This isn't supposed to be a personal blog....

But, tonight at about 10:00pm my Granny Branch passed away in her home. Everythings being handled by my Mom's family, there's nothing for me to do but wait till tomorrow. I felt I should do something. So I'm writing about it.

I just wanted you to know why I'll probably be a bit slower on posting for this week.

Granny had been in bad health for some time and we knew it was just a matter of time. This last weekend, she had a party. All the family was invited to come over for food and ice cream. Each of us put our order in and got a pint of the ice cream we wanted from one of those places that uses a stone counter to mix the ice cream. We talked, joked, and watched the Olympics. She was pretty much confined to the bed, so most of us gathered in her smallish bedroom. It was a good day.

Granny died much like she lived, I think. She did it on her own terms. When a rotten tree branch fell on my Mom's roof, she didn't wait until me and my brother got over there to take it down. My Granny climbed up on that roof and started without us! (This was just a few years ago.) Granny didn't want to die in a hospital hooked up to a bunch of machines. So, she decided to stay at home. She had the best non-invasive medical attention there was, my Mom and Aunt Josie (who are nurses).

I'd better stop typing before I take up a whole page. Sorry for dumping all of this on the blog, but I guess I needed to. Thanks for taking the time to read it.

Style Suggestions:

In case you were wondering, I am open for suggestions on which kind of style I will be emulating. I plan to do four strips in a row with a different style and 'story type'. At the moment I'm trying on styles from the cartoon strips in my local paper. There are a lot of good ones to choose from, so I'm having trouble deciding.

Here's where you come in:
A quiz

1) What cartoon style would you like to see most?
Least?
2) Which cartoon 'series' have you liked most so far?
Least liked?
Why?
3) Is their any particular type of story/characters you would like to see?
Any you wish I would avoid?

Thanks for your time and input!

Silence of the Subcultures...

Here's the last installment of Silent Subculture for now.


Click Image to View Strip

I think the over all 'color' scheme in this one is good, and I am pleased with the way the girl turned out.

I've really enjoyed this style of cartooning, and have gotten alot of positive feedback from friends. I have however had a bit of trouble creating a good silent story (especially the last two). I will revisit 'silent comics' in the near future, but I'm going to take a break from it for a little while(and maybe study up a bit).

Silent Subculture - Skaterboys

Here's my third installment.


Click Image to View Strip

I think my use of 'blacks'(areas of solid or near solid black ink) in this cartoon is better than the first in the series. Over all I'm pleased with the results.

My Life As Human Prozac

Back in '03 a group of friends and I did a series of drawings each week to challenge us and keep us drawing. Usually they involved superheroes, or popular action movies. Here is the 'challenge' called something like: "Draw Yourself As A Super Hero".


Click Image to View Strip

I chose "Human Prozac" because my friends are always telling me I have this wonderful calming effect on them. I guess I am a fairly laid back type of guy.

Silent Subculture II

Here's the second one. I found that there are only 2 women characters in Beetle Bailey. I've also discovered that the artist never seems to use 'full' or 3/4's perspective.


Click Image to View Strip

So far this is my favorite of these strips.

Silent Subculture I

Here's my next experiment in cartoons. This next set will all be silent cartoon strips with the art style based off of 'Beetle Bailey'. Oh, and all of them will be about subcultures.


Click Image to View Strip

Ninja Turdles Rule!

I made this as a gift for my friend David. In his blog : ( http://www.ninjaturdles.com/blog/ )
he's got this cute little cartoon called Office Spaced Ninja Turdles. I had this idea for a drawing almost instantly. Sometime in the near future I'll have a color version up. I hope he, and my faithful readers (all two of them) like it.


Click Image to View Strip

Posting Blues

If you've been visiting my blog regularly (and I know you have), you may have noticed that I've been back dating my posts. For example on Friday the 12 you wouldn't see a post but by the 16th Friday's post will appear. This is because I don't currently own a scanner, or web space. I'm borrowing my friend Will's scanner and website usually once a week to upload the strips. Then I type up these snappy messages and post the pictures from my home computer.

Sound a bit complicated? Well Its not too bad, but I thought It might cause some confusion. One thing I have been committed to is posting the cartoons with the date that I actually finished them. So this blog is a fairly good representation of what I do for this project each week.

Man sometimes I type way too much! Bye. :)