LIFE'S A BEACH!!!

Another month down folks!  We are now a third of the way into 2017, and amazingly enough, the World is still standing!  Hey, I'm as shocked as anyone, but since there's still a planet, I guess we should continue on with the art!  As I mentioned last week, I created two new Mushrooms comics after a long hiatus.  Well, last week saw the first one go up, and now it's time for a second!  So let's jump right in while the water's nice, shall we?  Enjoy...

Wow!  Glad a crab wasn't the nearest sea critter he could find!  Few realize just how useful octopi really are.  They can do a lot more than accurately pick World Cup winners!  They also make great parachutes!  This idea came about when Top Web Comics put out a theme on Twitter asking cartoonists to handle the embarrassing situation of losing one's bathing suit to a monster wave!  Well, I knew I had to take the comedy route with it and ended up with a makeshift octopus speedo!  It was a lot of fun to re-explore Mushrooms again.  I always felt that poor strip got lost in the shuffle during it's run.  Some of the toons I'm most proud of were Mushrooms strips and hopefully these last two will get some laughs from you fine folks!

Well, that's all she wrote for April 2017!  Be sure to come back next week as we kick off May with a trip down the yellow brick road!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

WAY TO GO, JO!!!

WOOOOOOO!!!  We are back!  After six weeks straight of comic con pics, we are finally back with some CRAZY comic action!  As some of you may recall, I ended my two original comic series', Mike & Mindy and Mushrooms, three years ago to move on to other stories.  Well, recently, two story ideas popped up that just couldn't be contained to a single panel, so today I present to you the first of the two New Mushrooms strips since December of 2014!  Enjoy...

  As a general rule in cartoons, never over inflate an inflatable object.  It's just gonna blow up the blower instead!  Joanne Byatt is a very dear friend of mine on Twitter who is always very encouraging.  So when she got picked up by a major publishing house,  I did this little one shot comic as way to congratulate her!  At the time, many illustrators were on a balloon squirrel kick, so I thought I'd jump on board with my own puffed up squirrel for Jo!  Sadly, he blew away to another part of England afterward!  To see more of Jo's delightful art, check out her website here!  Congrats as always Jo and thanks for being such a wonderful friend!

And that's all for this week.  We'll be back next week with another New Mushrooms comic that'll really reveal the dangers, and bounty, of the ocean!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

WONDERCON 2017... A TRIUMPHANT AND CRAZY RETURN!!!

Wow!  What a weekend that was!  WonderCon returned Anaheim last week which led me to make my return there as well!  Although it felt a little weird not having a table this time around, the odd feeling quickly left after walking around for a bit and really taking some time to browse the booths.  I walked away with some cool swag, some awesome books, and even scored some hard-to-find Ultraman memorabilia!  Even cooler was hanging out with many good pals, reconnecting with an old pal and making quite a few new pals over the course of the con!  All in all, it was a good show!  But y'all didn't come here to listen to me ramble on!  You wanna see some WonderCon pics!  And boy was it hard to choose just a select few for this post!  This year's show had some amazing cosplay at it.  I'm always blown away by the skill and effort these kids put into their costumes!  Anyway, enough talking.  Enjoy...

Dr. Robotnik (Or Eggman to the diehards) and Sonic the Hedgehog!  I slapped Sonic on the back and a bunch of gold rings popped out!

Captain Kirk sure does get around.  Even to galaxies far, far away apparently!

Jack Scissorhands!  I love cosplay mashups!

I don't know what game this is from, but man was that armor awesome!  All created with foam floor mats and acrylic paint!

Homeless Waldo...  Did he ever actually have a home?  He's always wandering!

Post-Apocalyptic Pippi Longstocking!  Even as the World crumbles, you can't break her spirit!

The cutest cosplay EVER!!!  It just doesn't get anymore adorable than this!

Talk about devotion?  Four coslpays in one!  (Doctor Who, Doctor Strange, Doc Brown and Over The Garden Wall for those not keeping tabs at home!)

McThor!  Just as I snapped this photo, the fountain jets shot up!  Perfect timing!

Super adorable Arale met some pals from Dragon Ball after learning General Blue might be in the area!

Lt. Dangle was in the house as Han Solo, complete with short shorts and pink Chewbacca!

Here comes Logan Cottontail, bleeding down the bunny trail...

Belle-Raiser!  Get it?  With Disneyland being next door and the live action Beauty and the Beast already a front runner as the year's most successful film (At least until Star Wars comes out), Belle cosplay was without question the most popular one of WonderCon 2017!

"FEED ME!!!"

"DOES IT HAVE TO BE HUMAN?!?"

LOVE the Seymour and Audrey II cosplay from Little Shop of Horrors!  Such an underrated movie! Who knew that the guys behind one of Broadway's raunchiest shows would go on to more or less save Disney just a few years later?  Who knew that history would repeat itself decades after the original rescue?  Maybe time does run on a loop?

This mother is clearly raising her son right!  They even offered to bring me a shrubbery!

Strawberry Shortcake!  Rocking her 80's love and those bloomers proudly!

The Dude abides, takin' it easy for all us sinners!

The President makes clear his intentions for public broadcasting.

 Beauty and the Nightmare Before Christmas!  As I said earlier, Belle cosplay dominated the con.  Most were simply Belle in her market dress while others were Belle in her gown.  Then you had a select few that got REALLY creative, like the pair above!  I always enjoy crossover cosplay, and this one, pun somewhat intended, was a beauty!  Hard to top Belle-Raiser though!

 

Prince is intrigued by one of the greatest puns ever put together!  This was a perfectly ironic moment that only a comic con can provide.  This gentleman dressed as Prince had a large crowd following him around for pictures.  Suddenly, this "Sand-Witch" walked by, prompting a spot-on response from the purple one!  Just doesn't get any better than that!

And that was WonderCon 2017!  It was great to go back after two years away!  Anytime I chill with my dear pals Riki and Matt is a good time, and running into my old pal Luis, who I hadn't seen in years, was icing on the cake!  Then there were the buds behind the table that made me feel so welcome at the show!  Joie, Josh, Dawn, Clint, Mike and Pat, y'all are diamonds!  Thanks again to my friends, to WonderCon and to the city of Anaheim for giving me an amazing week!  Next up, COMIC CON SAN DIEGO!!!

Well, that's all she wrote for the WonderCon count down.  I hope y'all liked all the cospaly and con pics that took over the blog for the last *GASP* seven weeks!  If you missed the art, you're in luck, because for two weeks only, Mushrooms returns to the CRAZYVERSE next week before the regular blog toons come back in May!  So be sure to come back next Wednesday for some colorful cartoon mayhem!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

THIS WONDERCON WAS SICK!!! LITERALLY!!!

Welcome to April CRAZIES!!!  Well, another WonderCon has come and gone.  And it was...  Actually, I don't even know yet!  As I type this, it's still a few days away!  Yup, this is the old "Posts-Are-Queued-In-Advance" spiel that I typically give when I don't have an immediate update to something relatively cool that I did.  But hey, that just means one extra post full of awesome cosplay pics!  And that's never a bad thing, am I right?  So let's dive right in and take a look at the last WonderCon I tabled at in 2015.  Let the awesome commence!  Enjoy...

Mike and the Bots!  This guy built both of these bot replicas and they even worked!  I was more a Joel fan when it comes to MST3K, but Mike had some good moments too.  In the Joel era, he often played random side characters, the most hilarious of which was always his Jack Perkins impression!  Mike stole the show at the first Turkey Day Marathon in 1991 and it is still tradition in the House of CRAZY to watch several episodes every Thanksgiving!

GO GO GADGET COSPLAY!!!  Always so stoked to see some retro 80's toon cosplay at a con!  Love that he used an old school disposable camera too!

Captain N and the Mario Bros!   They need to remake Captain N,  The Game Master.  Nintendo's roster has grown so much in the nearly 30 years since, it makes perfect sense!  That or put him in Smash Bros at least.  Wait a tic, 30 years?  Christ am I old now!

Not sure Belle can tame this beast!  Nothing ordinary or plain about Freeza!

"The class is Pain 101!  Your instructor's Casey Jones!"  The Boba Fett of the TMNT universe, Casey Jones will always be a badass, despite Michael Bay's attempt to totally destroy the character in the last movie!  When this dude made his way towards my table, it led to a rather inspired moment as me and my pals Matt Eargle and Riki Medina began quoting lines from the original Ninja Turtle movie with "Casey!"

I know you are but what am I!  He said "Large" Marge sent him!

The Hip Hop Storm Trooper!  He's becoming a bit of a sensation at the SoCal cons.  Anytime he came down my aisle large crowd followed!

Rainbow Brite and Olive Oyl!  If you look closely, you can see Wimpy preparing to steal Rainbow's hamburger!  Wonder what would happen if you gave Rainbow Brite a can of spinach?  I don't think Murky and Lurky would cause much trouble afterward!  "Ms. Brite" was super cool!  She remembered buying books from me at previous cons!

Is this what it feels like when doves cry?  I should also note this was a full year before Prince's passing, so this cosplay was in good fun.

One of the Telmarines of Narnia.  It's a pity a company other than Walden Media didn't grab the film rights to Narnia first.  What could've been...

ET phoned Elliot for some WonderCon passes!

Ursula and Cruella.  Two of Disney's greatest villains! 

Guarding the Galaxy from swag mongers!

Gameboy Camera!  Remember those?  Anyone?  Yeah, I'd forgotten about it too until Patriotic Mario here busted it out.  It was a device that was a bit ahead of it's time.  But without it, we may not have camera phones.  So it served a purpose of sorts!

The 8th Wonder of the World, Andre the Giant!  Wrestler Cosplay is always awesome!  Hoping to see some at cons this year!

And that was WonderCon 2015!  It was a pretty wild week for me.  The Sunday before, I'd woken up with a sinus infection that only got worse as the event drew closer.  The night before the show started, I just plain crashed in my hotel room.  When I woke up, I felt so much better and by the last day, was fully healed!  After the disaster that was the previous WonderCon, I just wanted to walk out of there with my head up.  And I did!  My sketch cards were a huge hit and I came pretty close to selling out of the first Bubble Fox book!  It was almost like God threw me a bone after having been sick the whole week!  Be it a miracle or fate, I was thankful to finally have a successful show under my belt!  I was none too pleased to learn the show was moving to LA the following year, so I didn't attend.  That and I was tired of feeling guilty about missing Easter.  It's a pretty big day after all.  Guess a lot of people felt the same way as I did, because not only was the show BACK in Anaheim this year, but it was before Easter, so now everybody wins!

Well, that's all for this week!  We'll be back next time with a look at WonderCon 2017: The Return of the CRAZYVERSE!!!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!