We changed it from new pair of retreads to diesel. Yes, everything is about fuel these days.

Speaking of. Last week I filled up at three-ninety-something a gallon. Not because I was empty, but because I figured it would be the last time I could get it for under four bucks. I was right. Even my secret cheap station has topped the big four-double-oh.

*le sigh*

Memorial Day

Forgot to post this on Monday.

Didn't catch much of Rolling Thunder this year. Plans to head down to the chippery in Old Town, where we would have seen a ton of bikes, fell through. Still there was no avoiding the bikes when we cut across the mall to get to Spellbound.

I shoulda put in more coffee cups

In my last post I commented that 24 hour turnaround ain't so bad. Obviously one of my editors took that as a challenge.

Technically I turned this around in 6 hours. But consider I had other things that had to go out the door in the same 6 hours and you get the idea. Still it was fun. I love the crazy doctor. I took his glasses from every doctor Masamune Shirow has ever drawn.

Speaking of Shirow, you see Appleseed: Ex Machina? It was mostly great. Could'a done without some of the John Woo-isms (what is it with him and doves?) Also, as cool as the cell shading was in parts, it made other parts seem really cheap.

24 hour turnaround on this one. It might not feel like it while hunched over the drafting table, but 24 hours really is a ton of time to turn a cartoon around.

Never throw anything away.

This is the third background for this cartoon. Still better to patch it again then throw it away. Reduce Reuse Recycle and all that.

PS. I fixed the punctuation in Rocky's bubble before it went to press.

Happy St. Pats.

The truck door says Gleema & Girls trucking (it's much more legible in the print edition). Gleema was my grandmother, Ohio's first Rosey the Riveter! Her birthday was on St. Pats. She was a tank building tough old lady and I miss her.

Oh, Rocky's comment was changed in the print edition. I don't know what it became.

Evolution of a kill fee

Blah... Too much jack-hattery in the editorial cartoon world this week. Wake me up when everyone has decided to behave.

DOT Secretary Mary Peters

Rocky's comment for the print edition was changed to "Sing along with Sec. Peters!" Also in the print edition you can tell that Fergus has his head sticking out my car window.

Some ones gotta pay

Fun with maps

Had some fun drawing this one. That's probably because I wasn't on some ridiculous deadline with last minute changes. Hmmm.. I hope the cut line got fixed before it went to press. LOL didn't notice that till just now. Oh well that's why copy editors have jobs.

Fees and frustration

I was about 2/3 done with this when the editor emailed telling me to change from a toll booth to a sign. Heaven bless "The Patch."

For you who aren't in the art gig, that's where you draw out a new section of the drawing and put it on top of the old one. In this case you can see the sign is the same size as the tollbooth was. It's no secret patching is MUCH easier in these salad days of Photoshop.

But still it takes a few steps:
First to the light board with the original
put a blank sheet on top and sketch the cover up
Ink the patch
Scan the patch
Using Layer transparency and/or Layer Multiply fit the patch
Erase white edges to fit
Combine patch and original art, clean up
edit colors and finish coloring.

You know what? In my head it seems a lot fewer steps.

1/28/08 and 2/4/08

Newbs

Two latest cartoons

Kickin' it off

I started on Blogger because I comment on Jim Borgman's blog a lot. Don't know him? Google him. You'll understand why I read his blog daily, and why I'm kicking this off with a couple of my cartoons.