1. Don’t pencil what you can ink.
2. Leave space for the reader’s imagination.
3. Use details sparingly.
4. Move the reader’s eye through the strip.
5. More than one absurd leap in a gag is too many.
LAST UPDATED July 11, 2018
Just dropped off the computer to Tom-The-Computer-Guy. (See video at the very bottom).
Hope to have it back soon.
LAST UPDATED July 9, 2018
As if life wasn’t confusing enough, my computer’s video card failed (for good) on Monday and I am without a computer to color my strip once more. In the delightful video below, although my darling child suggests contacting Gary Larson to “arrange” another loaner computer until mine is fixed, we all know that is absolutely not an option AND we all know why. – At present, my computer is in the shop and should be back in a week. Enjoy some of the recent Gary updates below.
The “feud” with Gary is still ongoing.
There are no new updates at this time.
THE BEST THING any cartoonist can do is to help the next generation of artists find their way. Once a cartoonist has found his or her success, every little bit of effort, I think, should go into helping everyone else find theirs. — I learned this lesson from Mike Peters, Dan Piraro, Wayno, and Jeff Parker, my dear friends and mentors. — with Jan Eliot.
At this year’s Reuben Awards we toasted Mort Walker, creator of “Beetle Baily” and “Hi and Lois” who passed away this year. Turns out, Mort had his own special brand of whisky. This was the only bottle at the dinner, but I managed to get a sample.
Another exciting team-up with my bestest pal and friend Dan Piraro. I’ve been lucky enough to be one of the only credited gag writers (a.k.a. “Team Bizarro”) to writer for Dan’s strip since 2010, and am always thrilled when my brain has enough extra energy to write gags for other strips. – Being a parent of two naughty children really helped with this idea.
(Below you’ll see one of many “official” Team Bizarro meetings with Dan McC, Danny Ho, Wayno, and Jimmy Ho.)
I just ran into my bestest buddy, hero, and cartooning-mentor Mike Peters at the airport in a totally random, freak occurrence, and
it made me SO happy. – Moments like this are priceless.
The “Bill and Ted” conversation is an important one that seems to have been dropped from the current flow of ideas in 2018.
Bill and Ted were not quiet, visionary adopters like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, both of whom “dropped out” to become billionaires by “doing their thing”; nor were they off the beaten path regular guys who just needed to get with the program (the Web, the future, a haircut) to fly right.
Bill and Ted were hopeless, never get it together, culturally abandoned slackers who changed the world by adhering to their own marginalized, self-created ideals and personae (Wyld Stallyns) that the rest of the world mocked and found categorically absurd.
There’s very little dialog about the modern-day Bill and Teds. In 2018, now more than ever, maybe “getting with the program” isn’t the best, safest, and most culturally deified plan we’ve made it out to be.
Perhaps it’s time to learn from Bill and Ted once more. They may be more correct, and more enlightened, than we think.
As a kid, there was very little information for me out in the world on how to “become” a cartoonist.
Sure, you could look at comic collections to see how characters looked, but that was about it.
In 1988, CBS ran this Garfield 10th birthday special, which I taped on our VCR off the television.
In a matter on hours this TV show became my Bible.
I, literally, watched this show every day for weeks and weeks.
Not only did I get see Jim Davis drawing, but I also got to see the faces of the other professional cartoonists who were my heroes. Whenever I’m in the company of other cartoonists I always think back to this video and how lucky I am to be where I am. — Being a cartoonist was 110% my dream as a kid.
I wake up and feel lucky every day.
(You can see Mike Peters, Dik Browne, and Lynn Johnston by scrolling to 30:46 in the timeline)
I think Jeff Goldblum is so fun to watch. He’s so erratic and funny, and just does the strangest things.
I think he’s too old to ever play me in a movie, but I would totally allow that to happen.
I have yet to meet Jeff in person, but it’s on my “to-do” list.
FYI – The real Cathy, Cathy Guisewhite, who draws the “Cathy” comic strip wasn’t too happy about this.