Category: Cartoons by Topic

Christmas Cartoons – Santa Claus

andertoons

Santa Claus. Fat guy, brings you toys, right? For the most part, especially when you’re a kid, thats about all you ned to know.

But when you really start digging into Santa, and Santa related stuff, you quickly realize that there’s an awful lot of great material for a cartoonist to play with. So, with the holidays approaching, I thought I take a moment and share a stocking full of my favorite Santa Claus cartoons:

Ok, Christmas is a stressful time for everyone, but imagine the pressure that Santa is under. Toy productions, elf management, all the travel… I wouldn’t be surprised a bit if he’s less than jolly come December.

This is a take on the old “go to your happy place” thing, and now that I look at it maybe “jolly” would have worked better.

Oh well. I’m glad he’s getting help.

You know, in this age of social media, Santa should have a really easy time keeping his nice and naughty lists in order.

If he’s smart he’s taking advantage of any number of APIs, setting up some sort of algorithm, and kicking back and relaxing while we all fess up online. Easy peasy.

This is probably pretty odd to work well in any of my standard markets. In fact, when you think about it a little Ionger, it gets creepy fast.

Honestly I didn’t intend anything other than a little holiday entrepreneurship, but, um… ewwwww.

Ok, moving on.

I’d love to think that Santa Claus would be immune to thoughts of marketing or branding, but it’s fairly obvious that Christmas is nothing if not commercial, so I guess it make sense that he would worry about his image.

But, come on, ‘Ho-ho-ho’ is a true classic. You don’t want to mess with that. Remember New Coke?

Ok, that does it for now. Feel free to check out all of my Santa Claus cartoons, and happy holidays everyone!
 

Christmas Cartoons & Comics

andertoons

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are almost here. Pretty soon I’m going to be hip deep in yet to be written cards, dirty cookie sheets, and 12 year old tattered bows that my wife is convinced still have a few years left in them.

Christmas can be a stressful time, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to offer up some of my favorite Christmas cartoons to clear out some of the humbug. Enjoy!

I’m what you would call directionally challenged. I never know which way is north, I often don’t know what town I’m in, and if it weren’t for the combination of Google Maps, my TomTom and my iPhone, I’d never be able to get anywhere at all.

I love my GPS, but I can understand why Rudolph might feel differently.

Another Christmas bar cartoon. I wonder what a therapist would have to say about this.

Anyway, this cartoon was an absolute joy to do art-wise. Concocting a recognizable Scrooge, aping Seuss, and drawing them both slightly drunk and complaining? Hee hee! This is why I became a cartoonist!

As if it weren’t bad enough that this kid was going to get coal, he doesn’t even get that, and then Santa rubs it in his face!

I know it’s winter and all, but that’s cold.

This cartoon was one of my most popular at art fairs this summer, although I sold only one. I thought it would be more of a general holiday appeal, but people inevitably would say “This would be great if it said Bill instead!” Or Tom, or Jessica or (insert name here.)

I’ve considered offering it as an item you could personalize, but that would require more planning and effort than I think I’m ready for at the moment. Maybe someday, though…

I’ll put up the tree, hang a wreath, and put out a few knick-knacks, but that’s it for Christmas decorating. I put up lights one time years ago before we had kids and a second story on the house, but never since.

I’m sure the neighbors think I’m a Scrooge, but the ratio of work to joy doesn’t work out for me.

But one giant bulb? That I might actually put up.

Christmas Cartoon #4319 by Andertoons

More than one company I worked for before becoming a cartoonist would have had absolutely no problem at all moving to the naughty list, if, in fact, they had ever been elsewhere. And when you think about it, if you were in the coal business you’d actually have no incentive to be good at all. I think I smell a cartoon!

OK, I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to feel a little better. Feel free to check out all of my other Christmas cartoons, and have a happy holiday!
 

Thanksgiving Cartoons

andertoons

I love Thanksgiving! It’s the purest of the big three holidays. I mean, unless you’re in the turkey, pumpkin, or cranberry sauce business, there’s not a lot to commercialize. Just food, family, and fun. Not bad, huh?

This being only a blog, I can’t help with the food or the family, but I can definitely help with the fun with this smallish smorgasbord of Thanksgiving cartoons. Dig in!

Sure, we all like a big Thanksgiving feast, but for a certain subset of fine-feathered friends it’s not so much fun. And I guess if I were a turkey right about now I’d be wondering what the cards held for me. Luckily for me I get then chance to explore that quite literally in the above cartoon.

Of course most turkeys aren’t going to fare well, but thankfully (see what I did there?) this turkey is getting some help with his impending doom.

I had to look up the stages for coping with death to make sure I got them right, and then included my own little addendum. Apologies to Kubler-Ross.

Ok, I admit it, I don’t know what an x-ray of a turkey looks like. I tried looking it up, but never could find anything. So I punted and just sort of drew a few ribs. Hopefully I haven’t offended any turkeys and/or x- ray technicians.

Tryptophan is one of those things that once a year everyone knows about. (It’s the stuff in turkey that apparently makes you sleepy.) But the rest of the year poor old tryptophan just lays there eating cheetos watching reality TV just waiting for Thanksgiving.

Sad really.

I love holidays that aren’t on a specific day. New Year’s Day is January 1. Boring! Valentines Day is February 14. Yawn!

Gimme those holidays that are like figuring out an equation any day! Fourth Thursday in November! That’s what I’m talking about!

This is probably my personal favorite of my own Thanksgiving cartoons. It has all my favorite cartoon elements: animal in an office, a caption that won’t work without the art and vice- versa, and impending though relatively unspecific death.

Well that does it. Hope you enjoyed ’em, and feel free to check out all of my Thanksgiving cartoons!

Food Cartoons

andertoons2 Comments

I love this time of year. We just got done stocking up on candy, Christmas shopping is ramping up, but I think my favorite is right around the corner – turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie!! Woo!

Yep, here comes Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving means food. So, to whet your appetite, here’s a feast of food cartoons:

This kid needs help, and fast!! Foods touching?! Good heavens!!

Seriously though, what is that when you’re a kid? I remember vividly some mashed potatoes co-mingling with some errant mushy canned peas and to this day it still haunts me.

I had no idea when I moved to Chicago that people could feel so strongly about ketchup, or more specifically the lack thereof, on a hot dog. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has caused some marital spats, so I decided to take it even a little bit further for this food cartoon.

Drawing the condiments was so much fun on this one.

Bananas are for whatever reason a real bear to draw. There’s something about the shape that if you don’t get just right ends up looking like a bratwurst. They’re slightly curved, but some parts are straight-ish, and then there’s the tip thingy. Don’t believe me? Try drawing one right now.

As far as the gag goes, I don’t remember exactly when the fact the bananas are good for potassium entered my consciousness, but this is an even better benefit than I’d originally thought.

Theres a lot of really bad shark/chum cartoons out there (trust me), mostly involving friendship puns, so with this cartoon I challenged myself to come up with something different and, hopefully, actually funny. The above cartoon is the result. I think I got it.

And I got to draw a shark in pearls! WOO!

Anyway, feel free to chow down on all of my food cartoons, and don’t forget to leave a few lumps in the mashed potatoes. Trust me.

Halloween Cartoons – Monsters

andertoons1 Comment

Recently I’ve been blogging about varieties of Halloween cartoons. First it was pumpkins, then witches, but this time I’m taking more of a potpourri approach and chatting about monsters in general.

Halloween gives a cartoonist plenty to play with, but I’ll start with one of my favorites – vampires.

Sexy young vampires may be very much in fashion, but for my money the good old fashioned widow-peaked, tuxedo wearing blood sucker is still the best. Give me Count Chocula or The Count from Sesame Street over that boring Edward any day!

Anyway, as far as the above comic, I’m not sure exactly how or if blood as a diet would affect one’s blood pressure, if a vampire did indeed even have blood pressure. But, as I’ve said before, cartoons, perhaps especially Halloween cartoons, are often better if not examined too too closely.

Ok, another vampire one, and sort of a wordy one at that for one without a caption per se.

For this one I had to actually go out to my car and take a picture of my side view mirror so I could get it to look right. What I won’t do for my art!

So this is what being a cartoonist’s wife is like. You get to hear this at dinner – “OK, so this wolf man is giving a presentation…” and you have to listen, take it in stride, and offer your point of view. So, before you marry a cartoonist, be sure you’re ready for that.

Few things are funnier to me than Phil Hartman’s “FIRE BAD!” Frankenstein from SNL. Honestly, just thinking about it is making me giggle as I write this.

I knew that I wanted to play with that classic phrase, but it took a great deal of staring off in space to transplant it from a dark castle or angry village to the boardroom.

This is also one of the few Halloween cartoons of mine that I look at and think that I pretty much got it perfect. I’d like to think Phil Hartman would have enjoyed it too.

Well, that’s it for monsters. Feel free to check out all of my Halloween cartoons, and be sure you give out good candy this year. Not raisins. Don’t be that guy.

BTW, don’t miss my other Halloween cartoon blog posts about pumpkins and witches!