XXX Rabbits

This is a really early (and previously unseen) Rabbits strip that I didn't run on Sherpa because it seemed a bit risque (and not that funny). In case you can't make out the box it's Parcheesi.

Shiny Shoes

Since I always wear a stout practical pair of walking shoes when I travel, I usually end up at some point getting my shoes shined, which is not only a good way to keep up appearances but also an excellent way to interact with the locals. Many famous people were once shoeshine boys including the Godfather of Soul James Brown, influential African American Malcolm X, shamed Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and current Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Super Shoeshine Fact: In La Paz, the capitol of Bolivia it's considered so shameful to be seen shining the shoes of a stranger for a living that most shoe shiners wear heavy masks so they can't be recognized.

Roll Over Rover Let Clover Take Over

I really liked the way in this strip that Trixie finally managed to get some sort of pleasure from interacting with Weenus.

No Cows and a Giant Chicken

When I first showed this to my editor, it was in black and white and he didn't understand it at all.

Lopes

This jackalope strip ran last week and by pure coincidence Steve Skelton over at 2 Cows and a Chicken ran a frogalope strip a few days later. As one person on GoComics pointed out, the jackalope tradition is alive and well in the desert southwest. The jackalope is also called an antelabbit, aunt benny, Rabbicorn, Wyoming thistled hare or stagbunny.

Curious Searching

One of the many statistics you can get for your website is the "search query report". He's a sampling of phrases that people type into their search engines and end up at my site. I spend many sleepless night agonizing at the disappointment that they must experience.

magic rabbits
how to draw a bicycle
everything to know about rabbits
rabbits biography
rabbit sex
cartoon pencil feet
sissy boy cartoons
sketch
freaky pictures
lettering
voluntary euthanasia free cartoon
comic strips with three boxes
how to draw tikis
pollution
tyranny
stick it in

Hat Loading

This is a small ad from a 1960s magic catalog. This is the "professional" version. I'd hate to seethe amateur model. If I was referred to as a "living load" I'd be against magic as well.

Action Toupee

This strip could easily have been a three panel strip using frames 1, 3 and 5 but I flushed it out to a Sunday size because I thought it was too obvious and wanted to add the clapperboard joke at the end. One day, when this strip is reproduced at a larger size in a Rabbits Against Magic book collection you will be able to fully appreciate the full range of duck hairstyles in the poster on the back wall of panel 4. I recently discovered that the red stripe on the barber pole sign actually represents blood from the time when barbers used to do minor surgery. And who says things were better back in the good ol' days?

Less vs. Fewer

Anyone who shops at Rainbow Foods in San Francisco will recognize these checkouts. I do often catch myself counting the items in the basket of the person in front of me even though the chances of me saying anything are exactly zip. Is that normal?

Fooling Around

This was my April 1st strip. Among the jokes and gags on the ground are a whoopie cushion, a finger trap, black soap, itching powder, invisible dog collar, chattering false teeth, black eye telescope, a jumping spider, googly eyes, a hand buzzer and vampire fangs. Lio would have had a field day with this stuff.

A Fish in Sea

If you only have one eye, you wouldn't be able to stand a 3D movie for very long. I drew this Sunday strip shortly after seeing the stunning Pixar 3D movie, Coraline. It sort of reminds me of when Toto looks behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. All the props on the shelves are actual items that popped out of the screen in other 3D movies.

You Are the Comics Editor

Often, when people find out that I draw a comic strip I end up in a heated debate with them which usually turns into me having to defend the medium, in particular the lineup in our local newspaper the San Francisco Chronicle. Most people it seems don't seem to understand that the selection needs to appeal to a broad demographic and can't just be the editors favorite strips. It can't be an easy job. Personally I think the Chronicle has it about 70% right which is more than most.

So here, for the record is the line up of the 20 strips in no particular order that I would pick if I was the paid comics editor for a major metropolitan daily newspaper. Strips only, no panels. It in no way reflects my own personal favorites! (which you can see in the list on the right).

Doonesbury - A no-brainer. One of the most intelligent and greatest strips ever.

Cul-De-Sac - Currently the most interesting strip in terms of complex characters and tapping into that non-gag type Seinfeld humor.

Get Fuzzy - Always great to see a strip pushing the envelope with great writing as well as great art.

Lio - It's dark. It's wordless. It's fabulous to see in so many newspapers.

Pearls Before Swine - Just too funny to leave out of any comics page.

Dilbert - Scott Adams is on autopilot these days but still churns out a consistently high product.

Zits - The best of the crop of "family" strips. although for the record I thought The Norm (RIP) was better.

Bizarro - Consistently quirky and, well, bizarre.

Non Sequitur - It's great to see Wiley run riot in his little space.

Pooch Cafe - Okay, it's Canadian but it's no "For Better or For Worse".

Candorville - Sometimes Darrin Bell strays into nerdiness with his vampire and Star Trek references but his political strips were a happy replacement for The Boondocks when Aaron McGruder packed it in.

Luann - Somehow it always manages to grasp its way out of mediocrity to remain interesting.

Mutts - So well drawn that the artwork trumps the banality of the writing.

La Cucaracha - This is a better strip than most people give it credit for. It's provocative as well as having characters you care for.

Sally Forth - Francesco Marciuliano has done a really great job of writing this strip back into relevancy.

The Duplex - One for the conservatives.

Baby Blues - They sell a lot of books and get away with jokes about squirting breast milk.

Garfield - It kills me to include this but kids love it and it's gotten better since Jon got a girlfriend.

Zippy the Pinhead - In a just and fair world, Zippy would be more popular than Mickey Mouse and parents would take their kids to Griffyworld.

Over the Hedge - Just because Pogo's gone and everyone likes anthropomorphic animals.

Artsy Fartsy

The text in the first bubble is a word for word transcript I overheard from an actual art museum docent (I'm not kidding). The strip was then sketched and inked in the cafe area of the same gallery. These are the lengths I go to in order to bring you the originality and authenticity you can expect from this strip.

Vintage Spiderplant

Direct from 1985, a full 23 years before Robert the Plant, comes this crappy old strip I drew back in art school. All the strips were basically the same..... three panels of complaining plant and then the final panel showing some unexpected consequence. He was supposed to be the plant version of Peter Parker but I never got as far as giving him any super powers. Apparently spider plants are native to South Africa. Who knew!

The Mad Reader

I blatantly ripped off the "tired, run down and logy" line from the early issues of Mad magazine which remain to this day a huge influence on me. Notice that the carpeting came back for this strip, just so you can tell they're in an attic (or maybe it's a basement) in the last panel. Also, the ghost of the globe that was destroyed by a dart at the end of 2008 makes a guest appearance.

Madcap

This is a game I used to play a lot with chums after a few libations. The incident above actually occurred although the resulting famous person in that case was Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. I changed it to Preston Sturges just because I'm a huge fan.