Tag: love

Valentine Cartoons

andertoons

February 14th is fast approaching, so I thought I’d share this year’s crop of valentine cartoons! (Plus a few extras.) Enjoy!

 Valentine Tech Support

Vlaentine Cartoons #7455

‘Tis better to have paired and lost than never to have paired at all.

Valentine Quotas

Valentine Cartoons #7456

But his platonic friendship numbers are through the roof!

Valentine Meetings

Valentine Cartoons #7457

I have to say, I don’t love drawing cherubs. So drawing four of them in a meeting was not something I was looking forward to. Thankfully I really liked this joke.

Valentines, Inc.

Valentine Cartoons #7458

Awww…  I mean, oh… I mean, ewwww…

Valentine Dietary Concerns

Valentine Cartoons #7459

If I ever obtain an allergy to chocolate, you have my permission to pull the plug. But grab and pull it by the plug, not the cord, OK? That’s not safe.

Valentines (order Araneae)

Valentine Cartoons #7460

I spent a lot of time look at closeups of spider faces for this cartoon. Take that, people who say I don’t suffer for my art!

OK, so that’s this year’s batch of valentine cartoons. Still not feeling the love? Well, here’s some…

More Valentine Cartoons

valentine Cartoons #7163

I’ve had to read this aloud at a few presentations. It’s tricky and it takes a little pre-talk practice. So if you hear me doing it, I’m not crazy, I’m preparing.

Valentine Cartoons #6834

This is probably one of the downright meanest valentine cartoons I’ve ever done. But it makes me snort when I laugh.

Valentine Cartoons #6520

I’m more of a Marvel guy than DC. And that shirt was totally fun to draw.

Valentine Cartoons #6340

 

I don’t normally do cartoons with more than one gag in them because I’m basically lazy. But every so often I dig into something like this one and it’s totally satisfying. (I’m particularly proud of Fudgy Epiphany!’)

Valentine Cartoons #6835

 

That’s right. I took on Sweetest Day. Aw… yeah…

Still not enough? Well lucky for you I’ve got a bunch more Valentine’s Day Cartoons. You’re gonna love ’em! (Get it?! Get it?! Sigh…  I’m sorry.)

 

 

Valentines Day Cartoons

andertoons

Only 2 weeks now until Cupid’s big day! So, to get you in the mood, I thought I’d share some recent Valentine’s Day cartoons!

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I thought of this cartoon early one morning and had to keep repeating it to myself under my breath to remember it.

This is actually pretty much how I, and I suspect most men, shop for cards. Not being comfortable with the flowery romantic stuff, we tend toward ones including the words hubby with cartoon bears that fold out like an accordion.

I’m betting the Mrs. would prefer something mushier, but, especially when you marry a cartoonist, goofy usually wins out.

(BTW, you can watch a video of me sketching this cartoon here.)

cartoon6340

I thought of this because it’s impossible to think “box of chocolates” without thinking “life is like a.”

It’s annoying and irritating, sure, but instead of pushing past it, I decided to embrace it and finally define exactly what you’re going to get.

You’ve got your basic chocolate, your thin disappointment, your renamed knockoff (I’m looking at you, “tortoise” candies), and, my personal favorite, white.

Now you know.

cartoon6342

This Valentine’s Day cartoon was a bit of a trick. Te idea is that more than one arrow makes the person a stalker instead of just in love. So, you have to make the guy look like something is wrong with him, but not so disturbing that the cartoon goes from funny to creepy.

After scanning in the original sketch, I spent a good amount of time in Photoshop tweaking things to get what I hope is juuuust the right expression. I hope I got it, I think I did.

Also the Cupid’s name changed a few different times. He was Larry (too funny name-ish), Lloyd (too Gary Larson-ish), Bill (not funny enough) and Phil (used too often in other cartoons). But for some reason when I was typing in the caption, Stan just worked.

cartoon6341

This is another take on getting away from Cupid. I’ve done some more standard heart themed cartoons before (heart as organ, heart as playing card suit), but this is a decidedly different tack, heart as flowchart shape!

I actually had to look up some flowcharts to see how they looked and worked (it’s been a while), and I think this one looks complicated enough to make sense for the gag, but not so complicated that it doesn’t read quickly.

One thing I noticed almost too late was that the name I’d used in the caption started with a different letter than either of the first name initials in the heart, so I had to make a last minute change to “Debbie.”

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Recently I’ve been playing with the new iBooks Author, and there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle over Apple’s EULA. Some people assume Apple is trying to make some sort of giant content grab, others assume it’s less onerous. Either way, it got me thinking about EULAs in general, and this cartoon popped out.

I think it totally makes sense that before someone shoots you in the heart with an arrow that there would be some sort of legal paperwork, and kudos to Cupid for using an iPad!

Well, I hope these get you in the mood for the big day! Feel free to check out all of my Valentine cartoons, and don’t forget to use the decoder!

Love Cartoon Collection

andertoons

Valentine’s Day is even closer now, and everywhere I look pretty much everything is covered in pink hearts, cherubs, chocolate, roses, or some combination thereof, (mmmm…  chocolate cherub…) so I thought I’d share another love cartoon collection to get us all in the mood!

You know what I love about this cartoon? It’s versatile.

February? Love cartoon. March? Basketball. October? Pumpkins!

When I created it I was just desperate for a new take on jack-o-lanterns, but it’s a fairly popular one, and a good seller for as odd as it is.

This is of course a take off on the ol’ relationship chestnut “I just think maybe we should see other people.” I suppose the manager here thinks she’s letting the poor guy down easier, and it’s certainly better than being escorted out by security with your cardboard box of tchotchkes and stolen pens, but maybe a middle ground would be better. (Scented pink slip?)

Cats and dogs hate each other, right? Apparently not if the above cartoon is to be believed. (And it is!)

For me the hardest part of this was coming up with the name of the show’s host and creating a TV set that got you to the joke without being too showy. I can imagine a mid-afternoon talk show with a sensibly pretty host named Jenny, can’t you? Oh what reasonable life-affirming advice she’d share. Sigh…

And dig those pants and heels! Can I draw fashion or what?!

So the other day the boy says to me “Dad, Aquaman can talk to fish, right?”

“Yes,” I said. “Pretty awesome, right?” It’s not, but he’s 7. He still thinks it is.

“Yeah,” he says, “but then what about whales? They’re mammals! What’s the deal there?”

OK, it’s a pretty weak connection the above cartoon, but I had to share that.

Another Halloween/love cartoon. Weird huh?

The basic idea here is that ol’ Frankenstein is made up of other old body parts, and the Mrs. is jealous of “his” tattoo. Wow, now that I think of it this is actually kind of grisly.

I loved drawing her hair in this, although the first draft had that white stripe in her hair looking more like frosting on a Hostess cup cake.

Just in case you can’t read it on the paper the guy is holding, it says “Demands” on the top.

I bet dogs get tired of unconditional love. They give and they give and they give and then you drop some meatloaf on the floor and you don’t even call them over and let them have it.

You watch, conditional love is the next big thing. Also jetpacks.

I always thought that whole arrow in the heart now you’re in love thing was a little odd. I mean that flying baby just shot you! In the chest!! That’s not love afterward, that’s heart trauma!

On a side note, if you get hit in the liver it makes you want a sandwich. No one knows why.

OK, this is an older one and you can see my art hasn’t really solidified yet, but it’s a particularly favorite theme of mine: angry holiday character in bar.

I’ve done turkeys, the Easter Bunny, Santa, the Grinch, Scrooge, etc… Apparently they’re all heavy drinkers and they’re all surly. Happy holidays!

Well, that does it. Just in case you missed it, be sure to check out last week’s cartoon love blog. You’ll love it! Ha! Ha-ha! See what I did there? HA-HA! Love…

Cartoon Love

andertoons1 Comment

You know, Valentine’s Day is just under a month away now, so I thought it might be time to examine a little cartoon love, Andertoons style:

This cartoon came while I was drawing a completely different cupid cartoon. The person having just been shot had all these little hearts around, and for whatever reason my head all of a sudden related them to the hearts on playing cards.

Now that I look at this I think I could’ve used a few spade symbols too. I’m pretty happy with the guy’s face though. He looks all confused and a little irritated. And if that’s not love I don’t know what is.

I will never understand the appeal of those icky dry little candy hearts with stuff printed on them. I know every year there’s a report of the newest phrase ("Tweet Me" etc…), but were I them I’d concentrate on making the things edible instead.

Still, they do make for a good cartoon.

I’m not what anyone would consider stylish.  I’m more of a jeans and flannel kinda guy. But I seem to remember not too long ago that the afro made a short-lived comeback? Is that right, or have I just been watching too many MST3K 70’s movies?

In any case, cartoon afros are really fun to draw!

Not only am I not stylish, I was never what you’d call good with girls.

I was the average looking but funny guy that girls liked to hang around with, but never wanted to, you know, really hang around with. Hint hint.

It all ended up OK, of course; I have a wonderful wife and two great kids, but I swear the platonic fairy followed me around for a good few years.

I gotta say, this kind of cartoon is awkward to write. I’m coming at it from the woman’s point of view, but, being a guy, I’m mostly guessing here.

You do hear this sort of thing fairly often, and for the most part I would assume it ends badly.  But probably not as badly as above.

Also, that salt shaker guy must be really spacey, or maybe hard of hearing.

This is one of those cartoons that as a cartoonist it’s better not to linger on, because when you do there’s a lot of problems:

  • What dating service has "Dating Service" on a sign on a worker’s desk?
  • Is the Cupid for shooting the woman, or for here to take with?
  • Where’s the customer’s right arm?

See what I mean? Let’s just move on…

This cartoon I really like, mostly because it’s a change of pace art-wise.

I tend to do cartoons in batches of similar themes. I might do a bunch of business cartoons one day, or maybe half a dozen kids/family cartoons. So when I was drawing Cupid after Cupid after Cupid for a Valentine’s Day batch, it struck me that you always see the same arrow in the chest idea used. Then I just twisted it a bit for the cartoon you see above.

Makes you wonder too. Did it still work

OK, last one…

This is definitely more of a guy take on the whole love arrow thing. If I were a Cupid flying around all day I’d be looking for a way to challenge myself just to keep things interesting.

OK, so there’s an Andertoons look at cartoon love. Hope you enjoyed it! And don’t forget that cartoons work great in presentations, newsletters, whatever!