iGoogle Comics Themes

New comics iGoogle themes available here! So many to choose from. I'm torn between Krazy Kat, Peanuts and Pearls Before Swine but there are so many others I may be switching every week.

Breaking the Fourth Wall

Since my strip isn't "reality" based I have occasionally broken the "fourth wall", the phrase that's used in comic strips when the characters become aware that they're just, well, characters in a comic strip. Previously they've looked over a fence to discover themselves, interacted with politicians and celebrated their own comic strip birthday. I think this one's my favorite.

Tall Tale Versus Retail

Some hot crossover action in today's Retail by Norm Feuti featuring, let's see, Toby, Robot Satan, Cory from Watch Your Head, Ralston Rabbit from Ink Pen, Leopold from Scary Gary, Lio, Alice from Cul-de-Sac and the entire Tall Tale Features cast of comic charcters. A quick plug for Gill which has sadly been put on a indefinite hiatus but you can buy a copy of "I'm not Retarded, I'm Just Big-Boned" here. 107 strips for just $10!

Ornithological Yahtzee

Yesterday I ran a Rabbits strip about jaywalking. Yes, a visual pun. It's not my best strip by a long way and it's an idea that's probably been done before.
Nonetheless, it was a surprise to see another jaywalking visual pun in today's Rhymes With Orange. Because daily cartoonists typically work several weeks in advance, it was obviously just a coincidence.
Then there's today's Knight Life.
Maybe it's National Jaywalking Week.

Lasso the Moon

This is an actual fact (about the digital info, not the phishing scam email collection) that I read in a scientific publication, although the statistic didn't specify if they are paperbacks or hardbacks. If the books were David Foster Wallace novels it wouldn't be that impressive at all.

Tales From Beanworld

This joke reminded me of documentary I saw years ago about how you can feed coffee beans to animals (in this case wolves) and collect them again after they have "passed through the digestive system". Apparently, that process is similar to roasting the beans. I don't think the FDA has approved that process here in the US although one might assume it could be marketed as a "green" technology since it uses much less energy. Or would that be "brown" technology?

Rough Rabbit Riders

This is maybe the earliest remaining evidence of the preliminary sketches I did when developing the Rabbits Against Magic strip. Eightball can be seen bottom left although he has evolved a bit since then. Weenus came a bit later.

Trickle Down Economics

Here's a cartoon I created for a non-profit in Mexico this week. It demonstrates why international aid rarely reaches the intended recipients.

Hooked on Homonyms

Here's my Sunday strip from this week:Amazingly, over at the Daily Ink, fellow Brit Piers Baker who draws one of my favorite strips, Ollie and Quentin ran this:Who would have fort it?

Guerrilla in the Midst

Here's some more follow up from the Allan McDonald detention. As I mentioned before, I lived in Honduras for two and a half years and spent many evenings hanging out with Allan at his house and in the El Paraiso Cafe in Tegucigalpa talking politics and cartooning. The situation in Honduras seems to show no signs of being resolved any time soon. Meanwhile, all the reports I hear are of extensive media blackouts and the distribution of emotive propaganda so no one inside the country has much idea of what's really going on.

Something Under the Bed is Drooling

I got a lot of comments about this being a sort of Lio tribute although when I drew it I was thinking more Calvin and Hobbes or Monsters Inc. Lio would undoubtedly have come up with some amusing way to make friends with them. Regardless, I had a lot of fun creating those monsters.

DMV

I haven't been to the DMV for years. It seems like you can do everything online these days except for the photo which here in California you only have to renew every ten years. Maybe it's not the crazy annoying bureaucratic hell of lines and forms it used to be. I was surprised when I pulled out my license to draw this cartoon that it actually says "Driver License" on it instead of "Driver's License". In fact, shouldn't it technically be "Driving" or "Drive" License? If ever run for govenor, there's my hot button issue platform right there.

Make a Fortune in the Comics!

Apparently the funnies you read every day back in 1933 brought $8 000 000 a year to a small group of 200 cartoonists. Sadly those glory days are long over. Still, it's worth checking out this vintage Modern Mechanix Magazine over at their fascinating and ambitious blog where they're apparently scanning in their entire output dating back to forever. My favorite line is how the depression era can bring big checks to cartoonists with new ideas. I wonder if that still works.

Thanks to Sherm at the always excellent Cartoon SNAP blog for the tip.

Alphabet Soup

I had a lot of fun with this list. Also, I don't think I'll ever get a chance to do a strip with the words "f-word", "g-spot", "x-rated" and "3-way" again.

Meanwhile back in the mundane world of daily comic strips

After posting this I was deluged with email pointing me to all sorts of real life examples of the fascinating act of book spine art. The results can look pretty spectacular although I bet it would be a hitch to find anything.

Cuarta Urna

Allan and his 17 month old daughter are apparently safely back in Honduras although his house was ransacked and all his art materials were burned along with his cartoons.

Allan had drawn a few cartoons recently in support of the cuarta urna, or fourth ballot, in which the Honduran citizens have the right to vote for a constitutional convention. It was not a vote to change the constitition as much of the press has reported but merely to reinstate the right to do so. The ruling elite know that a constitutional convention might open a Pandora's box of popular demands in the face of extreme poverty in Honduras and took the drastic measure of arresting the president in his pajamas and flying him out of the country to install a more "favorable" leader who will maintain the status quo. They have also shut down all the non-government controlled media outlets across the country and arrested several journalists including Eduardo Maldonado (who I once shared a taxi with) and Esdras Amado Lopez.

There is a bunch of "tribute" cartoons on the Rebellion site. Also, there's an article in English here.

Kidnapped Honduran Cartoonist

I heard this morning that my friend and editorial cartoonist Allan McDonald has been kidnapped in Honduras, forced into exile and all his cartoons destroyed. A friend had direct email contact with him and he confirmed to her that the below story is completely true and accurate. He is currently going with his family to seek safety in another country.

I lived in Honduras for two years and know the cartoonist personally. His website is here and the letter I received is below.

***

Kidnapping and detainment of Allan McDonald and his 17 month old daughter, April. (translated on 6/30/09 by Marla Conrad)

To all -

Through this letter I am communicating to you that at 11 am in the time of Sweden and at 3 am in the time of Honduras, Allan McDonald, the Honduran cartoonist, communicated with me by Chat saying that he had been detained by the Honduran Armed Forces in a hotel. His house was ransacked and his cartoons and drawings were burnt in a bonfire en his home in Santa Lucia. He was detained with his 17 month old daughter who had not eaten and was only given water.

The communication did not last even 5 minutes and he was communicating via a portable with little battery that belonged to the accredited consul of Venezuela in Honduras who was also detained together with him, and next to them were two female journalists, a Spaniard and a Chilena, whom he did not know. He also told me that he was with the Honduran journalists Eduardo Maldonado and Esdras Amado Lopez, but they had been taken away to an unknown place.

At the moment that Allan was saying goodbye, he said resist and denounce this deed, I've only seen this in the television when there was a coup in 1973. The communication was cut off because he said "they're coming for us". Apparently, they would be driven in a bus and taken out of the country through the border of El Espino, in this moment the destination and whereabouts of Allan McDonald, his daughter April and heir companions were ignored.

This letter is the denouncement, and also a call to awareness, it is not possible that there are some that are applauding this coup and the deprival of the most elemental rights of our population. This period seemed to be overcome but we have gone backwards to the decade of the 80's en a clear disregard of human rights which also reflects the small democratic vocation or our political class.

Where's Weenus?

Here's a large version of the last panel of the "Where's Waldo?" parody (click to see) I ran last Friday. I probably should have done this as a Sunday strip since I really struggled with the small real estate. It took ages to color. I have a new found admiration for fellow countryman Martin Handford who draws those books. Incidentally the original title for the series is "Where's Wally?" and that's what they still use in most countries but it was changed for the US and Canadian markets. Also, in France he's Charlie. The Germans look for Walter. The Danes ask "Where's Holger?" and those crazy Norwegians search high and low for their Willy.

Here's the full strip at the original online syndication size (when clicked):

Graduation Rabbits

Illustration for a friend's recent graduation.

In Living 3D-ness

Some new figurines.