Rabbits Against Dry Celebrities

Here's a couple of strips I did for the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation which is a non-profit provider of affordable housing for the low income residents of San Francisco.  Thy throw an annual ritzy event––all for a good cause––where celebrities are thrown into the pool at the extravagant Phoenix Hotel.  From what I understand, they're going to use my cartoons on large advertising billboards that appear on public toilets all over the city. I believe that my career can officially only go downhill from there.

Freaks!

This is the entire Freak Show series ran this week.  This is partly a homage to the Tod Browning movie (one of all-time my favorites) but also to the seminal Freak Show CD by The Residents.  If you're familiar with that album, you'll spot several tiny references I slipped into the last two strips including a tiny double headed Resident eyeball creature (final strip, second panel, bottom left).

Too Gruesome For Prime Time?

Here's an unpublished strip that I pulled from rotation on the grounds that it was just too darn gruesome.  Also, that stump could be misinterpreted as something less innocent than a severed appendage of gristle and bone. I drew it while waiting for a repair man to show up to fix our clothes dryer and he was four hours late so my bile must have been raised somewhat. The plan was to expound on this misfortune in future strips where Eightball is fitted with an artificial limb that was constantly going wrong with hilarious consequences but I have reservations that this is plain stupid, in somewhat poor taste and not entirely in sync with his character. Do any one of my five lovely blog readers have an opinion?

A Mad Man Made of Animals

Mad magic from the mind of Don Martin. The always interesting Comiccrazys Blog is running a whole bunch of Don Martin strips at the moment. As a child I was obsessed with Mad magazine, especially the first 23 issues. The switch from the comic book format to the black and white magazine was the beginning of a long slow but not disrespectful decline in quality and innovation. Don Martin made his first appearance in issue 29 and along with the great Sergio Aragonés maintained the senbalnce of respectable insanity. Martin left Mad in 1987 with bad blood flowing between him and editor Bill Gaines and reappeared in Cracked Magazine, the irony being that Mad, a parody publication was now being parodied by other publications.

Incredibly Strange Rabbit Picture Number 44

You won't find these at the Disney Store.

Just Add Lettuce

I brought back the previously un-named time-traveling rabbit from last year due to popular demand.  Thanks very much to the two people who e-mailed me suggesting it. I think she will fit in nicely as a foil for Weenus and a mischievous companion for Eightball.

Dog-Faced Boy

My friend and esteemed Argentinean colleague Fede Pazos blogged today about a strip he did when he started out on his cartooning career. It was published in the Argentine edition of the infamous weekly French magazine Inrockuptibles and featured a small boy called Chicocaraperro who had the face of a dog.  If you don't speak Spanish I hope you can at least appreciate the awesomeness of his clean art style.

Cement Mixer Putty Putty

I just found this great photo of my all time musical hero Slim Gaillard with a monkey.  Slim wasn't just the most talented musician ever invented (he could play several instruments to a virtuoso degree––including the piano which he sometimes played with his hands upside down––often during the same song) but he could speak eight languages in addition to inventing a language of his own called "Vout".  If you doubt these superlative accolades, you only need to watch his performance in one of my favorite movies 'Hellzapopin'.  There's an extraordinary clip here. One interesting fact is that both he and I appeared in the same film together back in the eighties, the abominable "Absolute Beginners" starring David Bowie and Patsy Kensit.  I was a mere uncredited extra.  Slim sang the song "Selling Out" with The Stargazers.

Drinky Krow

Today's Knight Life by my estranged friend and colleague Keith Knight pays homage to my other estranged colleague Tony Millionaire of Maakies whose Drinky Crow figurine sits proudly atop my desk.

Hobos Against Magic

A lovely cartoon from the latest New Yorker magazine by David Sipress.

Can't GoComics

Alas, GoComics seems to be broken again.  Here's today's cartoon for anyone who may be missing it.

Zip, a Brick

I had too much fun drawing this tribute to my favorite ever comic strip.  My spousal unit got me this oversized goodie for my recent birthday and I couldn't resist in doing an all out homage.  This isn't the first time I've gone this route.  There was a subtle Krazy Kat reference in this strip from October 2008.

Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits

Apparently GoComics isn't working properly so I'm posting my strips here until it's fixed.  Word is that they're doing some serious maintenance over there, presumably in preparation for the big merger with United Features when all the Comics.com strips will combine with it forming a very large throbbing amorphous mass of comic strips to pick at next month.

Rabbits Against Cabbage

From this rather curious site comes this delightful "Rabbit in Cabbage" automation.  According to the description it's by Roullet & Decamps of Paris, dating from about 1890 and has the full repertoire of movement including "a cheeky lean over the side".

Figure Drawing

The complete ventriloquist series from this week, echoes an earlier foray into the medium, below from November 2008.

Incredibly Strange Rabbit Picture Number 43

A creepy vintage Pikachu?

Mr. Danders Against Rabbits

Cul-de-Sac is by far the best strip currently running.  When it's creator, the über-talented and all-round nice guy Richard Thompson was diagnosed with Parkinson's last year his colleagues jumped in to set up Team Cul-de-Sac, to create a tribute book of original art in Richard's honor and to raise awareness of Parkinsons. Part of the profits from the sale of the book will benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation. As I've blogged already, there's already been some amazing submissions (see their lovely blog here). That's my humble submission, above featuring the Blisshaven pre-school's hamster, Mr. Danders.  I snuck in Polyfill and a few of my own characters as well.

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My strip has now been running continuously for 1094 days. May 3rd, 2008 was the day the very first Rabbits Against Magic strip (above) ran on Comic Sherpa which makes three whole years worth of continuous stripping in full color and no reruns!

Comparing it with the most recent strip you can see how it has evolved over the years.  The first strip was colored with water color and inked with a much finer brush.  I had no regular characters in mind and it took a few months for Eightball and Weenus to emerge from the pack.  If I remember correctly it took about four hours to complete.  Today's strip took less than an hour from concept to posting.

Some Upcoming Strips Underway

Click for Hi-Def!

Rabbits Against Fanboy Comic Strip Boards

I dropped into an art supply store in Santa Cruz last week and discovered these "comic strip boards" retailing at $8.50 (plus tax).  They don't work out economically only having 14 sheets (I get 40 strips out of a regular vellum Bristol pad for $7.75) and they have non-photo blue gridlines which are apparently "industry standard" but a cursory examination proves that only to be true 15 years ago.  I was shocked by the quite blatant Calvin and Hobbes rip-off on the cover.  It's clearly rotoscoped from an actual strip but they've switched Hobbes for a pink rabbit and given Calvin a red-striped shirt to avoid copyright infringement. Barely.