My 100th Post!

Nothing major, I'd agree, contentwise..Just another SALEM NEWS cartoon of mine about the flooding we had last week.. but in a way, still a milestone..

Hanna-Barberied

Just goofing around with some of them classic Hanna-Barbera characters...I used these in THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE quite some time ago..

Scarecrow, the Master of Fear

My favorite BATMAN villain, drawn in ink, brush, and pen.

It's a Matter of Privacy

This was published in the March 19, 2010 editon of THE SALEM NEWS (Massachusetts)
a local comissioner here in Salem wanted smoking banned in public housing..something that would be both ridiculous AND impossible to enforce. The idea was rejected by the public health and safety commission in much the way described here. Common sense, if you ask me. What a person does in the privacy of his home- owned or rented-is no one else's business.

From CBG# 1665: Based On A True Story

My Latest FOR ART'S SAKE from the COMICS BUYERS GUIDE. This was kind of based on a true situation that came up recently and left me perplexed on how certain genres are classified. It also brought up the difficulty comics have as not QUITE (if at all) being accepted as "Grown-Up" material here in the US, even though in other countries, they're geared more towards adults, and by "adult", I don't mean sex, nudity, and swearing in every single panel...

Dunce

I drew this for this past Friday's edition of the SALEM (MA) News. seems in order to raise fundslost to budget cuts one Peabody school is selling ice cream "A La Carte". But unfortunately this goes against the city school administration's plans to sell strictly HEALTHY foods due to the high rate of obesity amogst children.As you see, there's been a lot of outrage and many people think it's a dumb idea..Hence the use of an ice-cream cone as a dunce-cap...
All well and good, but I hope that the parents are monitoring the eating habits of their own kids and not expecting the schools to do all the work. Another thing they can do is keep their kids from going to fast-food joints and convenience stores AFTER school, where they're more likely to gorge themselves because they'll be so hungry from refusing the healthy stuff the school sells!

The Censor!!

Again, I'm not really sure how this one came about..At one point in my CBG FOR ART'S SAKE strips, I wanted to showcase the fact that Art WAS supposed to be a cartoonist and what kind of stuff he worked on, So I decided to try a strip-within a strip bit, much like LI'L ABNER did with FEARLESS FOSDICK (Google that, folks!) Though this would be more an original piece than a parody.
There have always been killjoys and blowhards in real life that seem to have nothing better to do than force their ideas on people who are simply minding their own business. I've encountered a few of those in real life, and plus their were the more newsworthy incidents thru the years..Anyone remember the televangelist scandals?
(Back to Google!) Folks who actually have power and influence that use it to enforce their "Do as I SAY, not as I DO" philosophies..
I guessed I was pretty pissed at one point to come up with this..I drew up a bloated figure with a huge turned-up nose..all the better to look down people on..and dressed him like a TV preacher..I decided to NOT use dialogue in the strip in order to emphasize the lenghths he would go to to force his will on others, rather than simply pontifcating. And I wanted him to suffer the consenquences of his actions. No Sympathy.
When I looked at the final results, I guess I may have been influenced by the great Antonio Phroias' SPY vs.SPY strips for MAD Magazine. But instead of one Spy victimizing the other, This guy would victimize himself..
As for the inking, I was inspired by a strip called CARMEN CRU from a French magazine called FLUIDE GLACIAL (Some of the strips were published in the US under the name FRENCH ICE) about VERY crotchety old woman And the inking had a very tonal look-almost like Walt Kelly, but with a pen instead of a brush..I think I may have overdid, though..Sometimes it's just too easy to do too much...
The first two strips were published in THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, But they upset my editor (The lovely MAGGIE THOMPSON) so much I consented her request to not publish the others-Ironically,a bit of SELF-censoring? But then again, standing up for your rights doesn't mean you should be inconsiderate of others..

Okay, Here's Something Cute!

These unpublished strips were an atempt to expand a bit on my FOR ART'S SAKE universe beyond the version I was submitting to THE COMICS BUYERS GUIDE. The little girl featured in these strips is ACRYLIC, Art's toddler sister. I don't remember how or why I came up with her, But I did like the idea of her having paintbrush pigtails.
I kind of intended thias as a spin-off geared towards younger readers, and I might have sumitted these to magazines like NICKELODEON,but no takers.

World-Weary Cynicism

Three unpublished strips which definety are NOT cutesy.

God Help Us! It's Auntie Superior!

I bet there are MANY families out there who have at least ONE relative like this!

Meet Andy, the Urban Giraffe!!

An unpublished "Funny Animal" type Strip (Yeah,RIGHT!)

Something We Should All Practice

Obviously for those with the most SECURE relationships who find it HARD TO OPEN UP their feelings. Best enjoyed with COMBINATION moves. Of course, it helps if you know which way to TURN.......Do I have a dirty mind, or what?

Frankenstein's Clown

Oh, the horror,the horror....

Well, Blow Me Down!!

Just a Popeye head I did for fun playing with my Wacom tablet.

All Bad Things Must Come To An End- The Final MA KABRE Strips!

These are the final strips from the MA KABRE syndication package I pitched several years back..I hope whoever read these enjoyed them.