Category: Cartoons by Topic

Halloween Cartoons – Pumpkins

andertoons

Being a cartoonist, I love the fun artsiness of carving pumpkins. I’m not a huge fan of scooping out the the stuff, washing them, cleaning them up when they’re done, or, really, anything else, but I love carving them.

So, with All Hallow’s Eve fast approaching, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite Halloween cartoons about pumpkins!

Being a cartoonist means always having that 1% of your brain awake and on the lookout for stuff to have fun with. This cartoon came from seeing my basketball in my garage. It was set in such a way that the seams lined up and sort of looked like a pumpkin.

Then it was just a simple matter of creating young love gone awry. Easy!

I love mixing different things together in my Halloween cartoons. Often I’ll combine nursery rhymes, business jargon, pretty much anything to see what happens.

For this cartoon I was looking for a way to combine two holidays. I started with the leprechauns and their pot of gold, then started thinking of other holiday items as a substitute. It wasn’t long before a pumpkin stood in, and then it took a bizarre turn into the business world.

Writing is weird like that sometimes.

I do lots and lots of tech cartoons. The businessman in me will tell you it’s largely because they sell well, and that’s true, but mostly it’s because I’m a huge nerd and I have a weak spot for the latest gadget.

So when emoticons really took off and were widely understood, this cartoon wasn’t far behind.

It struck me one year while carving with the kids that whatever emotion we chose for the pumpkin was it. And suddenly that’s a lot of pressure!

Do you want a happy one? Angry? Mournful? Philosophical? Whatever I choose, this pumpkin is stuck. Good thing this therapist is there to help.

Well I think I’ve scooped about as much out of these pumpkin cartoons as I can. Feel free to browse all of my Halloween cartoons!

(BTW, don’t miss last week’s Halloween cartoons about witches!)

Halloween Cartoons – Witches

andertoons

Every year I get the standard Halloween costumes at my door. You’ve got your ninjas, your superheroes, your princesses, but my favorite is always the witch. Put a sweet little girl in a black robe and pointy hat and I’m shoveling out candy like there’s no tomorrow.

So, with trick or treating right around the corner, I thought I’d share a cauldron full of my favorite Halloween cartoons involving witches. Enjoy:

I tend to do a lot of tech humor, so when I made a list of Halloween topics to write about, a witch’s “spell” immediately suggested “spellcheck” to me. That being said, I have not idea how that would work. Does it involve the cauldron somehow? The stirrer? Some other device?

See, this is why its better not to think too long about cartoons.

Another cauldron comic. But this time our witch apparently has her own cooking show. Which kind of makes sense. Spells are always full of ingredients, instructions about cooking times and methods (bubbles and toil), they sound very much like recipes.

But for me the last sentence, “Tune in next week when I’ll be fattening and baking children I find in the forest,” makes this cartoon for me. I labored over those 16 words for a good long time. And I’m glad I did because they still make me laugh.

Again with the Halloween tech! Apparently my witches are quite modern.

The tricky part on this one is drawing something small and generic enough to not bring any particular device to mind, but recognizable enough to read visually quickly.

Its also a little punny, but just barely.

This cartoon is a good example of one of my favorite writing tricks. Take an oddball character and insert them into a very normal setting and see what happens.

The name “Helga” was the sticking point on this one. What’s a good witch name that’s not too jokey? Hazel? Too Warner Brothers. Esmerelda? Too long. Elphaba? Too showy.

I’m still not convinced that Helga is the absolute best choice, but, as the saying goes, sometimes you just have to name your witch and move on. Wait, that’s not a saying at all.

Well, that’s it. Be sure to check out all of my funny Halloween cartoons!

Halloween Cartoons

andertoons1 Comment

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year. You’ve got monsters, pumpkin carving, and forcing your neighbors to give you their candy under threat of reprisal. Plus, as a cartoonist, you get all sorts of fun stuff to draw! What’s not to like?

So here’s a small sampling of Halloween cartoons to get you in the mood. Enjoy:

You know, when you think about it, as long as kids have been trick-or-treating, I’m surprised that someone hasn’t tried to popularize a third option. Sure, you have that whole “…smell my feet, give me something good to eat” thing, but that’s pretty tired. You really should stick with alliteration here too, so “Text” maybe? “Tedium?” “Totalitarianism?”

I think every kid has heard the old “it’s just ketchup” explanation. But I must say that it sort of confused me as a kid. When I scraped my knee and it was blood instead of ketchup? Freak out!!

I also like how this Halloween cartoon is set in sort of your standard living room. No coffins, crypts, bats… Just your average middle class Nosferatu at home watching TV with the family. Nice.

I’m not sure what exactly it is about vacuums that scares dogs (it’s not just mine, right?), but I gotta say that as much as I have to vacuum because of our dog, that the ensuing canine hysterics are more than a tad annoying. That being said, it did give me the good idea for the above Halloween cartoon.

Of course it also presented the problem of drawing a number of various breed of dog dressed in an assortment of costumes attending a party. So there’s that.

I hope Frankenstein is earning a good living terrorizing villagers or whatever it is he does (maybe a sizable inheritance from his mad doc father?), because the Mrs.’ hair budget has got to be a killer. Sure, it’s cool, scary, iconic, but the upkeep with shampoo, conditioner, various styling products, and visits to the hairdresser must cost a fortune.

To be serious for just a second, I think, like the vampire comic above, the sort of nonchalantness of the scene really helps this work. A beginning cartoonist might be tempted to have a funny reaction on his face, or show lots of hairspray cans laying about to drive the point home, but the bland mundane quality of everything it what make this cartoon funny for me.

Well, hope you enjoyed this small sampling of monster mirth. Feel free to check out all of my funny Halloween cartoons & comics too!