Category: Cartoons by Topic

School Cartoons

andertoons

Wow, the summer is really winding down quickly. And while I’m trying to cram as much relaxation in as possible before the new school year begins, like most families we’re also busily stockpiling pencils, notebooks & glue sticks.

So to ease us in more gently, here’s a few fun school cartoons:

I had a lot of fun imagining what a philosophy student might look like for this cartoon. Plaid shirt, long hair, scruffy stubble..  And the professor has the requisite elbow patches. But now that I look at it the office could be a lot messier, and someone definitely needs some glasses. To paraphrase what someone once said about writing (I think…), you never so much finish a cartoon as you do abandon it.

This is probably one of my most popular school cartoons. I like the joke, and the art turned out fine, but what ended up being the hard part of this was coming up with a simple sentence for the joke to hinge on. My wife was an English minor and I ran tons of possibilities past her until we hit on this one.

It took me years and years and years before I finally figured out how to draw a dog’s back legs correctly. Sure, it look simple, but it never really clicked for me until this year. Funny how that works sometimes.

OK, this is a bit of a nerdy tech joke about people hating, and I mean deeply hating, Comic Sans. For years I saw it as a pleasant enough font, but now even I have to admit that it’s pretty lame.

This also came out of examining my son’s handwriting, which apparently they don’t teach anymore in school. As someone who worked consciously for years on writing not just legibly but kind of artistically, I’m a little disappointed that this basic skill is being put on the back burner. Sigh…

OK, well that’s it for this little sampling. Feel free to check out all of my school cartoons here!

Teacher Cartoons

andertoons

You know it’s not too much longer and summer’s going to be over and parents everywhere will alternately cry and dance for joy as their kids head back to school.

It’s especially dramatic at my house because my wife is a teacher. So one day the house is filled with family, and the next it’s crickets chirping.

Anyway, with school just over the horizon I thought I’d share some of my favorite teacher cartoons! Enjoy:

I don’t know exactly how apples apparently became the preferred bribe for educators everywhere, but I’m betting that they’ve lost their luster. BTW, for those students of my wife, here’s a hint: forget the coffee and go the chocolate route. Works like a charm!

I remember meeting with my kids preschool teachers a ways back and examining their scissors skills. I had no idea there even was such a thing! I’ve heard my wife discuss fine and gross motor skills, but I had no idea that I’d be looking closely at partially hacked construction paper with other adults and creating a cutting improvement strategy.

Anyway, I’m also a bit of a tech nerd, so this cartoon wasn’t far behind.

I know for a fact that this cartoon is very popular with teachers, but none of them will ever admit it.

Again with the apples! To be fair this cartoon isn’t really a stretch to get to, but I did put a lot of thought into the look of the classroom. (This is where having a teacher for a wife really comes in handy!) There’s the alphabet strip above the whiteboard, the curvy corrugated border on the bulletin board, the calendar… None of which are strictly necessary, and I normally try to imply backgrounds more, but it was too much fun to resist.

Well, there you go. Just a few quick examples of my teacher cartoons. If you’d like to see more, feel free to click here and browse to your heart’s content.

Bonus! Here’s q short video of teacher cartoons I did a while back:

Dog Cartoons – The Sequel!

andertoons

Dogs are just plain funny.

Their unrestrained joy every time they see you, the way they tilt their heads when they’re confused (which is pretty much always with our pooch), the running and yipping in their sleep… Funny!

Writing and drawing dog cartoons would be almost too easy if it weren’t for the bajillions that have already been done since, oh, I dunno, cavemen drew on walls! Still, I enjoy a challenge, and I think these are pretty doggone good. Enjoy:

There’s just something inherently funny about making dogs salivate by ringing a bell. I know it was important scientifically and all that, but it’s mostly just funny.

This comic appears in my collection of dog cartoons that I sell at art fairs, and I’d say it’s the one I get asked most about when people are leafing through the book. There’s always a risk of confusing a reader when you’re asking them to bring something to a cartoon, but for those who get it, this is a favorite.

I don’t draw sheep well, so I was glad to hide most of them under the table and behind the window. That collie though, that’s a nice looking dog.

I wrote this one while cleaning up my dog after she’d apparently discovered the Great North American Mud Depository in our back yard. I said “good girl” as I washed her, but I didn’t really mean it.

That being said, I can’t help but feel a little sorry for this particular pooch.

It took me a long time to figure out what to leave out of a cartoon. When I started I would’ve drawn an entire park scene with trees and people and whatnot. It takes years of cartooning experience to know when a torso is enough.

I know it seems like resume padding, but to a dog those are very different skills.

Dog Cartoon #6205 by Andertoons

Based on the famous Peter Steiner cartoon, I just updated it a bit technologically.

Well, that’s it, I hope you’ve enjoyed them. And feel free to check out all of my dog cartoons!

(Like this blog? Check out my previous dog cartoon blog too!)