JEEPERS CREEPERS!!! THE GREAT PUMPKIN'S BACK FOR MORE!!!

Welcome back to Round 2 of the Crazy Cartoon Experiment 2!  We're wrapping it up today with some more great takes on a figure more mysterious than Dr. Claw even: The Great Pumpkin!  So sit back and relax as we finish up yet another successful experiment!  Enjoy!

 First up, we have CCE newcomer Frank Haba of Jailhouse Comics.  Frank did this delightful take showing that blockhead Linus sleeping through his big chance to finally see the Great Pumpkin!  Oh well.  Guess there's always next year.

Next up, my little "brother" from England, Harry Rickard, delivered this piece!  The Wizzo founder never ceases to amaze me with his awesome talent and humor,  skills I sorely lacked when I was his age!  Even more amazing, Harry didn't even know who the Great Pumpkin was!  Apparently in Europe, Snoopy is the Icon, NOT the rest of the Peanuts gang.

 Next up, The Code Crimson co-creator Elizabeth debuts in the Crazy Cartoon Experiment with this ultra creepy take on the beloved Gourd!  I really love the colors on this one.  And the Spiders and Ants in the background add so much more to the creep factor!  Simply brilliant!

 Next is another CCE newcomer, The Wizzo Comic's Hannes Smit!  A simple approach, Hannes is a good friend of Harry's who wanted in on the CRAZY fun.  I firmly believe in the "More the Merrier" theory, so we brought him on board!  Between this kid, Harry and FT, we got a pretty good youth movement coming up through the Crazy Cartoon Experiment!  Maybe one of these days, one these kids can take it over for me!

 One of the favorites from the first CCE, Austin Verburg is back and putting his characters through even more insane lunacy!  I really do love the Austin's Inferno comics and this one follows the usual stories to a tee! (For those of you unfamiliar, Tori, the girl getting strangled, is usually suffering one mishap after another in the strips!  Even in the CRAZYVERSE, she can't catch a break!)  A fun fact about Austin: He's the only person on the Planet that likes Doritos Locos Tacos more than me!  

 Jamie Cosley came back to play again with this fun little piece, introducing Cody The Cavalier into the Crazy Cartoon Experiment.  Cody's a very fun comic and Jamie's a remarkable artist and writer.  His work never fails to bring a smile to my face.

 Another favorite from CCE1 has come back, Crosstown Comic's Adam Pilkington!  As you can see, his dog survived the cactus encounter and has now deflated back to his normal size, only for the group to encounter another CRAZY plant!  I assure all of you the next CCE will have NO vegetation in it!

 Back from the CCE1 is Brendan Boughen from Cartoons By Jim.  It seems the Great Pumpkin's not only great in stature but great in taste!  Shawn Granger also devoured the prized gourd as well!  I just feel bad for poor Linus.  I get the feeling he witnessed the GP's capture!

 Australian cartoonist Caanan Grall of Max Overacts, the undisputed MVP of the CCE1, delivers yet again on this one, proving that not all great things need to be huge.  Naomi Jardine had a very similar piece last week as many of you may recall.  Caanan's pretty amazing.  The poor guy threw out his back, and still found time to work on this!  We all owe you one dude!

Shawn Granger of Daddy's Girls is back again with an updated version of last week's entry!  Shawn wanted another crack at hand-coloring and delivered this piece to me this morning!  The Great Pumpkin sure looks delicious, doesn't he!  The tones on the pie are perfect, almost as if light is actually bouncing off of the surface.  Another solid effort!

And there we have it!  Another Crazy Cartoon Experiment has come and gone!  A big thanks to all the artists who took part in this CRAZY idea.  You guys are awesome and your support of these "Experiments" is overwhelming!  I'm proud to have you all as friends and would go to bat for any of you!  I hope you all had a great time and I look forward to working with you all in the Crazy Christmas Experiment!  Stay 'tooned!

Well folks, that's all for this week!  We'll be back next time with an all new Mike and Mindy and a very special Mushrooms featuring The History Twins' creator, Francesca Testin!  She wanted a prize for fininshing the CCE2 first, and Mike and Mindy promised to deliver!  Anyway, take care and I'll catch y'all later!  Oh, and have a fun and safe Halloween!

IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CRAZYVERSE!!!

Halloween is around the corner y'all!  And what better way to celebrate than to offer up another round of the Crazy Cartoon Experiment!  We got some awesome pieces to show here!  So many in fact that we are once again splitting it up in two!  So sit back and grab some popcorn, because the show's about to begin!

The subject this time around was "The Great Pumpkin!"  That oh-so-mysterious Gourd that's been talked about for so long but never seen!  Ol' Linus has been hoping for nearly 50 years now that he'll show up, so we here at the CRAZYVERSE! decided to finally let "Blanket Boy's" dream come true!  Or perhaps... HIS NIGHTMARE!!!  Let the CRAZINESS commence!

To kick things off, my good pal (and CCE veteran) Matt Gross from CAAATS! did this wicked piece!  Gotta love that shape-shifting shadows pouring out of the Great Pumpkins mouth and eyes!  Begs the question: "Would you really wanna encounter this guy in a pumpkin patch on a dark night?"

We have yet another CCE veteran and very good friend up on deck, the wonderfully talented and openly Canadian Warren Frantz of OFF SEASON!  Warren, like me, is a wrestling fan and decided to give the Great Pumpkin a more heroic look!  I can see him now, wrestling in Mexico, forming a tag team with La Parka!  They can both come out dancing to thriller! 

Next up is Canadian artist Naomi Jardine, a newcomer to the CCE and the creator of Flatland!  Naomi did this wonderful spin showing that sometimes, great things come in small sizes.  Try telling that to kids still irked over the "Fun-Size" candies they get every Halloween!  Love the look on Linus' face!  It's like his whole belief system's been shot!

And now we get to my entry!  I have to admit, I'm a little embarrassed I didn't finish this quicker.  I'm the one running this thing for crying out loud!  Clearly, I need to get my priorities in order!  Anyway, my inspiration was Ichigo's initial Hallow form from the manga Bleach!  I'm very proud of this piece!  I don't think I've ever put this much detail into the design of a character.  I'm particularly proud of the vines growing off of the Great Pumpkin!  I wanted to give him an organic and fluid feel!

Next up, we come to England's Simon McLaren, yet another good friend doing his second CCE tour!  I love this bit, depicting the Great Pumpkin as a rotten, destructive kid!  I also love how he uses the word "Mum!"  You Brits get all the cool words!  I feel so darn uncultured!

Canadian Superstar Kim Belding, the genius behind Picpak Dog, makes a return to the CCE with this hilarious take on the Great Pumpkin!  Kim was one of the artists that really stole the CCE1!  Everybody loved his hilarious take on it, and he shows he hasn't lost his form after delivering another winner with this one!  Everybody loves a poop joke after all!

And now for a little sentiment.  Jason Platt of Mister and Me, as well as an actor, director, writer, chef, juggler and all around good guy, delivers this beautiful piece paying tribute to the wonderful man that made it all happen in the first place, Peanuts creator Charles Schultz.  Jason's another CCE veteran and a very good friend.  As a veteran stagehand, I was thrilled to have an actor become a fan and friend!  While working, you'd be amazed out how rarely the two worlds actually interact on stage!

  

And now, another CCE veteran!  The lovely and talented Michelle Hernandez of Kat Daycare!  Michelle went the scary route with this one, and I love it!  She's got such a great style.  Almost like Bill Waterson!  I mean, look at Linus' hair in that last panel.  I think he and Sally are gonna need a fresh pair after this night!  It seems many people feel that if Linus ever actually met the Great Pumpkin, he should probably regret it immediately!

Next up, some new blood!  Spud Comics creator Lonnie Easterling presented this piece which he dubbed: "Pumpkin the Great!"  Now this was outside the box! While most of us took the scary route, Lonnie went the extra mile and literally made the Great Pumpkin GREAT!  I'd take orders from that Gourd!

It's a family affair this time as Alpha Ballistic cartoonist Miguel Hernandez, brother of the aforementioned Michelle, makes his CCE debut with this brilliant entry!  His Pumpkin is Great in size and is now being contested by a squatter who's lost his Peach!  I grew up on Roald Dahl, so this rose pretty quickly as being among my personal favorites! 

Next up we get another CCE rookie, Catbeard The Pirate creator Matt Nelson!  Looks like poor Charlie Brown had a rough landing after Lucy pulled the football away from him last time!  Either that or he's been screwing with Linus all this time!  I have long believed that Lucy Van Pelt is not a child, but a wicked demon that has taken human form!  I really wished he could've kicked the damn ball at least once!  Charlie Brown's whole life has just been one disappointment after another!

We conclude Part 1 of the CCE2 with Shawn Granger's Sophomore effort.  The Daddy's Girls creator shows the aftermath of the Great Pumpkin after he no doubt tangled with the Kite Eating Tree!  Anybody for a slice of some "Great" Pumpkin Pie?  This is an early coloring effort for Shawn and I say great job!  My first go around at coloring my panels ranged from disastrous to just plain starting over!  Like I said on Twitter, it really is trial and error.  You just gotta keep at it!

Well, that's it for Part 1 of the Crazy Cartoon Experiment 2!  Many thanks to the phenomenal artists that took part in this CRAZY deal!  Be sure to come back next week for more GOURD-geous fun with Part 2!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later and somebody please hand me a slice of that "Great" Pumpkin Pie!

IT'S CALLED THE MASH!!!

Hello boys and "Ghouls!"  With Halloween around the corner, I thought I'd hand out a quick little treat to get everyone in the mood!  I've been unimaginably busy this week with the day job, hence the reason  I'm doing a short post, but I've got some cool things coming up very soon, so stay "Tooned!"

In the meantime enjoy this video!


It wouldn't be Halloween without the" Monster Mash," and this dude takes it to a whole new level!  Lord only knows what his power bill must look like come November, but when you do something this cool, I'd say it's worth it!  I can only imagine what he does during Christmas!

And because I'm in a good mood, a bonus treat!


This week, I got to work the Peter Gabriel Concert at the San Diego Sports Arena!  And when I say work, I mean BE A PART OF THE SHOW!  When my boss asked me if I wanted to work the show, I just assumed I'd be running a spotlight or something.  I never imagined I'd become the talent!  It was an amazing experience folks.  I idolized Peter Gabriel as a kid, so to not only work his show but be also on  be stage with him... WOW!  It was a dream come true.  We even got to meet him before the show and I can say he's a really nice fella!  I'd go into greater detail but time is short.  Hopefully, I'll have some pics soon of the costumes we had to wear!

Well, that's all for this week.  Next time, I hope to have something very CRAZY up and running!  Hopefully, the stars will align.  Until then, take care and I'll y'all later!

MIKE AND MINDY: LITERALLY SCARING THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!!!

 Welcome to October!  Fall is finally upon us and that means orange leaves, trick or treating, turkey, and that wonderful vanilla/cinnamon smell that always fills the air!  It is my favorite time of the year, and I can't see any better way to celebrate than to post some new comics!  A full day early no less, and not just because I'm going to be totally slammed with work for the next seven days!

So sit back and hang on tight!  It's Halloween time, so enjoy these Spooktacular new 'toons cooked up in the CRAZYVERSE! kitchen!  First up, the wild pair themselves, Mike and Mindy!

 I must admit, I'm very proud of the way Mindy's alien costume turned out.  I'm not very good at drawing "Scary" monsters, so I was a bit timid when it came to doing this strip.  But it looks pretty good, and it was a nice change up from the "Fuzzy" Monsters I usually draw.  I just hope poor Mike has a clean pair at home!  Maybe Mindy should think twice next time about who she scares and how she goes about doing it!

Up next, a "Bone-Chilling" Mushrooms!

Sometimes, there are some things that are best left unknown.  This is why I always keep my closet door shut!  Besides, it's much easier to get to your clothes when they are all laid out around the floor anyway!

Well, that's all for now!  I got a very busy week ahead, hence the reason I'm posting now instead of Thursday.  I'll be back next time with some more Halloween fun.  In the meantime, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

THE GUEST STRIP BONANZA FEATURING THE GALS OF WEB COMICS!!!

Well, it finally happened.  After nearly three years, I finally got some guest strips!  Who, you might ask, was CRAZY enough to actually want to attempt to do a guest strip for Mike and Mindy?  Why some CRAZY gals known for their own CRAZY strips here on the Interwebs!  That's right folks, the CRAZYVERSE! has been taken over by girls!  Now I know why the sky's been pink, everything's gotten frilly and all these damn Unicorns keep invading my yard!  I wouldn't mind it so much if the Unicorns would quit farting rainbows!  Just because they're more colorful doesn't make 'em any less smelly!

So let's jump right in and see some new interpretations of the Spike Head and the Ponytail!  Let the Girl Power commence! 

 First, we have Jackie Tse (aka jACKEt) of the comic Many Dull Knives, another CRAZY gal and good Twitter friend!  This piece is hands down one of my favorites!  Everything about it, from the colors to the design to the gag just brought a huge smile to my face.  She even retained the tykes' humongous eyes!  I especially like how Mike goes black and white during the race!  Good thing he didn't run at Ludicrous Speed!  And using the panel border as a prop... GENIUS!!!

Last up, another great Twitter pal (and CCE veteran) Michele Hernandez, of Kat Daycare, sent in this follow up to the Crazy Cartoon Experiment!  She based it on both her entry and mine, which featured a scorpion among the dessert critters watching the sad fate of an inflated, cactus-bound dog!  Here, EVERYBODY'S trying to get away from the living Cactus, who was introduced in her piece!  Michelle is one of the best cartoonists on the web and one of my favorites to chat with on Twitter!  We are also now full-fledged Egg Cream addicts thanks to Karen Gownley!  To see more of Michelle's awesome work, click here and here!

And so ends another post here at the CRAZYVERSE!  I'll be back next time with all new adventures from Mike and Mindy and Mushrooms!  This was a great month!  Every single post was art related!  I must say, this is a really proud day for me.  This is the first time I've ever handed over the keys to the kingdom to other artists.  And I couldn't be happier with the results!  It's wild to see others take on my characters!  Thanks again to jACKEt for doing these for me! I hope you had as much fun drawing them as I did reading them, even if you did make Mike the victim in your 'toon!  And thanks again to Michelle for the great CCE follow up piece!  I hope that Cactus doesn't come after us next!  I got something special coming your way soon!  It will be EGG-cellent!  Take care, and I'll catch y'all next time!  And one more thing:  Will one of you gals please come get these Unicorns?!  They're stinkin' up the joint!

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!

IT'S TIME FOR THE FIRST EVER CRAZY CARTOON EXPERIMENT!!!

 Before I start, I'd first like to say thanks the Bros. Oliver for an awesome experience doing their podcast!  We had a lot of fun and it's up on their site right now!  Click here to listen to it! (It can also be found on itunes as well, all for free!)

A few months back, I started this thing on Twitter called THE CRAZY CARTOON EXPERIMENT. It's goal was simple: Take a single subject and see how many different artists would interpret said subject.  Would they all be the same?  Would they all be different?  Just how similar/unique would each entry be in relation to one another?  Well, the results are in and it's time to check 'em all out!  Because of the amount of submissions I got, I had to split it up into two parts!  So I now present to you Part 1 of the Crazy Cartoon Experiment!  Big thanks to all the awesome artists who took part in this wild idea of mine!

What was the theme you ask?  "A Helium-Filled Dog Floating Precariously Close To A Cactus!"  Why that?  Because it was the CRAZIEST thing I could think of!  Enjoy the show!

Our first entry comes from Jason Platt, creator of Mister and Me!  Love the child-like look of the Cactus, almost like it's more curious than mean!  One of the cooler things about Jason: In addition to cartooning, he's also an actor, director and playwright!

This is my splash into the Experiment!  I was trying to channel Gary Larson here, as singe-panel cartoons are not one of my strengths!  Still, I'm proud of the piece, although I do regret not doing a full page story.

Here we have Oskar van Velden's entry!  Oskar is the creator of Mojo, and the one that inspired the Experiment in the first place!  He was looking for requests for quick sketches, and this was the goofiest thing I could think of!  Next thing I know, I'm asking other artists to give it a try!  The dog's look is priceless!

Next up, Zorphbert and Fred creator (And great Twitter pal!) Dawn Griffin!  As luck would have it, Dawn wanted to do an inflated dog story for Z&F, and worked the Crazy Cartoon Experiment into her storyline! Talk about dedication!  I love how Fred's the Cactus!  He such an eager fella!

This entry comes from another great Twitter pal, CAAATS! creator Matt Gross!  I have reason to believe that Olive and Hazel might be responsible for the poor dog's predicament!  The steer's skull is a great touch too!

Picpak Dog creator Kim Belding is responsible for this beauty!  Kim let his very own creation, Picpak, try the Experiment himself!  I gotta admit, although this wasn't a contest, this really was among my favorites!  The timing between the panels and reactions are absolutely amazing!

Without question, Shawn Granger of Daddy's Girls, among many other titles, did the most unique entry.  When I said "Helium-Filled Dog," I never specifically said it had to be an actual inflated dog!  Shawn really thought outside the box, and hit a home run with this one!  He more than anybody got what I was trying to do with this Experiment!

This fun piece comes from the ever so awesome Crashsuit, founder of the Buns And Wieners Society (Of which I'm a member!)!  He not only drew it, he went the whole nine yards and animated it!  Even better, the Cactus is chasing the dog!  Now that's creative license! 

Max Overacts creator Caanan Grall is responsible for this dark take.  One of the more interesting things about this one is the angle of the dog.  Almost everybody else had the dog float in from the side.  I really dug the perspective he drew this at!  A very solid piece!

Sean Von Gorman did this quick sketch for the cause!  I feel a little bad, since I kinda duped him into it.  He too was looking for some quick-sketch ideas, and I shot it out to him!  Luckily, he was happy to take part!  I like how the dog doesn't seem to care that it's inflated!

Cody the Cavalier creator Jamie Cosley did this fun sketch.  Although the dog isn't helium-filled, it does contain the basic elements of the Experiment: A Dog, Helium, and a Cactus, so I does count!  And I must say this: That is the CRAZIEST Cactus of the entire Experiment!

Our last entry for now comes from a great twitter pal, Kat Daycare creator Michelle Hernandez!  Michelle took an approach similar to that of Shawn Granger in that it's more like a toy balloon than a full-on inflated dog.  Once again, the line read "Helium-Filled Dog."  I never said it had to be an actual dog, so kudos to Michelle and Shawn for paying close attention!

And so we come to the halfway mark of the Crazy Cartoon Experiment!  So far, every entry has not only been awesomely hilarious, but they have all been very different!  One of the few similarities really has been a lot of the artists giving the Cactus a personality!  It's something I really wish I'd done now!  Oh well.  There's always next time I suppose!

As you can see, we're off to as great start here!  Next week, we'll have the rest of the Experiment along with the first ever Mike and Mindy guest strip by the truly amazing (and fellow Crazy Cartoon Experiment Participant) Francesca Testen!  Brace yourselves for the Crazy Cartoon Experiment Part 2!  And do mind your cacti!  Until next time, take care and I'll catch y'all later!