Archive for March, 2010
It’s Coming…
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Starting May 31…
Wake Up Variations
Sunday, March 28th, 2010Manipulative meow: Cats learn to vocalize a particular sound to train their human companions.
According to an article in Scientific American, a cat’s “soliciting purr” is designed to pry its owner from sleep. And, when sufficiently annoying, the sound may actually coerce them from bed to fill a food bowl.
Some dogs may use a different approach.
Hair Of The Dog
Thursday, March 25th, 2010Blogger Archie claims she woke up this morning to find this:
Archie: “You never told us we’d have to keep an eye on the little fellow or that he could be the occasional partier!”
I’m pretty sure if you read the fine print on the collar it says to make sure you never leave Poncho alone with a bottle of peach schnapps, but even if it doesn’t it is arguably implied.
Archie: “I’m nursing him back to health with a good dose of chicken soup.”
Hmm, just seems to me that rewards of chicken soup aren’t the best way to stem repeat performances of this nature. For the record:
Get your own Poncho plush toy here. (Canadians click “domestic” P+H).
Reuben Entry 2009
Monday, March 22nd, 2010As has become a Pooch blog annual tradition, I post below the latest National Cartoonist Society Awards submission for the comic strip category.
Latest Pooch Animations
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
This Editorial Cartoonist I Like
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
I first stumbled upon Matt Bors when he was putting the screws to lame editorial cartoonists on his blog with postings like “Turd of the Day” (a quote: “Despite the snowstorm, Virginians appear to be getting good cell phone reception. I know because JR Rose phoned-in this turd.”)
and his handing out of “excessive labeling awards” (a recent winner:)
As Pooch readers can probably guess, I enjoy a good rant, and when combined with wit I adore it.
Further, Bors’ own editorial cartoons are sweet (as in “suh-weet”, not as in sugary). His alt-cartooning sensibilities are refreshing, his drawing is superb, and he’s only freakin’ 25 years old. I sort of hate him. But I can’t, because his work is hilarious, and challenging on multiple levels.
He and Ted Rall chatted in The Comics Journal 300 (a hallmark edition that pairs up many greats from various cartooning disciplines for one-on-one raps) about the watering-down of editorial cartoons, the simplification of the “jokes”, and how there’s a bias against editorial cartoons that don’t have excessive cross-hatching. (According to Rall, it was explained to him that he lost the Pulitzer in ‘96 because his style “didn’t look like an editorial cartoon.”) Bors also rails against mass take-the-day-off cartoons (Walter Cronkite 1918-2009, boo hoo) and pounded-into-the-dirt clichés (the Statue of Liberty weeping). Here here.
Matt’s work is a kick in the pants to the entrenched blandness of ed cartoons. We’re all better off for his existence – with the possible exception of the hacks he challenges to do a better job. He’s also putting out his first graphic novel, due in August, called “War Is Boring”, which I can’t wait to see.
Plus he’s a Marvel man!
P.O.N.C.H.D.O.K.
Monday, March 15th, 2010To quote a website on the subject, there really is something about M.O.D.O.K.
M.O.D.O.K., for those who don’t know, is a Marvel comics super villain who debuted in the 60’s, and like many others he captured my imagination using only the tiniest fraction of his massive mental energy. He has a disproportionately large head, bad attitude, and unquenchable thirst for power. (Sound like anyone else we know?) Check him out, giving the Captain what’s what:
I couldn’t resist doing a Poncho version of M.O.D.O.K.
There are many sites devoted to this delightful abomination, one in particular likes to post guest drawings of the big M in various incarnations, Poncho/Modok appears there, along with many other fun takes.
Two New Ringtales Animations
Saturday, March 13th, 2010For some reason the last time I posted the animations right here on the site a number of people had some trouble seeing them, so from now on I’ll just post screen captures, and link to the Babelgum site so you can see them there. The latest two are here and here.
A Belated Anniversary Prezzy
Thursday, March 11th, 2010My super cool and talented assistant Dave Coates has just sent me a present he’s been working on in honor of Pooch Cafe’s recently passed tenth anniversary, and to say that I’m elated would be an understatement. Please allow me to share with you this fantabulous gift. Dave, you are a beautiful soul. This art makes it feel like summer!
Another piece of Dave anniversary art here.
Latest Pooch Animations
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Hangin’ With My Ozzy Buddies
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
Here’s Poncho in the Melbourne Sunday pages rubbing fuzzy elbows with a couple of my favorite Ozzy mates, Alex Hallatt (Arctic Circle), and Jason Chatfield (Ginger Meggs). Not sure if I miss ‘em both merely because Canadian winters are freakin’ cold, or because they’re both wicked fun. I’m suddenly reminded of going on penguin watch one night with Alex and finding one lone pengy huddled behind a rock ducking tourists and refusing to pose. Hope to see you guys — and be warmer — soon.
Advance Panel
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Innocent, no doubt.
Today’s Comics Page Readers
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010I just saw an article at the Daily Cartoonist about the Denver Post dropping 21 comics. It really is an excellent summation of the syndicated comics situation today and the newspaper industry in general.
The jettisoned strips were a result of an 18,000 response survey. First off, an equation about surveys. Surveys = pointless. Why? Well, for a whole host of reasons; unfamiliar strips aren’t as comfortable as familiar ones, strips with continuing storylines might initially be less accessible, good ol’ voter stacking (did 18,000 people really respond to a comics survey?). And, arguably, because fans that have more time on their hands (such as, let’s say, retired folk) tend to have more time to respond to surveys. You might imagine how that’ll skew.
Let’s look at the list of strips that fared poorly on this survey and were dropped by the Denver Post. It reads like a who’s-who of shiny stars from recent years, peppered with award winning and nominated and otherwise creative, modern comic-strip artists.
Then take a peek at the strips that “did well” on the survey. Not a single strip much less than 20 years old. Most older than that. Two are straight-up reprints.
So what does this indicate? Well, one thing that everybody already knows: newspaper readership demographic is aging, and more so all the time. A salesman at Universal Press once told me that when he enters an editor’s office he’ll sometimes hold up that paper’s obituary page and say, “Another bunch of your subscribers.” (or something like that).
Another thing it tells us is that newspapers seem more interested in pleasing their current aging demographic then with building a rapport with future readers. Variations on the above sentence have been echoing throughout the industry for many years, and is thought to be a contributing factor to newspaper sales decline.
But it’s certainly not the only factor. I shan’t delve into the other theories here, this topic has been scrutinized in many forums by people more learned than I. And I can understand a comic page editor’s motivation. If a large percentage of your readers seem to want Crankshaft and Classic Peanuts and “don’t get” those new-fangled comics, you’d be inclined to oblige. Fans of the newer comics can always find the strips they like on the web. This doesn’t result in much actual income for the cartoonists they like, but that’s the way today’s cartooning cookie crumbles as the line between syndicated comic and web comic continues to blur. No sour grapes from me, I was lucky enough to get Pooch Café in “under the wire”, when it was still possible for a new strip to find enough traction to make a go, although even at that entry point a few very talented peers such as Rob Harrell (Big Top) or Mark Pett (Luck Cow) – strips that would likely have thrived 10 years earlier – were unable to find the spaces they needed and deserved. And many other fantastic strips struggle, or don’t get picked up at all. Pooch Café was recently dropped from the London Daily Mirror. It was replaced by an English strip called “The Perishers.” This strip debuted in the 50’s, and the creator has himself perished. So another reprint strip. Mirror subscribers are reported to be delighted to have this strip back in place of Pooch. And so it goes, newspaper industry.
Corey, Mark, Dave, Richard, Jeff, Darrin, Glenn, Gary, Terri, Dan, Scott, and all you other superb talents on the Denver drop list, see you on the net, and hopefully at the Reubens. Cheers.