Andertoons Cartoon Blog

Andertoons Blog on Hiatus

OK, it's been so busy lately, and I just feel like I haven't been able to give the blog the attention it's used to, so I'm putting it on hiatus for a week or two.

Don't worry, it'll be back, and I'll get it robust and regular again, but it's the end of summer and I'm gonna take a break.

If you'd like to know when I'll be back I suggest subscribing to it via Bloglines. That's really the way to go as far as I'm concerned.

So... See ya in a few weeks...

Zzzzzzzzzz...

Illustrations finished... Mark sleep now...

Peyo v. Hasbro

Hee-hee-hee!

Check out the Yahoo Buzz Log’s Smurfs vs. Transformers grudge match.

My faves are the suggested plot lines:

Smurfs - Marrooned on deserted island without food or water. Cannibalism ensues.

Transformers - Autobots move to Detroit. Help revitalize auto industry by offering 0% financing on all bazooka-tailpipe combos.

Fantastic 2.75

Two pretty good, one mediocre, one looks nice in spandex.

(If you can’t tell I’m still about chest deep in illustration work.  More later…)

Checking In...

OK, I hate when bloggers explain why they’ve been away for a while.  It’s a lot of blah blah blah and no one really cares anyway, so I’m just going to say this:

22 full color illustrations (one of which contains 18 caricatures) for a large national client.  ‘Nuff said.

Anyway, I’m gonna keep this short so I can keep working, but here’s some stuff that I wanna yap about...

1. I’m in the August Good Housekeeping with one of my kid/lawyer cartoons. 
2. I’m also in the new Laughter is the Best Medicine book from Reader’s Digest.
3. Recently a few radio stations in the Chicago area have changed their formats from “what we think will get the most listeners in our target group” to “whatever we want” (the second one is actually a station’s tag line) and I’m tuning in for an eclectic selection of just plain good music.  Note to syndicates/newspapers:  Don’t worry about demographics.  Give ‘em funnier comics and they will come back.
4. My new Free Daily Comic feature is a wild success.  Tons of bloggers and sites are using the cartoon.  A few recent faves:

            Yet Another Comics Blog

            Heartland Technologies

            B2Blog

            Tumor Boy

OK, that’s it.  I’ll try to get more in next week. 

New G.R.O.S.S. Member

Out of all of the volumes on our bookshelves, my son picked this “Daddy photo book” out the other day for Mommy to read.

What can I say? The boy’s got good taste!

Mark

Picture Day

A magazine that publishes my cartoons has actually offered me a spot on their contributors page! Crazy, eh?

Anyway, they’ve asked me to do a little write-up and send in a picture of myself.  So this afternoon I’ve spent entirely too much putting together this little self-portrait.

I’m pretty happy with the results though… Whatcha think?

The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952

I had a big book buying spree near the end of last year. I think the UPS guy was delivering new cartoon books pretty constantly for a while there.

Of course it takes time to get to all of them, and one I’d neglected far too long was The Complete Peanuts (1950-1952).

What a great book! OK, the jokes are kind of dated, and it’s a far cry from what most would recognize as Peanuts, but the germs of the strip are there and it’s a fascinating and soothing read.

Some highpoints:

• Page 81 – In what I can tell is the first Charlie Brown baseball reference, our favorite blockhead is the catcher instead of the pitcher/manager.
• Page 117 – The first football kicking incident is actually perpetrated by Violet. (Lucy picks it up on page 268.)
• Page 140 – Schulz’ iconic signature is rendered in a pseudo-German script following a music gag.
• Page 248 – Schroeder breaks the fourth wall complaining that he should “put in for a transfer to a new comic strip.”

I must say, sometimes I buy books like this because I think I should. You know, I am a cartoonist after all. Shouldn’t I have all the Complete Peanuts on my shelf? But once I dug into it, I was surprised at how much I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Most modern cartoonists will credit Schulz as an influence as a matter of course, but it was fun to remind myself exactly what Schulz accomplished and what it meant to me.

I can’t wait to dig into the next volume!