Oops! May the...7th be with you?

Forgot to post this the other day.  I put it on Facebook and Twitter but forgot to put it here.  Oh well, here it is now.  Hope everyone had a lovely Star Wars day or May the 4th Be With You day or whatever it's supposed to be called.

P.S.  I thought of this after I'd drawn it but I should have put as the headline "Exhaust Port Malfunction!"  Darn it, I always think of it too late.

Education Public Service Announcement

I meant to get this up last week but I've been sick and it kind of fell through the cracks. So here it is now...

At some point I'm going to take on the meaningless-ness of "No Child Left Behind" but we'll start with this...

Snow-cation 2014: The Icening

We're stuck inside for Atlanta's second go-round of wintry bluster this year.  Today's contribution is simple: snow makes me think of Young Harris College and my fantastic friends from there and getting to stay inside means I will inevitably start sketching.  So then I get this:

Easy connection to make!  Stay warm, everybody!

Texas Goodbyes and Stereotypes

I know I've been gone again.  But I really have been working.  Just too busy to post anything.

So at the day job we lost another cashier.  Sad, because she was a wonderful employee and the only one who talked sports with me!  A true loss for the museum.  But, her husband (a pilot) was transferred to Dallas and her family is from Texas so I can't be TOO bummed out by it.  Good for them!

And as a Texas girl she is a graduate and die-hard supporter of Baylor University.  She even got me rooting for them!  So I came up with a card for her to wish her well.

And this week I have been watching the WNFR (Wrangler National Finals Rodeo).  I figured what a great link.  Even though the finals are held in Las Vegas, most people think "rodeo" when they think Texas so there you go.  Here's my sketches from late at night...

I've got more things in the works right now but I really can't show them until after Christmas.  (Surprises for people, you know!)

Little Boys With Too Much Time...

So the Braves are apparently moving to Cobb County.  The  lease is up on their decrepit old stadium and they are not going to spend one more red cent to pay for the upkeep on that battered old eyesore.  And apparently something they started using in 1997 is like, SUPER old.

Here is my take on the Atlanta sports mentality...

Yep, just a bunch of whiny babies.

But that's not what angers me about this story.  I honestly don't even care if the Braves move out there.  It's not unprecedented in the annals of sport.  The Cowboys play in Arlington, Texas and still refer to themselves as "Dallas".  That would be like a team playing in Macon calling themselves "Atlanta".  (Okay, maybe that's a BIT of a stretch but not by much.  It is a LONG way to Arlington from downtown Dallas.)

Also, I don't go to the games either, really.  It IS a giant headache to go down there.  And the majority of people who buy tickets are from the Cobb area.  So if they want to go...that's fine.

No, what angers me is they are getting over 450 MILLION dollars in revenue from Cobb County.  the same Cobb County that THIS year cut almost 200 teachers from the payroll so they could cut budget gaps.

If I were a parent in Cobb County...I would be PISSED.

I Got the Politicals!!!

(God, I hope a topical ointment will contain it.)

So yes, the current Washington idiot carnival that's going on has inspired me to once again show my cynicism and disgust with all politicians and their ilk.

However, it did get two toons out of me for this week's political edition of Tuesday Toonsday, so I guess it does have SOME benefit.

Number 1:

(Seriously...I just don't believe ANY of them...)

Number 2 came from listening to this more and more over the week and it just kind of started sounding like a hostage negotiation and I was the one wrapped up in an extension cord and gagged with a dirty pillowcase lying on the floor listening to them list the demands over the phone.

So yeah...I pretty much hate all politicians.

Have a great week!!!

No Politics...Yet

I know all everyone is thinking about is the government shutdown and the loss of such wonderful things as national parks, Mars rovers, and panda-cams.  But I am here on the job with today's Tuesday Toonsday to brighten your spirit!

Today's toon comes from when I spend too much time over-analyzing and becoming annoyed by certain commercials while spending the day watching football.

Another benefit to watching football is that sometimes you see that someone has taken one of your labors of love and blown it up and is waving it around on national television.

So no political cartoons to remind you of the current state of affairs...but the week's not over.

Time Constraints

Sometimes your life just gets in the way of doing all the stuff you want to do...like making cartoons with substance.  So you end up feeling (and making things) like this...

And just to show you I'm not COMPLETELY falling down on the job, here is the inked phase of a project I am doing for my alma mater...



So I guess technically this is a very successful Tuesday Toonsday.

The Paintmonkey's Greatest Fear!

And here it is...



Seriously...I've had nightmares about being accidentally shaved.  I just don't like the way I look with no facial hair.

Pomp(adour) and Circumstance

Fairly straightforward This Week in History with the Paintmonkey.

And pop culture was never the same.

A Glimmer in the Sky

Today's Tuesday Toonsday doesn't have a "funny" bit per se...only the fact that I found interesting this week.  I'm playing more with the size of the work and what I can get away with inside the confines of each of those different dimensions.  For instance, this week I wanted to put a powdered wig on the Paintmonkey.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the room for it after getting all the information in.  It's a work in progress...

And without further adieu...

I had fun drawing Halley though.  Just seems like an uncomfortable way to dress for science.

Game Day Saturday in the South

There are holidays that MUST be acknowledged.  Christmas, Thanksgiving, Arbor Day.  (Seriously, you don't like Arbor Day?  Quit breathing.  That air belongs to the people who care about Arbor Day!)

But here in the South there is a day that combines the excitement of all of those with the summer gluttony of eating wings and for some, drinking copious amounts of beer.

This...

Other parts of the country may celebrate it as much as we do, but I am not from those places.  I am from the South and this is what I know.  Happy Game Day, boys!

Twister Toon

Just thought this was interesting...

I am having fun looking through all the websites with facts on them.  If I do this long enough I will be a bar trivia GOD!

It's Tuesday...Again!?!?!

Seriously...wasn't it just Tuesday last week?  Anyways, this week's Tuesday Toonsday is another from my "Creatures I Have Seen" line.  I know it's a been a little negative (most stories from the world o' retail are.)  So in an effort to be better, I am working on something new and positive for next week.  That's not to say negative won't slip back in.  Far from it.  I still find horrible things funny so in they will go.  But I will TRY to be more positive.

This week's entry:

Now I am not saying that single dads who go out with their kids are awful.  I know many single dads who are incredible parents and love their children very much.  I am pointing and laughing at the ones who pay NO attention to their offspring and then throw a credit card at them in order to maintain the familial "love".

BONUS!
I am throwing in the mountain lion mascot I've been working with.  I did this sketch a while back.

And then I finished it up as this...

Worked out okay...

Jekyll Toonsday

This continues my coastal Georgia adventures and carries it into this week's Tuesday Toonsday.

On Saturday, I decided I would drive over to Jekyll Island and see if I remembered anything from when I was a kid.  I did not.  A lot more "resort-ey" than I remembered.  Oh well.  However, this was my main takeaway of the island...

Sorry it's not in color.  Next week I will be back to normal "tooning" schedule.

True Story...

Full disclosure:  This week's Tuesday Toonsday is NOT something I have actually seen with my own two eyes.  It IS something one of my co-workers sees at least once a week.  He steps out of his office (which is hidden away in one of the permanent exhibits) and catches them doing this.  ALL.  THE.  TIME.

Seriously.  Riding the damned thing.

Patience is a Virtue...

...but some days it is darned hard to maintain.  This is the next in my Tuesday Toonsday line of museum cartoons:

Creatures I Have Seen

Seriously...they just stomp on stuff that's on the floor.

Life and Loss

I'm going chronologically with this week's entry.

I have been lucky enough to have two women in my life who know WAY more about computers than I ever will and are both nice enough not to yell at me TOO much about my computer related catastrophes.  One is my beautiful wife and the other is our IT wizard at work.  A month or two back, my co-worker came to me and asked if I would do a cartoon portrait of her and her newly grown family.  I said sure and got all the needed pictures and reference materials.  A couple of weeks after that she announced that she would be leaving in July for San Francisco where her husband had gotten a job in software or something (seriously, I truly don't get computers).  And she wanted the drawing done for his first Father's day as a father.

I liked it and she did, too.  So happy (late) father's day!  All of us at work will miss you guys!

Secondly, my grandmother passed away last week.  I won't dwell on it except to say that it actually led to a nice day overall (all things considered).  My wife and I got to hang out with my family and I forget how much I like seeing them.  We went back to my aunt and uncle's house afterwards and while the kids ran around, and the adults talked about old times and new, and we all ate our fill of fine Southern grief-food, I sat out back and drew my uncle's dog Luger.  Luger was a hyperactive pointer who was just SO happy to see everyone.  And sniff them.  And point his large squarish head between your legs, genital comfort be damned!

I managed (quickly) to sketch this one while he momentarily took a break from running around and checking out everything.  There's about five other beginning sketches underneath this one.  He was a sweet dog though and actually pointed at a rabbit in the yard!

Appreciate the things you care about while you can!

Christmas Commission

A few weeks ago I got a request from a co-worker about a gift for her boyfriend.  She wanted a cartoon portrait of their "children" to give to him.  This annoyed me greatly...because it had never occurred to me.

The three dogs and the cat are theirs...they just really like goats so I added one to their menagerie. I can upload it now because I saw her today and it was rousing success (and there's no possibility of ruining the surprise now).n

A Tribute Too Soon...

...and if you watched the NL Wild Card playoff game you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you didn't, well, I'm not going to explain the infield fly rule because I'm not entirely sure I can. However, I did get the final stats of Chipper's career put on my tribute poster. I'm not putting it on here because I don't have it watermarked, but it looks like this...

...only with his correct career stats. If you would like one, feel free to get in touch. Same deal as the Bulldogs calendar. 10 dollars for the poster, 4 dollars for shipping and handling.