THE CRAZY CARTOON EXPERIMENT, PART DEUX

Well, here we are!  The final part of the first ever Crazy Cartoon Experiment!  We got off to a great start last week, and now it's time to see how the rest stand up!  I gotta be honest, when I first came up with this, I really wasn't sure what to expect.  I never thought that so many people would get into it and really dig the concept!  I'm very proud of the results here and happy to have gotten such a great turn out!  And now, let's see the rest!  Enjoy...

Power Theatre Alex Callard did this entry!  This piece really cracked me up!  The Cactus' reaction is so priceless!  One of only two pieces two go all the way in showing what happened to the poor dog!  Check out more of Alex's work here!

Next up is Austin Verburg's entry!  Austin does the hysterical Austin's Inferno strip, an epic tale of high school, gaming and tacos!  Here, series regular Ashlee imagines that she's the dog!  The deadpan reaction of the last panel left me on the floor!  If you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and click the link!  Your life will be so much better for it!

This next piece was by New Zealand cartoonist Brendan "Jim" Boughen.  Brendan decided to pay tribute to the new Mars Mission, showing that apparently there is life on the Red Planet- Really WACKY life that is!

German cartoonist Chani is responsible for this great piece!  Fido seems quite concerned there!  I must say, I'm really pleased with the International turnout of this project.  Britain, the US, New Zealand, Germany, Holland and Canada are represented here!  Only cartooning can bring us all together like so!

Crystal Ellis did this wonderful piece! I love the dog's expression!  Such a great Children's Book quality to Crystal's work!  I'd like to see her do a full on comic out of this! (HINT HINT CRYSTAL)

Goober and Cindy Cartoonist Daniel Barton turned this piece in, and I gotta say, the "Cactapus" is now a part of my dictionary!  So many gave the Cactus a personality, but Daniel really took step further!

The great D.M. Rolfe of the hysterical Mighty Monocle did this outrageous piece!  That cat certainly used some sneaky techniques!  I get the feeling the dog didn't see it coming! (Rolfe actually confirmed it!)

Here we have another remarkable artist, the great Harry Rickard, the 15-year-old artist and editor of Britain's Wizzo Comic!  When I was 15, my only claim was being Captain of the Wrestling team.  Harry's already got his own magazine with a distribution channel!  Clearly this kid's got his priorities in order!  I'm proud to announce that Mike and Mindy will soon be syndicated in the Wizzo!  Britain, consider yourselves warned!

Simon McLaren, another great British artist and Twitter pal did this fun piece!  I was happy to see somebody else do a movement gag in their entry!  Simon's a wonderful artist and his use of pencils for his colors is absolutely brilliant!

Canadian artist Warren Frantz, the madman behind Offseason Comics did this brilliant entry! As stated last week, I said a "Helium-Filled Dog!"  I never specified what kind of dog!  Of course, the joke's gonna be on the Cactus when he takes a bite!

Illustrator Scott Brown did the masterpiece above!  Words and a computer screen don't do this entry justice!  Why Scott isn't published more often is beyond me because he is beyond good!  When I first saw this, it just screamed "Children's Book!"  Scott, I hope you'll at least consider doing a full on story with your piece.  I'd buy it!

And last but not least, we come to our final entry by Crosstown Cartoonist Adam Pilkington!  Another wonderful artist with a "Children's Book" quality, Adam gave us the biggest Cactus yet!  Not to mention the most Helium-Filled of Dogs!  This was a favorite!

Well, there you have it! The first ever Crazy Cartoon Experiment!  I hope you all enjoyed the entries!  I know I did!  There were some similarities, with the Cactus having a personality being chief among them.  But each and every cartoon/comic/strip totally stands on it its own as a story!  In the end, I guess you can say they were all very "Up-Lifting!"  I'd like to thank all the artists for taking time out of their busy schedules to give my CRAZY idea a try.  I hope you all had a lot of fun doing this!  I think the thing I'm most proud of with this Experiment is that we were all able to come together and just do something!  No rhyme or reason, just a bunch of artists giving a certain subject their own spin and having a good time doing it!  You all rock!  And yes, there WILL be another Crazy Cartoon Experiment!  Look for it next month!

That's all for this week!  I'll be back next time with a very special post featuring the first ever Mike and Mindy guest strips!  It's gonna be quite a post, so be sure to come back and check it out!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!