Sneak Peek!

Been busy as a Bee lately, and may hap the blog has suffered for it. I've spent the past several posts discussing other cartoonists and various assorted nonsense. The result is that I have lost focus on the point of this blog: Me, and my exciting life  as a cartoonist! The next few posts will rectify that.

As a sample, here is a sneak peek at a doodle connected to my upcoming not-so-secret project. No explanations, just enjoy.

This  would be a good time to ask you all out there if there are any topics you would like me to cover on this blog. The sky's the limit! Ask me what you will in the comments section, and if  I have anything to say about the subject, and/or  any images to show, you'll see it!

This would also be a good time to remind those of you that aren't "In the Know", that I have another blog filled with cartoony goodness. Just click here for a gander.

Till next time...

You Say You Want an Evolution?

Regular readers of this blog know that lately I have been working on a personal project: A children's book entitled, "Oscar's Naughty Chicken".

I have been working on this project for awhile now, two years to be somewhat exact, and I have noticed a disturbing phenomenon.

When I first began doing the illustrations for the book, my design for the main character, the Chicken, was uniquely mine. I didn't want him to be too cute or cuddly, and I wanted him to be as expressionless as possible, so the reader would never really know what the Chicken was "thinking" as  he did all the "naughty" things the title promised. However, the more pages I produced, the "cuter" and more expressive the Chicken  got. In my latest drawings, the Chicken began to  look like the lead character in that dreadful Disney film, "Chicken Little"!

Maybe it was  the result of not working on the project consistently, or maybe it was the result of spending so many years slavishly following model sheets while working on licensed properties. Perhaps it was just good, old-fashioned laziness. Whatever the reason, my title character's look evolved  from page to page until the character on page one looked nothing like the character on page twelve.

As a result, I  have regrouped, and have decided to start re-drawing the book from  scratch. I know, a lot of you out there are probably screaming, "Hey, you idiot! Just fix it in Photoshop!" Sorry, but I just don't swing that way. I want this whole thing to be as "hand drawn" as possible.

Besides, all the unused illustrations will make great "Special Features" in the collector's edition of the book!

The Sky is Falling!

The sky is falling! Well, not really. I just have been feeling the same sense of doom and dread that the chicken in that old story felt. 

And it's all because of a chicken!

You see, for quite some time now, I have been  working on a children's book that I conceived and co-authored with Perfect Wife entitled, "Oscar's Naughty Chicken". I use the term "working" loosely. Truth be told, I haven't done jack-squat on it for ages. I don't know why.

It isn't because I am bad at deadlines. When I was back in cartooning school, the most important lesson they pounded into our soft little heads was, "Never miss a deadline". We were told an editor would rather work with a mediocre artist who  was on time, than an exceptional artist that was always late. I'm not sure if this is 100% true, but I took that lesson to heart, and throughout my "career" I have prided myself on hitting deadlines. I am late for everything else in my life, but I am fanatical about the deadline thing. 

Maybe I am late because I have no deadline on my own project. Without a deadline, there is no be pressure for me to finish. I can take as long as I please (and I am!). Or, it could be that since this book is my baby, I want it to be perfect. I have also experienced more than the usual amount of  "artist's block" on this piece, so that might be a factor. The block may be a  result of the lack of a deadline, though.

Whatever the reason for my foot-dragging, enough is enough. I am "between projects" right now, so this is the perfect time to finally finish this darn thing, so it can  finally come to rest in  clearance bins across the nation. I am going to finish this darn thing if it kills me. I will keep all of you out there up to date on my progress in the agonizing weeks and months to come.

Knowing myself, you can expect a repeat of this post shortly.

It's Filler Time!

"Anything worth doing is worth doing well". That well-worn quote even applies to posting a blog.

It is rather difficult to come up with something entertaining (or at least interesting) on a semi-regular, let alone daily, schedule. There are those blogs out there that manage to do it by taking a gimmick, like say, making every single recipe in a giant woman's classic cookbook and blogging about it. This makes daily entries easy, as you always have something to write about. You can also do something others might find informative, like polling other cartoonists about their tools and inspiration, and publishing the results. This also gives you a wealth of postings.

Another challenge to publishing a blog is the complete lack of financial impetus. Why publish if you ain't getting paid? You have to do it because you enjoy it. Sure, you can litter your site with ad links (as I have done) and wait for the money truck to roll in with revenue. The truth is though, the ads  you see don't generate much more than chump change, at best. Advertisers don't often even send freebies to blog authors in gratitude for mentioning their products. Haven't these guys ever heard of payola?! Case in point: I have mentioned Doctor Who action figures with an almost annoying regularity on this site. Have the manufacturers sent me anything in gratitude for raising awareness of their product? They have not. Not even a lousy Zygon figure.

You can make big money from your blog, of course. You just have to create a blog that details how you have made every recipe from a giant woman's classic cookbook. Then you have to turn it into a bestselling book and have the book made into a major motion picture. It's harder than it sounds. Trust me. Really, you do a blog for the fun of doing it. 

That doesn't mean you should just throw up whatever piece of crap you like whenever you fell like it. In producing this Kavalcade of Kartoon Komedy, I try to post something that is fun to read and pair it with an appropriate image. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes not. 

I realize, though, that I still don't post often enough. In an effort to rectify this situation, I have decided to throw up whatever piece of crap I want, whenever I want, BUT! On a more regular basis. So, from time to time, you'll get to see random images from "archives", as well as my "sketchbook", sans commentary.  Starting right now. 

Enjoy.