Month: April 2006

Blog Stuff

andertoons

You might have noticed some changes on the sidebars as of late. (OK you probably didn’t but a blogger can dream, can’t he?)

In addition to some housekeeping (goodbye drunken cruise ship photos) I’ve added feeds from some of my favorite cartoon blogs over on the left side. Instead of just links to their pages, you can actually see what their five most recent blogs are about and go right to those entries.

Check ’em out if you get a chance!

See some blogging cartoons at Andertoons…

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The Ever Continuing Mailbox

andertoons1 Comment

Images Blog Andertoonsmailbox

In an effort to keep these more readable, from now on I’m just going to be spotlighting one email per entry. But enough meta, let’s get down to some mail!

Do you have an affiliate program? How many orders do you fill each month? What is the most popular subject area? What trends or cycles present themselves through the year? How large is your in-house staff?

That’s the entire email. No “Hi there!” No “I have a few questions if you don’t mind…” Just, gimme gimme gimme. And some rather private info to boot.

But, since I’m such a super duper guy, here’s your answers:

No. None of your business. I’m not telling you. Sod off. My wife, kids, two cats, a dog and numerous dust bunnies.

See some mail cartoons at Andertoons…

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes!

andertoons

Part of being a cartoonist is drawing holiday cartoons during the Spring and/or Summer months.

Generally magazines, greeting cards and such are working at least 6 months ahead if not more, so I get to ponder jokes about Santa Claus while I’m getting the grill ready to go for the season.

It’s weird, but you get used to it.

Recently I’ve been selling more and more greeting cards, and unlike most of my gag markets, they require color. I normally re-ink the cartoon from scratch rather than trying to remove my gray shading in Photoshop. I find it comes out a lot cleaner.

Anyway, a card company bought some of my older Thanksgiving stuff and I ran into sort of a weird little problem. Here’s the original art as I submitted it:

1803Old

(You can go here for the gag…)

This one is from much earlier in my cartooning career before my current style had set in.

Note the lack of noses on some characters, and the awkward nose experimentation on the others. The whole thing is kinda on a goofy angle too. And why I chose to cut the door on the left at that conspicuous angle I don’t quite know.

Anyway, here’s the problem: The greeting card company liked the cartoon and bought it, but I don’t draw that way anymore. Do I redraw it in my current style, or redo what I’d done before, even though I’m not happy with the art?

In the end I decided to keep the same angles and basic composition, but updated the characters and line to my current style. Here’s the line art:

1803New

And here it is in color:

1803Color

Not bad in the end, but it does make you rethink sending out older art. Sure it’s salable, but do I want the hassle?

I know some cartoonists go back and redo older cartoons in their current styles, but, honestly, once I’m done with a cartoon I don’t even like revisiting it to color it for a paying client.

Anyway, here’s hoping they like the final product…

See some thanksgiving cartoons at Andertoons…

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