Archive for April, 2008
Boomer Look-Alike
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Look at those Boomer ears!
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Climber submitted by Susan (the Neon Nurse)
Wow, another great Boomer (we shan’t let climber’s missing Y chromosome get in her way). Climber is part Border Collie and part Australian Cattle Dog (aka Blue Heeler) and comes equipped with the standard Border Collie ‘tude. Wonder if she stacks sheep?
Postcard
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Just another postcard I did for Sharper.
Look What 3D Man Did
Sunday, April 27th, 2008Nah, sorry, can’t put pics up of myself as a tot, but here’s an embarrassing picture of 3D man, the hero that started it all:
And here are a few sketches of superheroes I did for Penny Publications recently for the covers of Sudoku books, “one Captain America type, one Wonder Woman type, and one Aquaman type.”
My Path To Syndication, PART 1
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008I was one of those fortunate few who knew what they wanted to do from a ridiculously tender age. My mom kept one of those kid scrapbooks where you put your report card and embarrassing class photo and filled in questions about your achievements (“learned that peeing outside was socially unacceptable”) and dreams of future employment. Once I’d gotten past my ambition to become an astronaut (lack of 20-20 eyesight, terror of being any higher off the ground than halfway up the monkey bars) I started answering “artist”.
In grade two I was in one of those split-classes, and a kid a year older than me and I bonded at recess over Mad Magazine. We’d sit and draw from Don Martin cartoons and impress the girls (I didn’t know much about girls at this point, only that impressing them felt important and doing so through sports or other more traditional male methods was proving impractical).
The “Path To Syndication” takes an approximate 25 year break here, diverted by a three-pack of Marvel comics I picked up containing a Hulk, a Thor, and sandwiched in the middle some hapless hero called The 3D Man (they always stuck some piece of junk in the middle that they knew nobody would ever buy on purpose. Why would they even make a comic about 3D Man? He looked like a joke and his only power was that he was 3 times as strong as a regular guy. 3 times?? The Hulk was, like, 500 times). Here’s the cover of the Hulk comic that was in the three-pack that changed my life.
And so I plunged into the world of superhero comics for the duration of grade school. All I wanted to do was draw for Marvel. Perhaps some of this influence is visible still in Pooch Café.
One of the advantages of knowing at such a young age that I wanted to pursue a career that required very little academic achievement was that all I needed was a 60% average and a grade 12 diploma to get to art college, so skimming by on basket-weavers became my elective in high-school. I also learned that any assignment you handed in, no matter how mediocre, would jump one grade if it were accompanied with artwork (teachers are bored as hell reading reports on fault lines or Merchant Of Venice and welcome any break in the flow of regurgitation on student pages no matter how inappropriate). I confided this juicy information to Sandra Bell-Lundy’s 12 year-old son on the sly when she told me he wanted to be a cartoonist and bade him keep this nugget secret, but he wasted no time telling his mom that Paul told him he didn’t have to try hard at school anymore and got me in trouble with Sandra, the little rat.
My parents, bless them, were accommodating of my lack-luster grades as I seemed to be genuinely obsessed with my chosen path of drawing hyper-radiated megalomaniacs in butt-hugging spandex. I had convinced them through years of dedicated dynamic drawing that a knowledge of algebra and the digestive system of frogs was not relevant where I was going. It was no small surprise to them, and to myself as well, when I arrived at art college and began to flunk.
Next: No Art School For Old Superheroes
Tar-Gor!
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Latest Doggie Look-Alike…
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Maggie Mae submitted by Myrl Shearon
Tar-Gor! (with some of the tar washed off). This post Tar-Gor Poo Poo also goes by the name of “Magnolia Fern” (when she gets into “mischief”) because, as her owner notes, all southern belles have two names.
The Beavertons
Monday, April 21st, 2008
One of the semi-regular features I do for Mad is a panel titled (by Mad editor Jon Bresman) “The Beavertons”. It stemmed from a this single gag I submitted, which I first used in the weekly panel I did for a while when I worked at a newspaper, and after it ran Mad asked if I wanted to keep coming up with more gags involving these intrepid rodents. Above, though, is the debut.
Pooch Acetate Print
Friday, April 18th, 2008
The first Pooch Cafe acetate cell print is now ready through Lasermach. It’s 8 x 12, mounted in a blue matte with a metallic title medallion. Price: $34. Being printed on acetate enhances the colors dramatically over regular paper prints and gives it much greater depth and vibrancy.
Newest Doggie Look-Alike
Friday, April 18th, 2008
Diet Poncho.
Friday, April 18th, 2008
Russ submitted by Marc Bergeron.
He hails from Montreal, Canada. Looks like Poncho after a year on the Ab-Master.
How I Get Strip Ideas
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008I got an e-mail the other day from regular Pooch blogger Benjaminlinus wondering something that seems to come up fairly regularly: if I can shed any light on where the ideas for Pooch storylines come from. As he noted the blog itself seems to have provided a few concepts lately, from the laser eye surgery I myself underwent (Hudson got laser nose surgery) to the series with Poncho and what turned out to be Carmen’s sister’s baby. (I’ve got a few other ideas still jotted in margins based on things a few of you regulars have mentioned too).
Of course there is no easy answer to this. One thing I can say for certain, almost never do ideas for jokes come from funny things that were said in the real world. For some reason no matter how hard my friends and I laugh at jokes very rarely can I translate any of them into a strip. When I try these are almost invariably the strips my editor John Glynn responds to with an “I don’t get it.” There are a few exceptions, such as the brilliant “I don’t so much carpe diem so much as I carpe p.m.” line by girlfriend said one afternoon around 2:30.
I’ll give you a demonstration. The other day I was sitting with some friends at brunch. We were waiting for the final member of our party to arrive before ordering, and he was late. When at last he appeared he apologized, saying that he had “a monster allergy attack.” I responded, “You’re allergic to monsters?” Everyone found this funny, because it was clear that he’d used a random phrase and I had spontaneously reacted to it. But the phrase it odd enough that if I put it in the mouth of a character in panel 3 its oddness would telegraph the punch line in panel 4. Ergo, not funny.
As psycho as this may sound, the best I can describe the writing process is that I put a concept in front of my characters and they have a conversation about it and I wait until they say something funny and then snip that part out. For better or for worse I have a set of characters laid out with distinctive personalities, and therefore something like this is possible. It might make it more difficult to plug a funny idea into a world where no character in that world would plausibly say the punch line in question, (say, for example, almost any Far Side joke), but the upside is that strong characters can generate comedy without even requiring actual words (for readers familiar with the strip, anyway). If Chazz asks Poncho to go fetch the newspaper in the rain, Poncho’s look alone at Chazz might be enough to spark a laugh, because you anticipate his attitude.
As I’ve mentioned in other interviews too, I’ve tried to make Pooch Café as non-dog as a dog strip can be, partially because there are many other dog strips already, and partially for my own sanity. After 8 years it’s pretty hard to come up with another joke about detesting the mailman or drinking toilet water. So I plug in human issues. The recent story where Poncho is afraid that Chazz and Carmen are having a baby is clearly sibling rivalry. I’ve done storylines involving jealousy, ethical dilemmas, wounded pride, fear of death, all sorts of things I seriously doubt dogs are troubled by but do generate loads of comic potential. There’s nothing funnier than a character with lots of personality flaws, or one who full of bluster who receives his comeuppance (especially if it’s physical comeuppance). However, no cartoonist should ever be above a good pie-in-the-face gag.
Postcard
Monday, April 14th, 2008The Pooch Cafe postcards available through Sharper are meant for pet businesses like vets, boarders, and groomers; the minimum order number is too high for personal use. I did enjoy creating them, however. Here’s one of my faves (borrowed from a series from many moons ago).
Search Engines
Friday, April 11th, 2008Here’s a piece I did for Entertainment Weekly a few years ago. I can sort see that being Poncho in the last panel.
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Allie submitted by Sandy Summers
Sandy says she was blessed when someone left Allie in her driveway. She sure looks like Beaumont running the cafe with those glasses in front of her.
Mad Oz
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Here’s a piece I did for Mad Magazine, one of a series of movie parodies I did under the title “Jump Cut.” Even when I was a kid I always wondered: why didn’t that damn “good witch” tell Dorothy right off the bat that she had the power to go home? All that crap she went through with the evil witch, the flying monkeys, all for nothing. I’d have been pissed!
Treatment Contract
Saturday, April 5th, 2008Here’s the latest “Movie News” update. Sony has now officially hired me to do the treatment for the movie (for those who don’t know what a treatment is, it’s explained in the previous post). I pitched my treatment/vision of the Pooch Café movie to Sony along with a number (not sure what the number was) of other experienced Hollywood screenwriters. Sony told me that after reading my pitch they were sitting around relaying to each their favorite parts and laughing, which they felt was a strong indication that I was on to something and at which point they decided I might be the best candidate for the job.
The contract I’ve signed is for a complete treatment, with two rounds of revisions. Sony has made me aware that despite the fact that I’ve already submitted a working treatment that this will be no walk in the park. Meetings are being held this and next week and I’m to prepare myself for a barrage of notes and comments.
They’ve also told me to prepare for two other possible scenarios:
1: Although Sony has not yet done a “B” category CGI feature film, they’re considering Pooch for this. From what I understand, the animation is pretty much as strong as it is in an “A” category feature, it’s more a matter of really close attention to detail — say, “Finding Nemo” — which Pooch might not require, and also a matter of advertising budget. The plus side of this is that if it’s not a full, big budget feature, there won’t be as much scrutiny over every detail and making sure every joke is “PC” and lowest common denominator, which would leave more room for creative freedom.
2: It’s possible the higher-ups aren’t going to be comfortable hiring an unproven screenwriter to write the finished script. Which means even though I might come up with the story another screenwriter might step in to write the final. Obviously I’d like to get a crack at this myself, so I’ll be working hard at convincing them to give me a shot. But of course ultimately getting the best finished product is what we’re all after, however we get there.
(I Think They’re Starin’ At You…)
Friday, April 4th, 2008
Well here’s some further proof that these guys shouldn’t ever be seen from directly in front. Poncho looks bizarre; he could possibly do one of those deadpan-to-the-camera comments, but he looks even weirder with his mouth open. And his ears look strange to me pointed in different directions. Boomer’s legs and feet look like bowling pins.
To the right is a structurally accurate drawing of Poncho’s ear, in case it’s decided to animate it that way. Back when Pooch Cafe was with Copley Syndicate, they were considering putting out a stuffed Poncho, and they got a plush toy company to construct a Poncho prototype. The number of papers wasn’t high enough to create a demand that would cover the minimum 600 plush toy order, but this is how the ears were handled in 3D. The toy company required the return of the prototype. Wish I’d thought to take a snapshot of it before sending it back to Japan.
New Poncho Icons
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Here are the latest Poncho Icons. For the full set click here.
Reuben Entry 2008
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008For the comic strip category of the NCS Awards they ask entrants to submit 12 strips from the latest year. I’ve sort of gleaned that 6 dailies and 6 Sundays is probably the right way to go. Not an easy task picking your faves, it’s all so subjective. Anyhoo, below is the Pooch submission John Glynn and I came up with for this year:
