Friday, May 18, 2012
CSOTD
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Team Cul de Sac Book Iaunch
This is lifted from the Team Cul de Sac blog.
One More Page Books is close to my house and I hope to make it. Other local cartoonists in the book will certainly be there. My deepest thanks to Terry Nebecker and Eileen McGervey.
One More Page Books is close to my house and I hope to make it. Other local cartoonists in the book will certainly be there. My deepest thanks to Terry Nebecker and Eileen McGervey.
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"Back
in her single days - before she met the man of her dreams - Beth "Bee"
Evans hated being forced to attend weddings solo. Determined to spare
her friends the same humiliation, she invites everyone on her list with a
guest. Much to her chagrin, however, Hannah, Vicki, Rob, Joe, and Nancy
insist upon attending Bee's lavish Chesapeake Bay nuptials alone. The
frustrated bride dubs them the "The Singles" and their collective
decision wreaks unintended havoc on her otherwise perfectly planned
wedding weekend."
One More Page | 2200 N. Westmoreland Street | #101 | Arlington | VA | 22213
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Visit to Tai Shan
Monday, May 14, 2012
Farewell to Maurice Sendak
Peter Dunlap-Shohl drew this wonderful piece on the death of Maurice Sendak last week, ingeniously mashing up the Seventh Seal and the Wild Things. I especially like the casually tossed-away cane at far left. I was going to link to a documentary by director Spike Jonez where he visits Sendak at his home but it's been taken off the web. I will link to a great tribute by Philip Nel at the Comics Journal. Phil's been working on a massive biography of Ruth Kraus and Crockett Johnson and he knows his children's literature.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Two Brand New Old Cul de Sacs
Both of which have something to do with motherhood.
The above is from May 16, 2004. I didn't like Madeline's job that much. It seemed too sitcommy.
Marcus has always had a difficult relationship with his mom. This appeared August 19, 2005.
The Complete Collection of Mother's Day Poor Almanacs
Assembled by looking up old posts and copying & pasting.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Savings Galore
Monday, May 7, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
This Week's Cul de Sacs, April 30 to May 6, 2012
Here are the roughs I sent to Stacy Curtis for this week of strips. Besides inking Cul de Sac, Stacy's got a full plate of children's book work, some of which involves traveling for school visits. This means he has to do the inking in a hotel room, not the most ideal situation for us sensitive art types whose psyches demand a familiar work environment to maintain creative flow.
So I thought a repeating Petey might make things easier all around. And as Petey tends to freeze up under mild duress all it needed was a stinkbug to provide just that.
If one flustered Petey is funny then an infinite number of them'd be a riot-
I hope. These are representative of the batch of roughs I foist on Stacy every week. Note how they get gradually sloppier as I lose track of the progress of the meager story arc. In fact I had no idea how to end it, so I told Stacy I would do the climactic Saturday strip, which features enough second panel exposition by Alice to frighten off anyone who dislikes text-heavy balloons.
So it all worked out well enough.
I did the Sunday about a month ago. It's photoshopped out of a dozen bits and pieces but, ssshh, don't tell anybody. Alice and Dill have had several Drawing Fights; victory has been disputed in all of them.
So I thought a repeating Petey might make things easier all around. And as Petey tends to freeze up under mild duress all it needed was a stinkbug to provide just that.
Having decided on repeating Peteys-
it was an easy jump to overdoing it-
and piling the Peteys on.
I did the Sunday about a month ago. It's photoshopped out of a dozen bits and pieces but, ssshh, don't tell anybody. Alice and Dill have had several Drawing Fights; victory has been disputed in all of them.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
It's National Cartoonists Day Again Again, Again
You may be wondering, "How can I best celebrate this festive day?" You might consider:
- Finding a cartoonist near you and mowing his (or her) lawn, at least the front lawn (especially the hard part with the hill).
- While you're at it trim his shrubs, so the mailman can find his front door again.
- I'll bet he needs a haircut pretty bad.
- Does his house need vacuuming? Well, what are you waiting for?
- Who left all these dishes in the sink?
- The cats; somebody feed the cats.
- Are you handy with a pen? Ink some cartoons for him!
- You could take him to lunch at the Mexican place down the street, where they're having some no doubt cartoonist-related celebration.
- For God's sake laugh at his cartoons. If they appear in a newspaper, buy extra copies (or multiple subscriptions, even) and laugh at them too.
- Is he not posting anything new on his stupid blog and it's driving you crazy? You should send him a cheerful card stuffed with cash to inspire him.
Note:
if the cartoonist near you is a lady, please substitute "her" for
"his". The original of the cartoon reproduced above is in the collection
of the fabulous Mr. Jef Mallett, so this is a scan of the Almanac book
page. And it's the same one I ran last year, and the year before, if it
looks familiar.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Restaurant Closings
Like many newspapers, the Washington Post runs a column listing various health code violations for the week. Each entry describes the circumstances leading to a closure of a food establishment by the investigating health department. Here's a sample of a recent column:
It's buried in the Local Living type section along with another column equally enjoyable, the Animal Watch, listing those run ins with animals, wild and domesticated, that've required the intervention of a vested authority. (Its probably-untoppable apex was reached years ago with a report about a squirrel found racing around inside a single-family residence. Two policemen showed up after the homeowner called 911 and quickly isolated the rodent in the living room curtains, but the squirrel broke free and dove into a grand piano. One officer, thinking quickly, played a few bars of something by Toad the Wet Sprocket and the squirrel shot out of the piano and disappeared out the front door.)
These columns appeal to me for all kinds of reasons: the poker faced style, the easily graspable nature of the incidents and, in the case of the health code violations, the fact that restaurants are fun to draw. When I was doing the Poor Almanac (1997-2009) and was looking for an idea (always) I could usually scare up enough jokes to fill out the cartoon without the desperation being too apparent. Because restaurants are not only fun to draw; they're inherently funny.
Here's one of only 4 or 5 in color, from c. 2000. Lugubrio's is based on a place near Dupont Circle where the lights were so low the waiters were disembodied voices and you ate by feel, often off another's plate.
Note the local cuisine reference, another sore point in DC as it has so few recognizable traits to call its own.
Hollywood Bistro
1800 G St. NW
Closed Friday for operating without a certified food manager.
Lucky Corner Market
5433 Georgia Ave. NW
Closed April 19 for operating without a license, gross unsanitary conditions and operating without a certified food manager. Reopened April 23.
Mid-City Deli
1418 14th St. NW
Closed Friday for failure to minimize vermin, circumstances that might endanger public health and improper food holding temperatures.
It's buried in the Local Living type section along with another column equally enjoyable, the Animal Watch, listing those run ins with animals, wild and domesticated, that've required the intervention of a vested authority. (Its probably-untoppable apex was reached years ago with a report about a squirrel found racing around inside a single-family residence. Two policemen showed up after the homeowner called 911 and quickly isolated the rodent in the living room curtains, but the squirrel broke free and dove into a grand piano. One officer, thinking quickly, played a few bars of something by Toad the Wet Sprocket and the squirrel shot out of the piano and disappeared out the front door.)
These columns appeal to me for all kinds of reasons: the poker faced style, the easily graspable nature of the incidents and, in the case of the health code violations, the fact that restaurants are fun to draw. When I was doing the Poor Almanac (1997-2009) and was looking for an idea (always) I could usually scare up enough jokes to fill out the cartoon without the desperation being too apparent. Because restaurants are not only fun to draw; they're inherently funny.
Here's one of only 4 or 5 in color, from c. 2000. Lugubrio's is based on a place near Dupont Circle where the lights were so low the waiters were disembodied voices and you ate by feel, often off another's plate.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Today's Cul de Sac in Rough Form, April 30 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Today's Cul de Sac, April 29 2012
Alice communes with Nature, in condensed, easily accessible form. Every kid needs a shrub to hide in. I've had several and I was intimately familiar with every inch of dirt it covered (though not familiar enough that I avoided sitting on a slug during a night game of hide and seek).
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Today's Cul de Sac in Rough Form, April 28 2012
And that's how a comic strip collaboration is run these days.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Ernesto
This is a clip job of previous posts and is meant to shed some light on a character who is a little hard to explain.
Below is the first appearance of Ernesto Lacuna, in the Post Magazine. I brought the stranger-than-Petey little boy back a few times, and I gave him the strange attribute that Petey thinks he may be imaginary. His name is a reference to Lacuna, a gap or missing section in a manuscript, text or piece of music, and an obscure musical pun on the name of Cuban composer Ernesto Lacuona (boy, this gets a laff every time, but you'll recognize this). You'll notice he plays the oboe and Petey's got a trombone; this was later reversed. Please excuse the awkward formatting.
But
Ernesto's also unimpressive enough that he's hard to take seriously.
He's based on several kids I knew who wanted to grow up in a hurry under
the mistaken impression that adults have all the power. Ernesto belongs
to a group called Future Adults of America whose purpose is to
gradually take over the world so that they'll be running it by the time
they're in their forties, and he keeps trying to get Petey to attend FAA
meetings. Which, from Ernesto's description, is mostly an excuse to
issue position papers and to eat doughnuts. Disliking organized
activities and food with holes in it, Petey has declined so far. Maybe
he should go sometime, as it'd be fun to draw. This is the kind of idea I
love, as I can revisit it, explore it further and get a lot out of it.
And nothing's better than that when you're dealing with a daily strip.
During the Summer months, Ernesto barricades himself in a carrel fort in a remote corner of the
library. This Sunday strip above is the remnant
of a string of dailies featuring one of Ernesto's periodic decline-and-falls.
This time he was caught by the Future Adults of America appropriating a
box of doughnuts meant for fund-raising and subsequently kicked out. I
think he started a competing group but I forget what it was called.
Below is the first appearance of Ernesto Lacuna, in the Post Magazine. I brought the stranger-than-Petey little boy back a few times, and I gave him the strange attribute that Petey thinks he may be imaginary. His name is a reference to Lacuna, a gap or missing section in a manuscript, text or piece of music, and an obscure musical pun on the name of Cuban composer Ernesto Lacuona (boy, this gets a laff every time, but you'll recognize this). You'll notice he plays the oboe and Petey's got a trombone; this was later reversed. Please excuse the awkward formatting.
Ernesto is one of my favorite characters to
write for. He's something of a Bond villain in embryo, as is evident
from his remark below about the extinct volcano, and he's enigmatic enough
that I can write dialog that doesn't always make sense as long as it's
vaguely threatening.
Ernesto's actuality is best left unexamined, I think.
Maybe he's a wormholian who can slide between realities (I knew kids like this).
Or
maybe he's a projection of the zeitgeist. Whatever, he's good for laffs
when used sparingly. Some readers find him annoying, though he was a favorite of one of my best editors. Below is my favorite Ernesto
appearance (available in the first CdS book or in the Golden Treasury).
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Cul de Sac Yesterday and Today, April 21& 22 2012
So I inked these two strips all by myself, which is kind of novel these days.
Either he's gotten a new haircut or I've
forgotten how Andre Chang's head is shaped. He's been gradually
increasing in size since he was first sighted in the strip 20 months or
so ago. Someone told me he's really one of Sendak's Wild Things and there's no stopping him from getting larger and hairier, but that's life.
From August, 2010,when Alice first met Andre. Below, another Dill's Dream Sunday, meaning another excuse to draw something I wouldn't otherwise draw.
From August, 2010,when Alice first met Andre. Below, another Dill's Dream Sunday, meaning another excuse to draw something I wouldn't otherwise draw.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Poor Almanac That's Slightly On Topic
Anyway, I did this list of mnemonic devices to help others from making the same mistake. These are not to be used by those bidding in tee Team Cul de Sac auction, of course.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Auction Preview
Take a look at this line up! Wouldn't any of them look nice over your sofa or fireplace?
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Boing Boing
I don't know anything about any of that stuff, so we talked about cartoons, another of Glenn's passions as anyone who follows his lively Twitter feed knows. The wonderful site Boing Boing, home of Tom the Dancing Bug, posted the results of our chat here.
Monday, April 16, 2012
The Auction
Monday, April 9, 2012
Now Go Listen to Stacy Curtis
Now that you've committed Chris Sparks' interview to memory you need to do the same with Tom Racine's interview with Stacy Curtis. Stacy spills the beans on his early, violent career as an editorial cartoonist, describes our Clouseau-and-Cato-like working relationship and explains his Banjo Pig Awareness program.
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