Category: Not Cartoons

Wimic Widget? Wow!

andertoons

One of the things I love about my new Mac and its Tiger OS are the Widgets.

For those of you not in the know, there’s this kinda hidden screen of little useful items you can call up at a moment’s notice. Since Tiger came out there’s been a ton of these things created for just about every conceivable purpose. (Right now mine include a system stats ap, a calculator, the latest headlines from the New York Times, and a Magic 8 Ball.)

The new Wimic Widget seems destined to be a favorite as well. It gives you your daily cartoon fix from any number of sources (UComics.com, Comics.com, etc…) and seems to be customizable.

I do have to wonder how the syndicates make money off of this (my own free cartoon feature works on a different premise), but I’m really enjoying it.

For those of you still working in Windows, I pity you. I really do. (Did you see this?)

[posted with ecto]

Cartoons That Stay Crunchy in Milk

andertoons1 Comment

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…

Little/Big People

andertoons

My son and I were over to my in-laws yesterday to take care of their cats while they’re vacationing. After scooping the litter box, the boy and I played with on old Fisher-Price Little People Village leftover from my wife’s childhood.

I gotta tell you, not only was it a blast from the past, but as I examined the little people (wooden, mind you, not the later plastic ones) I noticed that the simple dot and line faces painted on them seemed a lot like the style that I use on my cartoons today.  Sure there are differences, but it made me wonder how much stuff like this from my childhood influenced my artwork and writing today.

My mom had gotten me a joke book once (I think it was called The Big Book of Jokes or something) that I proceeded to annoy the family with for months.  I also used to study comedy albums and late night TV with an almost religious fervor.  I do have a love for terrible puns, and I wonder now how many of my jokes have a Cosby or Carson slant.

Of course I’ll never know for sure, but watching my son play with those old little people suddenly became fascinating on a whole different level.

Up And Running (Sort Of…)

andertoons

Wow, what a week!

For those of you just tuning in, my laptop went kablooey again last week (Thursday to be exact).

After a weekend in the shop, I got my data back (largely) and decided to buy an Apple, and Bill Gates has only himself to blame.

I mean, how many times do I have to completely recreate my entire system because of some stupid open port?! I had virus protection, spy sweepers and fix-it programs up the wazoo! (My wazoo is feeling better now, by the way.)

So, a few grand later, I have a beautiful, fun, and best of all, stable, PowerBook G4 and I’m loving it so far.

Oh sure, there’s a bit of a learning curve here, but in a few more weeks I should have this baby purring.

Anyway, sorry about the lack of blogging this week. I also had jury duty and a host of other responsibilities that, when you throw rebuilding a computer on top of them, just made the blog impossible.

Tune in on Monday and I’ll getcha back up to speed…