Archive for August, 2008
Um, like, woof
Saturday, August 30th, 2008Someone asked how I chose between “Woof”, “Bark”, “Arf”, “Yap”, etc. I replied that I thought “Woof” was the most standard and the most versatile. You can say “WOOF!!” loud and menacingly, but also quietly, under-the-breath, giving it a sly, coy feel. “Arf” is for small dogs, and “Yap” is reserved for being purposefully annoying to show displeasure with a stupid hat or the state of a water dish.
And there’s one more that’s rarely seen these days: the good ol’ “Bow wow.” Dogs just don’t say that anymore, do they?
Pooch Books
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
Loyal Pooch fan Daniel of the U.K. has alerted me to the outlandish case of the artificially inflated market prices of currently out-of-stock Pooch Café collections. According to my publisher the books have fallen into a vexing and perplexing state of limbo where they’ve “sold through their first printings, but there aren’t enough backorders at this point to warrant a reprint.” So they’ve sold well enough to sell out but not quite well enough for a second run to be ordained. This has resulted in some optimistic opportunism kicking in: the cheapest copies sold via third-party Amazon vendors are ticketed at 46€ used, or 178€ new. For those of you who don’t have Euro currency converters, that translates into an amount of: $Ridiculous.
Has anyone actually shelled out that? I’d say please don’t, but I think it’s safe to assume nobody would, although I’m sort of curious how they arrived at a price of 19.7 times the original going rate. Perhaps they think I’ve died. Perhaps I should watch my back. At any rate, there has been some hints that the Sony movie interest may get the books back in print. But for now, hold tight to the books you’ve got, if I mysteriously wind up face down in a river they may move you to a bigger house!
“Bark To Work Legislation” remains readily available through Lulu.com.
Painting Poncho?
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
Last month I posted a painting that I did a while back, and here’s another. Someone asked me once if I did any paintings of Poncho and my immediate reaction was “duhh…no”, like the two mediums would be impossible bed mates. But the idea always stuck with me, and I recently saw some art in Juxtapoz magazine that split the difference nicely and re-inspired me. So I’m going to try to do a few Poncho paintings and see how they come out. Check back here for results.
“Best Enemy”
Monday, August 25th, 2008It is certainly not the policy here at virtual Pooch Café to post PICTURES of the ENEMY, but we’re making an exception in this case for loyal blogger Archie and his owner Lulu, who’s cat Oliver (below) won the Chicago Sun-Times “Top Cat Contest”. All cats look alike to us, but apparently Oliver’s tale of survival (he was found on an expressway with no claws, 106 fever, and a thriving playground of worms, fleas and parasites) won them over. So here he is. Enjoy. But please, don’t’ start sending pictures of mailmen or vacuum cleaners. We’ve got our limits.
New Poncho Icons
Sunday, August 24th, 2008
Check ‘em!
Time Of The Month
Friday, August 22nd, 2008It’s surprising sometimes – and by sometimes I mean often – what I can’t get away with on the comics page. Words and concepts that have been bandied about on primetime television for decades still get the big stone-walling on this final hold-out of Victorian-era thinking. The Simpsons, etc, employ a litany of words such as “ass”, “damn” and “bitch” that are denied me here at the P-Caf. I heard somewhere that Mark Tatulli was urging all cartoonists to join a campaign to put “sucks” the comics map, (have I used that word? I can’t remember). I couldn’t even have Poncho contemplate the meaning of the word “Goldmember”, although it was on posters and televisions all across the land.
Now a lot of these decisions are made not by the papers but by us (myself and the syndicate). We can put things in there and the newspaper might choose not to run the strip that day. Or they might run it and receive “angry letters” (the Krytonite of comic strips) and decide to stop running the strip entirely. We’re dealing with an area where the super(over?)-sensitive call the shots. So even though we all know what “poop” is, we can’t say it on the comics page.
All that said, I still try to move the boundary a millimeter at a time whenever possible, if only so that future generations my enjoy a good “boob job” gag during their morning read. To that end (and hopefully to a funny end as well) I used this “time of the month” joke you saw recently, and we were surprised that it seems to have gone through without the roof collapsing. Pooch Café busts through another barrier!! (can I say “busts”?)
Movie “Template”
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008Well the initial response from one of the higher levels of brass regarding the Pooch treatment has turned out to be less troubling than it initially seemed. The comment had not so much to do with the plot but the marketing catch. I’ve learned that animated movies are often given a “template”, which is a way for everyone involved to grasp the concept quickly and easily; for example, Chicken Run was “The Great Escape with chickens”. So far everyone seems to like the character-driven style of the Pooch world, which is great, but what they need to feel more comfortable is a clearer marketing angle. As we all know a quality movie without a catchy promo can still wind up tanking at the box office (say, Iron Giant), and vice versa (say, Wild Wild West).
Mad Mew
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Mew submitted by Karen Terenzi
Mew is a 12 year old cat that thinks she’s a dog. She comes running when the door opens, and mooches like Poncho (but only for white cheddar popcorn and ice cream). She won’t wear costumes as proudly as a dog does though. Love the color. And look at that death stare. I wouldn’t want to try to get this kitty into a catapult.
Carmen Unimpressed
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
For some reason I just really love the look on Carmen’s face in this shot. Says it all.
Ringtales Sketches
Friday, August 15th, 2008
The first Ringtales animated short is coming along nicely. I’m not able to put up any advance look at it of course (better for everyone to wait till the product is all finished up nice. One of the issues so far has been animating Poncho walking, as he doesn’t really have legs. Above is a little visualization on my part of how it might look, as well as the all important Poncho grimace.
Dog-las Fir
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Here’s another advance panel from an upcoming Sunday I kinda like. I never know how to handle drawing trees, I seem to switch around on how I handle the bark and the leaves. This is my tree style of the moment. Sorry ’bout the bad pun in the title.
Taking The Bat Bait
Monday, August 11th, 2008
I recently came across an internet poll asking who would win a fight between Batman, Iron Man and The Hulk. I think it was on some movie-related site, the question being obviously geared towards heroes that star in their own movies. There was a fourth choice, which was “I don’t know”. I remarked to my girlfriend about how slow a person’s day would have to be to bother logging in just to register a vote of “I don’t know.” She asked me who really would win between Batman, Iron Man and The Hulk. I said “Hulk, of course, easy, he’s pretty much unbeatable, the madder he gets the stronger he gets. The only one who could maybe beat him would be Thor, since he’s sort of a god.” My girlfriend enjoyed this immensely. She said she was hoping for a geek answer but this answer surpassed all her expectations.
Poncho Look-alike
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
George, submitted by Paul
An Italian Greyhound and Poncho Look-alike, apparently likes making friends with cats. We here are Pooch Cafe do not approve.
My Path To Syndication, PART 2: No Art School For Old Superheroes
Thursday, August 7th, 2008I’d heard that all you needed grade-wise to get into art school was a grade 12 with a 60% average, which I accomplished by taking the easiest courses I could get away with and dropping out of any classes I couldn’t pass without studying. It is not necessary to not study to become a cartoonist, it’s just the path I took. I spent the extra time drawing superheroes and submitting samples to comic book companies.
So it was that I arrived at the age of 17 for the interview at the Ontario College of Art with a portfolio full of drawings of Thor, Hulk, and Captain America. Much to my surprise this was not considered to be “art”. My “fall back” was Animation at Sheridan College. This pre-dated The Little Mermaid’s rekindling of the animation biz, a time when one could still walk into Sheridan’s animation program with a drawing of a cup and saucer with passable elliptical perspective.
This wasn’t really the program for me, though. Granted I had a few great teachers who introduced me to things like life drawing (it’s quite an eye-opener the first time a model gets naked in front of you and your fellow teenagers… it’s funny to see all these drawings of a male nude that slowly blur away into nothingness around the genital area) and line control, etc.. But the monotony of repeating the same drawing over and over with only the slightest variation in order to produce after weeks of work a 2 second film clip of a bouncing ball was much too painstaking for an impatient person like myself. I knew halfway through the first year that I’d meant to take Illustration instead of Animation.
So for my second year of college (still too young to attend any college socials involving alcohol) I switched over to Illustration at the other campus, still bent on superheroing my way to stardom. But many of the classes seemed designed to steer me away from my Fantastic Four destiny. I was forced to learn things like letter forms, color theory, photography, wood-cutting, litho prints, and a course called “Research Drawing” taught by a bizarre hillbilly-esque man who gave us assignments along the lines of “place the lima bean on the blank page. Now put your index finger on the bean, close your eyes, and move it around the page until it feels “right”.”
Now all of these classes (with the possible exception of lima bean pushing) were of definite value to my growth as an artist, but I couldn’t see that at the time. I met another kid who was just as enthusiastically uninterested in these things, and together we clowned around, skipped classes, handed in shoddy assignments, and wrote and drew our own comic books (one was called Phlebitis Man, about a guy who dosed himself with chemicals and attached a lightening rod to his head during a thunderstorm thinking he would be endowed with the power to run fast a la The Flash, but instead just got a severe case of vein inflammation… man, I wish I had a copy of that comic now). My parents, who had been supportive because of my hitherto one-tracked mind, were speechless when I got a report card full of Ds. My pal and I discussed dropping out and going to take film-making at another school. I actually went so far as to fill out an application before I came to my senses: wait a minute, doing art is all you’ve wanted to do since you were 8 years old, and people who try to become film directors in Toronto end up becoming doormen. I had to get back to art school and start drawing my pants off (figuratively).
Next: Step Aside, Thor
Mickey Pooch
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Funny somebody should mention Poncho and Mickey Mouse (okay, I mentioned it, but Archie hypothesized Poncho’s opinion of the well-regarded rodent). The subject came up in a question about the legal pitfalls of using other people’s characters. Disney is reputed to be on the front line of litigiousness, so I had to run my idea of dressing Poncho up like Micky for a Sunday side-panel by my syndicate. There was some humming and hawing, but it was decided that since he was just standing there not doing anything particularly offensive we could possibly get away without the Disney lawyers coming to take our houses. Here’s hoping we’re right.
Bat Dog
Monday, August 4th, 2008
Coinciding nicely with a certain box-office busting movie that’s out right now, MountainFreshScent has sent in this unidentified pooch he found while trolling for Halloween costumes. KA-FLANG!!
Bat Poncho!
Monday, August 4th, 2008
Coinciding nicely with a certain box-office busting movie that’s out right now, MountainFreshScent has sent in this unidentified pooch he found while trolling for Halloween costumes. KA-FLANG!!
Guest Drawings
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
Another new section: Guest drawings! Over the years some fans have sent me drawings of Pooch characters, and it’s always fun to see other takes on the guys. This here’s a Poncho gesture doodled by my little cousin that I went over with a magic marker.
Poncho Post-Op
Friday, August 1st, 2008Here, by popular demand, some of the strips following Poncho’s night of pre-surgery jitters. Nothing terribly revelatory, just survival and, of course, the infinitely hilarious dog-cone (the Rosetta Stone of dog comic-strips) which I run with a for another week after. 