Archive for December, 2007
Happy New Year
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Here’s a strip from a few years back.
Poncho Tattoo!
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
Wow, now that’s a fan! The pressure is now even greater to not let the strip suddenly start sucking really bad. I’m told the word balloon above Poncho’s head says “The Simpsons are on,” and he’s running with grape juice in his paw. Thanks, Rob, I see Poncho sits in fine company upon your shoulder.
New Message Board
Sunday, December 30th, 2007Apologies to all those who posted on the previous, painfully ugly message board, your comments unfortunately had to go out with the bathwater. The new board is up and much more friendly.
Watterson
Thursday, December 27th, 2007
A few readers have asked me who the “Watterson” is that I refer to in the above strip. It is of course the sublime Bill Watterson, and the strip is a take on an early Calvin And Hobbes that left an impact on me lo these years gone by. The current storyline with Poncho and his sentimental plank of wood reminded me of the kid’s unapologetic personification of an inanimate object that we were all coming to understand — along with his parents. Always been one of my biggest influences, this day I merely chose to butter my sleeve with it.
Merry Christmas!
Monday, December 24th, 2007
Poncho Pups
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
‘Tis the time of year to think about one’s family, so here’s a shot of young Poncho and his brothers and sisters, (found under a rotting porch many moons ago).
Mad Jerry
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Copying Don Martin drawings out of Mad Magazine in grade two is what got me started as a cartoonist (before I discovered The Hulk and Thor in grade four). It’s been a great honor to come full circle and have some of my cartoons appear in Mad. Here’s one of ‘em.
Extra Panel
Monday, December 17th, 2007
This is a strip that will appear in about 3 weeks. It was submitted with only the first 4 panels, but when my editor John Glynn saw it he thought it would be funnier to have a 5th panel showing Chazz putting the ignoring strategy to work on Carmen. I agreed, it is funnier. But the earlier panels were too wordy to accommodate 5 panels, so it had to go out in it’s truncated form. Here for you, my blog visitors, is the full realization of my and John’s vision.
Desktop Calendar
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
Just in time for the new year! (a trait common among calendars), it’s the Pooch Café desktop calendar. Collecting never-before-published strips from the “classic” Pooch year of 2005. Available in book stores or at Amazon (click image).
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
ZIGGY (a.k.a. BUBBLES) Submitted by Sharen McLean and Mark Derraugh, Vancouver, B.C:
We just had to send you a picture of our French Bulldog, Ziggy (aka Bubbles!)….we always read Pooch Cafe. Everyday we say the same thing, “this IS Ziggy” in your cartoon! You capture her exactly! We KNEW you were describing a French Bulldog! and now it has been revealed! I attach a picture of Ziggy so that you can see how she looks exactly like Poncho! You capture the personality so closely, we thought you must know her! Good work, we love it!
Subject Matter
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007And speaking of subject matter that didn’t “make the cut”, I did a strip a while back containing the word “vasectomy”, which my editor thought might cause a stir. I’m not sure if it was because of the birth control implications or the admission that a comic strip character has anatomical parts in that area, but I respect his expertise on knowing what will set readers’ pens to scribblin’.
Poncho does gripe bitterly from time to time about having been trucked off to the vet’s office for a neutering, which would be the dog equivalent. One fan from Alaska once wrote me that he found it disappointing that cartoon animals were never depicted with anatomical correctness, and wished that – even though he realized Poncho was neutered – I would include Poncho’s “ball sack” from time to time “where appropriate.” He even went so far as to send me a link to a website where the owners of neutered dogs can purchase testicular implants (in three sizes) for dogs who may be experiencing feelings of emasculation whenever they tuck in for a lick.
Further on the subject of subject matter, I was happily surprised that the strip below didn’t cause any ripples.
My very first reference to Jesus appears in an upcoming strip. We’ll see how that one fares. And later I’ll tell you our experiences with the use of the words “freakin’” and “friggin.”
French Joke
Monday, December 10th, 2007
Looks like I made my second political joke snafu today. I really should stay away from politics, as I get most of my knowledge of the subject from Stewart and Colbert, and most of my takes on historical politics from stand-up comics. A few years ago Poncho made on off-handed Bush joke and I received some letters pointing out my lack of thorough understanding of the issues about which I was commenting. In today’s strip Poncho makes a similar off-hander about the surrendering of the French in past wars, and I’ve so far received messages from Remy Charmoz and Matthew Mikell pointing out that this is a glib summary of much more complicated events (no doubt).
I’ve never minded offending a few folks for the sake of a joke. As a matter of fact I’ve read some comic philosophies that claim it’s necessary for someone to be offended in every joke in order for it to be funny. I’m not sure I quite subscribe to that, but I do know that over-sensitivity in comic material leads to blandness. Often people will laugh when the focus is on others, but bristle when it’s pointed their way. Ken Paulson of the First Amendment Center says : “The right to tell a joke that may offend others is as critical to our way of life as it is to stand on the proverbial soapbox and raise one’s voice in protest.” Yeah, I know nobody’s putting a muzzle on me yet, in fact even my wonderful editor John Glynn – who usually weighs in on the side of caution when it comes to subject matter, due to the ease with which comics page editors will drop strips that have stirred a little fuss – let this one go through. I think it’s because jokes like the French surrender are part of the comedian lexicon, like mimes, the Hamish and Michael Jackson. It has little to do with veracity – hey, Jacko was never convicted, and I’m sure out there somewhere there is a non-irritating mime – but it’s an easy gag button.
But for the record, I do not have any negative opinions about the French, not remotely. There’s even a French word in the title of my strip. Salut!
The Gucci Chew
Saturday, December 8th, 2007While at work on the new Pooch Café collection a while back we ran into a little snag. I wanted to call the book “The Gucci Chew”, based on a strip in the book where Poncho – acting on advice from another dog – gets a bigger reaction from Carmen when he selects a designer shoe to chew on. The Universal Press legal advisors strongly recommended we not use the Gucci name in the title because:
“Gucci is a registered trademark, has been in use for many, many years, and may even rise to the level of the type of name or mark which is protected by anti dilution statutes without any showing of confusion, etc.”
I was a little surprised, after all “The Devil Wears Prada” seems to have bopped along unscathed. I even suggested the possibility of going with “The Goochie Chew”, but the legal guys stuck to their point of view. So the title was changed to “Bark To Work Legislation”, but, alas, the art for the Gucci cover was already done, so here it is:
Archie
Friday, December 7th, 2007
ARCHIE Submitted by Louise from Illinois:
I know Archie isn’t a Poncho look alike, but he loves Poncho so much, he goes as far to say he’s just Poncho inverted. You know, white for black and black for white. Yes, I know, it’s not completely factual, but I told him I’d send the photo anyway. He even allowed me to send the one where my daughter put Minnie Mouse ears on him. He’s a good sport. Actually, he’ll do anything for a treat Oh by the way, he doesn’t really have a blue eye, but since I couldn’t photoshop it out, Archie prefers to tell everyone he has x-ray vision with that one eye. Go figure!
Dog Nog
Friday, December 7th, 2007
Here’s a sketch I did for Pooch fans Dan and Karen Hraber of Rochester, NY’s labradoodles Max and Maya, hangin’ ‘round the café enjoying some x-mas cheer.
Pooch in Moscow
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
Pooch Café recently began running in the Moscow News, an English language Moscow paper. Moscow joins a list of faraway bergs about which I know little that have kindly welcomed Poncho’s antics onto their pages, such as Hong Kong, Nairobi, Seoul, Stockholm, Doha, Singapore, Dubai, Taipei, Bangkok, etc. Upon hearing the news about Moscow I quickly realized the very day it was to start running was the very day I had used the word “communist” in the strip. I have no idea how sensitive the subject is to the citizens of Moscow these days, but I can’t quite imagine everyone has laughed off the previous 50 years entirely, and I wondered if my strip would be in and out faster than Superman at a 7-11. Seems to be okay thus far.
Poncho the Alligator
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
In the words of my editor, “Finally a tough Poncho.”
New Book
Saturday, December 1st, 2007
The new Pooch Café book is out! It’s called “BARK TO WORK LEGISLATION”, and it’s available through the online publish-to-order company Lulu.com. It’s a compilation of uncollected strips from a few years back including the series in which Poncho leads the dogs on a walk-out to demand more food and remote control privileges. (Apologies for the fuzzy quality of the preview pages at Lulu.) Cheers!