Cartoon Cruising

I read in the Trib the other day that Celebrity Cruise Lines is booking three “cartoon cruises” featuring New Yorker cartoonists Sam Gross, George Booth, Jack Ziegler and others.

I’m not sure exactly what these cruises will entail, and writer Jay Boyar offers no real specifics, but it’s an interesting, if expensive, way to connect with cartoonists.

(Note – I’m offering paddleboat rides with me for significantly less money.)

But the whole cruise ship angle got me thinking about my younger days as a professional trombonist, or as I liked to put it, “sackbut for hire!”

I played for various cruise lines for about 2-1/2 years. I spent a summer cruising around Alaska, about a year in and around San Juan, and I’ve been to the Bahamas somewhere around 120 times.

Musicians generally worked about 2-3 hours a day and the rest of your time was yours. Sure, you never got a day off, and the accommodations were cramped, but all in all, not a bad way to spend one’s youth.

Anyway, I crawled up into some boxes in the garage and pulled out some photos of the artist as a young musician. Check them out in my photo album on the left sidebar.

Save Spot the Frog!

OK, Wisconsinites, this blog’s for you.

Regular readers of our little cartoon blog will recognize Spot the Frog creator, and all around great guy, Mark Heath as a regular commenter.  (BTW, check out Mark’s Frog Blog too!)

I’m a big fan of Spot.  It’s a rare gem of a strip that combines laugh out loud funny with a sort of philosophical sweetness not seen since Calvin and Hobbes.  But there’s a problem…

Readers of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel can no longer spot Spot.  The editors there have dropped the strip.  This is where you cheeseheads come in…

Please please please drop the Sentinal’s editors a line and ask for Spot’s return!  Don’t settle for lesser comics.  To paraphrase early Beastie Boys, you’ve got to fight for your right to laugh hearty!

Editors hate getting mail about comics.  It’s not their favorite section of the paper and they’d prefer it just hum along quietly.  So, when readers speak up, they’re usually quick to make changes so they can get back to runaway brides and such.

Save SpotWrite now!

New Andertoons Features!

I promised you some big news, and, man, am I gonna deliver!

If you’ve been observant at our favorite cartoon website in recent days, you’ll have noticed what I think are the biggest changes to Andertoons since, well, Andertoons.  Let’s start with what has been the bane of visitors for years now…

Andertoons.com cartoon watermarks. It drove many loyal readers (and this cartoonist) crazy, but it’s now nothing but a bad memory.  Instead, cartoons now carry a simple copyright notice and my website’s URL at their tops, giving an unimpeded view of the artwork.

So what took so long?  The website wunderkind at Karma have engineered a solution that will allow me to continue to protect my work, while giving everyone a clear view of the cartoons. It’s something I’ve wanted from day one, but was never clever enough to figure out on my own.  Score one for surrounding yourself with smart people.

(OK, you serious webbies out there will, I’m sure, find a way around it, but I’d like to politely ask you not to use my cartoons without my consent.  Cartoons are how I earn my living and I’d like to continue doing that.  Thanks.)

OK, now on to some really fun stuff! 

I’m a blogger and have been for over a year now and I love the personal creative expression it allows me.  I get to share things that are uniquely me with a wide audience on a regular basis.

One of the things that I think helps define us is our individual sense of humor.  And it’s that idea that motivated the new (and free!) Andertoons Daily Cartoon!

Yes, now you can have my cartoons appear daily on your website or blog.  Simply pick what types of cartoons you’re interested in, cut and paste some code, and your readers will get to share your sense of humor too.

It will appear as a cartoon thumbnail on your site/blog.  But, when your readers click on it, they’ll be treated to the full size version in a small new window, again, sans watermark!  (Check out my right-hand sidebar for an example.)

What’s really neat is that you can pick the topics of the cartoons.  If you run a business-themed blog, you can get all business cartoons.  Church site?  Get all family cartoons!

Check out my new Free Toons page for the skinny on it all.  I think you’ll be as excited as I am about it.

There’s some more new stuff under the hood, and we’ve moved everything to what seems to be a good new host, but that’s about it for new features.  Don’t worry, though – as always, I’ve got a bunch of new ideas that should make Andertoons.com even better!

So, go dig around the site, pass the word, and enjoy the new changes!

Cartoons That Stay Crunchy in Milk

I ran across this blog about breakfast cereals and cartoons a week or so back and it’s a fun read.

Some of my favorite points…

The Trix Rabbit:

“…the Rabbit is the modern day retelling of the Greek tragic myth of Tantalus; the cereal is forever just out of reach. The kids are psychologically demented and knowingly evil…”

Cap’n Crunch:

“According to Quaker Oats, the Cap’n was once promoted to Admiral”

(I have to wonder – did they spell it “Adm’l”?)

Lucky the Leprechaun:

“Trivia: the current 5-pointed star was originally introduced as 6-pointed; read into it what you will.”

Check out the entire post here…