

Tony Medeiros over at the great Sandbox World blog was kind enough to do a mini review of Rabbits Against Magic on his excellent cartooning/comics/animation blog Sandbox World. It's a wonderful blog that not only has interesting newsy items but also some useful tips.

Heads Up!

Starting on Monday my strip will be moving from Comics Sherpa to the GoComics site which is thrilling news. I'm quite sad to be leaving Sherpa however since it has served me well while I got my footing. Now, exactly 276 strips later I'll be rubbing shoulders with Garfield, Bloom County, Doonesbury, Calvin, Hobbes and the rest of the Universal Press Syndicate stable. I created an extra strip to run exclusively on Sherpa during the transition (don't hold your breath) plus some spot illustrations for the announcement (see above).