For Your Shopping Pleasure...

I've joined 10,000 of my closest friends and opened up a store on Cafe Press for EEK!

Right now, the fabulous array of merchandise includes a mousepad, a mug and a tile coaster.

I plan to add T-shirts soon and new designs in the aforementioned product categories.

I'm sure I'll need to hire an assistant soon just to count my money.

Oh, Mandy

Just want to give a shout out to cartoonist Jarrett Osborne. Jarrett gave a nice, unsolicited, plug for EEK! on his blog.

Check out The Pursuit of Mandy. It's good stuff.

Second Time's the Charm?

We all know that the writing in a comic strip is important. But even more important, oftentimes, is the rewriting. Generally, this happens before the drawing stage. You write your gag; you polish it; you draw it.

I wrote a gag for EEK! that I thought was funny. I then drew it, inked it and began to letter it. Suddenly, I didn't like the joke. Something just wasn't quite...there.

So I started rewriting -- after I'd completed the strip. I labored over several different jokes and approaches, until a gag just popped into my head (as gags sometimes do, bless their little hearts).

The result, I think, is a funny joke, certainly better than the first one I wrote.

You be the judge.

ORIGINAL GAG






REWRITTEN GAG

EEK! now five days a week

Be afraid. I know I am.

Comics Du Jour: Cul de Sac

I hope you're all reading Richard Thompson's delightfully entertaining strip, Cul de Sac from Universal Press. The strip had a nice big launch (70 papers, I think) and should definitely be a hit.

Oh, and some guy named Bill Watterson says it's good, too.

EEK!

It's alive!

Best Belch?

Another of my graphic novels, The Boy Who Burped Too Much, has won an award: The Extensive Reading Foundation 2007 Language Learner Literature Award.

Say that three times fast.

Comics Du Jour

For some reason, I didn't like Brewster Rockit when it first came out. I'm not sure why, as I enjoy science fiction and science-fiction parody, and should be in the strip's target audience.

Be that as it may, I didn't like Brewster and didn't read it. Until last week. I was browsing through the strips at Go Comics and decided to check it out. And I was pleasantly surprised. I like Brewster Rockit. It's funny and clever and nicely executed. I'm not sure if the strip changed or if I did, but I'm glad I gave it a second look.

Toonz