Freshie The Acrobatic Rabbit

Capable of 1000 stunts. Count 'em! Some assembly required.  Via Grotto.

Ups and Downs

I tried something a bit different on Sunday.  Sort of a Möbeus comic strip if you will, although the great Jim Woodring did an actual one here.

Endless Paper Ribbons Against Magic

Much more thrilling than yanking a white rabbit out by the ears.  From Mostly Forbidden Zone.

Child 32 4338

This child has managed to unsee the horror.  Apparently the nose tweak is the "pulling Santa's beard" test for Easter Bunnies.  Via the always fabulous Grotto Orloff's Pad! blog.

The Rabbit with Gangrenous Eyes

One more in the freaky-bizarre-evil-Easter-Bunny-from-beyond-Hell-with-crying-child series.

Bambi Goes Crazy Ape Bonkers With Drill and Sex!!!

Toxic Dump Weenus

Weenus makes a guest appearance in today's Imagine This strip.  What a great honor.  Thanks Lucas.

I'm Going APE!

Amazingly, it's already time for this years Alternative Press Expo which, as always, takes place at the Concourse Center in San Francisco, conveniently only a few short blocks from the old homestead. I will be there both days, primarily at the Cartoon Art Museum booth (#239) although on Sunday at 1PM I will be teaching a short workshop on "Developing A Comic Strip".  There's a whole bunch of fun events as well as actual famous guest cartoonists including personal heroes Lynda Barry, Dan Clowes and Tony Millionaire.  I may have to take a spare pair of trousers.  It's alway a wonderful event and it's so big tis year they had to move it to the bigger hall.  Hope to see you there.

Half a Dog

With several hundred dog breeds to choose from, both Scott Hilburn and I chose Cocker Spaniels for our strips today.

You can se more of Scott's amazingly funny Argyle Sweater comics here.

Tom Waits Against Magic

Rabbits reader Minky Moo pointed out that my strip last month was actually made as a real life Tom Waits video.  Art imitates art! I'm a huge Tom Waits fan (in particular everything since the 1983 Swordfishtrombones album) but hadn't seen the video which is from his hard to find "live" movie "Big Time".  Classic stuff.

This isn't the first time I've run a "singing in the shower" joke.  Weenus serenaded Trixie way back in the heady days of April.

Cartoon Speakeasy

A friend of mine rents out apartments in San Francisco and frequently comes across odd and quirky little buildings. Recently he alerted me to this gem of a basement which was used as a speakeasy during the prohibition years which ran from 1920 to 1933 when the eighteenth amendment was repealed.  It's under this pretty respectable looking Victorian house up towards Twin Peaks.

This tiny basement is decorated with the popular cartoons of the day including Barney Google and Popeye.

You can see some buttons on the front of the sink here which would be used to communicate with the house upstairs in the event of trouble.  Speakeasy's were also called Blind Pigs.  This was a way of circumnavigating the law by offering the viewing of an attraction such as a curious animals (Greenland pigs were popular for some reason) during which a complimentary cocktail could be offered, thus circumnavigating the law.

A lot of the cartoons are signed by Doug Hale 1926.  Some of them are pretty risque, particularly this casting couch one.  Hubba hubba.

There is a handy slanted escape hatch at the back which leads into an alleyway behind the building and through to another street.

San Francisco was ground zero for bootlegging due to its coastal proximity and the hidden inlets around the bay which were used for running liquor.  There was also lax enforcement of the laws by sympathetic cops.

The ceiling was incredibly low.  I'm 6'1" tall and was unable to stand upright.  All the more reason to drink more and fall down I suppose.

There's a fascinating KQED radio show about prohibition in San Francisco here.

Dark Side of the Horse

A huge shout out for the new arrival on the GoComics pages, Dark Side of the Horse which is drawn by the super talented Finnish cartoonist Samuli Lintula who goes by the name Samson.  The strip started out in June 2008 when it was drawn on what appeared to be Post-it notes. Since then, Horace the horse and his sparsely surreal world have evolved into a beautifully rendered and spectacularly offbeat strip. I really can't say enough about it.  Everything from the bleak humor to the restrained use of colors really blows my socks off.  Since I'll be in Helsinki at some point next year I'm planning to stalk him.

Undercover

A most excellent image from the camera of NYT shutterbug  Stephen Crowley. Is there a photograph anywhere that couldn't be improved with the addition of someone in a rabbit costume?

Houdini's Magic

Never thought of Harry Houdini as a "rabbit-in-a-hat" type of magician.  More of an illusionist and escape artist.  However, he wasn't able to hide the Amoco Oil Company ads that appear throughout this little book from 1927.

Rabbits Against Chimp Sniffing

It's always funnier when you add a monkey.

Don't Blink

I don't know anything about this image or where it came from, but it's adorably cute and the pink rabbit-thingy does look a bit like Weenus.