MAD Again

Everyone who was waiting anxiously for my latest contribution to MAD magazine can relax. It's here! It's here! Issue #499. On sale now! Only sixteen bucks (Cheap!), or some such ridiculous cover price.

This is the second DORK SIDE comic to appear in MAD's Strip Club section. This issue also features contributions from current and former syndicated cartoonists John Kovaleski, Tony Murphy, and my former collaborator Todd Clark.

And before anyone asks, no I didn't draw that blow-up doll from life.

Blast From My Past

So I did this daily comic strip for a California newspaper a few years back, and I have about 15 months' worth of material and I looked at it again recently and I really quite liked it, even though it comes from a completely different place than EEK!, and I decided to see if UClick was interested and they were, so it's running 3 days a week on GoComics.

You'll see echoes of this strip in GO TEAM BOB and HIS & HERS. It was my first foray* into doing a daily strip and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Give LITTLE OTTO a look, if you're interested in seeing some of my earlier work.

*I'll dig up samples of a strip I pitched in the early 90s called BOB & BOBO, about a very handy-capable guy in a wheelchair (Bob), his helper monkey (Bobo), and the trainer (Carol) whom Bob has a crush on. It's basically GARFIELD with a monkey (and a guy in a wheelchair).

The indirect inspiration for this little piece of comic strip gold was George Romero's "Monkey Shines," which I rented in 1991 or so.

I'm not sure if I received a personal note from Jay Kennedy about B & B. A hastily scrawled WTF? would've been quite appropriate.

Digest Any Good Cartoons Latey?

I opened a small envelope today which contained the March 2009 issue of Reader's Digest (thanks, Norm!) and my first sale to the famous magazine.

My 'toon appeared in a special spread about the crappy economy, so I guess you can say that the recession is actually helping my cartooning career.

I've included the printed cartoon along with the original. Looks like RD slightly stretched the image vertically. I kinda like it and think it's even an improvement.

Maybe I'll try this technique on future pieces.