Cartoons-a-Poppin'

Sorry for not updating in awhile; life's been pretty busy. But here are some cartoons to make up for it.

April 12th, 2010. I'm pretty sure I'm the most self-deprecating cartoonist The Daily has ever employed. Even in a cartoon talking about the strip being canceled, I still manage to take a shot at the strip, implying that it's cancellation is for the better.

I also like that I got a chance to call the Greek system "tired and worn out," which it is. Surprisingly there were no complaints. I assume the frat guys and gals were all far too hammered from their ritual couch burnings to notice the strip.

April 15th, 2010. Oh yeah, here's a real charmer. I want to emphasize that I'm not anti-Catholic at all, and frankly I find it the most interesting Christian denomination. Catholicism seems to lend itself to discussion better than any other subdivision of Christianity (Mormonism is the funniest though).

I made Jillian a Catholic on a whim a few years ago, and it's been a nice character trait for her. I think she reflects a certain kind of religious young person today; she obeys almost none of her religion's tenets, but is still faithful. That's a an amusing concept.


April 19th, 2010. I actually did go the UW's career fair, and it actually was kinda fun. It was also really sweaty, and there were many uncomfortable looking people. There wasn't much in the way of booths for me (animator/cartoonist), and the focus seemed to be more on the business side of the equation. Which is fine, but us artists need attention too!

April 22nd, 2010. I love these kinds of strips. Nothing delights me more than creating strips that really play with the medium. You can't do it all the time, or you'll no longer have any fourth-wall to break, but whenever I get the opportunity, I always go for it.

The inspiration for this strip came from imagining a blank page in The Daily reading in bold typeface, "Bill Gates, Give Us More Money." As funny as that is, it could also be pretty effective. Would you say, "No," to The Daily?

Uh Oh

Let's go see what our friends are up to.

April 5th, 2010. I had done a cartoon similar to this during my first year of the strip, and I felt like it was time to revisit the concept.

The joke in the last panel originally read, "That Sarah Palin TV show airs. The producers contemplate suicide." With this, the bearded producer (Mike) would have had a gun to his head, while the skinny producer (Al) adjusts a noose. It was just too much death for one panel.

April 8th, 2010. Wait, what?

When I came into doing "No Exit Nearby" for the last year, I knew I wanted to end it in a fun way, and considering how long the strip has run, it really necessitated some kind of closure. The strip has broken the fourth wall numerous times, and there have been a couple strips where "No Exit Nearby" was sold or portrayed as in dire financial straights. A story where the strip ended seemed to be the right thing to do. (I am also aware that nobody cares about the "story" of the strip as much as I do, so most of the remaining strips this quarter are going to remain topical and current events based.)

The plan was always to have a strip like this run sometime during the middle of the quarter, but when the jobs report came out last week, I realized it fit perfectly with the strip, and had to do it then.

I like Jim and Jillian's expressions in the last panel; they don't look too happy.

New Quarter, New 'Toons

Spring quarter has begun at the University of Washington, and that means new cartoons just for you!
March 29th, 2010. I think this one speaks for itself pretty well. And yes, that is the 1958 version of "The Fly" in the last panel.


April 1st, 2010. This one has a pretty long story. Earlier this week my editor informed me that she had pushed up an upcoming deadline, leaving me no time to do an elaborate cartoon that I wanted to do. So I frantically tried to think of easy, "cheater" cartoons that I could do instead (no joke, I once did a cartoon with just Jim and Jillian's eyes). Then I realized I had done a bunch of cartoons over Spring Break for my own amusement, and the above cartoon seemed the most fitting to run.

Because of this fairly rushed process, I left in the name, Stephanie Kaye, which is a reference to the study body president character from "Degrassi Junior High." Normally such an obscure reference wouldn't make it into an official strip (I probably would have used Patty Murray instead), but it just sort of happened this way.

Not Blade Runner

I Didn't Know Frogs Even Had Lips

As anybody who knows me can attest, I'm a big Disney animation nerd, so I feel it's my responsibility to plug the release of their return to hand-drawn animation, "The Princess and the Frog" on DVD and Blu-ray. Despite being incredibly biased, I think it's a genuinely great film, and anybody who's interested in animation should see it.

But enough of that shameless plugging, the above cartoon was something I drew two years ago as an exclusive for my Facebook profile. I remember not really liking it when I finished it, but it surprisingly well-received. Looking back I like it a lot more, and I still think the final panel is a nice twist.

Cartoons Out of Nowhere!

Wasn't Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" great? What, you didn't see it? Get thee to a theater now!
This one ran on February 2nd, 2010. I really like doing conceptual cartoons like this one; strips that really play with the medium and have fun. Drawing the strip was pure joy, and I knew at the time I was doing something special.

By the way, for you "No Exit Nearby" fanatics out there, many of the characters in the background have appeared in the strip before in minor roles. There are some obscure ones in there, so you better keep the NEN Wikipedia article ready.
February 4th, 2010. I think you can tell on which days I just want to draw monsters. This was one of them. For those curious, the three monsters in panel two are: an ant from Them!, James Arness as the Thing from Another World, and the fly from the original 1958 version of The Fly.
February 10th, 2010. I think this is the third time I've drawn an Avatar related strip, which, considering how much fucking money this thing has made, is warranted. The idea of using Avatar to pimp incredibly dangerous Toyota cars rather than fixing them struck me as very amusing. I'm surprised it didn't happen.

Also, that second panel kinda sweet. Oh James Cameron, you've made me believe in blue cat people.

All Cartoons Attack!

Sorry I haven't been posting recently. School's been pretty busy, and I've been working on an animation demo reel.

But enough of that livejournal nonsense, let's post some cartoons!
This one ran on January 21st, 2010. I figured I should probably do a cartoon about Haiti Relief, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't sappy or condescending. Cartoon violence proved to be the best answer.
January 27th, 2010. I thought this one turned out to be a suitably bizarre tribute to the late Ted Kennedy. The fact that the caricature actually looks a little like Kennedy really made me happy.
January 28th, 2010. One of the things I try to avoid in my cartoons is really overt anger. I've found that anger and didactic-ism usually make for poor cartoons, and I was infuriated by the Supreme Court decision mentioned in the strip. By really going all out into goofiness I managed to make my point, without being on a soapbox and just yelling at the reader. Plus, I really like drawing giant monsters.

And yes, that turtle is Gamera.