On the heels of last week’s post clarifying the “Lake Of Fire” response, I thought I’d bring this one up, since a few posts regarding it made me think my full intention did not quite come across.  In some earlier strips it has been revealed the Carmen, aside from a little crush on Justin Timberlake, has a common-variety fireman fetish (I had read that fireman was rated the number one “sexiest profession”  by polled women, although that could be dated information following more closely after 911).  Here, Poncho decides to do something “nice” for Carmen (which is still a little outside of his standard parameters, so good on him for that) by bringing some local fire-dudes into her vicinity.  The hearts dancing about her face I think got mistaken for gratitude, when in fact they represented a bit of lust.  The true meaning was not lost on Chazz, who is none-too-pleased with Poncho’s birthday gift.

Holstein submitted by Amy Bromberg

Apparently this guy is “quite a cad” with attitude to spare.  Looks like he’s got Poncho’s lazy-side nailed, too.

We’ve got the design finalized, the testing line-up, the boxes ordered.  If all goes well the Poncho plush doll should be ready in about 1 month, and it’s guaranteed to be much more cute and cuddly than this advance panel shot of Poncho coming unglued (and hopefully with significantly less sweat beads).

I wonder what’s on the other side?

Here’s another interesting guest drawing, this one by Sue Binsted of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, done by hand and then put into Photoshop.  Looks like one of those epsiodes where Poncho is pitched into a parallel negative universe.  All he needs is a goatee.

A few of you who have wisely chosen to forego investing in gold or silver and instead put their money into Pooch Café originals have asked if I had any framing tips.  My expertise in this area stops the moment I finish erasing the pencil lines, but here’s a pic a fan sent me of the framing job they had done, and I’d say it’s tops.  The only tip I have is non-glare glass, which I’d guess this has.  Hope your birthday was the best, Randy.

(How can I say no to you guys?) Here’s the Sunday containing the poker panel:

Here’s a poker panel from an earlier Pooch strip where Poncho takes Fish out for a day/night on the town for his birthday. It’s an annual event which puts Fish in jeopardy every step of the way.  I never noticed this before, but it sorta looks like Hudson has 5 aces.

And here’s a shot of a poker chip set that someone had made from some of my Roy Lichtenstein-esque illustrations.

Tyson submitted by Erik Gasner of Huntington Beach, CA.

He’s got that “don’t you dare drop the end of that retractable leash” look about him.

It appears that from time to time I do a strip which, for this reason or that (and not possibly due to any failing of myself as a cartoonist), is not 100% comprehendible. The above strip seems to have fallen into that trench.  What I meant it to be was a funny and risqué commentary on one-night stands, and the attitude that they might be considered anti-Christian.  Bold territory for a dog strip on a comics page.  And look at the clashing colors on Chazz’s shirt, to boot.

So what’s happening is that after a night of excess (in this case represented inexplicably by catnip and rawhide), Poncho has awakened with hazy recollection and next to someone he rather does not care for.  Chazz’s initial response to this is in the “ah, who hasn’t made mistakes like that before?” vein, but under the withering glare of his partner he quickly turns and sells Poncho out with an over-compensatory “You’re going straight to Hell!” accusation.  Not that I know about this type of thing personally, but I have watched episodes of Melrose and a slew of movies with College students having way more fun than I had in college (I spent my time diligently learning how to draw, of course, for the benefit of you all here today).

Poncho’s back on Facebook (after being unceremoniously jettisoned) but with a “fan” page now.  Those with Facebook accounts who wish to fan up, click here or go to Facebook and search “Poncho”.  See you thar!

Brian Cahill has drawn a little Pooch Cafe poker scene here.  He’s taken a stab before at Poncho posted here in the Guest Drawings section.   This time as well he’s given us a very fun version of Boomer regarding Poncho with well-founded suspicion.  This isn’t the first time Poncho has taken an unsuccessful hand at a poker table, here’s a strip from Year One (I think even Month One) of Pooch:

Trouble brewing?

Shane Davis of Texas kindly took Poncho out for a meal…..here he is napping after stuffing himself full of refried beans and rice.  I notice the salad remains untouched!

Here’s another Dog Newman Hollywood Special!

I think I’m a tad behind the curve with this awesome bulldog, but Pooch fan Vic Bhai “from Canada” turned me on to this little dynamo.

Here’s the first appearnace of Hudson, and almost the first appearace of Gus, from back in Pooch Year One.  They both look a tad different, although Hudson is already getting burned.

I submitted a couple of ideas to MAD recently, and batted .500.  They bought one (which I better get going on, they wanna run it next issue (MAD #501)) but not the udder, this Beavertons gag.  Thought I might as well pop it up here.

Remi submitted by Jean Cunningham, Washington DC

This is Remi, the Boston Terrier, who, despite being a sweet dog, “does get a bit tenacious when it comes to chew toys.  She was born in Indiana and now currently resides in Washington DC - where she is a huge fan of Barack Obama (because he’s mostly black like her) and the Boston Celtics.”

For any of you who were Facebook friends with Poncho and were wondering why that friendship was unceremoniously revoked, the fine folks at Facebook “disabled” the Poochie One’s account.  When questioned as to why, a Facebook staff member said:

“Facebook profiles are intended for personal use by human individuals only. We do not allow users to maintain accounts on the behalf of entities that are ineligible to use the site according to these terms (such as pets, stuffed animals, etc.) If you see any profiles like these on the site, it is only because they have not yet been disabled for misuse.”

Odd, when fully half of Poncho’s 2,800 friends on Facebook were dogs, we have no idea why Poncho was singled out for a disabling.  We suspect the work of cat-lovers!  But then, we always do.

Here’s a better look at The Pooch Knight insignia that appears at the bottom of the “Why So Moochie” poster.  Eat your heart out, um, bats.

Any of you watch this show when it was on the air? I used to love it’s fantastic design, colors, and extreme facial expressions. The villains were other-worldly too, often literally. Dog never said a work, either, just screamed a lot.

Here’s a wierd look-alike from Susan (the Neon Nurse).  Writes Susan:

“While my son was fishing at the John Martin Reservoir in SE Colorado
Saturday, I was taking some pictures.  This rock on the edge of the
stilling basin looked cool set up next to the dam. When I looked at
it at home, though, I suddenly noticed that the outline kinda looked
like Poncho in profile. You can see his nose, and a mouth line…even
sort of eye spots, though they are too far forward.”

You can probably guess which upcoming Sunday this one is related too.

This idea seems to be catching on!  And we here at Pooch Cafe central will be reporting on every version we come across.

Back from the most amazing 5 day weekend ever (and not just because it was 5 days long).

On Wednesday I met with the good people at Sony for a brief meeting.  Whew!  With business taken care of it was time to have some fun!

I met up with Mark Tatulli (who was mere days away from winning best comic strip award for Lio) and some others for drinks.  On Thursday Tom Gammill – a writer on the Simpsons and creator of the hilarious comic strip The Doozies – took some of us on a tour of the Fox lot.  We had lunch with Matt Groening, David Silverman, and some other Simpsons writers, and we then got to watch Yeardley Smith recording some Lisa Simpson lines.  That night we drank at the oldest bar in Hollywood (something & Franks) on Hollywood Blvd, built in 1919 and loaded with Hollywood History (rumor has it Fred Mertz of “I Love Lucy” fame keeled over dead out front after a night of drinking.  Whether he was face down on his own Walk-Of-Fame star or not was not determined).  B-level sightings: Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s friend), Connie Stevens (!) from the old Beach movies, and some dad from a sitcom I’d never heard of.
 

The next day Lalo Alcaraz (La Cucaracha) interviewed me on his radio talk-show along with John Lovitz (who had a cold). The following days were filled with drinking and swimming and seminars.  JJ Abrams showed up at the general meeting to ask cartoonists to put references to volunteering into their work, very solid of him.  Michael Fry and Jim Cox of Ringtales (the guys behind the short Pooch animations on YouTube) took me out for a dinner of gargantuan proportions.  Saturday night was the awards ceremony where the great Dave Coverly took home the Cartoonist Of The Year prize for Speed Bump.  A worthier recipient there never was.  Here’s a view from my hotel room window, and a pic of me and “the man with the plan”, my pal and editor John Glynn.

Sunday evening we were all cordially invited to the home (estate?  How big does a home have to be before it’s an estate?  This one has a swimming pool and a tennis court and used to be owned by Andy Griffith or Andy Griffin, can’t remember which one) of Cathy Guisewite, who does the strip “Cathy”.  By this point my body was screaming for vitamins and chicken soup, so I ignored it and went drinking with the cartoonist crew for one more night.  I love the whole gang, this annual event has become like a family reunion, except a family where you like everyone and they’re all hilariously funny.  Inspirational in every way.

Nothing major to report, just continuing to work on new versions of the treatment and getting feedback from the producer, and will be meeting with some of the Sony folks again while in L.A. for the Reubens.  Above is a bit of art from the initial story proposal.   Did everybody see Sony’s Surf’s Up, btw?  I know it got burried in the Penguin avalanche when it came out (March of, Farce of, Happy Feet, Madagascar, etc), but if haven’t seen it check it out, it’s up there with Pixar’s best work.

Just a rough for an unrelated job I’m working on.  Deadlines galore, leaving for Hollywood on Wednesday for the Reuben award weekend.  I can already hear my liver wimpering.

The latest guest drawing continues with the theme of creating Poncho outside the parameters of pen and ink. Carlos Mejia gives us: the dirty-window Poncho.  Appropriate, since dogs are so often responsible for window smears of their own.