Archive for September, 2008
Poncho In Venezuela!
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008LECHERIA, VENEZUELA
Poncho takes his first plane ride and winds up on the beaches of Lecheria, Venezuela, courtesy of Carolina Aristimuno. Below are pics of him sunning himself at Cerro-del-Morro (”Hill”); in front of an International-Award-winning-building (designed by famous Venezuelan Architect Fruto Vivas); City Sculpture by Dimitrios Demu; the main entrance of the Dimitrios Demu Museum; Playa-Muerta (”The Dead Beach”), and checkin’ out the view of the city.
Guest Drawing
Monday, September 29th, 2008
Here’s a slick little representation sent in by Brian Cahill. Nice!
Poo Poo using up one of his 15 minutes
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
Apparently the Poo Poo panel featured on this here blog thing last month sparked some interest with the Discovery Channel’s production company. The called to license the strip (above) in an upcoming episode of “Dogs 101″, as well as a “one-panel” of just Poo Poo. “Dogs 101” is a nationally aired program and the episode is set to run this fall. I don’t have any more details about what they’re going to be doing with the images, but I’m sure the boys at the café are going to be oh-so understanding of the little diva’s moment in the starlight.
Heads Up, Poncho Look-Alike!
Friday, September 26th, 2008
Nameless submitted by Mein, priceless look caught with fellow pet Singapura cat in embarrassing sitch. Yoinks.
First Pics From Poncho’s Travels
Thursday, September 25th, 2008KANSAS CITY
Below are the pics of Poncho at the commencement of his journey, taken by the good folks at Universal Press Syndicate in Kansas City just prior to Poncho’s departure for sunny Venezuela. Here he is in front of the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain, by Henri-Léon Gréber (1910, reinstalled in Kansas City and dedicated in 1960), at the corner of 18th and Vine, and enjoying a barbeque at the world famous Arthur Bryant’s Restaurant.
Test Post
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
Sorta feels like the MyHosting.com offices. New posts later today.
Back In Action (I Think)
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Sorry for the lapse in posts and any message-board trouble any of you experienced. The details of why this happened are dull and unnecessary, but we believe things have returned to normal. As you may have noticed all posts from the last week are gone, and shan’t be recovered, for which I sincerely apologize. So if you had anything up there that you’d like to re-post, please feel free, all posts should now be safe.I’ll be posting some over-do posts without (much) further delay, including the first pics in the Poncho journey. Appreciate the patience of everyone who’s be kind enough to bear with us!
PS: I think some of you might have to re-do the password process in order to post. If anyone has any trouble with this or anyone else please let me know.
Poncho Complete
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Here are some shots of the finished Poncho, as well as his benevolent creator Lynn Wine (cudos, Lynn!). As mentioned, Poncho’s first photo session will be in Lynn’s home town of Kansas City, and then he’s off to Venezuela for a week, and then will head here to meet me in Toronto. After that there are a few die-hard long-term Pooch fans I feel compelled to put top o’ the list, and then he’ll start bouncing around the globe to all of you who raised their hands in the previous post. I will need your other details, so click on “e-mail Paul” in the left column and send me your name, blog name, city, full mailing address, and local places you plan to show Poncho, and I will add you to the itinerary. Toot toot!
Poncho’s Cuz
Monday, September 15th, 2008
Tessa submitted by Kevin Cook, Middleboro, MA
Tessa, a Border Collie/Dalmation combo, was adopted from a local shelter and apparently less vocal than Ponch. “Thankfully” less so, according to her owner (she should spend 10 minutes with Poncho, he’d get her verbalizing opinions in a hurry).
Run, Poncho! Run!
Saturday, September 13th, 2008 
Another advance panel, a rare shot of Poncho exerting himself.
Latest Ringtales Update
Thursday, September 11th, 2008
The first Pooch Café animated short from Ringtales is nearing completion. It’s extremely exciting to see the characters actually “acting”, and the results are pretty darn sweet. It was no easy task finding voices to fit the characters, and I eventually came to the realization that any voice for Poncho was going to sound odd to me, but we’ve finally got a great voice talent named Rolland Lopez who’s got a sort of David Cross/Patton Oswalt type thing going on, and can pull off something difficult and essential: the ability to sound hilarious when angry (important for Poncho, you may agree). Boomer was just as hard to nail down, we tried everything from southern to lisping, but we finally got an interesting sound which really hits the mark.
Obviously the first one had the most back and forth in terms of getting the details right. Work is commencing on three more, I think the idea is to have a number of shorts ready for the unveiling. And we still need an idea for the little 3 second title shot opening (any ideas?). This here’s a still shot of the opening of the first short.
The good kind of Home Movies
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
You may have caught a recent strip in which Chazz informs Poncho that his middle name “Perry.” Poncho’s having a middle name was born simply for the sake of the gag, and I just thought Perry was a funny name, one of those names that’s funny without sounding like it’s trying to be funny (such as, say, Poindexter). My editor asked if Perry was a tip o’ the hat to a character in an animated show we mutually adore called “Home Movies.” Know it? If not, it’s hilarious with a capital everything. Anyway, I didn’t doff my chapeau intentionally, but my love and respect (oops, I mean respec’) for this show probably bubbles out in minor references here and there (I’d rip it off entirely if I could get away with it). Maximum number of thumbs up, which is two.
Look-alikes?
Monday, September 8th, 2008
They may not be dogs, but I gotta admit they are Poncho-esque. And these cows, submitted Dan, probably act more like Poncho than most dogs do to boot. Is it me or does the black spot on the rear one look just like a porterhouse? Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.
Guest Drawing
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
Here’s a rather joyful Poncho submitted by Ann Giardino. Good times!
Poncho’s Upcoming Journey
Friday, September 5th, 2008Like most, I found the movie Amélie to be magical and delightful and inventive and wasted no time falling madly in love with the “gamine” Audrey Tautou, (as she is invariably referred). Despite no effort whatsoever on my part she and I did not meet and live happily ever after, but many parts of the movie have remained with me, including the photos of her father’s mysteriously world-trotting garden gnome who appears posing in front of the landmarks of numerous cities.
Wouldn’t it be great for Poncho to do the same? With that in mind we have turned to Lynn Wine, a sculpture major graduate at the Kansas City Art Institute, to create a plush version of the little grouch.
The idea is that Poncho will be sent to a Pooch fan somewhere, anywhere, in the world, and that person will take some pictures of Poncho kickin’ it in front of one or more places that person decides represents their local area. They will send me the pics, and I will post the best one/s on the blog. And they will pack Poncho up and mail him along to another fan who has expressed interest, and the ball will continue. We will create a spot on the blog where those wishing to participate can put up their hands. Obviously we’ll be counting on folks being on their honor to not hang onto Ponch for too long, but to treat him kindly and then release him to the next leg of his journey. My faith in this system is sound, Pooch fans being the highest-caliber ladies and gents known to comics pages.
Here are some photos of Poncho’s Frankenstein-ian creation unfolding.
For any of you who are Facebookers, Poncho now has a Facebook page where he can Superpoke you and make sarcastic remarks about your vacation pics. Search for “Poncho Pooch” if you wanna be his Face Friend.
Squeak Of The Devil
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
Another advance panel from an upcoming Sunday. Squeakadelic.
Hudson Look-Alike
Monday, September 1st, 2008
Rudy, a Hudson Look-alike, submitted by Wendy. Most awesome.