Out With the Old, In With More of the Same...

Have a tolerable New Year. I'm Not sure if "Happy" could be considered on the roster these days...

Versions of this cartoon also appeared in the 12/31/2011 SALEM NEWS and the 01/01/2012 edition of the DIGBOSTON website.

I Wish He Could Do That To the Upcoming Presidential Campaign as Well...

Published in the SALEM (MA) NEWS 12/23/2011.

On the First Day of Xmas, My True Love Said 'Mee-Mee"....

A Muppet Xmas drawing I did for the Scandivaian Muppet Art Blog..

Sporting, Eh, Wot?

Published in the SALEM (MA) NEWS 12/21/2011:
Myopia, a very posh and Wealthy 84-acre hunting club in Hamilton is applying for Chapter 61: a tax break applied to forests, agriculture, and recreation. Of course, it wouldn't be any coincidence that Myopia also happens to be the biggest taxpayer towards Hamilton's town budget, would it? It the break goes thru, the town stands to lose around $24000.00 in revenue.

Creative Characters Xmas Card #8

My eight annual Xmas card I designed and drew for the CREATIVE CHARACTERS graphic service company in Philadelphia, PA. This we took a different approach to making it: I designed the card layout, Brigid (the company head) sent me reference material to what the Buttons/icons should look like- as well as recent staff photos, and i produced HAND-DRAWN versions of every one of those icons and faces -at a much larger size than you see on the final card-(The faces themselves were 3.5" squares!)drew the Ipad with the hands and the Ipad screen background seperately from each other, than the talented folks at CC took all my artwork, made high-quality reductions of each piece, and assembled the whole thing digitally, with a few added embelleshments. I have to say the thing came out quite good!

Christmas and Comics Marketing:

My FOR ART'S SAKE published in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE#1685.

The Salem News: In Lieu:

Published in the SALEM (MA) News 12/09/2011:
An alternate method of raising charity during the holiday season was put into practice..To a degree..

Who Talks For Who?

A mild comment on the use of religion in politics. Used in the DIGBOSTON website 12/10/2011.

Black Friday

Two takes on Black Friday:
The first was published in THE SALEM NEWS 11/23/2011. The character BTW, is Marla from Norm Feuti's syndicated RETAIL comic strip. When I came up with this idea, I couldn't resist using her!
The second is from the DIGBOSTON website. Published 11/20/2011.

Good Luck, And Thanks For All The Fish Fights

This appeared in THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1865 Published Nov.2011 but cover-dated Jan.2012.
A special tribute cartoon to the retirement of ALBERT UDERZO, co-creator/artist of the classic French series ASTERIX THE GAUL. Mr. Uderzo, in my opinion, had a art style that made him the French equivalent of Walt Kelly, which was the perfect complement to the scripts of Rene Gosginny, who wrote the series until his death.
Uderzo, who always had a hand in the plotting, shouldered the burden of both artist and writer after the passing of Gosginny, Although there is much debate on the story quality of his solo albums, there is no doubt that at least the art and the characterizations stayed top-notch, and albums like THE GREAT DIVIDE and ASTERIX AND SON are standouts. And I have to admire his courage in trying to pull off ASTERIX AND THE FALLING SKY. Which embodies the only major complaint I had about the Uderzo-only albums. Gosginny would very, VERY rarely touch on magical elements outside of the Druid Getafix's Magic potion (the reason why the Gauls were able to hold off the Romans) Uderzo tended to go off too much into fantasy - magic carpets, and a visit to Atlantis(which had a flying cow) which, while fun to look at, seemed little more than an easy plot device.
Now in his eighties, Uderzo is retiring and grooming one of his assistants and a new writer to carry on the adventures of the Crazy Gauls. It'll be interesting to see how this new era for the series starts.

Seems Like We All Could Use Some These Day..

My contribution to the 11/13/2011 edition of the DIGBOSTON website.

East Coast Halloween

Published in THE SALEM (MA) NEWS 11/01/2011.
For those you on the East Coast who endured the weather this past Halloween...

DigBoston: Halloween

Halloween In Boston can take many forms.
(from the 10/29/2011 edition of THE DIGBOSTON website.)

Salem News: Occupy Salem?

Published in the SALEM (MA) NEWS 10/27/2001.
The protest group OCCUPY WALL STREET is planning to make a presence here in Salem.
Maybe they should wait for AFTER the Halloween season, though...

For Art's Sake: Service To Service

My latest FOR ART'S SAKE strip from THE COMICS BUYERS GUIDE #1684:The choice between major or indepentdent comics is turning more into local or long-distance...

SALEM NEWS: Steve Jobs.

Published 10/20/2011 in THE SALEM (MA) NEWS.
I drew this cartoon last week, But my editor decided to save it to use in a tribute aticle that was printed today. For this cartoon, I tried to imply a similarity between Steve Jobs and Issac Newton, two men whose most amazing acomplishments came from apples.

DIGBOSTON: Cursors

Published on the DIGBOSTON website 10/09/2011. As you see, I enjoy puns. Even bad ones.

Salem News: Flood Relief

Published in the SALEM (MA) NEWS 10/08/2001:

We recently had a two-hour deluge that dropped at least six inches of rain. Though Salem only suffered minor flooding, Lower-landed cities such as Peabody and Swampscott (apt name, eh?) ended looking like leftover sets from WATERWORLD. The Timing of the deluge, given how the different cities will deal with the aftermath, inspired this cartoon.

For ART'S Sake: Collecting Methods

My FOR ART'S SAKE strip as published in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE#1683.

Art Imitates Life: Values

My DIGBOSTON cartoon for 09/25/2011.
This may be a bit over the top, visually. But it seems the real reason these moral practioners are so much against gay marriage simply because they can't figure out who subjugates who. To them, Marriage is legalized slave-owning plus benefits.(As in benefits HIM..)

Salem News: Winter Market

Published 09/24/2011 in the SALEM (MA) NEWS;
There are some advantages to having a Farmer's market in the wintertime. (The small shelters that make up the marketplace in Salem have no utilities..)

If I Didn't Have One LAST Week, I'm Having One Now...

My DIGBOSTON website cartoon for 09/18/2001.

Tin Woodsman and the Scarecrow

I can't say I'm an OZ enthusiast, but I decided to try an interpetation of two of the series' best known characters, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. I tried to visualize them differently than most Oz fans/followers are used to. No funnel hat on Nick Chopper here! I also tried to depict the scarecrow as having his stuffing sag down inside him from attempting to support himself so much. I doubt a straw man would have much of a framework.

09/11/01:Ten Years

Never forget. My 9/11 tribute cartoon; used in both SALEM NEWS and DIGBOSTON.

Well, It Worked For John Byrne..

Another comics portfolio piece using Hanna-Barbera characters, this time from the series WHEELIE AND THE CHOPPER BUNCH. (in case you don't understand the entry title, Some of Comics Artist John Byrne's first pro work was for the WHEELIE comic book published by Charlton, and since he went from that to heights as FANTASTIC FOUR and SUPERMAN, couldn't hurt to try myself...

Hong Kong Phooey

This is an old portfolio piece I did for a DC comics portfolio review at a convention. DC was publishing Hanna-Barbera characters comics (BESIDES Scooby-Doo) then and since my style goes towards more humor than superhero I thought i'd try out with a few pieces based on the cartoon properties. Maybe it was a mistake, but I decided to go with different characters than the usual Scooby/Flintstones stuff.
Here's a single-page sample of HONG KONG PHOOEY; Written and drawn by me.

Looney Tunes

The above piece (click to see full image) is actually a tryout I did for Warner/DC's LOONEY TUNES comics several years back. They sent me a two-page sample script and I had to do one page penciled, one page inked. I drew them twice as big as a normal comic book page in order to get the characters looking as good as possible. (Plus, I wanted to add a lot of visual bits that were NOT in the script, Like Taz coughing up Pinky and the Brain, and the Warner Bros. (and sis) being chased by Ralph the Guard)
I thought it was a pretty good try myself, though I admit I'm no Jones/Freling/Clampett/Avery.

Don't Take the Bait

For the DIGBOSTON website for 09/04/2011. And no, I did NOT have a wet dream...

Salem News: The Winning Hand

Published in THE SALEM (MA) NEWS 08/27/2011:
Casino gambling in Massachusetts is coming close to being a reality as more and more representatives turn out to be in favor of it.

Coyotes In Salem

Unused SALEM NEWS cartoon.
As it says, Coyote sightings in Salem have increase along with reports of missing cats. Easy to make that connection, eh? I'm sure my vision of what's been happening was one reason that my cartoon was rejected. (Maybe I should have used ALF)

For Art's Sake: The Name Game

My latest FOR ART'S SAKE strip from THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1682;
I can understand many Superheroes from different companies having similar powers (Compare Mr. Fantastic to Plastic Man, Aquaman to Sub-Mariner, and how many Bulked-up brutes have we seen with colossal strength? But NAMES?? The original CAPTAIN MARVEL seen here has to call his books "SHAZAM" since Marvel Comics started their OWN Captain Marvel" (The kid with his head off is called "Captain Marvel," too..HIS SHTICK was that he was an android that could seperate his body parts when he yelled "SPLIT!") some time after Fawcett cancelled their series and was restarted by DC..But to let ARCHIE get away with their own DOCTOR DOOM? I guess adding the "MAD" makes all the difference...
Maybe I should have colored this, in case anyone doesn't get the joke about THE THING looking "like Archie Andrews' Toupee"...

Salem News: Duck, Goose! Duck!

Published in the SALEM (MA) NEWS 08/24/2011:
The "Available resources" mentioned above is the actual World War II Army tank that's prominently displayed in the center of Hamilton's Patton Park. I'm sure Republicans/teabaggers would have no problem using tax money like this..After all, anything that involves weaponry seems to get all- and more the money it wants (except in the case of better protecting our soldiers!)

And just in case anyone reading this blog is wondering about my political leanings, I'm Independent! There's enough blame to go around for EVERYONE to share!

Salem News: Dumpster Dividends

Published in THE SALEM (MA) NEWS 08/16/2011:
There've been a recent state of trash dumpsters- huge, 20 foot ones- being stolen,
and then repainted, disguised, and then resold or rented to unsuspecting people.
One guy even had like 20-30 hidden on his lot at one point..I found it kind of absurd how someone would go to so much trouble to an oversize trash can in order to make a few bucks..Then it hit me how I could combine a LOCAL issue with a NATIONAL issue..

Ten Years of ToughPigs

As anyone who reads this blog can guess, I'm an avid MUPPETS fan, and have been involved in Muppets fandom since the introduction of MUPPETZINE in 1992. Since then, I've done logos,comics, and sundry illustrations for MUPPETZINE, and continued on when MUPPETZINE was converted into the website TOUGHPIGS in 2001.
From Danny Horn to Joe and Ryan, TOUGHPIGS is still going strong today, with its never-ending stream of news, reviews, articles, and interviews, wich both keep the magic and memory of Jim Henson's work alive and continues to make me proud to be a muppet fan..We may not be as vocal or visible as the STAR TREK and STAR WARS crowds, but we're there...and no less weirder.
The artwork above is my contribution to a special anniversary page showcasing artists who've done Muppet artwork in the past, in both fandom and professional channels. All of them with their own unique view! You can see the entire page at:
http://www.toughpigs.com/tp10-art/

DigBoston: Standard & Poor

My DIGBOSTON website cartoon for 08/14/2011..
This one seems kinda obvious, doesn't it? I can bet I'm not the only one who thought of this joke...

A Pleasant Surprize

It isn't often that when the local newspaper devotes its entire editorial page to one single issue and used the cartoon you drew (and thought was rejected) as the headliner.
Forgive the choppiness of the image: I had to combine this from multiple scans because entire page was too big for the machine to do at once.

It's Not easy To Go Green When You Have To Go Brown..

My latest from the 08/07/2011 edition of DIGBOSTON'S SUNDAY COMICS PROJECT website. Gawd, I must have been in SOME mood..

An Alternative To The Previous Post....

When I decided to do a SALEM NEWS cartoon about the stink over the air turbine plans, I actually came up with TWO ideas. I decided to draw up the both of them and let my editor Nelson K. Benton decide which one he wanted to use. (If any)
He chose the one you saw in the last post. He even added a title,"Two Lips and Hot Air" In the print edition of the paper. (For some reason, the SALEM NEWS website doesn't use the cartoons online.)
The cartoon above is the alternate version. Seeing it now, it seems to come off a little too obvious, which is probably why he preferred the second one.

Salem News: Two Lips and Hot Air

Published in the Salem (MA) News edition 08/05/2011.
The latest stink here is the city wants to put up a huge wind turbine in the Winter Island Area. a public meeting the other night turned into a huge melee with tempers rising and people walking out.
Basically, many of the residents don't want it. citing that it would be noisy, dangerous, unsafe for the kids, and deadly to birds.
I do respect the residents for their right to dissent, but I can't see the harm there would be.
Unsafe for the kids? Couldn't the parents just make sure they keep away from the thing? And wouldn't it AT LEAST be fenced off in the FIRST PLACE?
Deadly to birds? I would think MOST birds would have the instinct to keep away from a rapidly spinning object in the first place. More birds get done in from flying into clear glass windows than an obstacle they can clearly SEE.
Noise? How noisy can a turbine be? It doesn't even spin under its own power! The Shaugnessy Hospital used to have TWO wind turbines and even at full blow, they weren't that loud! Considering the noise I hear outside MY neighborhood.. traffic and drunken people shouting and cursing at two in the morning, I'd rather have the chupa-chupa of the turbine! And given winter island ALREADY gets its share of Traffic from tourism, the rowdy crowds, and the Salem Willows, you'd think a turbine would be soothing by COMPARISON!!
I think they're being a bit too picky here. If they don't want it in their neighborhood, fine. But to say not to put it anywhere at ALL...
I am NOT an enviromental extremeist. I'm not saying it's going to solve all our energy problems. but the time may come when we will definetly have to start implementing other sources of energy. (I'm sure once the big oil companies find out a way to make us pay for wind and sunlight, these projects will REALLY get started) Other countries have already started to some degree..I thought the US was supposed to be AHEAD in matters like these! It just shames me that like the war between Obama, the GOP, and the Teabaggers, all everyone is doing is yelling like spoiled children until they get their way. No compromise. No cooperation.
"Go Green..But not in MY Backyard" They say in their "Samart Phones" as they drive their "Smart Cars"
Though it doesn't seem anyone is being too smart these days..

Salem News: Pavlog's Dog

Published in the 07/29/2011 Edition of THE SALEM (MA) NEWS
I can't say I've really understood the tax holiday..To ,me it just seems another smoke and mirrors ploy to seperate us from our money..
But isn't it amazing how wired we are to react to certain terms? Just watch if the stores and all don't RAISE prices 6.5% on those days..But then again,it's still cheaper, the point is WE'RE NOT PAYING THE TAX, RIGHT?
It's no wonder the assholes get away with so much in this country..

It's not the heat, it's the- Never mind,it IS the heat...

A little remark on our recent (and probably not last) heat wave.

For Art's Sake:Death of Spider- Man (And No, It Wasn't because of the Broadway Show)

Published in THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1681. And coincidentally, today is preview night of the 2011 COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL. Have a great time those of you who could go!

Salem News: NEA Refusal

Published in THE SALEM (MA) NEWS 07/12/2011.
The National Endowment For the Arts recently refused the city of Salem a $100,000
grant in order to redesign the Essex Street Mall. The downtown's main shopping area.
In a way I feel like a backstabber. After all, I too have artistic inclications, and I'm sure the NEA does support a lot of worthy endeavours, but still, some of the stuff I've heard they've support makes me cringe. I mean, an artist had to get funding to make a work smeared in FECES?
I never claim to be an art critic or judge of art. But thru my years of art school and personal experience, a lot of art seems to rely more on the shovel than the paintbrush..
But then again, why would I be "Qualified" to judge, since Cartoonists aren't considered "Real" artists...
Though I do admit there's a LOT of comics and cartooning that makes me cringe, as well...
But the biggest question I just realized..Does the NEA consider Architectural design art? Wht else would it even consider designing a MALL??

The Boston Dig: 07/10/2001

My latest for the BOSTON DIG'S SUNDAY COMICS PROJECT. As you may notice, I finally came up with a regular title for my cartoons. Be kind to animals.

Salem News: Science and Ethics

Published in the SALEM (MA) NEWS 07/07/2011;
Scientists from one business use its information to start their own rival business..
Given the field is DNA research and such...well...I suppose if they ever do a merger, they'd call it genetic splicing..

Salem News: At Long Last.....

Published in THE SALEM (MA) NEWS 06/25/2001;
THe FBI finally caught Boston gangster "Whitey" Bulger. I figure I could have used a variation of this gag here on Bin Laden, But Laden was only in hiding since 2001. Bulger's been hiding since 1997. I guess for the next few weeks or so, now, we're gonna hear about news reports that sound like "Sopranos" episodes.

Salem News: Bruins Take The Cup

Published in THE SALEM (MA) NEWS 06/17/2011.
Congrats to the Boston Bruins who went all Grizzly on Vancouver and Brought home the Stanley Cup. They actually used this cartoon as an illo to a small paragraph on the editorial page congratulating the team and the fact that Boston sports teams have dome to amazingly the past several years. All well and good, but did they have to SHRINK MY CARTOON DOWN TO NEAR ILLEGIBILTY?? So to any NEWS readers who may not have noticed the cartoon in the paper, here it is at its intended size. Ah,the newspaper business..(Not that i'm complaining I'm being published..!)

Salem News: I See The Light

Published in THE SALEM (MA) NEWS 06/15/2011.
The intersection of Congress and Derby Streets has been one of the busiest (and dangerous) intersections in the city for YEARS, but yet NEVER HAD A TRAFFIC LIGHT.
This past week, one was finally installed, surprizing many drivers long used to the status quo.

For Art's Sake: At the Pearly Gates

My latest FOR ART'S SAKE strip from THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1680.
This episode was inspired by the recent much publicized death of Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, In Marvel's FANTASTIC FOUR comics. What WOULD happen if they let a guy that turns into fire in HEAVEN?