HE AIN'T BUBONIC!!!

Well, we've come to the end of the line...  For June 2021!  Some other things look like they're coming to an end too!  Obviously, cautious optimism are the buzz words here, with caution especially still being very important.  But things are looking up, and hopefully conditions will continue to grow and improve.  Only time will tell.  But enough about that!  Ye few but faithful want some art, so here it is!  Enjoy...

Egads!  It's a rat!  A fat rat!  But that's not just any fat rat.  It's Plague! The creation of whimsical cartoonist Cyndi Foster, Plague is the sidekick of her mute hero, Oops, a boy who lost his voice while saving the not-always-dependable green rat.  It's a very fun comic that has sadly been on hiatus for a while now.  Cyndi's done fan art and guest comics for me in the past and even gave both Oops and Plague the helium treatment, just for laughs.  I haven't heard from her in a long time, so if you're reading this Cyndi, we miss you and hope Oops and Plague will come back soon and that you're doing okay!  Most of you no doubt noticed that all of this month's art wasn't colored.  Long short of it is, I hurt my back the week before I queued these and just couldn't sit up long enough to do it.  As much as I love doing colors, I kinda like the line art look.  Leaves a lot to the imagination.

And that's a wrap on June 2021!  I'm not sure what direction I'll go in next month.  I might post some pics from Knott's and the SD Fair just to give things a different look.  In the meantime, take care and especially be safe this weekend.  Fourth of July is Sunday and, pandemic or not, people are still gonna mess around with fireworks.  Until next time, party on and I'll catch y'all later!

NEWELL'S BACK!!! AND MORE NEWELL THAN EVER!!!

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  I hope you hear Mrs. Doubtfire's shrill voice when you read that, and that you will all bombard social media with the tag #ReleaseTheDoubtfireCut so that we can see the R-rated version that the director of the movie himself claims to exist!  No, there's no violence or gratuitous nudity. Just a LOT of off the cuff fowl language by the late great Robin Williams in full character as the beloved fake nanny!  The man was a genius.  That's all there is to it.

Boy did THAT intro go off the rails.  Guess I've been indoors for too long, but that's starting to change.  I can't say for sure how well my Recent Knott's trip went, by I'm certain I will have definitely gotten my fill of boysenberry-based products by trip's end!  Maybe next month I'll post some pics instead of art.  Something different.  Until then, here's some art!  Enjoy...

Hey hey!  Newell's back!  In all his widemouthed glory!  As you'll recall, a few months ago I posted some fan art I did last year of Newell, the star of Jason Platt's hilarious and often heartwarming comic Mister & Me.  I can go on forever on how awesome Jason and his art is, and have!  Recently even!  I just can't help it!  He's a great artist and even better dude and another artist that broke into the webcomics scene around the same time that I did.  It didn't take long for us to become pals and fan art has always flowed freely between Jason and me.  He's hitting the big time now with two successful books that I'm seeing in bookstores.  Jason's one several artists now that I can proudly say I knew them before they were famous!

And that's all for today.  We'll be back next week to close out June with a well-missed character whose name suffer's from timing!  Until then, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!

BLAME IT ON THE DRAGON!!!

We are back again CRAZIES!!!  So pumped to have gone to the Fair again!  At least I hope so.  I write these well in advance, so I have no idea how well it went?  I went to opening day the last time the Fair happened and was stunned at how small the crowds were!  I'd always imagined that would be among the busiest days of the Fair.  Historically speaking, I always worked on opening day, so the opportunity never came to go until 2019.  I got parking up front even, so, lesson learned!  I'm not getting much of a break on the excitement factor though, as I'm going back to Knott's on Friday!  Should be interesting.  But enough about that.  What few of you still read this blog want some art, and I'm here to deliver!  Enjoy...

Copernicus looks like a dog woken up by its own fart!  That'll never happen in his comic of origin, but it would be funny if it did!  Copernicus is a dragon dog and part of the crew from Dana Atnip's wonderful comic Galactic Dragons, the tale of a brave, and short, dragon captain attempting a dangerous rescue mission with a ragtag crew of inept civilians...  IN SPACE!!!  Until I drew this, I'd drawn all but one of her characters, Copernicus, the dragon dog.  Well I had to remedy that, and Inktober provided a good opportunity to do just that!  Dana's a very dear friend who's done so much whimsical fan art of my characters.  I always feel like I'm cheating her when I return the favor as my skills don't even come close to hers!  Dana's easily among the 10 best cartoonists in webcomics today.  Why Disney or Nickelodeon haven't come knocking on her door yet is beyond me, but their loss is our gain!

And that's all for the midway point of June 2021!  We'll be back next week with a relatively familiar face because he appeared recently.  I should've spread this one out more, but I just can't pass up an opportunity to do fan art for such a funny character!  Until then, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!

FREDDY'S GOT BACK!!!

We are back!  I have particular reason to be excited this week as I'll be heading back to the San Diego County Fair on Friday, or the Del Mar Fair if you're an old schooler like me.  It'll be greatly scaled back from past Fairs due to limited attendance, but the Fair folks have promised there will still be animal and plant exhibits, a few rides and PLENTY of life-shortening BBQ and deep fried food to clog what few clear arteries I have left, so it should still be fun to an extent.  The return to normal will be slow, but we will get there, day by day.  In the meantime, here's some art!  Enjoy...

This is Fred.  He's a dog, or rather, an alien disguised as a dog!  The creation of Dawn Griffin, Fred was part of her amazing comic Zorphbert & Fred, the tale of two aliens, disguised as dogs, studying human nature.  The comic ended a few years ago, but still leaves a big impression on the webcomic world.  Dawn was among the first pros to really befriend me when I started my journey as a cartoonist on the web, so I always try to work in at least one piece of fan art for her every year.  The series had many great characters, with the weird kid probably being the one most of us related to the best, but Fred was always my personal favorite of the cast, as he reminded me of a dog I'd had as a teenager.  He was a boxer named Buddy who very much embodied his namesake.  Goofy, lovable, large and ever so gassy, Buddy was a dead ringer for Fred, and that was years before I ever met Dawn or discovered her comic!  Funny how things work out on a cosmic level that way.

That's all for June Week 2!  But fear not!  We got more ink lines coming next week!  And it features a character I had never drawn before either, so it's kinda groundbreaking even!  That or my house's foundation needs some serious repairs!  In the meantime, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later! 

A STORM IS BREWIN'... AN INKTOBER STORM!!!

Welcome to June CRAZIES!!!  Hope springs eternal here at the CRAZYVERSE, and for good reason: Things are steadily improving!  I am fully vaccinated and even got to go to to Knott's Berry Farm recently and hot damn did it feel good!  The rides, the food, the atmosphere...  It was all great!  And best of all, rules were being followed!  I'm cautiously optimistic that things will be relatively normal again by year's end.  Hell, even Long Beach Comic Con is scheduled for September!  It ain't SDCC, but I'll take it!

Speaking of SDCC, you've probably noticed no Comic Con photo starting the blog off today.  As mentioned last week, there will be no Comic Con again this summer.  Although things are rapidly improving here in California, back in March, there was still no telling what direction things would go in once vaccines really took effect.  In hindsight, maybe they should've been more patient.  At the same time, things could've just as easily gone downhill again.  Safety's gotta take top priority in the end, so it was the right call to make on cancelling it again this summer.  But, they are planning a show in San Diego for November and WonderCon is scheduled for early April!  We will get there again folks, I know it!  But for now, we just gotta be patient for a little while longer.  In the meant time, I got some art to show!  I know, it's not con pics, but they are of comic characters at least!  Enjoy...

This is Storm.  He's a cat, and a particularly mischievous cat at that!  This kitty happens to be Eline Wagemaker's cat that she features regularly in her comics and art!  Eline's a dear friend from the Netherlands and a fantastic artist who loves cats and snails, so it wasn't hard for us to become fast friends.  She's been taking a break from social media lately, a painfully long break to be honest.  But hopefully Eline will be back soon with plenty of new art and comics featuring Storm and Snarty!  In 2016, I took part in Inktober for the first time and decided to do fan art for the whole month.  For those not in the know, Inktober takes place in October and the basic premise is to draw something everyday.  Themes are available, but I always try to do my own thing.  There are other drawing collectives that month too, but Inktober's easier on hashtags.

That's all for this first week of June!  We'll be back in seven days with some more pen and ink fun from the world of CRAZY!!!  In the meantime, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!

A MAGPIE WITH A MAG PIE?!?

Well, that's it.  Game over.  End of the line.  The finale is here...  For May 2021.  What?  Did you think I was quitting?  Well, no such luck!  It's been 11 years now, and I still haven't lost interest, so I may as well keep going!  I just gotta keep getting my slice of this sweet, sweet blog pie!  And speaking of pie, get your slice by scrolling down!  Enjoy...

PUNS!!!  GET YER PUNS!!! HERE!!!  FRESHLY BAKED PUNS!!!  Probably the only cartoon trope I use more than helium would be those oh-so-sweet puns!  And the more groan-inducing the puns, the better, and this one induced quite a few!  You would've thought I'd walked onto a beach full of sea lions the groans were so loud!  It was the magnet cream pie that did it.  Not even Kim Belding could stand it!  This, like was every other post this month, was a Pinch Punch Post entry, from April 2017. The theme was simple: A magpie!  Admittedly, it's not totally accurate.  Magpies usually have white markings on them too, but I chose the more traditional cartoon approach.  Oddly enough, crows and ravens have long been drawn the same way, despite neither bird having orange beaks or legs.  Perhaps now, magpies will get their due, and crows will be drawn properly.  As it stands, Heckle and Jeckle are the only cartoon magpies to be accurately labeled as their true bird!

And that's a wrap on May 2021!  Next week, I'll dig up something to make y'all laugh the month of June away.  Sadly, SDCC was cancelled again, so no CRAZY Comic Con Countdown this year.  I really wish that weren't the case, but safety must come first.  Numbers in California are dropping, so fingers crossed that next year, we can have cons again because I needs me some cosplay pics!  Until then, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!

MIGHTY MEETS MODEST!!!

HERE I COME TO SAVE THE WEEEEEEEEEEK!!!  Well, maybe.  I mean, it's just some simple art that I hope makes your day a little better.  But it could also be the greatest art ever!  But probably not, just passable.  What does all the contradictory babbling mean?  Scroll down and find out!  Enjoy...

Oh Mighty Mouse, you're far too kind!  There's not much backstory to this one.  Pinch Punch Post picked mice as a theme, and I decided to make a pun out of it.  Mighty Mouse was an easy selection.  He's surprisingly relevant still despite the fact that his cartoons haven't been seen on television regularly in over 30 years and his home video presence consists of ONE short on numerous public domain collections and three shorts on the New Adventures of Mighty Mouse DVD set.  There's a whole host of theories as to why the old Terrytoons shorts aren't available, despite being owned by Nickelodeon through the Viacom acquisition (Which is why they're among the few classic cartoon series that haven't been on Cartoon Network), but we won't get into that here.  All I knew was, his name made him an easy choice.  The other mouse, not so much.  Then I remembered there was a band called Modest Mouse, and that name totally worked so I ran with it!  Funny thing is, until I drew this, I'd never actually heard any of their songs!  Some pals recommended the song Float On, and I must admit, it was pretty catchy with a fun, animated music video attached.  Better late than never is among my mottos in life!

That's all for this week.  Be sure to come back next time so that we can finish off the Merry Month of May with some art that would certainly make Mighty Mouse's pals Heckle and Jeckle smile a bit!  Until then, take care, stay safe and I'll catch y'all later!