"Warp Speed"

Details, details. I mean, if you're up on the mileage for one of the two big races in Alaska, then you might also be enough of a geek to catch my rather glaring error in this one. Namely, the foreshortening is backwards on the bands and blobs of cosmic particles. Unless the starship you're on the deck of is going in reverse.

I didn't think it detracted from the cartoon, as in it still "worked," so it ran, as is.There also isn't much in the way of an originating image doodled out for this particular panel. It's one of the ones that I seriously can just sit there and space out while staring off into the infinite, bearing sacred witness to the unflowering of another idea... in other words "can't talk - gotta draw."

There's two primary places that this drew from. One would be the obvious environmental cue coming after many months of each year spent driving in subarctic conditions... we see a lot of blowing snow up in this neck of the woods. Kinda goes with the territory. Like dog mushing.

And then there's the fact I spend an inordinate amount of time with sci-fi (either movie or, more often, a soundtrack) playing off to the side as I sit in front of the screen inputting data, text + image. So the interstellar kaleidoscope of warp speed is as a familiar sight up on a screen as it is the indelible visual sensation of driving home through a snowstorm with your headlights on. And as far as the optical effect goes, once you see it, experience the thrill of hitting the highbeams and saying "make it so!"- then every single time for the rest of your life you will forever make the connection.Or, in myy case, more than justifies the occasional "never give up - NEVER SURRENDER."

Every so often the spheres come into alignment and my piece will mesh with or pivot off an inadvertently accompanying article i.e. the picture kinda goes with the words (like my own stuff if I'm lucky).

"Windchill" (At a Snail's Pace)

Cartooning is the kind of job where some days you'll wind up researching the rate of speed of a snail so as to calculate the ensuing windchill. Because as a member of the mainstream media I have an ethical responsibility to ensure factual accuracy in all of my content. We here at Nuggets®™ brand Northern humor are proud to sit by our product. And yes, for those of our readers following along at home, it was unladen as well.
No accompanying thumbnail sketch or doodle as this one sprang Athenian from my cold, sweaty brow.

"Spoiler"

Pretty sure I've mentioned it elsewhere before on this blog but it bears repeating how far off the seasonal wheel I've spun now what with random postings regardless of what time of the year it is in reality. 

I mean, the reality of it is that it matters about as much as when I first came up with the idea: there are times I'm thinking about warmer days and sunshine while deep in the frozen grip of winter, and conversely I'll be suffering from S.A.D. in the summer.

It didn't really matter when the idea for this one came about because I sure wasn't reference sketching at a dog mushing race. Which reminds me: almost every time I draw a dog sled and/or a racing dog hitched up and running I think to myself how one of these days I'll remember to stop and actually look at what they actually look like, and maybe even do a reference sketch. 

But then I always remember it's not really the point, and besides, it only took like half my career to realize I was drawing moose antlers behind their ears. I mean, dogs don't wear sunglasses either silly, right?

Big Foot Style

I’ve often described my visual style as a mutant hybrid between a Don Martin character and a Jim Henson Muppet (and raised on a diet of Chuck Jones). Which brings up a long-running pet peeve of mine as a cartoonist: when meeting some folks for the first time and they find out what I do, they will immediately associate my work with "The Far Side". That’s somewhat understandable, since it’s for the most part they’re both single-panel gag cartoons, and as Gary Larson’s feature is arguably (still) the most popular example of the artform in the entire world, it’s their only connection with cartooning, and hence an easy connection to make. The other one I get confused and/or lumped in with is with "Tundra," causally linked through context + content as also an Alaskan comic.
(follow after the jump for more...)

Image: John Rose

"Welcome Committee"

I originally drew this panel back in 2019, and it hadn't yet appeared anywhere on account of it winning me the 2020 Chamber of Commerce Artist of the Year award: as part of the deal they had exclusive rights to use the image for promotional purposes, so I temporarily took it out of the production pipeline. Then the pandemic happened and the honor was rolled over into 2021, and it stayed in extended suspended animation (which, come to think of it, is arguably what every cartoon is) so this year finally marks it's official release as a Nuggets feature. No real process sketches per say, since it sprang Athenian from my head and just came out the other end of the pencil. Note to self: that's gonna be the title of my biography: "It Came Out The Other End of My Pencil."

(line art)

Reboot: Back to Basics

Staring down another blank page

Broke out the man-purse last week, and after a two-year hiatus, have set up shop at my favorite local cafe again. The creative juices are flowing and I've reinstated a self-imposed schedule of disciplined doodling. It's an integral part of the process, but several recent events aligned to conspire against my regular rhythms and subsequent output. So in accordance with my usual early-morning schedule, I'm usually the first customer in the door when they open. On the first session back in the proverbial saddle, I finally finished one complete sketchbook, which can now be retired to the studio, to literally draw from, added to the pile of similar repositories. I'll film a flip-through sooner than later and post a video of all the encapsulated nonsense. Another ritual was the careful adornment of the new sketchbook with some of the accumulated stickers I have stashed away for just such a purpose. Also started off the new collection with the very first image - tangentially related to scoring a second booster shot.

Page one: The inaugural doodle on a new sketchbook

Grooves have a way of turning into ruts, and despite my preferred teaching style of utilizing disruptive educational techniques in the classroom (not letting us get complacent but continually uprooting and re-contextualizing exercises out into the "real world"), I am a creature of habit. It's been a couple years now that two of my long-running local establishments to hang out with the sketchbook and work on turning over material fermenting in the mental mulch-pile have closed up shop. Gulliver's Books first got re-shelved and then finally closed it's covers, and then Sourdough Sam's also shuttered itself. These really hurt, and left big holes in the Fairbanks. It's places like these, local businesses, that are the heart + soul of a community. Not the big box stores, who's empty eyesore corporate carcasses litter the landscape of our town. They don't care, never did, never will. Not the shitty chains everybody lines up to eat shit at because it's either fresh shit, or tastes just like the same shitty food they ate in the last shitty town they lived in. And it's turning Fairbanks - metastasized into anytown USA - into a shitty place to live.

Another recent  small business casualty: logo by yers truly

Now add in the pandemic shutdowns which yanked the rug out from everybody, and ever since then I've been feeling such insidious malaise (another term is "languishing"), like I just slipped out of gear, or sit there spinning my wheels. I feel like I've lost my mojo, my drive is gone, no energy left anymore. How the hell can I inspire anybody that supposed to be teaching when I feel like one of those sad, old, and useless faculty members who just occupy space while they run out the clock until they retire. But slowly, ever so slowly I am fighting back. Even if all I have the energy for is one thing, at least that gets done. Or maybe just vacuuming + dishes is all I have time for - cut yourself some slack. There are still days I burn out right off the bat but still keep pushing, flogging the proverbial dead horse, or in this case, moose. I'm seriously behind on a couple big clients, and one thing I've really learned after the past couple years is now to say no. As in no more freelance - what little resources I have left are all going right back into my own work now. So far I've turned down a dozen gigs and it's not even at the halfway point of the year. You get so goddamned sick of the constant hustle, marketing yourself, chumming the waters as it were. It never ends. One of the big red flags is not being able to shake the resentment that you are working on stuff for someone else when all you want to be doing is working on your own thing. As well you should - it's an extension of the inner checks + balances I go through whenever facing the choice between drawing or spending time + energy on consuming other people's efforts, as in for example, watch a movie or work on your own creative output - or in the case of a lot of comics students, spend hours and hours gaming instead of producing your own content. And then you have to make the same call when invited to parties, or movies, or dinners etc. which can narrow your world considerably (not to mention strain relationships). And yet there is the silver lining in how these tasks challenge you, push you, force you to confront inner issues like performance, imposter syndrome, or just plain old discipline. This is at odds with the artsy-fartsy crowd who see art as more of a therapeutic and organic process as opposed to under stressful deadlines (hence the functional distinction between Fine versus Commercial arts), but I know left to my own devices waiting for inspiration is bullshit - it does happen, just 99% of the time under pressure. Like I tell my students, it's called artWORK. Yeah I know, first-world problems, and I know the majority of struggling artists wish they had such issues. But you can only give so much, and if you put everything into it, it takes a lot out of you too. So some self-care and prudent marshaling of inner output will go a long way to recovering from this series of switchbacks & speed-bumps.

When all that's left are the empty backs of stickers

"Moosezilla" Rises Again! (Versus Bonus "Mosquitora")

Gosh, now what could possibly ever go wrong? Besides the fact that the military industrial complex has it's own little it's own world on American soil, it can unilaterally deign to introduce a nuclear reactor onto sovereign Alaska territory. We'll just ignore their track record for cleaning up after themselves because the state is so big there's plenty of room to play with toxic toys. How'd that sound for an attempt at protesting the might of the military flexing its muscle on the us poor little ol' defenseless 3rd world citizens of the barren tundra? Waiting for all the staunch defenders of sovereignty to even muster a mumble of resistance... but there's an established record of Alaska rolling over without a whimper when it comes to those almighty federal dollars. Oh wait, nevermind.

I got to resurrect "Moosezilla" and create a bonus new kaiju "Mosquitora" based on another classic creature. I think I've been watching too many of those recently released golden oldies on YouTube from Shout Factory - Rodan was always a childhood favorite and the nostalgic trip down memory lane (okay more like stomping it to ruins and laying waste to it with atomic breath). And speaking of sourdough-caliber history, here's bonus archive pics of a famous former Air Force enlistee from this neck of the woods.

And I'd be remiss in not including the obligatory plea for supporting local journalism, and the peripheral talent too; thank you.